VIII
Unferth[1] spake, the son of Ecglaf,
500who sat at the feet of the Scyldings’ lord,
unbound the battle-runes.[2]—Beowulf’s quest,
sturdy seafarer’s, sorely galled him;
ever he envied that other men
should more achieve in middle-earth
505of fame under heaven than he himself.—
“Art thou that Beowulf, Breca’s rival,
who emulous swam on the open sea,
when for pride the pair of you proved the floods,
and wantonly dared in waters deep
510to risk your lives? No living man,
or lief or loath, from your labor dire
could you dissuade, from swimming the main.
Ocean-tides with your arms ye covered,
with strenuous hands the sea-streets measured,
515swam o’er the waters. Winter’s storm
rolled the rough waves. In realm of sea
a sennight strove ye. In swimming he topped thee,
had more of main! Him at morning-tide
- ↑ Spelled Hunferth in the text, but always riming with vowels.
- ↑ “Began the fight.”—But here is scarcely the flyting, or song-contest, found everywhere among peoples in a primitive stage of culture. It is rather a report of the spirited way in which Beowulf carried off the laurels in the “hazing” of the guest by a competent official of the host. Probably this test was part of the formal reception; but it seems a strange survival in epic by the side of the courtly and extravagant complimenta exchanged between Beowulf and Hrothgar. In Scandinavian sources one gets the rough flyting in its coarseness and strength. See the Lokasenna, above all, and the cases reported by Saxo. In one the prizes are peculiar: a queen’s necklace, the man’s life.
- ↑ Bugge places the home of these Heathoreamas in Southern Norway. He also notes a parallel swimming-match in the Egilssaga.
