“This was my thought, when my thanes and I
bent to the ocean and entered our boat,
that I would work the will of your people
635fully, or fighting fall in death,
in fiend’s gripe fast. I am firm to do
an earl’s brave deed, or end the days
of this life of mine in the mead-hall here.”
Well these words to the woman seemed,
640Beowulf’s battle-boast. — Bright with gold
the stately dame by her spouse sat down.
Again, as erst, began in hall
warriors’ wassail and words of power,
the proud-band’s revel,[1] till presently
645the son of Healfdene hastened to seek
rest for the night; he knew there waited
fight for the fiend in that festal hall,
when the sheen of the sun they saw no more,
and dusk of night sank darkling nigh,
650and shadowy shapes came striding on,
wan under welkin. The warriors rose.
Man to man, he made harangue,
Hrothgar to Beowulf, bade him hail,
let him wield the wine hall: a word he added:—
655“Never to any man erst I trusted,
since I could heave up hand and shield,
- ↑ Literally, “clamor of the victorious people.” The phrase is formal, as in so many cases; for just now, and in v. 597, any adjective would suit the Danes better than “victorious,” nor can this count as proleptic. So in the English Ballads there is a false “true love,” — i.e. “affianced,” — or other contradiction, vrith similar formal use. Compare the phrase “excellent iron,” v. 2586, below, for a sword that has just failed to “bite.”
