72
THE OLDEST ENGLISH EPIC
then edge of the sword must seal his doom.
Oaths were given, and ancient gold
heaped from hoard.—The hardy Scylding,
battle-thane best,[1] on his balefire lay.
1110All on the pyre were plain to see
the gory sark, the gilded swine-crest,
boar of hard iron, and athelings many
slain by the sword: at the slaughter they fell.
It was Hildeburh’s hest, at Hnæf’s own pyre
1115the bairn of her body on brands to lay,
his bones to burn, on the balefire placed,
at his uncle’s side.[2] In sorrowful dirges
be wept them the woman: great wailing ascended.[3]
Then wound up to welkin the wildest of death-fires,
- ↑ Hnæf.
- ↑ This reading, which involves a very slight change, was proposed by Holthausen, and is followed by Gering in his German translation. The clash of kin-duties is the deep note in Germanic tragedy: to emphasize the fact that here lay the hero, and by him his sister’s son,—the dearest of relationships,—opposed in fight and united in death, was clear privilege for the poet; and the dirge of the mother and sister doubtless dwelt chiefly on the tragic intensity of the double loss.
- ↑ Reading gūthrinc = gūthhring, “noise of battle,” with Grein. It could easily be used for the lamentation of a great multitude.—For the previous passage, if the old reading is retained, a period should follow “placed” (v. 1116), and the next line would be:This vocero or lament of the widow, as in the case of Beowulf, v. 3150, below, was accompanied by choral wailing of the throng. In the Iliad, at the funeral of Hector: “Thus spake she walling and therewith the great multitude of the people groaned.”—“Thus spake she wailing and stirred unending moan. . . .”
Sad by his shoulder sorrowed the woman,
wept him with dirges: great wailing ascended. . . . - ↑ The high place chosen for the funeral: see description of Beowulf’s funeral-pile at the end of the poem.
