Blogging Beowulf: Fit XXXV, Lines 2460-601

9 May 2009

The fit starts with Beowulf telling of the death of Hrethel, who had been depressed and despondent over the death of his son. Beowulf continues the story by telling of the war between the Geats and the Swedes in which Hæthcyn, Hrethel’s son and successor, is killed. The next day, Ongentheow, the king of the Swedes is killed in battle. Beowulf then tells of his own feats in battle against the Franks—apparently jumping forward a generation. Then he goes to fight the dragon alone. In the fight, Beowulf’s shield and armor protect him somewhat, but his sword fails him (again). All but one of his men flee in terror into the nearby woods.

Beowulf tells of how he defeated Dæghrefn, the champion of the Franks, lines 2506b-2508a:

                        Ne wæs ecg bona,
ac him hildegrap      heortan wylmas,
bānhūs ġebræc.

                        (Nor was an edge his slayer,
but battle-grasp      the beating of his heart,
his bone-house broke.)

Ecg, literally edge, is commonly used in the poem to denote a sword. And banhus is a person’s body. Beowulf follows this tale with the statement that he would prefer to grapple with the dragon, but knows he must use a sword to kill it.

Beotword is in line 2510. It is often translated as boasting-word, but pledge is probably a better choice as it carries the modern valence better. A beotword is a vow by a warrior saying that he will perform a deed. Anglo-Saxons weren’t infected with the modesty that we moderns have. It was not considered unseemly to boast of the deeds you plan to perform, so long as you carry them out, that is.

In line 2528 Beowulf says:

Þæt iċ wið þone gūðflogan      ġylp ofersitte.

(That I against this war-flier      a vow forego.)

Beowulf is not making a beotword about his upcoming battle with the dragon, indicating that he does not expect to survive and that he may even lose.

The description of the battle with the dragon is epic, lines 2559-91:

Biorn under beorge      bordrand onswāf
wið ðām gryreġieste,      Ġēata dryhten;
ðā wæs hrinġbogan      heorte ġefysed
sæċċe tō sēċeanne.      Sweord ær gebræd
gōd gūðcyning,      gomele lāfe,
ecgum unslāw;      æġhwæðrum wæs
bealohycgendra      brōga fram ōðrum.
Stīðmōd ġestōd      wi(ð) stēapne rond
winia bealdor,      ðā se wyrm ġebēah
snūde tōsomne;      hē on searwum bād.
Ġewāt ðā byrnende      ġebogen scrīðan,
tō ġescipe scyndan.      Scyld wēl ġebearg
līfe ond līce      læssan hwīle
mærum þēodne      þonne his myne sōhte,
ðær hē þy fyrste,      forman dōgore
wealdan moste      swā him wyrd ne ġescrāf
hrēð æt hilde.      Hond up ābræd
Ġēata dryhten,      gryrefāhne slōh
inċġelāfe,      þæt sīo ecg ġewāc
brūn on bāne,      bāt unswīðor
þonne his ðīodcyning      þearfe hæfde,
bysigum ġebæded.      Þā wæs beorges weard
æfter heaðuswenġe      on hrēoum mōde,
wearp wælfyre;      wīde sprungon
hildelēoman.      Hrēðsigora ne ġealp
goldwine Ġēata;      gūðbill ġeswāc,
nacod æt niðe,      swā hyt nō sceolde,
īren ærgōd.      Ne wæs þæt ēðe sīð,
þæt se mæra      maga Ecgðeowes
grundwong þone      ofġyfan wolde;
sceolde [ofer] willan      wīc eardian
elles hwerġen,      swā sceal æġhwylċ mon
ālætan lændagas.

(The warrior in the barrow      swung his shield
against the dreadful stranger,      the lord of the Geats;
then the coiled creature was      ready in its heart
to seek battle.      He had drawn his sword
the good war-king,      the old heirloom,
its edges unblunt;      each of the two
of the hostile ones were      in horror of the other.
The stout-hearted one stood      behind his towering shield
the protector of friends,      when the worm coiled itself
quickly together;      he waited in his armor.
Then it came burning      coiled slithering
advancing to its fate.      The shield protected well
the life and body      for less time
the famous king      than his mind had sought,
there he for the first time,      on that day
must perform      so that fate granted him not
triumph in battle.*      He raised up his hand
the lord of the Geats,      and struck the mottled horror
with the ancient sword,**      so that the edge failed
bright against bone,      it bit less strongly
than the people’s king      had need of,
hard-pressed by troubles.      Then was the protector of the barrow
after the battle-stroke      in a savage mood,
it threw out deadly fire;      widely sprang
the battle-lights.      Boasted not of glorious victories
the prince of the Geats;      his war-sword failed,
when unsheathed*** in battle,      as it never should
ancient and good iron.      Nor was it an easy venture,
for the famous      kinsman of Ecgtheow
the earthly plain      to give up;
he must against his will****      a home to dwell
somewhere else,      as must every one of men
give up these loan-days.)

* This is a difficult passage. Wealden moste is literally must rule/possess. The gist is that Beowulf must face, for the first time, the fact that he is going to lose in battle.
**Incgelafe appears nowhere else in the Old English corpus and its exact meaning is obscure. Laf is heirloom (literally a leaving), in particular an heirloom sword. So the word means something like ancient sword, mighty sword, etc.
***Nacod is literally naked. In the context of a sword, it is unsheathed.
****Willan is an infinitive verb, to wish, to desire.

Blogging Beowulf: Fit XXXIV, Lines 2391-459

8 May 2009

The fit starts with the concluding lines of the history of the feud between the Swedes and the Geats (another example of how the fit divisions are senseless). Beowulf indirectly avenges the death of Heardred by supporting the Swedish exile Eadgils wigum ond wæpnum (with warriors and weapons) in his fight to gain the Swedish throne. Action then cuts back to the dragon, where Beowulf takes twelve men with him to fight the beast. They are led to the dragon by the thief who stole the cup, the thirteenth man in the company. Beowulf, knowing his end is near, starts another flashback, telling his men of his growing up in the Geatish court. He was raised by Hrethel the king as if he were a son. Hrethel had three natural sons, Herebeald, Hæthcyn, and Hygelac. Hæthcyn killed Herebeald in an archery accident, devasting Hrethel and sending the king into a deep depression and decline.

There’s a great passage about Beowulf’s state of mind prior to the fight with the dragon, lines 2419a-24:

                        Him wæs ġeōmor sefa,
wæfre ond wælfūs,      wyrd unġemete nēah,
sē ðone gomelan      grētan sceolde,
sēċean sāwle hord,      sundur ġedælan
līf wið līċe;      nō þon lange wæs
feorh æþelinges      flæsce bewunden.

(                        He was mournful of spirit,
restless and ready for death,      his fate immeasurably near,
[a fate] which should greet      the old man,
to seek the hoard of his soul,      to divide asunder
life from the body;      not for long was
the prince’s life      bound to the flesh.)

There is some confusion over the killing of Herebeald, not over the facts but how it is treated in the text. In line 2441 the text calls the accident a feohlēas ġefeoht (inexpiable fight). It is an action that cannot be compensated or atoned for, an accident. Yet lines 2444-46a contain this gnomic statement:

Swā bið ġeōmorlīċ      gomelum ċeorle
to ġebīdanne,      þæt his byre rīde
ġiong on galgan.

(So it is sad      for an old man
to live to see,      his son ride
young on the gallows.)

Normally Hæthcyn would not be executed for such an accident. Is the old man a generic figure, or is he Hrethel the king? The lines may reference an old practice of the cult of Odin in which a warrior who dies, but not in battle is posthumously hanged on a gallows, a great shame.

The hanging corpse is described in line 2448 as hrefne tō hrōðre (for the enjoyment of ravens), a rather macabre image.

Hrethel is also criticized for not seeking to create another heir, although he still has a son to inherit the throne. This is fairly significant in that inheritance and the passing on of a legacy is a major theme of the poem. Beowulf dies without an heir, and his death signals the end of an era. Lines 2451b-54:

                        ōðres ne ġymeð
tō ġebīdanne      burgum in innan
yrfeweardas,      þonne se ān hafað
þurh dēaðes nyd      dæda ġefondad.

(                        he cares not another
to live to see      inside the fortress
an heir,      when that one has
through the necessity of death      come the end of his deeds.)

This entire fit is very dark and elegiac, and concludes with these wonderfully evocative lines, 2455-59:

Ġesyhð sorhċeariġ      on his suna būre
wīnsele wēstne,      windġe reste,
rēot[ġ]e berofene;      rīdend swefað,
hæleð in hoðman;      nis þær hearpan swēġ,
gomen in ġeardum,      swylċe ðær iū wæron.

(The sorrowful one looks      on his son’s chamber
the deserted wine-hall,   the windswept resting place,
mournful bereft;      the riders sleep,
the heroes in their graves;      there is no harp music,
or amusement in the enclosure,   as there was of old.)

Blogging Beowulf: Fit XXXIII, Lines 2312-90

7 May 2009

The dragon continues to pillage the Geatish countryside and news of the beast’s depredations are brought to Beowulf. Beowulf takes only a few men with him to fight the dragon, trusting in his own strength and experience fighting monsters rather than a large force of men. He also has a great iron shield built for him to withstand the dragon’s flames. There is a flashback to the death of Hygelac fighting in Friesland, a battle that Beowulf was one of the few to survive. He managed to escape by swimming with the armor of thirty men. Beowulf is offered the throne by Hygd, Hygelac’s widow, but he declines, vowing to mentor and serve Heardred, Hygelac’s young son, instead. It’s a few years later and two rebels from the Sweden seek Heardred’s hospitality. He grants it and there is war with Sweden over his harboring the men. Heardred is killed in the war and Beowulf finally becomes king.

The rest of the narrative about the dragon and Beowulf’s death is interspersed with narrative bits about the wars with Sweden that occurred fifty years in the past. It’s rather difficult to follow because nowhere is a chronologically ordered account offered. We get snatches from different parts of the conflict. The Anglo-Saxon audience was probably familiar with the history and would not be so confused, but for the modern reader it is a bit difficult.

The narrative of the fight with the dragon is tremendously evocative. This fit opens with a neat passage, lines 2312-23:

Ðā se gæst ongan      glēdum spīwan,
beorht hofu bærnan—      brynelēoma stōd
eldum on andan;      nō ðær āht cwices
lāð lyftfloga      læfan wolde.
Wæs þæs wyrmes wīġ      wīde ġesyne,
nearofāges nīð      nēan ond feorran,
hū se gūðsceaða      Ġēata lēode
hatode ond hynde;      hord eft ġescēat,
dryhtsele dyrnne,      ær dæġes hwīle.
Hæfde landwara      līġe befangen,
bæle ond bronde;      beorges ġetruwode,
wīġes ond wealles;      him sēo wēn ġelēah.

(Then the visitor began      to spew fire,
to burn the bright courts—      the gleam of fire evoked
horror in men;      nothing alive
the hostile air-flier      would leave.
The war of the worm was      widely seen,
cruelly hostile affliction      near and far,
how the war-destroyer      the people of the Geats
hated and injured;      he shot back to his hoard,
his hidden splendid hall,      before daybreak.
He had the people of the land      with fire enveloped,
with fire and with burning;      he trusted his barrow’s
defenses and walls;      that expectation deceived him.)

The description of Beowulf’s shield is worth mentioning. Not only is a significant plot point—it will keep him and Wiglaf alive long enough to defeat the dragon—but it is representative of the care and reverence that descriptions of weapons and armor get in the poem, lines 2337-41:

Heht him þā ġewyrċean      wīġendra hlēo
eall īrenne,      eorla dryhten,
wīġbord wrætliċ;      wisse hē ġearwe
þæt him holtwudu      he(lpan) ne meahte,
lind wið līġe.

(He ordered made for him      the protector of warriors
the lord of men,      all of iron
a splendid battle-shield;      he surely knew
that a wooden-shield him      would not help,
linden against flames.)

We also get a bit of introspection by our hero, which is pretty rare. Beowulf is not one given to self-reflection. Upon hearing the news of the dragon (lines 2329-2332):

Wēnde se wisa      þæt hē wealdende
ofer ealde riht,      ēċean dryhtne
bitre ġebulge;      brēost innan wēoll
þēostrum ġeþoncum,      swā him ġeþywe ne wæs.

(The wise one expected      that he the Ruler
against the old law,      the eternal Lord
had bitterly offended;      his breast welled inside
with dark thoughts,      as was not customary for him.)

The death of Hygelac uses some interesting words, lines 2358-59a:

Hrēðles eafora      hiorodrynċum swealt,
bille ġebēaten.

(The son of Hrethel      died by sword-drinks,
beaten by blades.)

Hiorodrynċ (sword-drink) evokes the image of the sword drinking its victim’s blood. The verb sweltan (to die) is survives in the modern adjective sweltering.

Blogging Beowulf: Fit XXXII, Lines 2221-311

6 May 2009

In this fit we get the history of the dragon’s treasure hoard. It starts with another mention of the lone man who steals a cup from the hoard. Then we find out that the hoard is the wealth of an ancient people, long since gone from the earth. We hear the voice of the last of that people, who is dubbed the “last survivor” by critics, as he hides the treasure under the earth and gives an elegy for his people. The dragon discovers the treasure and claims it for its own—as dragons are wont to do—guarding it for 300 years, until the man comes to plunder it. The dragon is enraged and heads off to seek revenge on the nearest people, who happen to be the Geats.

First, this fit contains the coolest word in the poem. Line 2244 contains the word nearocræft, which is the art of making entry difficult; the barrow that holds the dragon’s hoard is nearocræftum fæst, or secured by the art of making entry difficult. Literally, the word is narrow-skill. As far as I know, this is the only known cite for the word.

The man who steals from the hoard and enrages the dragon is the subject of much debate. As mentioned before, this part of the manuscript is badly damaged and the reading is much disputed. In particular a key word denoting this man in line 2224 is illegible. Fulk, et al., who edited the version I am mainly working from, give the word as þē(o), or slave, also spelled þēow. Other editors give it as þeġn, or thane. Yet others as þēof, or thief. All three easily fit into the narrative context of this and other passages. Is he a slave looking for wealth to buy his freedom? Is he a lordless thane, looking to reestablish himself? Or is he nothing more than a common thief?

The bulk of the fit is taken up by the last survivor. I’m going to give his entire speech mourning the loss of his people as it really is quite beautiful, lines 2247-2266:

“Heald þū nū, hrūse,      nū hæleð ne m(ō)ston,
eorla æhte!      Hwæt, hyt ær on ðe
gode beġēaton;      guðdēað fornam,
(f)eorhbeal(o) frēcne,      fyra ġe(h)wylcne
lēoda mīnra,      þ(o)n(e) ðe þis [līf] ofġeaf;
ġesāwon seledrēam(as).      Ic nāh hwā sweord weġe
oððe f(orð bere)      fæted wæġe,
drynċfæt dēore;      dug(uð) ellor s[c]eōc.
Sceal se hearda helm      (hyr)stedgolde,
fætum befeallen;      feormynd swefað,
þā ðe beadogrīman      bywan sceoldon,
ġe swylċe sēo herepād,      sīo æt hilde ġebād
ofer borda ġebræc      bite īrena,
brosnað æfter beorne.      Ne mæġ byrnan hring
æfter wīġfruman      wīde fēran,
hæleðum be healfe.      Næs hearpan wyn,
gomen glēobēames,      nē gōd hafoc
ġeond sæl swingeð,      nē se swifta mearh
burhstede bēateð.      Bealocwealm hafað
fela feorhcynna      forð onsended.”

(“Hold now, you earth,vnow that heroes cannot,
the wealth of men!      Lo, from you before
the good ones obtained it;   death in battle took away,
the terrible deadly attack,      every one of those
of my people,      those who gave up this life;
[they] knew the joys of the hall.      I have no one to carry the sword
or bear forth      the ornamented cup,
the dear drinking cup;      the retainers have passed to another place.
The hard helm shall      of decoratively wrought gold
be deprived of gold plate;      the polishers sleep,
those who the war-mask      should tend to,
and also the mail shirt,      it survived in battle
over the crashing of shields      [and] the bite of iron,
it decays with the man.      The ringed byrnie may not
with the war-chief      travel widely,
beside the heroes.      There is no joy of the harp
or amusement of the lyre,      nor the good hawk
fly through the hall,      nor the swift horse
stamp in the courtyard.      Baleful death has
many races of men      sent forth.”)

There is also some neat imagery of the dragon’s rage. Lines 2293b-98a:

                        Hordweard sōhte
ġeorne æfter grunde,      wolde guman findan,
þone þe him on sweofote      sāre ġetēode;
hāt ond hreohmod      hlæw oft ymbehwearf
ealne ūtanweardne;      nē ðær æniġ mon
on þ(ām) wēstenne.

                        (The hoard-guardian sought
eagerly along the ground,      wished to find the man,
who him in sleep      sorely injured;
hot and fierce      he circled the barrow
all around the outside;      no man was there
in that wasteland.)

The fit ends with the dragon attacking the Geats and a portent of things to come, lines 2306b-311:

                        Þā wæs dæġ sceacen
wyrme on willan;      nō on wealle læ[n]ġ,
bīdan wolde,      ac mid bæle fōr,
fyre ġefysed.      Wæs se fruma eġesliċ
lēodum on lande,      swā hyt lungre wearð
on hyra sinċgifan      sāre ġeendod.

                        (Then was the day passed
to the pleasure of the worm;      not long on the wall
would he wait,      but with flame went,
propelled by fire.      The beginning was terrible
for the people on land,      as it would quickly become
for their treasure-giver      sorely ended.)