5made ready their battle-weeds, belted the sword
o’er their ring-mail, the heroes, who rode to the fray.
Hildebrand spake, Herebrand’s son,—
. . . he was riper in years,
the older man: to ask he commenced,
10 though few his words, who his[1] father was
of human folk[2] . . .
. . . “or of what race thou mayst be,
if thou namest one only, the others I know.
All kindred I ken in this kingdom, O youth!”
15Hathubrand spake, Hildebrand’s son:—
“Trusty[3] people have told to me,
who, old and wise, knew ancient ways,
my father was Hildebrand: Hathubrand I!
Long ago went he eastward; from Otacher’s[4] hate
20with Theotrich[5] fled he, and thanes in plenty.
In his land he left forlorn behind him
bride in bower and boy ungrown,
reft of inheritance: rode he yet eastward!
Theotrich later, in thronging perils,
- ↑ Hathubrand’s. Hildebrand’s wide knowledge of the tribes of men is characteristic of his age, his standing, and his experience. So Hrothgar shows he is familiar with “the best people” and their kin, the instant he hears Beowulf’s name. B., 372.
- ↑ Editors and critics assume that something has been lost at this point. But it has been remarked that such abrupt transitions are common in Germanic verse. Still, even so there is loss of rime. Probably the copy- ists forgot just how the verse ran and set it down as King Alfred says he now and then translated Latin,—“sense for sense.” Only the poetry is lost here.
- ↑ Möller’s emendation to save the rime.
- ↑ Odoacer.
- ↑ Dietrich usually in German; Theodric in Anglo-Saxon.
- ↑ One who is banished, without kin and clan to support him. Some translate this as meaning Theotrich: “banished as he was, he had good
