dinner the minſtrel again took up the harp, and ſang ſeme of the favourite hiſtories of their tribe. "The lay was ſung, the ſong of the gleeman, the joke roſe again, the noiſe from the benches grew loud, cupbearers gave the wine from wondrous veſſels." Then the queen, "under a golden crown," again ſerved the cup to Hrothgar and Beowulf. She afterwards went as before to her ſeat, and " there was the coſtheſt of feaſts, the men drank wine," until bed-time arrived a ſecond time. While their leader appears to have been accommodated with a chamber, Beowulf's men again occupied the hall. " They bared the benchplanks; it was ſpread all over with beds and bolſters; at their heads they ſet their war-rims, the bright ſhield-wood; there, on the bench, might eaſily be ſeen, above the warrior, his helmet lofty in war, the ringed mail-ſhiirt, and the ſolid ſhield; it was their cuſtom ever to be ready for war, both in houſe and in field."
Grendel had a mother (it was the primitive form of the legend of the devil and his dam), and this ſecond night ſhe came unexpectedly to avenge her ſon, and ſlew one of Hrothgar's favourite counſellors and nobles, who muſt therefore have alſo ſlept in the hall. Beowulf and his warriors next day went in ſearch of this new marauder, and ſucceeded in deſtroying her, after which exploit they returned to their own home laden with rich preſents.
Theſe ſketches of early manners, ſlight as they may be, are invaluable to us, in the abſence of all other documentary record during ſeveral ages, until after the Anglo-Saxons had been converted to Chriſtianity. During this long period we have, however, one ſource of invaluable information, though of a reſtricted kind—the barrows or graves of our primeval fore-fathers, which contain almoſt every deſcription of article that they uſed when alive. In that ſolitary document, the poem of Beowulf, we are told of the arms which the Saxons uſed, of the dreſſes in which they were clad; of the rings, and bracelets, and ornaments, of which they were proud; of the "ſolid cup, the valuable drinking-veſvel, "from which they quaffed the mead, or the vaſes from which they poured it; but we can obtain no notions of the form or character of theſe articles. From the graves, on the contrary, we obtain a perfect knowledge of the formand
