aught ill for thy earls, as erst thou must!”
Then the golden hilt, for that gray-haired leader,
hoary hero, in hand was laid,
giant-wrought, old. So owned and enjoyed it
1680after downfall of devils, the Danish lord,
wonder-smiths’ work, since the world was rid
of that grim-souled fiend, the foe of God,
murder-marked, and his mother as well.
Now it passed into power of the people’s king,
1685best of all that the oceans bound
who have scattered their gold o’er Scandia’s isle.
Hrothgar spake—the hilt he viewed,
heirloom old, where was etched the rise
of that far-off fight when the floods o’erwhelmed,
1690raging waves, the race of giants
(fearful their fate!), a folk estranged
from God Eternal: whence guerdon due
in that waste of waters the Wielder paid them.
So on the guard of shining gold
1696in runic staves it was rightly said
for whom[1] the serpent-traced sword was wrought,
best of blades, in bygone days,
and the hilt well wound.—The wise-one spake,
son of Healfdene; silent were all:—
1700“Lo, so may he say who sooth and right
follows ’mid folk, of far times mindful,
- ↑ Often the maker put his own name on what he made, and in verse: Ek Hlewagastiz Holtingaz horna tawido, runs the inscription on the famous golden horn; that is, “I, Hlewagast Holting, this horn have made,”—probably the oldest Germanic verse that is preserved.
- ↑ That is, “whoever has as wide authority as I have and can remember so far back so many instances of heroism, may well say, as I say, that no better hero ever lived than Beowulf.”
