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176
THE OLDEST ENGLISH EPIC
Hildebrand spake, Herebrand’s son[1] . . .
“Well can I see by thy war-gear now,[2]
the ruler thou hast at home is rich,
50 nor under this king wast thou cast into exile.
. . . Wellaway, God all-wielding, fate’s woe is upon us!
I was summers and winters full sixty a-wandering,
and still was I chosen with chief of the troops;
yet at no burg[3] was death ever dealt me by man.
55 Now my own sweet son with sword must hew me,
fell me with falchion, or fall at my hands!
— Yet[4] ’tis easily done, if thou doughty be,[5]
from so old a man his arms to take,
- ↑ Editors incline to think that Hildebrand’s subsequent speech is lost and that the following words of the text belong to Hathubrand, whose suspicion is increased as he looks on his father’s sumptuous armor. A man must have a powerful lord to give him such gear,—run his thoughts,—not a homeless exile. But it is also natural for the old man to look on the young warrior’s rich armor and draw similar conclusions.
- ↑ The original verse is rimeless and corrupt.
- ↑ At the taking of no fortified place during my time of exile, in no battle, however desperate, has death found me.
- ↑ A parallel to this sudden transition from the tender and pathetic to sarcasm and defiance may be found in the tragic popular ballad of Bewick and Graham. Here the dilemma is that a son must either disobey and actually fight his own father or fight his dearest friend, his “sworn-brother.” He chooses the latter. The friend, of course, cannot believe the announcement of this impending fight, and reminds the unwilling challenger of long and firm brotherhood between the two. The challenger half explains the situation, and is dropping into pathos; but knowing its perils, suddenly changes the note:—
“If thou be a man, as I think thou art,
Come over that ditch and fight with me.” . . . - ↑ See Beowulf for the identical phrase, a commonplace, v. 573.
- ↑ That is, “if thou hast the right [of the victor] to it.”
