# The Oldest English Epic/Chapter 1/Beowulf 14

XIV
925Hrothgar spake,—to the hall he went, stood by the steps, the steep roof saw, garnished with gold, and Grendel’s hand:— “For the sight I see to the Sovran Ruler be speedy thanks! A throng of sorrows 930I have borne from Grendel; but God still works wonder on wonder, the Warden-of-Glory. It was but now that I never more for woes that weighed on me waited help long as I lived, when, laved in blood, 935stood sword-gore-stained this stateliest house,— widespread woe for wise men all, who had no hope to hinder ever foes infernal and fiendish sprites from havoc in hall. This hero now, 940by the Wielder’s might, a work has done that not all of us erst could ever do by wile and wisdom. Lo, well can she say whoso of women this warrior bore among sons of men, if still she liveth, 945that the God of the ages was good to her in the birth of her bairn. Now, Beowulf, thee, of heroes best, I shall heartily love as mine own, my son; preserve thou ever this kinship new: thou shalt never lack 950wealth of the world that I wield as mine! Full oft for less have I largess showered, my precious hoard, on a punier man, ​less stout in struggle. Thyself hast now fulfilled such deeds, that thy fame shall endure 955through all the ages. As ever he did, well may the Wielder reward thee still!” Beowulf spake, bairn of Ecgtheow:— “This work of war most willingly we have fought, this fight, and fearlessly dared 960force of the foe. Fain, too, were I hadst thou but seen himself, what time the fiend in his trappings tottered to fall! Swiftly, I thought, in strongest gripe on his bed of death to bind him down, 965that he in the hent of this hand of mine should breathe his last: but he broke away. Him I might not—the Maker willed not— hinder from flight, and firm enough hold the life-destroyer: too sturdy was he, 970the ruthless, in running! For rescue, however, he left behind him his hand in pledge, arm and shoulder; nor aught of help could the curséd one thus procure at all. None the longer liveth he, loathsome fiend, 975sunk in his sins, but sorrow holds him tightly grasped in gripe of anguish, in baleful bonds, where bide he must, evil outlaw, such awful doom as the Mighty Maker shall mete him out.”
980More silent seemed the son of Ecglaf in boastful speech of his battle-deeds, ​since athelings all, through the earl’s great prowess, beheld that hand, on the high roof gazing, foeman’s fingers,—the forepart of each 985of the sturdy nails to steel was likest,— heathen’s “hand-spear,” hostile warrior’s claw uncanny. ’Twas clear, they said, that him no blade of the brave could touch, how keen soever, or cut away 990that battle-hand bloody from baneful foe.
* ↑ Literally, “I intended . . . if his body had not slipped away.”
* ↑ Unferth, Beowulf’s sometime opponent in the flyting.
* ↑ That is, as Klaeber points out, Modern Philology, III, 256, the nobles look from outside “in the direction of the high roof, and behold the hand.” Beowulf, he says, “had placed Grendel’s hand . . . (on some projection perhaps) above the door (outside) as high as he could reach.” But ten Brink (Beowulf, p. 63) takes for granted that the hand was placed inside the hall. See vv. 836, 926, above.