# The Oldest English Epic/Chapter 1/Beowulf 21

XXI
Beowulf spake, bairn of Ecgtheow: “Sorrow not, sage! It beseems us better 1385friends to avenge than fruitlessly mourn them. Each of us all must his end abide in the ways of the world; so win who may glory ere death! When his days are told, that is the warrior’s worthiest doom. 1390Rise, O realm-warder! Ride we anon, and mark the trail of the mother of Grendel. No harbor shall hide her—heed my promise!— enfolding of field or forested mountain or floor of the flood, let her flee where she will! 1395But thou this day endure in patience, as I ween thou wilt, thy woes each one.” Leaped up the graybeard: God he thanked, mighty Lord, for the man’s brave words. For Hrothgar soon a horse was saddled 1400wave-maned steed. The sovran wise
stately rode on; his shield-armed men followed in force. The footprints led along the woodland, widely seen, a path o’er the plain, where she passed, and trod 1405the murky moor; of men-at-arms she bore the bravest and best one, dead, him who with Hrothgar the homestead ruled. On then went the atheling-born o’er stone-cliffs steep and strait defiles, 1410narrow passes and unknown ways, headlands sheer, and the haunts of the Nicors. Foremost he fared, a few at his side ​of the wiser men, the ways to scan, till he found in a flash the forested hill 1415hanging over the hoary rock, a woful wood: the waves below were dyed in blood. The Danish men had sorrow of soul, and for Scyldings all, for many a hero, ’twas hard to bear, 1420ill for earls, when Æschere’s head they found by the flood on the foreland there. Waves were welling, the warriors saw, hot with blood; but the horn sang oft battle-song bold. The band sat down, 1425and watched on the water worm-like things, sea-dragons strange that sounded the deep, and nicors that lay on the ledge of the ness— such as oft essay at hour of morn on the road-of-sails their ruthless quest,— 1430and sea-snakes and monsters. These started away, swollen and savage that song to hear, that war-horn’s blast. The warden of Geats, with bolt from bow, then balked of life, of wave-work, one monster; amid its heart 1435went the keen war-shaft; in water it seemed less doughty in swimming whom death had seized. Swift on the billows, with boar-spears well hooked and barbed, it was hard beset, done to death and dragged on the headland, 1440wave-roamer wondrous. Warriors viewed the grisly guest. Then girt him Beowulf in martial mail, nor mourned for his life. ​His breastplate broad and bright of hues, woven by hand, should the waters try; 1445well could it ward the warrior’s body that battle should break on his breast in vain nor harm his heart by the hand of a foe. And the helmet white that his head protected was destined to dare, the deeps of the flood, 1450through wave-whirl win: ’twas wound with chains, decked with gold, as in days of yore the weapon-smith worked it wondrously, with swine-forms set it, that swords nowise, brandished in battle, could bite that helm. 1455Nor was that the meanest of mighty helps which Hrothgar’s orator offered at need: “Hrunting” they named the hilted sword, of old-time heirlooms easily first; iron was its edge, all etched with poison, 1460with battle-blood hardened, nor blenched it at fight in hero’s hand who held it ever, on paths of peril prepared to go to folkstead of foes. Not first time this ​it was destined to do a daring task. 1465For he bore not in mind, the bairn of Ecglaf sturdy and strong, that speech he had made, drunk with wine, now this weapon he lent to a stouter swordsman. Himself, though, durst not under welter of waters wager his life 1470as loyal liegeman. So lost he his glory, honor of earls. With the other not so, who girded him now for the grim encounter.
* ↑ Hrothgar is probably meant.
* ↑ Noon? “Mittagsstunde, Geisterstunde.”
* ↑ Unferth is the thyle (spokesman?) of the king. Naming a sword furnished the least of its personal attributes in Germanic days. It had its moods and tenses; “refused” often “to bite” (1523, 2578), or else, on appeal, did miraculous service. It spoke, sang, chided its inactive owner, spurred even to his duty, as in a fine Danish ballad. It had its own name,—Hrunting, Nægling. It had kennings in plenty,—such as the “warrior’s friend” or “friend of war,” vv. 1810, 2735. It gave out a light, which is not always to be euhemerized into the sparks that flew from it in battle. The reference in 1459 is to the hardening process of dipping it in poison, snake’s blood, or the like. “Blood of battle” was especially efficacious for this purpose. On the other side of the account, it could be made harmless by certain magic forms. So Beowulf finds, even with this Hrunting or “thruster”; see v. 1522.
* ↑ Meeting-place. “Destined” is, in view of the issue, to be understood as “expected,”—it had been sent on other capital errands before.