# The Oldest English Epic/Chapter 1/Beowulf 04

IV
To him the stateliest spake in answer; the warriors’ leader his word-hoard unlocked:— 260“We are by kin of the clan of Geats, and Hygelac’s own hearth-fellows we. To folk afar was my father known, noble atheling, Ecgtheow named. Full of winters, he fared away 265agéd from earth; he is honored still through width of the world by wise men all. To thy lord and liege in loyal mood we hasten hither, to Healfdene’s son, people-protector: be pleased to advise us! 270To that mighty-one come we on mickle errand, ​to the lord of the Danes; nor deem I right that aught be hidden. We hear—thou knowest if sooth it is—the saying of men, that amid the Scyldings a scathing monster, 275dark ill-doer, in dusky nights shows terrific his rage unmatched, hatred and murder. To Hrothgar I in greatness of soul would succor bring, so the Wise-and-Brave may worst his foes.— 280 if ever the end of ills is fated, of cruel contest, if cure shall follow, and the boiling care-waves cooler grow; else ever afterward anguish-days he shall suffer in sorrow while stands in place 285 high on its hill that house unpeered!” Astride his steed, the strand-ward answered, clansman unquailing: ”The keen-souled thane must be skilled to sever and sunder duly words and works, if he well intends. 290 I gather, this band is graciously bent to the Scyldings’ master. March, then, bearing weapons and weeds the way I show you. I will bid my men your boat meanwhile to guard for fear lest foemen come,— 295 your new-tarred ship by shore of ocean faithfully watching till once again it waft o’er the waters those well-loved thanes, —winding-neck’d wood,—to Weders’ bounds, heroes such as the hest of fate ​300shall succor and save from the shock of war.” They bent them to march,—the boat lay still, fettered by cable and fast at anchor, broad-bosomed ship.—Then shone the boars over the cheek-guard; chased with gold, 305 keen and gleaming, guard it kept o’er the man of war, as marched along heroes in haste, till the hall they saw, broad of gable and bright with gold: that was the fairest, ’mid folk of earth, 310 of houses ’neath heaven, where Hrothgar lived, and the gleam of it lightened o’er lands afar. The sturdy shieldsman showed that bright burg-of-the-boldest; bade them go straightway thither; his steed then turned, 315 hardy hero, and hailed them thus:— “ ’Tis time that I fare from you. Father Almighty in grace and mercy guard you well, safe in your seekings. Seaward I go, ’gainst hostile warriors hold my watch.”
* ↑ Literally, “Him the oldest answered.” Compare modern uses of elder and alderman.
* ↑ Hrothgar.
* ↑ This powerful metaphor is known also in Old-Norse (“sûsbreka,” Skirnismal, 29) and in Old-Irish (“tuind mbroin,” ‘a billow of cares’).—Bugge.
* ↑ See Klaeber, Modern Philology, III, 250. In other words, the ship will carry back the survivors. Other translators take “the well-loved man” to be Beowulf, and read: for hero like him, by best of fate shall surely fare from the fight unscathed.
* ↑ Holthausen points out that by verse 1453 Beowulf’s helmet has several boar-images on it; he is the “man of war” (to be sure, a conjectural reading); and the boar-helmet guards him as typical representative of the marching party as a whole. The boar was sacred to Freyr, who was the favorite god of the Germanic tribes about the North Sea and the Baltic. Rude representations of warriors show the boar on the helmet quite as large as the helmet itself.