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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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28 so bold with bloody brands-nor boast thereof I will Though thou forsooth thy brothers, thy kin-of-heart, didst kill! (Whence curse of hell awaits thee, though good thy wit may be.) I say to thee in sooth now, thou of Ecglaf son, That Grendel ne’er so many gruesome things had done, The Grisly ne’er such havoc in Heorot to thy King, If thought of thine, if soul of thine, were grim as thy telling. But he hath found he needeth fear or feud or stroke Little from thy people, the Victor-Scylding folk! He taketh the forced pledges, unsparingly he rends, He hath his lust of slaughter, he puts to sleep, he sends, He recketh not of any contest with the Dane. But speedily ‘t is mine now to show him might and main, The warrior-work of Geatmen! Let him go who can Blithe to mead tomorrow-when o’er bairns of man Shineth from the southward, on other day begun, Once more that light-of-morning, the sky-girt sun.” Then the Prince of Bright-Danes, the Treasure-Breaker, he, The old-haired and war-famed, had his time of glee. Now in help he trusted; from Beowulf he caught, He, his people’s Shepherd, the firm-resolved thought. Then was there heroes’ laughter; and rang the shout and song, And merry speech was bandied; and then stepped forth along Wealhtheow, Queen of Hrothgar, mindful of manners all, And gold-bedight she greeted the guest-men in the hall. And then the high-born Lady erst gave the cup in hand To him who was the Warder of East-Danes’ fatherland; And him she bade be blithesome at the bout-of-beer, Him beloved of clansmen. He took with goodly cheer The banquet and the beaker, the King of victory-fame. Then round the hall to each and all she stepped, the Helmings’ Dame, And gave to young and older the goblet rich-beseen, Till came the happy moment when in hall the Queen, Crown-bedight and high-souled, the cup to Beowulf bore. She greeted the Geats’ lord; God she thanked therefor, Wise in her word-craft, that her wish had thriven That she could trust some jarlman for help ‘gainst horrors given. He took the cup from Wealhtheow, a warsman fierce-to-smite; And then he offered answer, eager for the fight. Beowulf made his speech then, bairn of Ecgtheow, he: “When with my troop of tribesmen, I mounted on the sea, And sate me in my sailor-boat, I had this thought in me: Either to work for all time thy people’s will at last, Or to fall alighting in grip of Grendel fast. |
