Beowulf - Delphi Poets Series by Beowulf

Author:Beowulf [Beowulf]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Delphi Classics
Published: 2015-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

XLII. THEY GO TO LOOK ON THE FIELD OF DEED.

Then it was to be seen that throve not the way

To him that unrightly had hidden within there

The fair gear ‘neath the wall. The warder erst slew

Some few of folk, and the feud then became 3060

Wrothfully wreaked. A wonder whenas

A valour-strong earl may reach on the ending

Of the fashion of life, when he longer in nowise

One man with his kinsmen may dwell in the mead-hall!

So to Beowulf was it when the burg’s ward he sought.

For the hate of the weapons: he himself knew not

Wherethrough forsooth his world’s sundering should be.

So until Doomsday they cursed it deeply,

Those princes the dread, who erst there had done it,

That that man should be of sins never sackless, 3070

A-hoppled in shrines, in hell-bonds fast set,

With plague-spots be punish’d, who that plain should plunder.

But naught gold-greedy was he, more gladly had he

The grace of the Owner erst gotten to see.

Now spake out Wiglaf, that son was of Weohstan:

Oft shall many an earl for the will but of one

Dree the wrack, as to us even now is befallen:

Nowise might we learn the lief lord of us,

The herd of the realm, any of rede,

That he should not go greet that warder of gold, 3080

But let him live yet, whereas long he was lying,

And wonne in his wicks until the world’s ending;

But he held to high weird and the hoard hath been seen,

Grimly gotten: o’er hard forsooth was that giving,

That the king of the folk e’en thither enticed.

Lo! I was therein, and I look’d it all over,

The gear of the house, when for me room was gotten,

But I lightly in nowise had leave for the passage

In under the earth-wall; in haste I gat hold

Forsooth with my hands of a mickle main burden 3090

Of hoard-treasures, and hither then out did I bear them,

Out unto my king, and then quick was he yet,

Wise, and wit-holding: a many things spake he,

That aged in grief-care, and bade me to greet you,

And prayed ye would do e’en after your friend’s deeds

Aloft in the bale-stead a howe builded high,

Most mickle and mighty, as he amongst men was

The worthfullest warrior wide over the world,

While he the burg-weal erewhile might brook.

Then so let us hasten this second of whiles 3100

To see and to seek the throng of things strange,

The wonder ‘neath wall; I shall wise you the way,

So that ye from a-near may look on enough

Of rings and broad gold; and be the bier swiftly

All yare thereunto, whenas out we shall fare.

Then let us so ferry the lord that was ours,

The lief man of men, to where long shall he

In the All-Wielder’s keeping full patiently wait.

Bade then to bid the bairn of that Weohstan,

The deer of the battle, to a many of warriors, 3110

The house-owning wights, that the wood of the bale

They should ferry from far, e’en the folk-owning men,

Toward the good one. And now shall the gleed fret away,

The wan flame a-waxing, the strong one of warriors,

Him who oft-times abided the shower of iron

When the storm of

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