When the hero-in-battle the hand suspended,
          The arm and the shoulder (there was all of the claw
       45 Of Grendel together) ’neath great-stretching hall-roof.

[1] It has been proposed to translate ‘myrethe’ by with sorrow; but there seems no authority for such a rendering.  To the present translator, the phrase ‘modes myrethe’ seems a mere padding for gladly; i.e., he who gladly harassed mankind.

[30]

XIV.

REJOICING OF THE DANES.

{At early dawn, warriors from far and near come together to hear of the night’s adventures.}

          In the mist of the morning many a warrior
          Stood round the gift-hall, as the story is told me: 
          Folk-princes fared then from far and from near
          Through long-stretching journeys to look at the wonder,
        5 The footprints of the foeman.  Few of the warriors

{Few warriors lamented Grendel’s destruction.}

          Who gazed on the foot-tracks of the inglorious creature
          His parting from life pained very deeply,
          How, weary in spirit, off from those regions
          In combats conquered he carried his traces,
       10 Fated and flying, to the flood of the nickers.

{Grendel’s blood dyes the waters.}

          There in bloody billows bubbled the currents,
          The angry eddy was everywhere mingled
          And seething with gore, welling with sword-blood;[1]
          He death-doomed had hid him, when reaved of his joyance
       15 He laid down his life in the lair he had fled to,
          His heathenish spirit, where hell did receive him. 
          Thence the friends from of old backward turned them,
          And many a younker from merry adventure,
          Striding their stallions, stout from the seaward,
       20 Heroes on horses.  There were heard very often

{Beowulf is the hero of the hour.}

          Beowulf’s praises; many often asserted
          That neither south nor north, in the circuit of waters,

{He is regarded as a probable successor to Hrothgar.}

          O’er outstretching earth-plain, none other was better
          ’Mid bearers of war-shields, more worthy to govern,
       25 ’Neath the arch of the ether.  Not any, however,
          ’Gainst the friend-lord muttered, mocking-words uttered

{But no word is uttered to derogate from the old king}

          Of Hrothgar the gracious (a good king he). 
          Oft the famed ones permitted their fallow-skinned horses
[31] To run in rivalry, racing and chasing,
       30 Where the fieldways appeared to them fair and inviting,
          Known for their excellence; oft a thane of the folk-lord,[2]