Chapter 8 HROTHGAR ANSWERETH BEOWULF AND BIDDETH HIM SIT TO THE FEAST.

Spake out then Hrothgar the helm of the Scyldings:

Thou Beowulf, friend mine, for battle that wardeth

And for help that is kindly hast sought to us hither.

Fought down thy father the most of all feuds;

460 To Heatholaf was he forsooth for a hand-bane

Amidst of the Wylfings. The folk of the Weders

Him for the war-dread that while might not hold.

So thence did he seek to the folk of the South-Danes

O'er the waves' wallow, to the Scyldings be-worshipped.

Then first was I wielding the weal of the Dane-folk,

That time was I holding in youth-tide the gem-rich

Hoard-burg of the heroes. Dead then was Heorogar,

Mine elder of brethren; unliving was he,

The Healfdene's bairn that was better than I.

470 That feud then thereafter with fee did I settle;

I sent to the Wylfing folk over the waters' back

Treasures of old time; he swore the oaths to me.

Sorrow is in my mind that needs must I say it

To any of grooms, of Grendel what hath he

Of shaming in Hart, and he with his hate-wiles

Of sudden harms framed; the host of my hall-floor,

The war-heap, is waned; Weird swept them away

Into horror of Grendel. It is God now that may lightly

The scather the doltish from deeds thrust aside.

480 Full oft have they boasted with beer well bedrunken,

My men of the battle all over the ale-stoup,

That they in the beer-hall would yet be abiding

The onset of Grendel with the terror of edges.

But then was this mead-hall in the tide of the morning,

This warrior-hall, gore-stain'd when day at last gleamed,

All the boards of the benches with blood besteam'd over,

The hall laid with sword-gore: of lieges less had I

Of dear and of doughty, for them death had gotten.

Now sit thou to feast and unbind thy mood freely,

490 Thy war-fame unto men as the mind of thee whetteth.

Then was for the Geat-folk and them all together

There in the beer-hall a bench bedight roomsome,

There the stout-hearted hied them to sitting

Proud in their might: a thane minded the service,

Who in hand upbare an ale-stoup adorned,

Skinked the sheer mead; whiles sang the shaper

Clear out in Hart-hall; joy was of warriors,

Men doughty no little of Danes and of Weders.