From The Oldest English Epic : Beowulf, Finnsburg, Waldere, Deor, Widsith, and the German Hildebrand, Translated in the Original Metres with Introduction and Notes by Francis B. Gummere, New York : The Macmillan Company, 1923 ; pp. 22-5.
PRELUDE OF THE FOUNDER OF THE DANISH HOUSE
Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won !
Oft Scyld the Scefing1 from squadroned foes,
5from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls.2 Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him :
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
10who house by the whale-path,3 heard his mandate,
gave him gifts : a good king he !
To him an heir was afterward born,
a son in his halls, whom heaven4 sent
to favor the folk, feeling their woe
23
15that erst they had lacked an earl for leader
so long a while ; the Lord endowed him,
the Wielder of Wonder, with world’s renown.
Famed was this Beowulf :5 far flew the boast of him,
son of Scyld, in the Scandian lands.
20So6 becomes it a youth7 to quit him well
with his father’s friends, by fee and gift,
that to aid him, agéd, in after days,
come warriors willing, should war draw nigh,
liegemen loyal : by landed deeds
25shall an earl have honor in every clan.
Forth he fared at the fated moment,
sturdy Scyld to the shelter of God.8
Then they bore him over to ocean’s billow,
loving clansmen, as late he charged them,
30while wielded words the winsome Scyld,
the leader belovéd who long had ruled. . . .
In the roadstead rocked a ring-dight vessel,
ice-flecked, outbound, atheling’s barge :
there laid they down their darling lord
24
35on the breast of the boat, the breaker-of-rings,9
by the mast the mighty one. Many a treasure
fetched from far was freighted with him.
No ship have I known so nobly dight
with weapons of war and weeds of battle,10
40with breastplate and blade : on his bosom lay
a heapéd hoard that hence should go
far o’er the flood with him floating away.
No less11 these loaded the lordly gifts,
thanes’ huge treasure, than those had done
45who in former time forth had sent him
sole on the seas, a suckling child.
High o’er his head they hoist the standard,
a gold-wove banner ; let billows take him,
gave him to ocean. Grave were their spirits,
50mournful their mood. No man is able
to say in sooth, no son of the halls,
no hero ’neath heaven, — who harbored that freight !12
I
Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,
leader belovéd, and long he ruled
55in fame with all folk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,
haughty Healfdene, who held through life,
sage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad.13
Then, one after one, there woke to him,
60to the chieftain of clansmen, children four :
Heorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave;
and I heard that —— was ——’s queen,14
the Heathoscylfing’s helpmate dear.
To Hrothgar15 was given such glory of war,
65such honor of combat, that all his kin
obeyed him gladly till great grew his band
of youthful comrades. It came in his mind
to bid his henchmen a hall uprear,
a master mead-house, mightier far
70than ever was seen by the sons of earth,
and within it, then, to old and young
he would all allot that the Lord had sent him,
save only the land16 and the lives of his men.
26
Wide, I heard, was the work commanded,
75for many a tribe this mid-earth round,
to fashion the folkstead. It fell, as he ordered,
in rapid achievement that ready it stood there,
of halls the noblest : Heorot17 he named it
whose message had might in many a land.
80Not reckless of promise, the rings he dealt,
treasure at banquet : there towered the hall,
high, gabled wide, the hot surge waiting
of furious flame.18 Nor far was that day
when father and son-in-law stood in feud
85for warfare and hatred that woke again.19
27
With envy and anger an evil spirit
endured the dole in his dark abode,
that he heard each day the din of revel
high in the hall : there harps rang out,
90clear song of the singer. He sang who knew20
tales of the early time of man,
how the Almighty made the earth,
fairest of fields enfolded by water,
set, triumphant, sun and moon
95for a light to lighten the land-dwellers,
and braided bright the breast of earth
with limbs and leaves, made life for all
of mortal beings that breathe and move.
So lived the clansmen in cheer and revel
100a winsome life, till one began
to fashion evils, that fiend of hell.
Grendel this monster grim was called,
march-riever21 mighty, in moorland living,22
in fen and fastness ; fief of the giants
105the hapless wight a while had kept
since the Creator his exile doomed.
On kin of Cain was the killing avenged
by sovran God for slaughtered Abel.
28
Ill fared his feud,23 and far was he driven,
110for the slaughter’s sake, from sight of men.
Of Cain awoke all that woful breed,
Etins24 and elves and evil-spirits,
as well as the giants that warred with God
weary while : but their wage was paid them !
II
115Went he forth to find at fall of night
that haughty house, and heed wherever
the Ring-Danes, outrevelled, to rest had gone.
Found within it the atheling band
asleep after feasting and fearless of sorrow,
120of human hardship. Unhallowed wight,
grim and greedy, he grasped betimes,
wrathful, reckless, from resting-places,
thirty25 of the thanes, and thence he rushed
fain of his fell spoil, faring homeward,
125laden with slaughter, his lair to seek.
Then at the dawning, as day was breaking,
the might of Grendel to men was known ;
then after wassail was wail uplifted,
loud moan in the morn. The mighty chief,
29
130atheling excellent, unblithe sat,
labored in woe for the loss of his thanes,
when once had been traced the trail of the fiend,
spirit accurst : too cruel that sorrow,
too long, too loathsome.26 Not late the respite ;
135with night returning, anew began
ruthless murder ; he recked no whit,
firm in his guilt, of the feud and crime.
They were easy to find who elsewhere sought
in room remote their rest at night,
140bed in the bowers,27 when that bale was shown,
was seen in sooth, with surest token, —
the hall-thane’s28 hate. Such held themselves
far and fast who the fiend outran !
Thus ruled unrighteous and raged his fill
145one against all until empty stood
that lordly building, and long it bode so.
Twelve years’ tide the trouble he bore,
sovran of Scyldings, sorrows in plenty,
boundless cares. There came unhidden
150tidings true to the tribes of men,
in sorrowful songs,29 how ceaselessly Grendel
harassed Hrothgar, what hate he bore him,
what murder and massacre, many a year,
feud unfading, — refused consent
30
155to deal with any of Daneland’s earls,
make pact of peace, or compound for gold :
still less did the wise men ween to get
great fee for the feud from his fiendish hands.30
But the evil one ambushed old and young,
160death-shadow dark, and dogged them still,
lured, and lurked in the livelong night
of misty moorlands : men may say not
where the haunts of these Hell-Runes31 be.
Such heaping of horrors the hater of men,
165lonely roamer, wrought unceasing,
harassings heavy. O’er Heorot he lorded,
gold-bright hall, in gloomy nights ;
and ne’er could the prince32 approach his throne,
—’twas judgment of God, — or have joy in his hall.
170Sore was the sorrow to Scyldings’-friend,
heart-rending misery. Many nobles
sat assembled, and searched out counsel
how it were best for bold-hearted men
against harassing terror to try their hand.
175Whiles they vowed in their heathen fanes
altar-offerings, asked with words33
that the slayer-of-souls34 would succor give them
for the pain of their people. Their practice this,
31
their heathen hope; ’twas Hell they thought of
180in mood of their mind. Almighty they knew not,
Doomsman of Deeds35 and dreadful Lord,
nor Heaven’s-Helmet heeded they ever,
Wielder-of-Wonder. — Woe for that man
who in harm and hatred hales his soul
185to fiery embracers ; — nor favor nor change
awaits he ever. But well for him
that after death-day may draw to his Lord,
and friendship find in the Father’s arms !
III
Thus seethed36 unceasing the son of Healfdene
190with the woe of these days ; not wisest men
assuaged his sorrow ; too sore the anguish,
loathly and long, that lay on his folk,
most baneful of burdens and bales of the night.
This heard in his home Hygelac’s thane,
195great among Geats, of Grendel’s doings.
He was the mightiest man of valor
in that same day of this our life,
stalwart and stately. A stout wave-walker
he bade make ready.37 Yon battle-king, said he,
200far o’er the swan-road he fain would seek,
the noble monarch who needed men !
32
The prince’s journey by prudent folk
was little blamed, though they loved him dear ;
they whetted the hero, and hailed good omens.38
205And now the bold one from bands of Geats
comrades chose, the keenest of warriors
e’er he could find ; with fourteen men39
the sea-wood40 he sought, and, sailor41 proved,
led them on to the land’s confines.
210 Time had now flown ;42 afloat was the ship,
boat under bluff. On board they climbed,
warriors ready ; waves were churning
sea with sand ; the sailors bore
on the breast of the bark their bright array,
215their mail and weapons : the men pushed off,
on its willing way, the well-braced craft.
Then moved o’er the waters by might of the wind
that bark like a bird with breast of foam,
till in season due, on the second day,
220the curvéd prow such course had run
33
that sailors now could see the land,
sea-cliffs shining, steep high hills,
headlands broad. Their haven was found,
their journey ended. Up then quickly
225the Weders’43 clansmen climbed ashore,
anchored their sea-wood, with armor clashing
and gear of battle : God they thanked
for passing in peace o’er the paths of the sea.
Now saw from the cliff a Scylding clansman,
230a warden44 that watched the water-side,
how they bore o’er the gangway glittering shields,
war-gear in readiness ; wonder seized him
to know what manner of men they were.
Straight to the strand his steed he rode,
235Hrogthgar’s henchman ; with hand of might
he shook his spear,45 and spake in parley.
“Who are ye, then, ye arméd men,
mailéd folk, that yon mighty vessel
have urged thus over the ocean ways,
240here o’er the waters ? A warden I
sentinel set o’er the sea-march here,
lest any foe to the folk of Danes
with harrying fleet should harm the land.
No aliens ever at ease thus bore them,
34
245linden-wielders :46 yet word-of-leave
clearly ye lack from clansmen here,
my folk’s agreement. — A greater ne’er saw I
of warriors in world than is one of you, —
yon hero in harness ! No henchman he
250worthied by weapons, if witness his features,
his peerless presence ! I pray you, though, tell
your folk and home, lest hence ye fare
suspect to wander your way as spies
in Danish land. Now, dwellers afar,
255ocean-travellers, take from me
simple advice : the sooner the better
I hear of the country whence ye came.”
IV
To him the stateliest47 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,
35
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-Brave48 may worst his foes. —
280If ever the end of ills is fated,
of cruel contest, if cure shall follow,
and the boiling care-waves49 cooler grow ;
else ever afterward anguish-days
he shall suffer in sorrow while stands in place
285high 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.
290I 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, —
295your 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
36
300shall succor and save from the shock of war.”50
They bent them to march, — the boat lay still,
fettered by cable and fast at anchor,
broad-bosomed ship. — Then shone the boars51
over the cheek-guard ; chased with gold,
305keen 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,
310of 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,
315hardy 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 warrors hold my watch.”
V
320Stone-bright the street :52 it showed the way
to the crowd of clansmen. Corselets glistened
hand-forged, hard ; on their harness bright
the steel ring sang,53 as they strode along
in mail of battle, and marched to the hall.
325There, weary of ocean, the wall along
they set their bucklers, their broad shields, down,
and bowed them to bench : the breastplates clanged,
war-gear of men ; their weapons stacked,
spears of the seafarers stood together,
330gray-tipped ash : that iron band
was worthily weaponed ! — A warrior proud
asked of the heroes their home and kin.
“Whence, now, bear ye burnished shields,
harness gray and helmets grim,
335spears in multitude ? Messenger, I,
Hrothgar’s herald ! Heroes so many
ne’er met I as strangers of mood so strong.
’Tis plain that for prowess, not plunged into exile,
for high-hearted valor, Hrothgar ye seek !”
340Him the sturdy-in-war bespake with words,
proud earl of the Weders answer made,
hardy ’neath helmet : — “Hygelac’s, we,
38
fellows at board ; I am Beowulf named
I am seeking to say to the son of Healfdene
345this mission of mine, to thy master-lord,
the doughty prince, if he deign at all
grace that we greet him, the good one, now.”
Wulfgar spake, the Wendles’ chieftain,
whose might of mind to many was known,
350his courage and counsel : “The king of Danes,
the Scyldings’ friend, I fain will tell,
the Breaker-of-Rings, as the boon thou askest,
the faméd prince, of thy faring hither,
and, swiftly after, such answer bring
355as the doughty monarch may deign to give.”
Hied then in haste to where Hrothgar sat
white-haired and old, his earls about him,
till the stout thane stood at the shoulder54 there
of the Danish king : good courtier he !
360Wulfgar spake to his winsome lord : —
“Hither have fared to thee far-come men
o’er the paths of ocean, people of Geatland ;
and the stateliest55 there by his sturdy band
is Beowulf named. This boon they seek,
365that they, my master, may with thee
have speech at will : nor spurn their prayer
to give them hearing, gracious Hrothgar !
In weeds of the warrior worthy they,
methinks, of our liking ; their leader most surely,
370a hero that hither his henchmen has led.”
FOOTNOTES
1 English historians knew the story or myth of this Scyld (“Shield”), who as a helpless child drifts ashore in an oarless boat. The boat is filled with weapons, but a “sheaf” of grain serves as a pillow for the little sleeper; and hence the people call him Shield the Sheaf-Child. They make him their king. He ruled, so William of Malmesbury says, “where Heithebi stands, once called Slaswic.” The term “Sheaf-Child” came to be misunderstood as “Child of Sheaf,” and Scyld was furnished with a father, Scef or Sceaf.
2 An “earl” was the freeman, the warrior in a chosen band; though not yet indicating specific rank, the word carried a general idea of nobility.
3 Kenning for “sea.” Tribes across the water, say in southern Sweden, or westward of the Danish lands in Zealand, became tributary to Scyld.
4 Literally, “God.”
5 Not, of course, Beowulf the Geat, hero of the epic. Genealogies of Anglo-Saxon kings name this son of Scyld as Beaw, Beo, Bedwig, Beadwig, Beowinus, etc., all shorter forms or corruptions of a common original name. The name Beowulf may mean “Wolf-of-the-Croft” (Gering), but its etymology is uncertain.
6 Sc. “as Scyld did.” Beowulf’s coming fame is mentioned, so to speak, as part of Scyld’s assets, and the whole passage is praise of the “pious founder” of the Danish line.
7 The Exeter Maxims, vv. 14 f., say :
Let the atheling young by his honest comrades
be emboldened to battle and breaking of rings, —
i.e. liberal gifts to his clansmen.
8 To heaven, the other world. Various metaphors are used for death; e.g. “he chose the other light.” See also v. 2469.
9 Kenning for king or chieftain of a comitatus : he breaks off gold from the spiral rings — often worn on the arm — and so rewards his followers. In Ælfric’s famous Colloquy, early in the eleventh century, the huntsman says he sometimes gets gift of a horse or an arm-ring from his king.
10 Professor Garnett’s rendering.
11 The poet’s favorite figure of litotes or understatement. He means that the treasure which they sent out with the dead king far exceeded what came with him in the boat that brought him, a helpless child, to their shores.
12 While the reader should guard against putting into these effective lines sentiment and suggestion which they do not really contain, he should compare this close with the close of Tennyson’s Morte d’Arthur. The classical passage for ship-burial among the old Germans is the description of Balder’s funeral in the prose Edda. On the “greatest of all ships” was laid the corpse of the god; and a balefire was made there; and rings, and costly trappings, and Balder’s own horse, were consumed along with the body.
13 If glœde is adverb, read :
Haughty Healfdene : hardy and wise,
though old, he graciously governed the Scyldings.
The name “Halfdane” means that his mother was foreign born.
14 “I heard,” the epic formula, often has a merely conjunctive force, as here, when it may be rendered, as Klaeber notes, “and further.” — The name of the daughter is lost; no suggestion so far has enough weight to gain preference. The “Battle-Scylfings” are the race known in Scandinavian annals as Ynglings, a Swedish people. Kluge, using the Saga of Hrolf Kraki, reads : “Sigeneow was Sæwela’s queen.”
15 Heorogar’s reign, noted below, vv. 465, 2158, is here passed over by the poet, who wishes to come at once to the story.
16 Literally, “folk’s share.” Gering translates “all that God had given him along with his land and his people.”
17 That is, “The Hart,” or “the Stag,” so called from decorations in the gables that resembled the antlers of a deer. This hall has been carefully described in a pamphlet by Heyne. The building was rectangular, with opposite doors — mainly west and east — and a hearth in the middle of the single room. A row of pillars down each side, at some distance from the walls, made a space which was raised a little above the main floor, and was furnished with two rows of seats. On one side, usually south, was the high-seat, midway between the doors. Opposite this, on the other raised space, was another seat of honor. At the banquet soon to be described, Hrothgar sat in the south or chief high-seat, and Beowulf opposite to him. The scene for a flyting (see below, v. 499) was thus very effectively set. Planks on trestles — the “board” of later English literature — formed the tables just in front of the long rows of seats, and were taken away after banquets, when the retainers were ready to stretch themselves out for sleep on the benches. Some additional comment will be found in the excellent notes in Mr. Clark Hall’s translation of Beowulf, p. 174.
18 Fire was the usual end of these halls. See v. 781, below. One thinks of the splendid scene at the end of the Nibelungen, of the Nialssaga, of Saxo’s story of Amlethus, and many a less famous instance.
19 It is to be supposed that all hearers of this poem knew how Hrothgar’s hall was burnt, — perhaps in the unsuccessful attack made on him by his son-in-law Ingeld. See vv. 2020 ff., and the note, where Beowulf tells of an old feud which this marriage is to set aside, and hints that the trouble will not be cured even by such a remedy. He too thinks that “warfare and hatred will wake again.” — See also Widsith, vv. 45 ff.
20 A skilled minstrel. The Danes are heathens, as one is told presently; but this lay of beginnings is taken from Genesis.
21 A disturber of the border, one who sallies from his haunt in the fen and roams over the country near by. This probably pagan nuisance is now furnished with biblical credentials as a fiend or devil in good standing, so that all Christian Englishmen might read about him. “Grendel” may mean one who grinds and crushes.
22 See notes below on the notion of a water-hell. “Hell and the lower world,” says Bugge, “were connected to some extent in the popular mind with deep or boundless morasses.” Home of the Eddic Poems, tr. Schofield, p. lxxiv.
23 Cain’s.
24 The eoten, Norse jotun, or giant, survives in the English ballad-title, Hind Etin. The “giants” of v. 113 come from Genesis, vi. 4. See also the apocryphal book of Enoch, noted by Kittredge, Paul and Braune’s Beiträge, xiii, 210, who accounts for this tradition that Cain was the ancestor of evil monsters.
25 Beowulf, the coming champion, has the strength (v. 379) of “thirty” men in his hand’s grasp, and (v. 2361) swims to safety after Hygelac’s defeat laden with “thirty” suits of mail on his arm. The reader will note the meagreness and haste of this account of the actual attack. No details are given. This brevity is of course due to the poet; and one can only guess at his motive.
27 The smaller buildings within the main enclosure but separate from the hall.
28 So the text. Grendel, by his ravaging, is master of the hall; and there is no need to change to “hell-thane.”
29 The journalists of the day, Widsiths, Deors, Bernlefs, carried such tidings in their “sorrowful songs.” So, too, perhaps, began the story of the actual downfall of the Burgundian kings, afterward the epic of the Nibelungs.
30 He would of course pay no wergild for the men he had slain. So boasted a Norse bully once.
31 “Sorcerers-of-hell.” Rune is still used in Low German dialects for “witch.”
32 Hrothgar, who is the “Scyldings’-friend” of 170. A difficult passage.
33 That is, in formal or prescribed phrase.
34 In Psalm xcvi, 5 (Grein-Wülker, number 95) : “All the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” The Anglo-Saxon version reads : “All heathen gods are devils-of-war.” . . .
35 The complimentary excess of kennings for “God” is like the profusion in naming king or chieftain. See v. 345 f.
36 How fast-colored this metaphor remained for poets it is hard to say. Certainly “bore” or “suffered” is too pale a rendering.
37 This verse, rimed in modern fashion, must represent v. 194 of the original, which runs:
Thæt fram hâm gefrægn Hygelâces thegn. . . .
38 Literally, “looked about for signs and omens”; but by implication the omens are good. Many of these old customs are preserved in tradition or by record; and the chapter of Tacitus’s Germania is familiar which describes one of them in detail. By Hygelac’s own account (vv. 1994 ff.) the friends of Beowulf did try to hold him back from his perilous undertaking.
39 In the language of the original, and of modern golf, Beowulf goes on a “fifteen-some,” as one of fifteen.
40 Ship.
41 In the Nibelungen Lay one is told that Siegfried — also a slayer of dragons and a winner of gold — is a good sailor (367, 3) :
Die rehten wazzerstrâze sint mir wol bekant.
In the next stanza the start of the ship is described; and Siegfried himself helps to push off from shore, using “a pole.”
42 That is, since Beowulf selected his ship and led his men to the harbor.
43 One of the auxiliary names of the Geats, who by the reckoning of Bugge, Gering, and others, were Jutes. Jutland, says Gering, is truly called the Wettermark, “the land of storms.” Others, a majority, put Geatland in Sweden.
44 Possibly some unconscious reminiscence is here of the Roman coast-guard who once patrolled the Saxon Shore. Saxon pirates would well remember him. The stone-paved street (below, v. 320) points to similar traditions.
45 Literally, “main-wood,” “strength-wood.” — The warden is not alone, but has with him an armed guard. See v. 293.
46 Or : Not thus openly ever came warriors hither; yet . . .
47 Literally, “Him the oldest answered.” Compare modern use of elder and alderman.
48 Hrothgar.
49 This powerful metaphor is known also in Old-Norse (“sûsbreka,” Skirnismal, 29) and in Old-Irish (“tuind mbroin,” ‘a billow of cares’). — BUGGE.
50 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 hest of fate
shall surely fare from the fight unscathed.
51 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.
52 Either merely paved, the strata via of the Romans, or else thought of as a sort of mosaic, an extravagant touch like the reckless waste of gold on the walls and roofs of a hall. — Stone buildings, it will be noted, are for old English poetry a mystery, a legacy of the past, and its demi-gods — “work of giants”; for prose they pass as fit only for kings. Asser in his Life of Alfred (ed. Stevenson, 91, 23, and p. 154) calls them villae regiae. The common Germanic hatred of cities and of stone houses is familiar from the rhetoric of Tacitus.
53 See Finnsburg, vv. 7 f. for a more striking personification.
54 “Before the shoulders,” whatever position this was. Gering : “at the left shoulder of the lord of the land.”
55 Literally, “oldest.” See above, v. 258.