POEMS TO KEEP

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21355, 24 December 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

POEMS TO KEEP

A GREAT ENGLISH EPIC Beowulf is the name of one of the longest Anglo-Saxon poems of which we have any record. The manuscript from which our modern texts are taken was written about 1000 A.D., and is now in the British Museum. This manuscript has a most interesting history. On one margin of the manuscript is the date 1563 and the name Lawrence Nowell; this man was a 16th century pioneer in Anglo-Saxon studies. Some time during the 17th century the manuscript narrowly escaped destruction bv fire. Towards the end of the 18th century an Icelander, Thorkelin, came to England and copied the manuscript. In 1807 that is during the Napoleonic wars, this student's translation and note's were destroyed when the English bombarded Copenhagen. But he had made another copy of the manuscript, and this escaped; in 1810 he published an edition of the poem. It tells the story of Beowulf, the prince of the Geatas, a powerful people living in the south of Sweden. This was probably centuries before the Danes came to England. Old King Hrothgar had a beautiful hall the pride o[ all Denmark, named Heorot. Near the hall was a f'-n in the midst of which lived a bog-demon named Grcndel; this monstrous creature had a green, horny skin through which no sword could cut At night time he used to come to the hall and slay the Danish warriors. Beowulf heard of this dreadful monster and came north to the Danes with promises to rid the beautiful hall of the dread dragon-fiend. This ho did by fighting him so fiercely and so long that Grendel broke away finally at the cost of his arm Beowulf s grip was as strong as a giant's. Grendel groaned his way back to the fen with blood dripping from his torn shoulder. Then Grendel's mother, a fearsome she-dragon with fiery breath and strange form, came out from her cave-like lair beneath the waters of the mere in the midst of the fen; she sought vengeance for her wounded son in the hall of the Danes Down she swept'upon the warriors with fiery breath, and carried off a Danish hero. Beowulf buckled on his strong armour and, carrying the famous sword Hrun ting—regarded by the Danes as Excahbur was regarded hv Kins; Arthur's knights—he plunged into the mere. The creature cLfto'meeUihn anS they fought, but the sword could not cut through the creature's body. The following verses are translated from the poem telling of the fight: Then the Prince of Geatas, He who cared not at all for the feud, Seized Grendel's mother by the hair: Fiercelv then, very angry in the strife He threw his mortal foe so that she bowed to earth. Then came she at him suddenly again, Savagely gripped and grasped at him, _ And overthrew this strongest of men, now weary in mind, So that he fell to earth. Then knelt she on the guest of Heorot And drew her sword, broad and gleaming, To avenge her son, her only child. But on his shoulder lay the woven mail. It guarded his life ... Then he saw among the weapons an old blade, A victorious sword, the work of giants . . Beowulf struck furiously hard against the neck, The demon fell; the warrior rejoiced. ■o ,if „ mo ncrnin to the surface of the mere where his warriors W ere Ee aTaltLg Thm: g he carried" with him the she-demon's head, and there was great rejoicing in Heorot. The answers to the Anglo-Saxon riddles were "A Swan" and "A Bookworm."