Beowulf Seeks Grendel’s Mother
Beowulf answered, Ecgtheow’s son: “Grieve not, O wise one! for each it is better, His friend to avenge than with vehemence wail him; Each of us must the end-day abide of His earthly existence; who is able accomplish Glory ere death! To battle-thane noble Lifeless lying, ’tis at last most fitting. Arise, O king, quick let us hasten To look at the footprint of the kinsman of Grendel! I promise thee this now: to his place he’ll escape not, To embrace of the earth, nor to mountainous forest, Nor to depths of the ocean, wherever he wanders. Practice thou now patient endurance Of each of thy sorrows, as I hope for thee soothly!” Then up sprang the old one, the All-Wielder thanked he, Ruler Almighty, that the man had outspoken. Then for Hrothgar a war-horse was decked with a bridle, Curly-maned courser. The clever folk-leader Stately proceeded: stepped then an earl-troop Of linden-wood bearers. Her footprints were seen then Widely in wood-paths, her way o’er the bottoms, Where she faraway fared o’er fen-country murky, Bore away breathless the best of retainers Who pondered with Hrothgar the welfare of country. The son of the athelings then went o’er the stony, Declivitous cliffs, the close-covered passes, Narrow passages, paths unfrequented, Nesses abrupt, nicker-haunts many; One of a few of wise-mooded heroes, He onward advanced to view the surroundings, Till he found unawares woods of the mountain O’er hoar-stones hanging, holt-wood unjoyful; The water stood under, welling and gory. ’Twas irksome in spirit to all of the Danemen, Friends of the Scyldings, to many a liegeman Sad to be suffered, a sorrow unlittle To each of the earlmen, when to Aeschere’s head they Came on the cliff. The current was seething With blood and with gore (the troopers gazed on it). The horn anon sang the battle-song ready. The troop were all seated; they saw ’long the water then Many a