16 May 2009
Wiglaf tells the men of Beowulf’s death and then commands some of them to build a funeral pyre for the king. Then he leads seven of the men back into the barrow to carry out the remainder of the treasure. The men also push the body of the dragon over a cliff into the sea and then carry Beowulf’s body to the pyre.
There is locus desperatus, or hopeless passage, at lines 3069–75. No one is quite sure what the final two lines of this passage mean:
Swā hit oð dōmes dæġ dīope benemdon
þēodnas mære, þā ðæt þær dydon,
þæt se secg wære synnum scildiġ,
hergum ġeheaðerod, hellbendum fæst,
wommum ġewītnad, sē ðone wong strude,
næs hē goldhwæte, ġearwor hæfde
āgendes ēst ær ġescēawod.(Until doomsday deeply declared
the famous men, when it was placed there,
that the man was guilty of sins,
confined in the heathen temple, fast in the bonds of hell,
punished with injuries, who would plunder that place,
nor was he gold-cursed, [he] certainly had
God’s favor before he looked upon it.)
The last two lines can be alternatively translated as:
(By no means, he a gold-curse, had certainly
foreseen but the owner’s favor.)
There are other possible translations, as well.
Pretty much everyone agrees that the passage says the people who buried the gold put a curse on it so that whoever dug it up would be cursed, unless, of course, God gave them dispensation. What is not clear is what this says about Beowulf. Is he cursed? Or does he have God’s grace? The main problem is the word goldhwæte. It appears nowhere else in the Old English corpus and the meaning is uncertain. It could mean gold-cursed, or rich in gold, or even greedy for gold. The word āgendes is also a problem. Agend literally means owner or guardian, but it is also used to mean God. Is the favor ēst (favor) the owner’s, the dragon’s, or God’s? Also, does ær ġescēawod mean before he looked or he had foreseen? And there are even more questions, like is næs a verb (nor was) or adverb (by no means) here?
Wiglaf talks of Beowulf’s courage in a rather neat passage, lines 3114b–19
Nū sceal glēd fretan,
—weaxan wonna lēġ— wigena strenġel,
þone ðe oft ġebād īsernscūre,
þonne stræla storm strenġum ġebæded
scōc ofer scildweall, sceft nytte hēold,
fæðerġearwum fūs flāne fullēode.(Now shall the fire devour,
—the flame waxes dark— the chief of warriors,
he who often awaited the iron-shower,
when a storm of arrows compelled by bow-strings
passed over the shield-wall, the shafts held to their duty,
hurtling feather-gear aided the arrows.)
Īsernscūre, or iron-shower, is a great kenning for a volley of arrows. Strenġum ġebæded can also be translated as compelled by strength.
The fit ends with the warriors carrying Beowulf to his pyre on the Cape of Whales (where that is actually is unknown, if it is even a real place), lines 3130–36:
Þæt hī ofostlīċ(e) ūt ġeferedon
dyre māðmas; dracan ēc scufun,
wyrm ofer weallclif, leton wēġ niman,
flōd fæðmian frætwa hyrde.
Þā wæs wunden gold on wæn hladen,
æġhwæs unrim, æþeling boren,
hār hilde[rinċ] tō Hrones Næsse.(Then they quickly carried out
the dear treasure; also they shoved the dragon,
the worm over the sea-cliff, they let the wave take,
the flood embrace the guardian of the treasure.
Then was the twisted gold laden on a wain,
a countless number of everything, the noble one was born,
the gray-haired battle-warrior to the Cape of Whales.)
