24 April 2009
The episode/digression about Heremod, the bad king, continues. Heremod grows increasingly prideful and greedy. Eventually he dies, replaced by another king who doles out Heremod’s treasures to his people without regret. Hrothgar explicitly warns Beowulf not to be like Heremod. Hrothgar also examines his own rule, saying he tried to rule well and keep his kingdom safe—which apart from Grendel he did. And that he has even seen his kingdom delivered from the monster’s depredations, and unlike Heremod, he will share more treasure with Beowulf come morning. The next day, the Geats are eager to depart for their home. Beowulf returns the sword Hrunting to Unferth, saying it is a great sword, even though it did not avail him in this battle.
Hrothgar has some neat words about the transitory nature of glory and life—a very common theme in medieval literature, lines 1761b- 1768:
Nū is þīnes mæġnes blæd
āne hwīle; eft sōna bið
þæt þeċ ādl oððe ecg eafoþes ġetwæfeð,
oððe fyres fenġ, oððe flōdes wylm,
oððe gripe mēċes, oððe gāres fliht,
oððe atol yldo; oððe ēagena bearhtm
forsiteð ond forsworceð; semninga bið
þæt ðeċ, dryhtguma, dēað oferswyðeð.( Now is the glory of your might
[but] a little while; in turn soon will
sickness or blade deprive you of strength,
or fire’s grip, or flood’s welling,
or sword’s attack, or arrow’s flight,
or terrible age; or [your] eyes’ brightness
will fail and dim; at last will
you, warrior, be overcome by death.)
Line 1801 uses a black raven (hrefn blaca) as a sign of the dawn. This is highly unusual. Ravens in Anglo-Saxon literature are associated with death—they are carrion fowl, after all. Also, dawn is often an inauspicious time; it is the time of day when the evils that night has brought are discovered. But here the dawn and the raven are good things.
The reader of today is also drawn to the word collenferhð in line 1806. It has nothing to do with the actor Colin Firth; it is a poetic term meaning bold of spirit. It appears again later in the poem. It’s of no particular importance, except that it reminds one of the odd connections readers of a different era can make when reading old literature.
