7 May 2009
The dragon continues to pillage the Geatish countryside and news of the beast’s depredations are brought to Beowulf. Beowulf takes only a few men with him to fight the dragon, trusting in his own strength and experience fighting monsters rather than a large force of men. He also has a great iron shield built for him to withstand the dragon’s flames. There is a flashback to the death of Hygelac fighting in Friesland, a battle that Beowulf was one of the few to survive. He managed to escape by swimming with the armor of thirty men. Beowulf is offered the throne by Hygd, Hygelac’s widow, but he declines, vowing to mentor and serve Heardred, Hygelac’s young son, instead. It’s a few years later and two rebels from the Sweden seek Heardred’s hospitality. He grants it and there is war with Sweden over his harboring the men. Heardred is killed in the war and Beowulf finally becomes king.
The rest of the narrative about the dragon and Beowulf’s death is interspersed with narrative bits about the wars with Sweden that occurred fifty years in the past. It’s rather difficult to follow because nowhere is a chronologically ordered account offered. We get snatches from different parts of the conflict. The Anglo-Saxon audience was probably familiar with the history and would not be so confused, but for the modern reader it is a bit difficult.
The narrative of the fight with the dragon is tremendously evocative. This fit opens with a neat passage, lines 2312-23:
Ðā se gæst ongan glēdum spīwan,
beorht hofu bærnan— brynelēoma stōd
eldum on andan; nō ðær āht cwices
lāð lyftfloga læfan wolde.
Wæs þæs wyrmes wīġ wīde ġesyne,
nearofāges nīð nēan ond feorran,
hū se gūðsceaða Ġēata lēode
hatode ond hynde; hord eft ġescēat,
dryhtsele dyrnne, ær dæġes hwīle.
Hæfde landwara līġe befangen,
bæle ond bronde; beorges ġetruwode,
wīġes ond wealles; him sēo wēn ġelēah.(Then the visitor began to spew fire,
to burn the bright courts— the gleam of fire evoked
horror in men; nothing alive
the hostile air-flier would leave.
The war of the worm was widely seen,
cruelly hostile affliction near and far,
how the war-destroyer the people of the Geats
hated and injured; he shot back to his hoard,
his hidden splendid hall, before daybreak.
He had the people of the land with fire enveloped,
with fire and with burning; he trusted his barrow’s
defenses and walls; that expectation deceived him.)
The description of Beowulf’s shield is worth mentioning. Not only is a significant plot point—it will keep him and Wiglaf alive long enough to defeat the dragon—but it is representative of the care and reverence that descriptions of weapons and armor get in the poem, lines 2337-41:
Heht him þā ġewyrċean wīġendra hlēo
eall īrenne, eorla dryhten,
wīġbord wrætliċ; wisse hē ġearwe
þæt him holtwudu he(lpan) ne meahte,
lind wið līġe.(He ordered made for him the protector of warriors
the lord of men, all of iron
a splendid battle-shield; he surely knew
that a wooden-shield him would not help,
linden against flames.)
We also get a bit of introspection by our hero, which is pretty rare. Beowulf is not one given to self-reflection. Upon hearing the news of the dragon (lines 2329-2332):
Wēnde se wisa þæt hē wealdende
ofer ealde riht, ēċean dryhtne
bitre ġebulge; brēost innan wēoll
þēostrum ġeþoncum, swā him ġeþywe ne wæs.(The wise one expected that he the Ruler
against the old law, the eternal Lord
had bitterly offended; his breast welled inside
with dark thoughts, as was not customary for him.)
The death of Hygelac uses some interesting words, lines 2358-59a:
Hrēðles eafora hiorodrynċum swealt,
bille ġebēaten.(The son of Hrethel died by sword-drinks,
beaten by blades.)
Hiorodrynċ (sword-drink) evokes the image of the sword drinking its victim’s blood. The verb sweltan (to die) is survives in the modern adjective sweltering.
