2 May 2009
Beowulf enters Hygelac’s hall, where he is warmly greeted. Hygelac says he was leery about Beowulf’s going to Denmark to fight Grendel, thinking the Danes should settle their own affairs, and he asks about the journey and the fight. Beowulf announces that he was victorious, tells of the gracious greeting and treatment he received from Hrothgar, and begins talking about Freawaru, Hrothgar’s daughter. Freawaru is betrothed to Ingeld, prince of the Heathobards, as part of a settlement of a feud. Beowulf is skeptical that this will end the feud.
This is another example of where the division into fits makes no sense narratively. The Freawaru digression is interesting, but will not come to head until the next fit. The rest of this fit is pretty much filler.
As far as language goes, line 1965 has the word woruldcandel, meaning sun. The literal meaning is what it sounds like, the candle of the world.
Line 1983 has an interesting emendation. Hygd, Hygelac’s queen, is passing the ceremonial greeting cup to the warriors, hæleðum tō handa, into the hand of the heroes. But the manuscript actually reads hæ u, where a ð has been erased; so it originally read hæðu tō handa, or into the hands of the heathens. The emendation is pretty much universally accepted and you’ll find it in most editions of the poem. There is, however, some debate over it. Some hold that hænum is a tribal name for the Geats. Others that it was intended as heathen and that is a sensible reading for the non-Christian Geats. Others say the Geats, while not Christian, were monotheists, therefore heathen doesn’t apply. For my part, heroes fits better with the tone of the passage.
Beowulf also utters a gnomic statement about the eternity of feuds—the poem is filled with such maxims—about Freawaru’s betrothal and the unlikelihood of its success, lines 2029b-2031:
Oft seldan hwær
æfter lēodhryre lytle hwīle
bongār būgeð, þēah sēo bryd duge.(Very seldom anywhere
after the fall of a prince for even a little while
does the deadly spear lay still, even though the bride is good.)
And, as the fit ends, Beowulf starts to describe the incident that will precipitate the failure of the peace overture when Freawaru’s escort is seen carrying a sword won in battle against the Heathobards, lines 2032-38:
Mæg þæs þonne ofþynċan ðēoden Heaðo-Beardna
ond þeġna ġehwām þāra lēoda
þonne hē mid fæmnan on flett gæð,
dryhtbearn Dena, duguða biwenede.
On him gladiað gomelra lāfe,
heard ond hrinġmæl Heaða-Bear[d]na ġestrēon,
þenden hīe ðām wæpnum wealdan mōston(It may then displease the king of the Heathobards
and each of his thanes of his people
when he with the virgin goes across the floor,
the noble son of the Danes, attended to with honors.
On him glitters the heirloom sword of their ancestors
hard and ring-adorned treasure of the Heathobards,
so long as they their weapons could weald.)
