lines from Beowulf

- taken from Hrothgar's speech

It is wonderful to recount

how in his magnanimity the Almighty God

deals out wisdom, dominion and lordship

among mankind. The Master of all things

will sometimes allow the soul of a man

of well-known kindred to wander in delight:

He will grant him earth's bliss in his own homeland,

the sway of the fortress-city of his people,

and will give him to rule regions of the world,

wide kingdoms: he cannot imagine,

in his unwisdom, that an end will come.

His life of bounty is not blighted by hint

of age or ailment; no evil care

darkens his mind, malice nowhere

bares the sword-edge, but sweetly the world

swings to his will; worse is not looked for.

At last his part of pride within him

waxes and climbs, the watchman of the soul

slumbering the while. That sleep is too deep,

tangled in its cares! Too close is the slayer

who shoots the wicked shaft from his bow!

For all his armour he is unable to protect himself:

the insidious bolt buries in his chest,

the crooked counsels of the the accursed one.

What he has so long enjoyed he rejects as too little;

in niggardly anger renounces his lordly

gifts of gilt torques, forgets and misprises

his fore-ordained part, endowed thus by God,

the Master of Glory, with these great bounties.

And ultimately the end must come,

the frail house of flesh must crumble

and fall at its hour.

Beloved Beowulf, best of warriors,

resist this deadly taint . . .

______

from p105,106 (lines 1704-34, 1735-66) Penguin Classics