ably on the
island of Seeland.

[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF BEGINNING OF COTTON MS. OF BEOWULF.]

TRANSLATION

Lo! we, of the Gar-Danes in distant days,
The folk-kings' fame have found.
How deeds of daring the aethelings did.
Oft Scyld-Scefing from hosts of schathers,
From many men the mead seats [reft].

The student who wishes to enter into the spirit of the poem will do
well to familiarize himself with the position of these coasts, and
with a description of their natural features in winter as well as in
summer. Heine says of the sea which Beowulf sailed:--

"Before me rolleth a waste of water ... and above me go rolling
the storm clouds, the formless dark gray daughters of air, which
from the sea in cloudy buckets scoop up the water, ever wearied
lifting and lifting, and then pour it again in the sea, a mournful,
wearisome business. Over the sea, flat on his face, lies the
monstrous, terrible North Wind, sighing and sinking his voice as in
secret, like an old grumbler; for once in good humor, unto the ocean
he talks, and he tells her wonderful stories."

Beowulf's Three Great Exploits.--The hero of the poem engaged in
three great contests, all of which were prompted by unselfishness and
by a desire to relieve human misery. Beowulf had much of the spirit
that animates the social worker to-day. If such a hero should live in
our time, he would probably be distinguished fur social service, for
fighting the forces of evil which cripple or destroy so many human
beings.

Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, built a hall, named Heorot, where his
followers could drink mead, listen to the scop, enjoy the music of the
harp, and find solace in social intercourse during the dreary winter
evenings.

"So liv'd on all happy the host of the kinsmen
In game and in glee, until one night began,
A fiend out of hell-pit, the framing of evil,
And Grendel forsooth the grim guest was hight,
The mighty mark-strider the holder of moorland,
The fen and the fastness."[10]

This monster, Grendel, came from the moors and devoured thirty of the
thanes. For twelve winters he visited Heorot and killed some of the
guests whenever he heard the sound of festivity in the hall, until at
length the young hero Beowulf, who lived a day's sail from Hrothgar,
determined to rescue Heorot from this curse. The youth selected
fourteen warriors and on a "foamy-necked floater, most like to a
bird," he sailed to Hrothg