h
time he came and went, seizing without choosing, whatever lay nearest,
it seemed as though the Firedrake's hoard were endless. A magical
golden standard and armour and swords that the dwarfs had made brought
a smile of joy into the dying King's eyes. And when the ten shamed
warriors, seeing that the fight was at an end, came to where their
mighty ruler lay, they found him lying near the vile carcase of the
monster he had slain, and surrounded by a dazzlement of treasure
uncountable. To them, and to Wiglaf, Beowulf spoke his valediction,
urging on them to maintain the honour of the land of the Goths, and
then he said:

"I thank God eternal, the great King of Glory,
For the vast treasures which I here gaze upon,
That I ere my death-day might for my people
Win so great wealth-- Since I have given my life,
Thou must now look to the needs of the nation;
Here dwell I no longer, for Destiny calleth me!
Bid thou my warriors after my funeral pyre
Build me a burial-cairn high on the sea-cliffs head;
It shall for memory tower up to Hronesness,
So that the sea-farers Beowulf's Barrow
Henceforth shall name it, they who drive far and wide
Over the mighty flood their foaming Reels.
Thou art the last of all the kindred of Wagmund!
Wyrd[10] has swept all my kin, all the brave chiefs away!
Now must I follow them!"

Such was the passing of Beowulf, greatest of Northern heroes, and
under a mighty barrow on a cliff very high above the sea, they buried
him, and with him a great fortune from the treasure he had won. Then
with heavy hearts, "round about the mound rode his hearth-sharers, who
sang that he was of kings, of men, the mildest, kindest, to his people
sweetest, and the readiest in search of praise":

"Gentlest, most gracious, most keen to win glory."

And if, in time, the great deeds of a mighty king of the Goths have
become more like fairy tale than solid history, this at least we know,
that whether it is in Saeland or on the Yorkshire coast--where

"High on the sea-cliff ledges
The white gulls are trooping and crying"

--the barrow of Beowulf covers a very valiant hero, a very perfect
gentleman.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Shakespeare (_Julius Caesar_).

[10] Goddess of Fate.

ROLAND THE PALADIN

"Roland, the flower of chivalry,
Expired at Roncevall."

Thom