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TEXT
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PARAPHRASE
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. . . A powerful monster, living down
In the
darkness, growled in pain, impatient
As day
after day the music rang
Loud in that
hall, the harp’s rejoicing
5 Call and the poet’s clear
songs, sung
Of the
ancient beginnings of us all, recalling
The
Almighty making the earth, shaping
These
beautiful plains marked off by oceans,
Then
proudly setting the sun and moon
10 To glow across the land
and light it;
The
corners of the earth were made lovely with trees
And
leaves, made quick with life, with each
Of the
nations who now move on its face. And then
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As now warriors sang of their pleasure:
15 So Hrothgar’s
men lived happy in his hall
Till the
monster stirred, that demon, that fiend,
Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild
Marshes,
and made his home in a hell
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Not hell but earth. He was spawned in that slime,
20 Conceived by a pair of
those monsters born
Of Cain,
murderous creatures banished
By God,
punished forever for the crime
Of Abel’s
death. The Almighty drove
Those
demons out, and their exile was bitter,
25 Shut away from men; they
split
Into a
thousand forms of evil—spirits
And
fiends, goblins, monsters, giants,
A brood
forever opposing the Lord’s
Will, and
again and again defeated.
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30
Then, when darkness had dropped, Grendel
Went up to
Herot, wondering what the warriors
Would do
in that hall when their drinking was done.
He found
them sprawled in sleep, suspecting
Nothing,
their dreams undisturbed. The monster’s
35 Thoughts were as quick as
his greed or his claws:
He slipped
through the door and there in the silence
Snatched
up thirty men, smashed them
Unknowing
in their beds, and ran out with their bodies,
The blood
dripping behind him, back
40 To his lair, delighted
with his night’s slaughter.
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At daybreak, with the sun’s first light, they saw
How well
he had worked, and in that gray morning
Broke
their long feast with tears and laments
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For the dead. Hrothgar, their lord, sat
joyless
45 In Herot,
a mighty prince mourning
The fate
of his lost friends and companions,
Knowing by
its tracks that some demon had torn
His
followers apart. He wept, fearing
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The beginning might not be the end. And that night
50 Grendel
came again, so set
On murder
that no crime could ever be enough,
No savage
assault quench his lust
For evil.
Then each warrior tried
To escape
him, searched for rest in different
55 Beds, as far from Herot as they could find,
Seeing how
Grendel hunted when they slept.
Distance
was safety; the only survivors
Were those
who fled him. Hate had triumphed.
So Grendel ruled, fought with the righteous,
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One against many, and won; so Herot
Stood
empty, and stayed deserted for years,
Twelve
winters of grief for Hrothgar, king
Of the
Danes, sorrow heaped at his door
By
hell-forged hands. His misery leaped
65 The seas, was told and
sung in all
Men’s
ears: how Grendel’s hatred began,
How the
monster relished his savage war
On the
Danes, keeping the bloody feud
Alive,
seeking no peace, offering
70 No truce, accepting no
settlement, no price
In gold or
land, and paying the living
For one
crime only with another. No one
Waited for
reparation from his plundering claws:
That
shadow of death hunted in the darkness,
75 Stalked Hrothgar’s warriors, old
And young,
lying in waiting, hidden
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In mist, invisibly following them from the edge
Of the
marsh, always there, unseen.
So
mankind’s enemy continued his crimes,
80 Killing as often as he
could, coming
Alone,
bloodthirsty and horrible. Though he lived
In Herot, when the night hid him, he never
Dared to
touch king Hrothgar’s glorious
Throne,
protected by God—God,
85 Whose love Grendel could not know. But Hrothgar’s
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Heart was bent. The best and most noble
Of his
council debated remedies, sat
In secret
sessions, talking of terror
And
wondering what the bravest of warriors could do.
90 And sometimes they
sacrificed to the old stone gods,
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1
Made heathen vows, hoping for Hell’s
Support,
the Devil’s guidance in driving
Their
affliction off. That was their way,
And the
heathen’s only hope, Hell
95 Always in their hearts,
knowing neither God
Nor His
passing as He walks through our world, the Lord
Of Heaven
and earth; their ears could not hear
His praise
nor know His glory. Let them
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Beware, those who are thrust into danger,
100 Clutched at by trouble, yet can carry no
solace
In their
hearts, cannot hope to be better! Hail
To those
who will rise to God, drop off
Their dead
bodies, and seek our Father’s peace!
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