Copy 1, Volume 1
Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England in the Middle Ages / By Thomas Wright.
- Thomas Wright
- Date:
- 1846
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England in the Middle Ages / By Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.
275/324 page 259
![“Hie dygel lond warigead, wulf-hledéu, “They keep the secret land, the refuges of the wolf, windige nessas, frecne fen-ge-lad ; Ser firgen-stream under nessa ge-nipu niper-ge-wites, fl6d under foldan. Nis bet feor heonon mil ge-mearces peet se mere standes, ofer peem hongiad hrinde-bearwas, wudu wyrtum feest weter ofer-helmad. the windy promontories, the fearful path of the fen; — there where the mountain-stream under the darkness of the promon- tories rushes downwards— the flood under the earth. It is not hence [from Heorot] a mile distant where that lake standeth, over which hang the rinded thickets, the wood fast with its roots overhangeth the water. per meg nihta ge-hween There by night to any one niS-wundor sedén, fyr on fldde.” an evil wonder appears, fire on the flood.” When, after the death of the son, Beowulf and his com- panions pursued the mother into her retreat, they found the water full of sea-drakes and serpents (wyrm-cynnes fela) and nicers lying on the banks. To Beowulf these were no new antagonists ; in one of his exploits by sea, the nicers—for there were nicers in the sea as well as in the lakes—had, during a storm, dragged him out of his boat, and carried him to the bottom, where the desperate struggle between them ended with the death of nine of his oppo- nents. We learn little from the poem of the form, or magnitude, or nature of these “heathen beasts,” as they are called, except that against them weapons, the works of men, were useless ; and Beowulf’s sword, when it touched the Grendel’s blood, melted like ice (ise ge-licost.)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33097963_0001_0275.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
