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.
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![be y6-lafe they lay aloft uppe legon, on the beach, swe[ordum] a-swefede ; put to sleep by the sword, peet sySpan na that they have never since ymb bront[ne] ford, hindered from their way brim-liéende the sea-sailors lade ne letton,”—(I. 992.) about the bubbling fords.” In this manner Beowulf continues to expatiate on his valour against the nickers, and other sea-monsters, of whom he boasts of having killed nine; and he concludes by insinuating, that had Hunferth himself been as valiant as he would have people believe him, the grendel would not have infested so long the court of Hrothgar. After having spent the day in festivities, Beowulf and his com- panions are left to guard the hall during the night, where they are visited by the grendel, who attacks Beowulf, supposing him to be asleep: after a terrible struggle he receives a mortal wound, and flies precipitately to his retreat. Amid their rejoicings upon the destruction of their persecutor, the followers of Hrothgar are visited during the following night by another monster, the grendel’s mother; who revenges the grendel by the death of Aischere, the monarch’s favorite counsellor, and re- tires to her den. ‘The terms in which the monarch expressed his grief for the loss of his bosom friend are simple and pathetic : ‘“‘ Hrédgar mapelode, ‘“‘ Hrothgar spoke, helm Scyldinga : the helm of the Scyldings :— ‘Ne frén pa efter seelum ; ‘ Ask not after happiness ; sorh is ge-niwod sorrow is renewed Denigea leédum ; to the people of the Danes ; dead is Aischere, dead is Aischere,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33097963_0001_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
