Beowulf Read Online Free Page B

to and fro by himself under the apple trees, making a song in praise of Beowulf ready for the evening’s feasting which this night would not end when darkness fell.
    At last Hrothgar and his Queen came from their own place, with his chief thanes and her women behind them, to hear the story of the night’s battle and gaze up at the bloody trophy nailed to the roof beam.
    â€˜I hoped to force the Night-Prowler down on to one of the sleeping-benches and there choke the foul life out of him,’ Beowulf said, rubbing his shoulders. ‘In that I failed, for despite all my strength he broke free of Heorot after all. Yet as you see, he left his arm with me as ransom for the rest of his carcass; and it is in my mind that not even Grendel may long outlive such a wound as he carries with him.’
    Hrothgar gazed long and silently at the arm, then brought his gaze down to the face of the young warrior, and his eyes were bright as they had not been for many a long day. ‘So it is in my mind also,’ he said. ‘Much sorrow have we suffered at Grendel’s hands, my folk and I; many staunch warriors I have wept for in the years since Heorot was built—this hall that should have been our joy.’
    â€˜But the sorrow is passed, and now it shall be your joy indeed,’ Beowulf said.
    â€˜Aye, now it shall be our joy indeed . . . And that is your doing. Well might Ecgtheow your father rejoice in Valhalla in the fame that you have won; well may your mother if she yet lives praise the All-Father for the son she bore—the son she bore at my court, to be a friend and champion to me in my old age.’ Hrothgar laid his arm across Beowulf’s great shoulders and was near to weeping. ‘From this day forward you shall be a son to me in love, and there is nothing that I would give to my own sons that you may not have from me for the asking.’
    The hall was cleaned of all signs of the struggle that had raged there in the night, fresh fern was strewn about the hearths, benches and trestle boards brought in to replace those that had been broken, and the walls were hung with new embroideries from the chests in the women’s quarters, on which the cunning worm-knots and the serpent-tailed birds glimmered with gold in the light of the re-kindled fires. And hasty preparations were made for a feast such as had never been known in Heorot before, even on the first night of all. Hrothgar made Beowulf sit beside him in the High Seat, and all down the hall Danes and Geats sat side by side, drinking deep to Beowulf the Hero from the great mead horns, and making loudly merry, only falling silent to listen while the harper sang the triumph song that he had made under the apple trees earlier that day.
    When the feasting was at its height Hrothgar called to certain of his thanes. ‘Now the time has come for gift making. Go now, my friends, and bring in those gifts that I have made ready for the Geatish champions who have so nobly earned them.’
    And the men went out, and returned bowed under the weight of the precious things they bore, and set them down in a gleaming pile before the King.
    Then the King gave to Beowulf a magnificent gold-embroidered banner, and a helmet and a battle-sark and a drinking cup all curiously worked with gold, and a great heavy sword wrought by the dwarf-kind long ago in the dark caverns beneath the earth. Then eight splendid horses were led into the hall and brought to the Geatish leader to touch their proud crests in token of acceptance; and on the foam-white back of the finest of them was strapped Hrothgar’s own war saddle, gold-sheathed and rich with red coral and yellow Baltic amber. For each of Beowulf’s companions also there was a sword as fine as their leader’s. ‘Fourteen swords,’ said Hrothgar, as he gave the last into the last warrior’s hand. ‘Sorely I grieve that there is no fifteenth. But a sword is of little worth to a