XXIX - Page 2

Hereric's nephew.
Then Beowulf came as king this broad
realm to wield; and he ruled it well
fifty winters,[4] a wise old prince,
warding his land, until One began
in the dark of night, a Dragon, to rage.
In the grave on the hill a hoard it guarded,
in the stone-barrow steep. A strait path reached it,
unknown to mortals. Some man, however,
came by chance that cave within
to the heathen hoard.[5] In hand he took
a golden goblet, nor gave he it back,
stole with it away, while the watcher slept,
by thievish wiles: for the warden's wrath
prince and people must pay betimes!

[1] Hygelac. [2] This is generally assumed to mean hides, though
the text simply says "seven thousand." A hide in England meant
about 120 acres, though "the size of the acre varied." [3] On the
historical raid into Frankish territory between 512 and 520 A.D.
The subsequent course of events, as gathered from hints of this
epic, is partly told in Scandinavian legend. [4] The chronology
of this epic, as scholars have worked it out, would make Beowulf
well over ninety years of age when he fights the dragon. But the
fifty years of his reign need not be taken as historical fact.
[5] The text is here hopelessly illegible, and only the general
drift of the meaning can be rescued. For one thing, we have the
old myth of a dragon who guards hidden treasure. But with this
runs the story of some noble, last of his race, who hides all his
wealth within this barrow and there chants his farewell to life's
glories. After his death the dragon takes possession of the hoard
and watches over it. A condemned or banished man, desperate,
hides in the barrow, discovers the treasure, and while the dragon
sleeps, makes off with a golden beaker or the like, and carries
it for propitiation to his master. The dragon discovers the loss
and exacts fearful penalty from the people round about.