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Beowulf Quotes

There was less tampering and big talk then
from Unferth the boaster, less of his blather
as the hall-thanes eyed the awful proof
of the hero’s prowess, the splayed hand
up under the eaves. Every nail,
claw-scale and spur, every spike
and welt on the hand of that heathen brute
was like barbed steel. Everybody said
there was no honed iron hard enough
to pierce him through, no time-proofed blade
that could cut his brutal, blood-caked claw.

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 979-989: It is not sufficient for Beowulf to recount stories of his physical prowess, but he needs to show evidence of his great deeds, like Grendel’s severed arm hanging up in Heorot Hall.

Hrothgar spoke; he examined the hilt,
that relic of old times. It was engraved all over
and showed how war first came into the world
and the flood destroyed the tribe of giants.
They suffered a terrible severance from the Lord;
the Almighty made the waters rise,
drowned them in the deluge for retribution.

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1687-1693: The engraved hilt of the sword that Beowulf used to kill Grendel’s mother. Depicted on the hilt is the story of the Christian God punishing evil forces in the world.

He went in front with a few men,
good judges of the lie of the land,
and suddenly discovered the dismal wood,
mountain trees growing out at an angle
above grey stones: the bloodshot water
surged underneath. It was a sore blow
to all of the Danes, friends of the Shieldings,
a hurt to each and every one
of that noble company when they came upon
Aeschere’s head at the foot of the cliff.

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1412-1421: In this powerful scene Beowulf and his men seek Grendel’s mother by a body of water and make the grim discovery of the head of Aeschere, Hrothgar’s trusted advisor.

‘Wise sir, do not grieve. It is always better
to avenge dear ones than to indulge in mourning.
For everyone of us, living in this world
means waiting for our end. Let whoever can
win glory before death. When a warrior is gone,
that will be his best and only bulwark.’

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1384-1389: Beowulf’s statement of the heroic code, in which he tells Hrothgar to ensure his name lives on by glorious deeds before his death. Beowulf is speaking after Grendel’s mother has killed Aeschere.

A few miles from here
a frost-stiffened wood waits and keeps watch
above a mere; the overhanging bank
is a maze of tree-roots mirrored in its surface.
At night there, something uncanny happens:
the water burns. And the mere bottom
has never been sounded by the sons of men.
On its bank, the heather-stepper halts:
the hart in flight from pursuing hounds
will turn to face them with firm-set horns
and die in the wood rather than dive
beneath its surface. That is no good place.

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1363-1372: Hrothgar’s description of the bone-chilling, haunted mere that Grendel’s mother calls home.

‘O flower of warriors, beware of that trap.
Choose, dear Beowulf, the better part,
eternal rewards. Do not give way to pride.
For a brief while your strength is in bloom
but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow
illness or the sword to lay you low,
or a sudden fire or surge of water
or jabbing blade or javelin from the air
or repellent age. Your piercing eye
will dim and darken; and death will arrive,
dear warrior, to sweep you away.’

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1758-1768: The culmination of ‘Hrothgar’s sermon’, in which Hrothgar warns Beowulf of the seductive dangers of success following Beowulf’s defeat of Grendel’s mother.

I have heard it said by my people in hall,
Counselors who live in the upland country,
That they have seen two such creatures
Prowling the moors, huge marauders
From some other world. One of these things,
As far as anyone ever can discern,
Looks like a woman; the other, warped
In the shape of a man, moves beyond the pale
Bigger than any man, an unnatural birth
Called Grendel by country people
In former days. They are fatherless creatures,
And their whole ancestry is hidden in a past
Of demons and ghosts.

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1345-1357: Hrothgar is speaking about the demon Grendel and his mother, who are descendants of Cain.

‘His old possessions seem paltry to him now.
He covets and resents; dishonors custom
and bestows no gold; and because of good things
that the Heavenly Powers gave him in the past
he ignores the shape of things to come.
Then finally the end arrives
when the body he was lent collapses and falls
prey to its death; ancestral possessions
and the goods he hoarded are inherited by another.’

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1748-1756: Hrothgar, speaking about Heremod, says you cannot take goods with you when you die, that someone else is going to inherit them.

‘She has taken up the feud
Because of last night, when you killed Grendel,
Wrestled and racked him in ruinous combat
Since for too long he had terrorized us
With his depredations. He died in battle,
Paid with his life; and now this powerful
Other one arrives, this force for evil
Driven to avenge her kinsman’s death.
Or so it seems to thanes in their grief,
In the anguish every thane endures
At the loss of a ring-giver, now that the hand
That bestowed so richly has been stilled in death.’

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1333-1344: Hrothgar says that Grendel’s mother has set out to avenge her son’s death by killing someone from the tribe that killed him.

She came to Heorot. There, inside the hall,
Danes lay asleep, earls who would soon endure
a great reversal, once Grendel’s mother
attacked and entered. Her onslaught was less
only by as much as an amazon warrior’s
strength is less than an armed man’s
when the hefted sword, its hammered edge
and gleaming blade slathered in blood,
razes the sturdy boar-ridge off a helmet.

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 1279-1287: Peace in the hall of the communal Danes is disturbed when the hell-dame Grendel’s mother attacks.

Yet the prince of the rings was too proud
to line up with a large army
against the sky-plague. He had scant regard
for the dragon as a threat, no dread at all
of its courage or strength, for he had kept going
often in the past, through perils and ordeals
of every sort, after he had purged
Hrothgar’s hall, triumphed in Heorot
and beaten Grendel.

– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)

Lines 2345-2353: Beowulf has no fear of the fire-breathing dragon. Though he commands skilled soldiers, the proud king thinks he can and should take on the dragon alone. A little too courageous for a king perhaps.
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