Order my troop to construct a barrow
on a headland on the coast, after my pyre has cooled.
It will loom on the horizon at Hronesness
and be a reminder among my people –
so that in coming times crews under sail
will call it Beowulf’s Barrow, as they steer
ships across the wide and shrouded waters.
– Beowulf, Seamus Heaney (trans.)
Lines 2802-2808: Beowulf’s Barrow, his memorial, is the final measure of his successful identity as a warrior and a king. Scandinavian tribes in the Middle Ages traditionally marked the death of great men and women by building barrows, huge mounds of earth filled with treasures.