{2a} The smaller
buildings
within the main enclosure but separate
from the hall.
from the hall.
Beowulf, translated by Francis Gummere
The scene
for a flying (see below, v. 499) was thus very effectively set.
Planks on trestles -- the "board" of later English literature --
formed the tables just in front of the long rows of seats, and were
taken away after banquets, when the retainers were ready to stretch
themselves out for sleep on the benches.
{1b} Fire was the usual end of these halls. See v. 781 below. One
thinks of the splendid scene at the end of the Nibelungen, of the
Nialssaga, of Saxo's story of Amlethus, and many a less famous
instance.
{1c} It is to be supposed that all hearers of this poem knew how
Hrothgar's hall was burnt, -- perhaps in the unsuccessful attack
made on him by his son-in-law Ingeld.
{1d} A skilled minstrel. The Danes are heathens, as one is told
presently; but this lay of beginnings is taken from Genesis.
{1e} A disturber of the border, one who sallies from his haunt in
the fen and roams over the country near by. This probably pagan
nuisance is now furnished with biblical credentials as a fiend or
devil in good standing, so that all Christian Englishmen might read
about him. "Grendel" may mean one who grinds and crushes.
{1f} Cain's.
{1g} Giants.
{2a} The smaller buildings within the main enclosure but separate
from the hall.
{2b} Grendel.
{2c} "Sorcerers-of-hell. "
{2d} Hrothgar, who is the "Scyldings'-friend" of 170.
{2e} That is, in formal or prescribed phrase.
{3a} Ship.
{3b} That is, since Beowulf selected his ship and led his men to the
harbor.
{3c} One of the auxiliary names of the Geats.
{3d} Or: Not thus openly ever came warriors hither; yet. . .
{4a} Hrothgar.
{4b} Beowulf's helmet has several boar-images on it; he is the "man
of war"; and the boar-helmet guards him as typical representative of
the marching party as a whole. The boar was sacred to Freyr, who was
the favorite god of the Germanic tribes about the North Sea and the
Baltic. Rude representations of warriors show the boar on the helmet
quite as large as the helmet itself.
{5a} Either merely paved, the strata via of the Romans, or else
thought of as a sort of mosaic, an extravagant touch like the
reckless waste of gold on the walls and roofs of a hall.
for a flying (see below, v. 499) was thus very effectively set.
Planks on trestles -- the "board" of later English literature --
formed the tables just in front of the long rows of seats, and were
taken away after banquets, when the retainers were ready to stretch
themselves out for sleep on the benches.
{1b} Fire was the usual end of these halls. See v. 781 below. One
thinks of the splendid scene at the end of the Nibelungen, of the
Nialssaga, of Saxo's story of Amlethus, and many a less famous
instance.
{1c} It is to be supposed that all hearers of this poem knew how
Hrothgar's hall was burnt, -- perhaps in the unsuccessful attack
made on him by his son-in-law Ingeld.
{1d} A skilled minstrel. The Danes are heathens, as one is told
presently; but this lay of beginnings is taken from Genesis.
{1e} A disturber of the border, one who sallies from his haunt in
the fen and roams over the country near by. This probably pagan
nuisance is now furnished with biblical credentials as a fiend or
devil in good standing, so that all Christian Englishmen might read
about him. "Grendel" may mean one who grinds and crushes.
{1f} Cain's.
{1g} Giants.
{2a} The smaller buildings within the main enclosure but separate
from the hall.
{2b} Grendel.
{2c} "Sorcerers-of-hell. "
{2d} Hrothgar, who is the "Scyldings'-friend" of 170.
{2e} That is, in formal or prescribed phrase.
{3a} Ship.
{3b} That is, since Beowulf selected his ship and led his men to the
harbor.
{3c} One of the auxiliary names of the Geats.
{3d} Or: Not thus openly ever came warriors hither; yet. . .
{4a} Hrothgar.
{4b} Beowulf's helmet has several boar-images on it; he is the "man
of war"; and the boar-helmet guards him as typical representative of
the marching party as a whole. The boar was sacred to Freyr, who was
the favorite god of the Germanic tribes about the North Sea and the
Baltic. Rude representations of warriors show the boar on the helmet
quite as large as the helmet itself.
{5a} Either merely paved, the strata via of the Romans, or else
thought of as a sort of mosaic, an extravagant touch like the
reckless waste of gold on the walls and roofs of a hall.
