Beowulf on Everything:
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Beowulf XLIII
THEN fashioned for him the folk of
Geats
firm on the earth a
funeral-
pile,
and hung it with
helmets and
harness of
war
and breastplates bright, as the boon he asked;
and they laid amid it the mighty
chieftain,
heroes mourning their master dear.
Then on the hill that
hugest of
balefires
the warriors wakened. Wood-smoke rose
black over blaze, and blent was the roar
of flame with
weeping (the wind was still),
till the fire had broken the frame of bones,
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hot at the heart. In heavy mood
their misery moaned they, their master's death.
Wailing her woe, the widow (1) old,
her hair upbound, for
Beowulf's death
sung in her
sorrow, and said full oft
she dreaded the
doleful days to come,
deaths enow, and doom of battle,
and shame. -- The smoke by the sky was devoured.
The
folk of the
Weders fashioned there
on the headland a barrow broad and high,
by ocean-farers far descried:
in ten days' time their
toil had raised it,
the
battle-
brave's
beacon. Round brands of the
pyre
a wall they built, the worthiest ever
that wit could prompt in their wisest men.
They placed in the barrow that
precious booty,
the rounds and the rings they had
reft erewhile,
hardy heroes, from
hoard in
cave, --
trusting the ground with treasure of earls,
gold in the earth, where ever it lies
useless to men as of yore it was.
Then about that barrow the battle-keen rode,
atheling-born, a band of twelve,
lament to
make, to
mourn their
king,
chant their dirge, and their chieftain honor.
They praised his
earlship, his acts of prowess
worthily witnessed: and well it is
that men their master-friend mightily laud,
heartily love, when hence he goes
from life in the body
forlorn away.
Thus made their
mourning the men of
Geatland,
for their hero's passing his
hearth-
companions:
quoth that of all the kings of earth,
of men he was mildest and most beloved,
to his kin the kindest, keenest for
praise.
(1) Nothing is said of
Beowulf's wife in the poem, but Bugge surmises that
Beowulf finally accepted
Hygd's offer of kingdom and hoard, and, as was usual, took
her into the
bargain.