SerranoNotes+-+Beowulf-++Quotations

ll(194-209) There was no one else like him alive. In his day, he was the mightiest man on earth, highborn and powerful. He ordered a boat that would ply the waves. He announced his plan: to sail the swan’s road and seek out that king, the famous prince who needed defenders. Nobody tried to keep him from going, no elder denied him, dear as he was to them. Instead, they inspected omens and spurred his ambition to go, whilst he moved about like the leader he was, enlisting men, the best he could find; with fourteen others the warrior boarded the boat as captain, a canny pilot along the coast and currents.

ll(258-285: Beowulf speaks) Refer to book.

ll(440-445) Whichever one death fells must deem it as a just judgment by God. If Grendel wins, it would be a gruesome day; he will glut himself on the Geats in the war-hall swoop without fear on that flower of manhood as on others before.

ll(832-835) Clear proof of this could be seen in the hand the hero displayed high up near the roof: the whole of Grendel’s shoulder and arm.

ll(2794-2808) “ To the everlasting lord of all, to the King of Glory, I give thanks that I behold this treasure here in front of me, that I have been allowed to leave my people so well endowed on the day I die. Now that I have bartered my last breath to own this fortune, it is up to you to look after their needs. I can hold out no longer. Order my troops to construct a barrow on a headline 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 shrouded waters.”