f, the wisest counsellor and bravest hero among them;
but he refused to accept it, and so swayed the Geats by his eloquence
and his loyalty that they unanimously raised Heardred to the throne,
with Beowulf as his guardian and protector. When in later years
Heardred also fell before an enemy, Beowulf was again chosen king, and
as he was now the next of kin he accepted the throne, and ruled long
and gloriously over Geatland. His fame as a warrior kept his country
free from invasion, and his wisdom as a statesman increased its
prosperity and happiness; whilst the vengeance he took for his
kinsman's death fulfilled all ideals of family and feudal duty held by
the men of his time. Beowulf, in fact, became an ideal king, as he was
an ideal warrior and hero, and he closed his life by an ideal act of
self-sacrifice for the good of his people.

Beowulf and the Fire-Dragon

In the fiftieth year of Beowulf's reign a great terror fell upon the
land: terror of a monstrous fire-dragon, who flew forth by night from
his den in the rocks, lighting up the blackness with his blazing
breath, and burning houses and homesteads, men and cattle, with the
flames from his mouth. The glare from his fiery scales was like the
dawn-glow in the sky, but his passage left behind it every night a
trail of black, charred desolation to confront the rising sun. Yet the
dragon's wrath was in some way justified, since he had been robbed,
and could not trace the thief. Centuries before Beowulf's lifetime a
mighty family of heroes had gathered together, by feats of arms, and
by long inheritance, an immense treasure of cups and goblets, of
necklaces and rings, of swords and helmets and armour, cunningly
wrought by magic spells; they had joyed in their cherished hoard for
long years, until all had died but one, and he survived solitary,
miserable, brooding over the fate of the dearly loved treasure. At
last he caused his servants to make a strong fastness in the rocks,
with cunningly devised entrances, known only to himself, and thither,
with great toil and labour of aged limbs, he carried and hid the
precious treasure. As he sadly regarded it, and thought of its future
fate, he cried aloud:

"Hold thou now fast, O earth, now men no longer can,
The treasure of mighty earls. From thee brave men won it
In days that are long gone by, but slaughter seized on them,
Death fiercely vanquished them, each of my warriors,
Each one of