ssed and bubbled and groaned as if
there were evil creatures tossing underneath. And now when Beowulf and
his men came near it, they saw fierce water dragons lying near the edge
or swimming about the pool. There also, beside the water, they found the
dead body of Hrothgar's friend, who had been killed by Grendel's mother,
and they took it up, and mourned over him afresh.

"But Beowulf took an old and splendid sword that Hrothgar had given him,
and he put on his golden helmet and his iron war shirt that no sword
could cut through, and when he had bade his friends farewell he leapt
straight into the middle of the bog. Down he sank, deeper and deeper
into the water, among strange water beasts that struck at him with their
tusks as he passed them, till at last Grendel's mother, the water-wolf,
looked up from the bottom and saw him coming. Then she sprang upon him,
and seized him, and dragged him down, and he found himself in a sort of
hall under the water, with a pale strange light in it. And then he
turned from the horrible water-wolf and raised his sword and struck her
on the head; but his blow did her no harm. No sword made by mortal men
could harm Grendel or his mother; and as he struck her Beowulf stumbled
and fell. Then the water-wolf rushed forward and sat upon him as he lay
there, and raised aloft her own sharp dagger to drive it into his
breast; but Beowulf shook her off, and sprang up, and there, on the
wall, he saw hanging a strange old sword that had been made in the old
times, long, long ago, when the world was full of giants. So he threw
his own sword aside and took down the old sword, and once more he smote
the water-wolf. And this time his sword did him good service, and
Grendel's fierce mother sank down dead upon the ground.

"Then Beowulf looked round him, and he saw lying in a corner the body of
Grendel himself. He cut off the monster's head, and lo and behold! when
he had cut it off the blade of the old sword melted away, and there was
nothing left in his hands but the hilt, with strange letters on it,
telling how it was made in old days by the giants for a great king. So
with that, and Hrothgar's sword and Grendel's head, Beowulf rose up
again through the bog, and just as his brave men had begun to think they
should never see their dear lord more he came swimming to land, bearing
the great head with him.

"Then Hrothgar and all his people rejoiced greatly, for they knew that
the land would never more