d
hall, Heorot, wherein to feast his warriors and distribute rings among
them. They drank merrily there, while the singer sang "from far-off ages
the origin of men." But there was a monster named Grendel, who lived in
the darkness of lonely morasses. He "bore impatiently for a season to
hear each day joyous revelry loud-sounding in the hall, where was the
music of the harp, and the clear piercing song" of the "scop." When
night came, the fiend "went to visit the grand house, to see how the
Ring-Danes after the beer-drinking had settled themselves in it. Then
found he therein a crowd of nobles (aethelinga) asleep after the feast;
they knew no care."[60] Grendel removed thirty of them to his lair, and
they were killed by "that dark pest of men, that mischief-working
being, grim and greedy, savage and fierce." Grendel came again and
"wrought a yet worse deed of murder." The thanes ceased to care much for
the music and glee of Heorot. "He that escaped from that enemy kept
himself ever afterwards far off in greater watchfulness."

Higelac, king of the Geatas (who the Geatas were is doubtful; perhaps
Goths of Gothland in Sweden, perhaps Jutes of Jutland[61]), had a
nephew, Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, of the royal Swedish blood, who heard
of the scourge. Beowulf went with his companions on board a ship; "the
foamy-necked cruiser, hurried on by the wind, flew over the sea, most
like to a bird," and followed "the path of the swans." For the North Sea
is the path of the swans as well as of the whales, and the wild swan
abounds to this day on the coasts of Norway.[62] Beowulf landed on the
Danish shore, and proposed to Hrothgar to rid him of the monster.

Hrothgar does not conceal from his guests the terrible danger they are
running: "Often have boasted the sons of battle, drunken with beer, over
their cups of ale, that they would await in the beer-hall, with their
deadly sharp-edged swords, the onset of Grendel. Then in the morning,
when the daylight came, this mead-hall, this lordly chamber, was stained
with gore, all the bench-floor drenched in blood, the hall in
carnage...." The Geatas persist in their undertaking, and they are
feasted by their host: "Then was a bench cleared for the sons of the
Geatas, to sit close together in the beer-hall; there the stout-hearted
ones went and sat, exulting clamorously. A thane attended to their
wants, who carried in his hands a chased ale-flagon, and poured the
pure bright liquor."

Night