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ENGLISH PROSE AND VERSE

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I. FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST

A CHARM FOR BEWITCHED LAND

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(From the translation by J. D. SPAETH) Erce, Erce, Erce, Mother of Earth, May the Almighty, Lord Everlasting, Grant thee fields, green and fertile, Grant thee fields, fruitful and growing, Hosts of Spear-shafts, shining harvests, Harvest of Barley the broad, Harvest of Wheat the white, All the heaping harvests of earth! May the Almighty Lord Everlasting, And his holy saints in heaven above, From fiend and foe defend this land, Keep it from blight and coming of harm, From spell of witches wickedly spread! Now I pray the Almighty who made this world, That malice of man, or mouth of woman

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CHARM FOR A SUDDEN STITCH1

(Translated by J. D. SPAETH)

Take feverfew, and plantain, and the red nettle that grows, into the house. Boil in butter. Say:

Loud was their cry as they came o'er the hill;

Fierce was their rage as they rode o'er the land.

Take heed and be healed of the hurt they have done thee.

Out little spear if in there thou be! My shield I lifted, my linden-wood shining, When the mighty women mustered their force,

And sent their spear-points spinning toward

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No longer stay in!

If any iron be found herein,

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The work of witches, away it must melt. 1 The original charm includes directions (of which the selection given is one) for restoring fertility to land that was supposed to have been bewitched. The Charms are one of the characteristic types of old English verse, and are of great antiquity.

Name of an ancient goddess of fertility, perhaps analogous to the Roman goddess Demeter.

1 Stitch, or rheumatism, was supposed to be caused by little spears or darts, shot by a god, elf, or hag.

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THE FIGHT WITH GRENDEL'S MOTHER (Translated by J. D. SPAETH)

[The Hero Beowulf grew up at the Court of his uncle Hygėlac, King of the Geats or Jutes. Hearing how Heorot, the great Hall of the Danish King Hrothgar, was ravaged by a nightprowling monster named Grendel, Beowulf sailed with a chosen band to Hrothgar's kingdom, and offered to rid the Danes of their enemy. Alone and weaponless he fought with and killed Grendel in Heorot, and it was supposed that the Hall was again safe. But Grendel's mother, a wolfish water-wife, bent on revenge, broke into the Hall and carried off the King's best Thane. The next morning Beowulf, who had slept elsewhere, heard what had happened, and asked if he might undertake a second and more perilous adventure. Before going, the King describes to him the haunts of the monster.]

"I have heard my people, the peasant folk 1345
Who house by the border and hold the fens,
Say they have seen two creatures strange,
Huge march-stalkers,1 haunting the moorland,
Wanderers outcast. One of the two

Seemed to their sight to resemble a woman; 1350
The other manlike, a monster misshapen,
But huger in bulk than human kind,

Trod an exile's track of woe.

The folk of the fen in former days

Named him Grendel. Unknown his father, 1355
Or what his descent from demons obscure.
Lonely and waste is the land they inhabit,
Wolf-cliffs wild and windy headlands,
Ledges of mist, where mountain torrents
Downward plunge to dark abysses,
And flow unseen. Not far from here

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4 Of the gods. 1 Creatures that stalk along the Marches, or Borders.

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Tracked by the hounds, he will turn at bay, 1370
To die on the brink ere he brave the plunge,
Hide his head in the haunted pool.
Wan from its depths the waves are dashed,
When wicked storms are stirred by the wind,
And from sullen skies descends the rain.
In thee is our hope of help once more.
Not yet thou hast learned where leads the way
To the lurking-hole of this hatcher of outrage.
Seek, if thou dare, the dreaded spot!
Richly I pay thee for risking this fight,
With heirlooms golden and ancient rings,

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They followed the tracks, and found she had crossed

Over the dark moor, dragging the body 1405
Of the goodliest thane that guarded with
Hrothgar

Heorot Hall, and the home of the king.
The well-born hero held the trail;
Up rugged paths, o'er perilous ridges,
Through passes narrow, an unknown way. 1410
By beetling crags, and caves of the nicors.2
He went before with a chosen few,
Warriors skilled, to scan the way.
Sudden they came on a cluster of trees
Overhanging a hoary rock,

A gloomy grove; and gurgling below,
A stir of waters all stained with blood.
Sick at heart were the Scylding chiefs,
Many a thane was thrilled with woe,

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For there they beheld the head of Escherẻ 1420 Far beneath at the foot of the cliff.

2 Sea-monsters, water-goblins

They leaned and watched the waters boil
With bloody froth. The band sat down,
While the war-horn sang its summons to battle.
They saw in the water sea-snakes a many, 1425
Wave-monsters weird, that wallowed about.
At the base of the cliff lay basking the nicors,
Who oft at sunrise ply seaward their journey,
To hunt on the ship-trails and scour the main,
Sea-beasts and serpents. Sudden they fled, 1430
Wrathful and grim, aroused by the hail
Of the battle-horn shrill. The chief of the Jutes,
With a bolt from his bow a beast did sunder
From life and sea-frolic; sent the keen shaft
Straight to his vitals. Slow he floated,
Upturned and dead at the top of the waves.
Eager they boarded their ocean-quarry;
With barb-hooked boar-spears the beast they
gaffed,

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Savagely broached him and brought him to shore,

Wave-plunger weird. The warriors viewed
The grisly stranger. But straightway Beowulf
Donned his corslet nor cared for his life. . . . 1442

...

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For winters a hundred, was 'ware from below
An earthling had entered her ocean domain.
Quickly she reached and caught the hero;
Grappled him grimly with gruesome claws.
Yet he got no scratch, his skin was whole;
His battle-sark shielded his body from harm.
In vain she tried, with her crooked fingers,
To tear the links of his close-locked mail.
Away to her den the wolf-slut dragged
Beowulf the bold, o'er the bottom ooze.
Though eager to smite her, his arm was help-
less.

The name of Beowulf's sword.

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