A greater elaborateness, a more ‘golden’ rhetoric, in the original may demand at some points a corresponding art in the translation, where the narrative must sparkle and the direct speech must ring and sing. Beowulf’s account of his swimming-match with Breca (lines 529–606) is partly a gay and heroic self-vindication against the taunts of Unferth, partly an outstanding contribution to the entertainment of guests and hosts in Heorot: the Othello-like utterance, ‘the formal word precise but not pedantic’,1 combines with the speaker’s narrative enthusiasm to produce some of the most attractive pages of the poem. Another virtuoso performance of the poet, less exciting but more profound, is Hrothgar’s long and wonderful speech at lines 1687–1784 – meditation, homily, eulogy, reminiscence and memento-mori, addressed now to himself, now to Beowulf, and now to the listening retinue – where technique visibly but always unobjectionably reinforces feeling even at its strongest:

Bebeorh the thone bealonith, Beowulf leofa, secg betsta, ond the thaet selre geceos, ece rædas; oferhyda ne gym, mæra cempa! Nu is thines mægnes blæd ane hwile; eft sona bith, thæt thec adl othe ecg eafothes getwæfeth, othe fyres feng, othe flodes wylm, othe gripe meces, othe gares fliht, othe atol yldo; othe eagena bearhtm forsiteth ond forsworceth; semninga bith, pæt thec, dryhtguma, death oferswytheth.

(ll. 1758–68.)

The peculiarly Anglo-Saxon quality of pathos or poignance is very notably illustrated in Beowulf. Certainly among the most moving passages in the poem must be counted the ‘elegy of the last survivor’ (lines 2232–70), the father’s lament for his son (lines 2444–62), and such shorter examples as Hrothgar’s farewell to Beowulf (lines 1870–80), and the reference to the old warrior recalling his youth (lines 2105–14) – this last a strange and embracing

1 T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding, V.

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