Early English Hero Tales

e first poem. The first is a poem by the name of the "Far Traveller." "Many men and rulers have I known," says this traveler; "through many strange lands I have fared throughout the spacious earth.

of home, have been, or else they would not hold so many great dominions as

s swa maeg (That was o

poem, or, better, fragment, is spoken of in Beowulf. "The Fight at Finnesburg" is full of

f the golden doors in the Great Palace of English Poetry, but also one of the most precious.

eet-smelling as if it rose from fields of lilies, and it was

forgot their tasks, but even the cattle stopped grazing, and, where they passed, men and children pa

, rose a long, high-roofed hall. It had gable ends from which towered up huge stag-ho

n patch of tilled ground and apple-trees, and with fields in which sheep and oxen and horses were pastured. Narrow paths wound in and

paths. Mothers and aunts and older sisters sat spinning in the open doorways. Beyond the wide

lking about Beowulf, who had come to kill the

In those days[Pg 4] singers were welcome everywhere. They saw Beowulf stride mightily across the many-colored floor of Heoro

ld King, "across the sea's w

lied the old King in tears, "for Heor

aid Beowulf, in his great voice; "

Heorot, for to Grendel can no man do aught. He breaks the bones of my people. And tho

etween his pretty daughter and his tired Queen, sighed as he thought

ng. The walls inside were as bright as the roof, and gold-gilded, and the great fi

g

s still. For a while they forgot the monster which, even now with the falling dusk, was striding up from the sea, perhaps by the same path Beowul

r men to have carried his huge head, so big it was. The nails of his hands were like iron, and large as th

who had thought he could never sleep-Beowulf lay

n he strode, flame in his eyes, and before Beowulf could spring upon him

e and noise began. The benches were overturned, the walls cracked, the fires were scattered,

rendel's. Beowulf himself, who was struggling to break the bone-house of the monster in the din of the might

not help Beowulf, for neither sword nor spear could injure th

rent sinews and bleeding body, fled away to the ocean cave where he had lived. And there

e was robbed. So angry was the dragon that he left his heap of treasure and came down upon the land of King Beowulf, burning it and terrifying the people. Then Beowulf, who

the fifth century, when the English conquered Britain, for England itself is not mentioned in this wonderful poem. Indeed, the country described is that of the Goths of Sweden and of the Danes. Your geography will show you where Sw

dreadful dragon dragged his length, became, with the cultivation of the land and advancing civilizat

e ships they used to sail upon the sea, how their villages looked, and the boys and girls[Pg 8] and grown-ups in them; the rocks and hills and ocean waves that made up their out-of-door world

et been brought to them with His message of love and peace and joy. English poetry to-day is much more joyous-because it is Christian poetry-than it ever could have been

he Great Palace is full of many doors and many stories, and we h

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