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dead man; and so for Hondscio who died last night—this.’ And he held out to Beowulf a bag of gold arm-rings that had been weighed out earlier that day. ‘The Wergild for a brave man—for his kinsfolk who wait for him in Geatland, where he will not come again.’
    â€˜The day that we land on our own shore, before evening of that day, shall the gold and the King’s words be with Hondscio’s kindred,’ Beowulf said. But though the young warrior was avenged, his heart was sore as he laid the gold with his own gifts, that he must go home with one lacking from the brotherhood.
    While the horses still trampled and tossed their heads and snorted at the firelight, the curtains over the bower doorway parted as they had done last evening, and Wealhtheow the Queen came through them in her crimson robe, walking tall under the royal gold-work on her head, and her women following behind her.
    She carried the mead cup to the King her lord, as she had done before, and held it for him to drink. ‘You have made your gifts to this new son that you have taken to your heart,’ she said, smiling. ‘And now it is my turn, and I have brought gifts of my own from the women’s quarters.’ And she turned to Beowulf and held out the cup to him also. ‘For the thing that you have done for us, may you live valiant and beloved to the end of your days. My sons are your brothers now; be a friend and a brother to them in their need, for they could find none better in all the world.’
    Then from the women who followed her she took two gold arm-rings each fit for an earl, and a sark of link-mail so fine that it hung from her hands in folds like silk and glimmered living silver as a salmon’s skin, and lastly a jewelled collar of ancient workmanship such as Beowulf had never seen or even dreamed of before; and each of these things she gave to the Geatish leader. ‘Beowulf, if ever you find yourself forgetting us, wear this to help your memory,’ she said as she placed the collar about his throat.
    Beowulf smiled. ‘I shall not need even so fair a jewel as this to aid my memory of the friends I have found at Hrothgar’s Court.’
    â€˜That is well,’ said the Queen, ‘for I think that your friends at Hrothgar’s Court will long remember you.’ Then gathering her women about her she went out, quietly and proudly as she had come, between the heavy curtains into the women’s quarters.
    Long and long the feasting continued, and Hrothgar himself took the harp from his bard and sang the stories that the warriors had used to sing round the fires in the long winter nights when he was young. Outside, it had grown dark long since, but the revellers no longer feared the shadows, and kept the fires up and passed the harp and the mead horns from hand to hand until at last their eyes grew heavy and the time was come for sleeping. Then Hrothgar rose, and bidding his thanes a good night, withdrew to his own place, where Wealhtheow the Queen waited for him; and Beowulf and his sword-brothers were borne off to the guest-place that had been made ready in their honour. And in Heorot the Hart, the King’s house-thanes lay down to sleep in their proper places, each man with his weapons and his round linden shield hanging on the wall above his head.

5. Terror Comes Again

5. Terror Comes Again
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    B UT the time when men might sleep safely in the King’s hall was not yet come. Grendel had fled away over the moors with the life streaming from his mortal wound, seeking the dark of his lair like a wild animal that has its death-hurt. But he had not died alone as a wild animal dies. In the dreadful sea-cavern where they dwelt his mother had been waiting his return.
    She was of the same kind as Grendel, monstrous, evil, a Death-Shadow-in-the-Dark; but she had possessed the power to love, and she had loved her son, and was therefore more terrible than he had ever been. Now,