NOT in any wise would the earls'-defence {12a}suffer that slaughterous stranger to live,useless deeming his days and yearsto men on earth. Now many an earlof Beowulf brandished blade ancestral,fain the life of their lord to shield,their praised prince, if power were theirs;never they knew, -- as they neared the foe,hardy-hearted heroes of war,aiming their swords on every sidethe accursed to kill, -- no keenest blade,no farest of falchions fashioned on earth,could harm or hurt that hideous fiend!He was safe, by his spells, from sword of battle,from edge of iron. Yet his end and partingon that same day of this our lifewoful should be, and his wandering soulfar off flit to the fiends' domain.Soon he found, who in former days,harmful in heart and hated of God,on many a man such murder wrought,that the frame of his body failed him now.For him the keen-souled kinsman of Hygelacheld in hand; hateful alivewas each to other. The outlaw diretook mortal hurt; a mighty woundshowed on his shoulder, and sinews cracked,and the bone-frame burst. To Beowulf nowthe glory was given, and Grendel thencedeath-sick his den in the dark moor sought,noisome abode: he knew too wellthat here was the last of life, an endof his days on earth. -- To all the Danesby that bloody battle the boon had come.From ravage had rescued the roving strangerHrothgar's hall; the hardy and wise onehad purged it anew. His night-work pleased him,his deed and its honor. To Eastern Daneshad the valiant Geat his vaunt made good,all their sorrow and ills assuaged,their bale of battle borne so long,and all the dole they erst enduredpain a-plenty. -- 'Twas proof of this,when the hardy-in-fight a hand laid down,arm and shoulder, -- all, indeed,of Grendel's gripe, -- 'neath the gabled roof.
Beowulf · Anonymous (translated by Francis Barton Gummere)