Цитаты из произведения Beowulf — стр. 2

“You are the last of us, the only one left Of the Waegmundings. Fate swept us away, Sent my whole brave high-born clan To their final doom. Now I must follow them.” That was the warrior’s last word. He had no more to confide. The furious heat Of the pyre would assail him. His soul fled from his breast To its destined…

Inspired again By the thought of glory, the war-king threw His whole strength behind a sword-stroke And connected with the skull. And Naegling snapped. Beowulf’s ancient iron-gray sword Let him down in the fight. It was never his fortune To be helped in combat by the cutting-edge Of weapons made of iron.

Yet the prince of the rings was too proud To line up with a large army Against the sky-plague. He had scant regard For the dragon as a threat, no dread at all Of its courage or strength, for he had kept going Often in the past, through perils and ordeals Of every sort, after he had purged Hrothgar’s hall, triumphed in…

Then Beowulf was given bad news, A hard truth: his own home, The best of buildings, had been burnt to a cinder, The throne-room of the Geats. It threw the hero Into deep anguish and darkened his mood: The wise man thought he must have thwarted Ancient ordinance of the eternal Lord, Broken His commandment. His mind was in…

They came against him and his conquering nation, And with cruel force cut him down So that afterwards The wide kingdom Reverted to Beowulf. He ruled it well For fifty winters, grew old and wise As warden of the land Until one began To dominate the dark, a dragon on the prowl

My liking for you Deepens with time, dear Beowulf. What you have done is to draw two peoples, The Geat nation and us neighboring Danes, Into shared peace and a pact of friendship In spite of hatreds we have harbored in the past.

Then, in fury, he flung his sword away. The keen, inlaid, worm-looped-patterned steel Was hurled to the ground: he would have to rely On the might of his arm. So must a man do Who intends to gain enduring glory In a combat. Life doesn’t cost him thought.

Benches were pushed back, bedding gear and bolsters Spread across the floor, and one man Lay down to his rest, already marked for death.