The Excitement of Beowulf Condensed.

Well, I’m weary to my very bones—particularly my hip bones, knee bones, and shin bones. I ran too much this morning and now I am reaping the consequences. And get this: On the one day that I can—and should eat—more than usual, I have no appetite! That’s a first. Anyways, I hope everyone out there is doing well. I have to admit, that I’ve had better weeks. My sweet, sweet dog has cancer and it’s just kind of hanging over my head. It’s weird when someone has a time limit on the rest of their life.
We’re reading Beowulf in my World Lit class right now. This is my second time reading it, and I just love it. So, I decided (with some prodding from my English teacher, who threatened me with an F should I fail to attempt such an assignment) that I would write a one-page synopsis of the battle between Beowulf and Grendel using the Anglo-Saxon style (alliteration, kenning, litotes, metaphors, and other such joyous grammatical things). Since I wrote this as an Anglo-Saxon would, I’ve decided to take an Anglo-Saxon name and call myself by it.


“The Battle”
By Haylee Synnove Cantrella*

The darkness-creeper left wet, frothy footmarks as he traveled
from the writhing, marshy mere to the feast hall of Hrothgar.
Sounder he may have stayed had he swallowed his blood-lust that night.
The great door gave way to the might of Grendel;
it splintered under his strength as he tore it from its sockets—
an ominous omen this. Wyrd would be unkind to the death-dealer tonight.
Treading across the hall, Grendel came upon the first sleeping warrior
and him he devoured more brutally and bloodily than any brood-lion.
Reaching for the second, the soul-slayer found himself grasped,
clasped by a fierce hand—the tongs of death—for Beowulf had stirred,
and release his formidable clutch the great Geat could not
until his oath was accomplished and Grendel’s blood-wite fulfilled.
The oath of Beowulf was thus: to scorn sword and shield
and give bare-armed, empty-handed Grendel fair game,
leaving the outcome of the battle in the hands of the Just God.
Now the demon had but one thought remaining—
it surged through his mind, it settled in the pit of his stomach,
up from which rose a great billowing bile and an unearthly groan—
to escape the stern sentence of the Lord Almighty,
which was to be dealt by the deathly hands of bold Beowulf.
Gore-ridden fingers were crushed in the hard-wearing handclasp.
A skirmish commenced. Neither angels in heaven
nor demons in hell could shut out the din of the brawl—
likewise, from outside the hall, mighty Danes heard the rumpus
and a dark, cold fear filled up their marrow. The woken warriors
unsheathed their swords, but open the sordid skin
and trickle the vile life-blood of the blood-letter they could not;
the enchantments of Grendel warded off weapons of war.
It was the heart-desire of Beowulf that the hell-demon—
bloated with fair flesh of warriors and glutted with guilt of slaughter—
should not leave Heorot alive. Hatred and horror
encompassed the putrid soul of the fen-fiend and flight was his wish.
In this war of wills one option was offered to Grendel.
The sound of sinews snapping and of bones breaking was a noise
most difficult to discern under the torturous shriek of the broken beast. His right wrist lay even now in the palm of the princely Geat,
but his left accompanied his death-ready soul through the door of Heorot.
Thus with his gruesome scepter of shoulder, arm and hand,
Beowulf established himself as a master among men.

*Haylee: from the hay medow; Synnove: gift of the sun; Cantrella: starlight princess

I hope some of you have read Beowulf. Alright, well, I’ve got to go. Here’s my parting shot:
Jesus said in Luke 12:32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.”

I just like it. Hello to the rest of the “little flock”. I hope you have a splendid day!