Hrothgar and Hryllingur

Part one of a reimagined Beowulf.

Beowulf decapitates Grendel, illustration by J.H.F Bacon from Hero-myths & legends of the British race, Maud Isabel Ebbutt, c 1910. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

In Empire’s Heir, the seventh book of Empire’s Legacy, the character Sorley, who is a poet and musician - the equivalent in my fictional world of a bard - hears a tale of a raiding marsh monster from a sailor on a trading ship. I never say the tale is Beowulf - but it’s what was in my mind. In the story, Sorley goes on to create a poetic version, and set it to music, although we never see the finished version in the story.

Beowulf has strong Christian elements, which Sorley’s world does not. I found myself wondering what his version might be. I’ve been working on it on and off for a year or two, and, in part to give myself the impetus to finish it, I’m going to start publishing it in small sections here weekly. (I’m not sure I’ll ever do the entire poem, but we’ll see.) I’m using three translations, one from Project Gutenberg, plus Seamus Heaney’s and J.R.R. Tolkien’s, as the basis for Sorley’s poem.

Below are the first four stanzas.

Here are the links to all published instalments.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Part IX

Part X

Part XI

Part XII

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Hrothgar and Hryllingur                                      

- from Somhairle na Dagney, Scáeli of Linrathe (also known as Lord Sorley of Gundarstorp)

Now, listen. This is a story of great deeds, and great valour, the tale of

Hrothgar, brave and bright

In battle, favoured by friends

And fair followers: glory

Gained he, great deeds of daring.

Such songs have I sung!

A hall had he built

For moot and mead: tall-towering,

World-wonder, Hrothgar’s Heorot.

Gold there he gave, open-handed,

A generous king,

And fair.  Land and lives

Left he untouched.  Scáeli’en* sang

Of the first days; ladhar* and laughter

Rang in the rafters.  Mirthful and merry

Was Hrothgar’s hall.

Hryllingur, heath-haunt,

Dweller in darkness, dread fen-fear,

Heard Heorot’s revelry. Pitiless, greedy,

Grimly he murdered men mazed by mead.

Thirty he killed.

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* words specific to my fictional world. A scáeli (plural scáeli’en) is effectively a bard, the keeper of history and law, but also a poet and a musician. A ladhar is a stringed musical instrument similar to a lyre.

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More next Thursday!

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