The opening of Beowulf in Old English
Beowulf is the longest surviving Old English poem, at about 3,180 lines, and it comes down to us in a single manuscript from around the year 1000. It opens at the Danish court, with Scyld, the founder of the royal line. Beowulf himself does not arrive for hundreds of lines.
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The text and translation
Hwæt! Wē Gār‐Dena in geār‐dagum þēod‐cyninga þrym gefrūnon, hū þā æðelingas ellen fremedon.
Listen! We have heard of the glory of the folk-kings of the Spear-Danes in days of old, how those princes performed deeds of valour.
Word by word
- Hwæt
- listen!
- Wē
- we
- Gār‐Dena
- of the Spear-Danes
- in
- in
- geār‐dagum
- days of yore
- þēod‐cyninga
- of the folk-kings
- þrym
- glory
- gefrūnon
- have heard of
- hū
- how
- þā
- those
- æðelingas
- princes
- ellen
- deeds of valour
- fremedon
- performed
Oft Scyld Scēfing sceaðena þrēatum, monegum mǣgðum meodo‐setla oftēah.
Often Scyld Scefing took the mead-benches away from bands of enemies, from many peoples.
Word by word
- Oft
- often
- Scyld
- Scyld
- Scēfing
- son of Sceaf
- sceaðena
- of enemies
- þrēatum
- from bands
- monegum
- many
- mǣgðum
- from peoples
- meodo‐setla
- mead-benches
- oftēah
- took away
Egsode eorl, syððan ǣrest wearð fēa‐sceaft funden: hē þæs frōfre gebād, wēox under wolcnum, weorð‐myndum þāh,
He terrified the nobles, after he was first found destitute; he lived to see comfort for that: he grew under the skies, prospered in honours,
Word by word
- Egsode
- terrified
- eorl
- the nobles
- syððan
- after
- ǣrest
- first
- wearð
- was
- fēa‐sceaft
- destitute
- funden
- found
- hē
- he
- þæs
- for that
- frōfre
- comfort
- gebād
- lived to see
- wēox
- grew
- under
- under
- wolcnum
- the skies
- weorð‐myndum
- in honours
- þāh
- prospered
oð þæt him ǣghwylc þāra ymb‐sittendra ofer hron‐rāde hȳran scolde, gomban gyldan: þæt wæs gōd cyning!
until each of the neighbouring peoples over the whale-road had to obey him and pay him tribute: that was a good king!
Word by word
- oð
- until
- þæt
- that
- him
- him
- ǣghwylc
- each
- þāra
- of the
- ymb‐sittendra
- neighbours
- ofer
- over
- hron‐rāde
- the whale-road
- hȳran
- obey
- scolde
- had to
- gomban
- tribute
- gyldan
- pay
- þæt
- that
- wæs
- was
- gōd
- good
- cyning
- king
What to notice
- Hwæt! The famous first word is a call for attention. Translators have tried “Listen!”, “Lo!” and even “So.”, and scholars still argue about exactly how it worked.
- hron‐rāde means “whale-road”, a way of saying the sea. Compressed pictures like this are called kennings, and Old English poetry is full of them.
- under wolcnum means “under the skies”. Wolcen survives in the old poetic English word welkin.
- þæt wæs gōd cyning! The first section ends on a line you can nearly read already: “that was a good king!”
Read it yourself
Urling teaches the words in this text first, so that when you reach it you can read it in Old English. It uses short lessons, and nothing has to be memorised from a list.
Learn to read this in Old English
Free, no account. Your first line takes about three minutes.
Sources
Beowulf, ed. J. A. Harrison and R. Sharp (1883; public domain), via English Wikisource; standard line numbers.
Text licence: Public domain.
Language pack licence: Texts public domain / CC BY-SA 4.0; annotation CC BY-SA 4.0.
Texts: Caedmon's Hymn, Beowulf lines 1-11, Cnut's proclamation of 1020, The Battle of Maldon lines 312-313, The Wanderer lines 1-7 and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for 793 (all public domain); the Lord's Prayer in Early West Saxon as standardised in Wikipedia's 'Old English' article (CC BY-SA 4.0). Wulf and Eadwacer: W. J. Sedgefield, An Anglo-Saxon Verse-Book (1922), pp. 39-40, public domain; transcribed against the printed pages. Tagging and glosses: AI (Claude; Codex for Wulf and Eadwacer), checked against Wiktionary; not yet reviewed by a person. Additional passages carry their own source credits.
The introduction and notes on this page were written by Claude (AI). Word glosses are AI-assisted, and so is the English unless the source above names another translator.