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The History of Early English Literature (1892)
The History of Early English Literature - 1892 Author:Stopford Augustus Brooke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV THE EPISODES OF "BEOWULF," AND THE " FIGHT AT FINNSBURU" The episodes in the poem of Beoirnlfwe sufficiently important to deserve separate tr... more »eatment. One of them is connected with the Fight at Finnsburg, a distinct fragment of heathen English poetry; and this fragment is included in this chapter. Another, the first episode, is the story of Scyld and his burial, but this belongs so plainly to the mythical elements in the poem that I reserve it for the chapter on those elements. I begin, therefore, with the second episode which is that of Beowulf's swimming match with Breca. On the evening of his arrival at Hrothgar's court, Beowulf is mocked by the jealousy of Hunt'erth, who is the king's feast-companion. "Art thou that Beowulf who strove with Breca in swimming, risking your lives in the deep water, when winter's flood weltered with great billows ? Seven nights ye strove, and he conquered thee in swimming." Beowulf answered, full of wrath, that Hunferth was a liar, and that the victory was his, not Breca's. He describes his adventure, his battle with the sea- monsters, his coming to the land.1 The interest of the story lies in this —that even if the story be mythical, it is coloured by the sea-life of our ancestors or of their northern kindred. Many were the young men in the ancient days who challenged one another to go forth in winter time upon the sea to fightwith whales and great seals and the walrus.1 Five nights Jieowulf and Brcca kept together, not swimming, but sailing in open boats (to swim the seas is to sail the seas), then storm drove them asunder when they were near the land — some indented coast where the sea-beasts had their haunt. "Hood 1 There are those, of whom Laistner is the most minute, who turn the whole of this Breea and Boownlf story...« less