Fitt XVI — Hrothgar Lavishes Gifts Upon His Deliverer

Heorot is set right by hand — gold-embroidered tapestries shining out along the walls, the hall made beautiful again for the feast. The beautiful building has been broken to pieces even though bound with iron; its hinges have been torn away. Only the roof survived whole when the terrible creature crept away, despairing of his life. The poem pauses to observe that it is hard to escape the end — everyone must come in time to the place appointed for all soul-bearers and earth-dwellers. The observation is not depressing in context but structural: it frames the gift-giving that follows within the poem's awareness that nothing given lasts forever.

Hrothgar presents the gifts in formal sequence. A golden standard as reward for the victory. An embroidered banner. A mail-coat. A helmet. A famous sword carried before the hero. Beowulf drinks from the cup in the hall — that gift of treasure he had no reason to be ashamed of. The poet adds the comparison explicitly: he has never heard of four bright jewels adorned with gold-work presented at an ale-bench in friendlier fashion. Around the crown of the helmet runs a ridge-piece braided with wire and studded with bosses, so that battle-hardened swords cannot harm the hero when he sets out against enemies. The description of the helmet is characteristic: to name the object's protective purpose is to name the danger it guards against.

Then eight horses. Gold-plated, gleaming bridles. On one of them stands a saddle richly worked with art and set with jewels — the king's own seat, where Hrothgar himself sat in the play of the sword-edges. The famous one's valor never failed at the front when the slain were falling. He grants Beowulf power over both the war-horses and the weapons and bids him enjoy them well. The poet's comment is a judgment: in so manly a way the mighty-famed chieftain, hoard-keeper of heroes, repaid the storms of battle with horses and jewels that no one willing to tell the truth will ever condemn him. The formula confirms that the transaction has been completed with proper generosity — the gold given matches the danger faced.