Fitt XXXV — Reminiscences (continued) — Beowulf's Last Battle

The Swedish-Geat wars come into the reminiscences: Hæthcyn killed in battle, the Geats pursued to Ravenswood, nearly destroyed before Hygelac arrived with forces to relieve them. Ongentheow, the Swedish king, was old and terrifying and was eventually killed by Eofor and Wulf, who were rewarded generously. These are the wars Beowulf's death will reopen — the messenger who will announce the news later in the poem already knows what it means for the Geats without their king.

Beowulf's final speech to the eleven is the declaration of a man who has measured the situation clearly. No other man may go against the dragon — it is not a matter of prohibition but of fitness. He says he would prefer to fight it without weapons, as he fought Grendel, but the nature of the creature doesn't permit that approach. He will go with his iron shield and his sword and his body, which has been the instrument of everything the poem describes.

He walks alone down to the stone arch at the barrow's entrance. The brook flowing from it is fuming with war-flame; the heat is such that he cannot stand near it for even a moment. He waits for the anger to move through him. Then he sets his shield and shouts his challenge into the cave. The hoard-ward hears the voice of a man and answers with its breath: vapor first, then fire, then the dragon itself, erupting from the stone.