The Last Voyage of Scyld of the Sheaf, from Beowulf

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FURTHERMORE they set by him the royal banner, gold-broidered, high over his head. As its folds unfurled and glittered in the breeze, it told the skies, and the sun, and the stars of night, that a King went forth into the world, on his last voyage. They set the helm, and gave him over to the ocean, sad at heart, with tear-dimmed eyes, and silent in their mourning. And who received that burden no man under heaven, be it priest or chieftain or wise seer, can ever tell or know.*

Thus Scyld of the Sheaf was honoured in death after the manner of the mighty dead of oldest times among the strong-hearted sons of the North. From the Unknown he came and into the Unknown was borne away.*

from Beowulf ?8th century

freely translated by Zénaïde Ragozin (1835-1924)

From the (?) eighth-century Old English epic poem ‘Beowulf’, freely translated by Zénaïde Alexeïevna Ragozin (1835-1924) in ‘Beowulf, the Hero of the Anglo-Saxons’ (1900).

* The author has already said that the soul of Scyld was returned into ‘his Master’s keeping’, that is, into the hands of the Christian God: he refers now to the body of the King and the treasure-laden ship, which are never found. There is something of Moses about Scyld: he is found as an infant floating in a kind of basket of rush; he supplants a tyrant ruler, and becomes a lawgiver to his people; and when he dies, he leaves no trace behind. See also King Arthur’s Last Request.

Précis

At last the Danes bade a traditional Viking farewell to their beloved lord, setting his funeral ship adrift upon the waters, its gleaming wood and proud sails proclaiming to the world that here lay a king worthy of his crown. Skyld the king thus passed into memory, and his final resting place was never known.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What was the banner affixed to the ship by the Danes?

Suggestion

A royal standard embroidered in glittering gold.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

The Danes put Skyld in a ship. They put him by the mast. The royal banner hung from it.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

IBody. IIFly. IIIFoot.

Précis

Questions for Critics

Sevens

Jigsaws

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