I could no longer sit in Hygelac's hall drinking and talking the days away when such a great King had need of my hands. I asked that a good boat be prepared, long but broad in the middle with shallow draft and strong sail, a supple craft of good oak and pine with tall mast and high, coiled prow. I announced that I would sail straight across to the Danish shore as the swan flies.

     Though they loved me well, the elders did not discourage me. They studied the signs of sea and weather, nodded, and urged me on. Hygelac was not so eager, for he was friend and uncle as well as king: he asked me not to go, to stay at home where I belonged and let the Danes attend to their own problems. But I reminded him that they had tried their best for twelve years without any luck -- then I asked for his blessing and prepared to leave. To sail with me I chose fourteen of the best young men of the nation, and ordered them to sharpen swords and spears and burnish corselets and helmets so that we might step forth into the court of the Danes as clear evidence of the splendor of Hygalac's hall.

     I led the way down to the sea where the shore guard waited to see us off. The tide came swirling in as we stowed our weapons and armor by the mast; we shoved out into the sea and stroked away from the cliffs of Götland until the big four-cornered sail was hoisted and the wind snatched at the ship and pulled it away.

     We sailed smoothly on in good bright weather, skimming like a huge bird across the top of the water, and the next morning in good time caught sight of the steep shining cliffs of Zealand, center of the Danish kingdom.

     The wind drove our ship upon the sand and we lowered sail, leapt into the shallow water and moored our boat to the shore.

     He summoned up the last reserves of his strength then and howled to shake the timbers of Heorot. I howled back at him with all the rage in my heart and we rolled jerked, bounced and careened about the hall breaking the guilded benches and sending them crashing against the walls, ripping the tapestries and scattering the stones of the hearth, setting up such a dense din of awful sound that the Danes huddled together outside the walls in cringing terror at the sound of it. We smashed against the walls until I thought they must surely come down, but the great forged bands of iron held them together. Now Grendel's howling grew higher and more frightened, a horrible sound, and he fought with the added strength of terror, lunging ever towards the doors as I tried to brace my heels to hold him back, knocking pillars from beneath the roof and jerking beams down upon our heads.

     All this time my men, very much awake now and ready for battle, kept hacking away when they could get a chance at the lunging fiend -- but none of us knew at that time how Grendel had cast a spell upon all battle-weapons so that none of them could touch him with harm, no sword could bite that flesh. And so we tumbled and twisted and banged against the walls as swords came ringing down upon the impervious head.

     Then something began to give. As Grendel pulled towards the door his arm seemed to grow longer and longer and then I could feel the sinews snapping and the tendons shredding and the ligaments pulling loose as the huge arm bone broke loose from the shoulder, leaving me with the great arm like a log in my embrace as Grendel, a horrible hole where his right shoulder had been, was free at last to lurch bleeding his life out across the moor to find his home again before he died.

     God had not willed it that way, and with a great effort I threw her off and leapt to my feet. I saw then a marvelous sword against the wall, a sword for giants that no other man could have wielded, with broad biting edges and a great golden hilt. This was a sword that would heed no charms against it. I heaved it high with a fury for vengeance and felt the strength of rage in my arms, brought it down in a sweeping crash against the huge neck and felt the blade hack through muscle and bone, straight through the doomed flesh. The head fell to the floor, and the battle was done.

     The head came lunging towards us, the sharp teeth parted, and I swung Naegling above the shield with what strength I had left. The sword broke in two -- as good a patterned sword as I had ever seen -- but that had happened to me before. The strength in my arms was too much for the blade.

     Then came the dragon for the last time and made such an angry rush that the shield was no help. The great beast sank his long teeth into the back of my neck and I could feel the hot poison moving into my body as the blood gushed forth from the wound. But Wiglaf at the same moment leapt in under the dragon's head, burning his hand as he drove his sword deep into the soft underbody. At once the fiery breath diminished and the dragon moved more slowly; then I drew the battle knife at my waist and cut the body in two. Between us, we had killed him.