Page:Gummere (1909) The Oldest English Epic.djvu/95

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Then sank they to sleep. With sorrow one bought his rest of the evening,—as ofttime had happened when Grendel guarded that golden hall, evil wrought, till his end drew nigh, slaughter for sins. ’Twas seen and told how an avenger survived the fiend, as was learned afar. The livelong time after that grim fight, Grendel’s mother, monster of women, mourned her woe. She was doomed to dwell in the dreary waters, cold sea-courses, since Cain cut down with edge of the sword his only brother, his father’s offspring: outlawed he fled, marked with murder, from men’s delights, warded the wilds.—There woke from him such fate-sent ghosts as Grendel, who, war-wolf horrid, at Heorot found a warrior watching and waiting the fray, with whom the grisly one grappled amain. But the man remembered his mighty power, the glorious gift that God had sent him. 