Hrothgar Quotes

What do you call the Hrothgar-wrecker when Hrothgar has been wrecked?

they hacked down trees widening rings around their central halls and blistered the land with peasant huts and pigeon fences till the forest looked like an old dog dying of mange. they thinned out the game, killed birds for sport, set accidental fire that would burn for days. their sheep killed hedges, snipped valleys bare, and their pigs nosed up the very roots of what might have grown. hrothgar's tribe made boats to drive farther north and west. there was nothing to stop the advance of man. huge boars fled at the click of a harness. wolves would cower in the glens like foxes when they caught that deadly scent. i was filled with a wordless, obscurely murderous unrest.

You are free now to move forward to meet Hrothgar, in helmets and armour, but shields must stay here and spears be stacked until the outcome of the audience is clear.

I picked him up gently and carried him home. I laid him at the door of Hrothgar’s meadhall, still asleep, killed the two guards so I wouldn’t be misunderstood, and left.

Last, but not least, Unferth, Hrothgar's left-handed man, unexpectedly stanned for Beowulf, and handed him his heirloom, Hrunting, an ancient hilted sword, written with runes of ruin, iron blade emblazoned with poison shoots, each bud reddened with enemy blood. In war, it never failed to score flesh, had never been wrested from the fist of him who held it. It was a sublime solider's sword, meant to limb enemies, and this wasn't the first time it urged a hero to perform a feat.

My enemies define themselves (as the dragon told me) on me. As for myself, I could finish them off in a single night […] yet I hold back. I am hardly blind to the absurdity. Form is function. What will we call the Hrothgar-Wrecker when Hrothgar has been wrecked? (p.79)

But, in the end, it was none of these things, of course. It was only Hrothgar's claustrophobic mead hall with the monster waiting in the darkness without. We had our Grendel, to be sure. We even had our Hrothgar if one squints a bit at sad King Billy's poor slouched profile.

Today and tomorrow you will be in your prime; but soon you will die, in battle or in bed; either fire or water, the fearsome elements, will embrace you, or you will succumb to the sword's flashing edge, or the arrow's flight, or terrible old age; then your eyes, once bright, will be clouded over; all too soon, O warrior, death will destroy you. Hrothgar to Beowulf

better. Instead, he said, Galbatorix still has two dragon eggs. During our first audience with Hrothgar, you mentioned that you would like to rescue them. If we can— Saphira snorted bitterly. It could take years, and even if we did retrieve the eggs, I have no guarantee that they would hatch, nor that they would be male, nor that we would be fit mates. Fate has abandoned my race to extinction. She lashed her tail with frustration, breaking a sapling in two. She seemed perilously close to tears. What can I say? he asked, disturbed by her distress. You can’t give up hope. You still have a chance to find a mate, but you have to be patient. Even if Galbatorix’s eggs don’t work, dragons must exist elsewhere in the world, just like humans, elves, and Urgals do. The moment we are free of our obligations, I’ll help you search for them. All right? All right, she sniffed. She craned back her head and released a puff of white smoke that dispersed among the branches overhead. I should know better than to let my emotions get the best of me. Nonsense. You would have to be made of stone not to feel this way. It’s perfectly normal.… But promise you won’t dwell on it while you’re alone.

He led her downstairs without releasing her, and that he left the front door unguarded reinforced Muire’s deductions about how seriously Cathoair’s friends took his disappearance.

HROTHGAR: Well, I am off to bed! You can sleep in this Mead Hall. I assure you it is safe and definitely, nothing bad will happen.

HROTHGAR: How did you hear of our sorrows? BEOWULF: (leaning close to HROTHGAR, whispers) Dude, you have been crying super loud for like 12 years, and I’m right offstage over there.

The Germanic prince must be glad-minded, cheerful, and gentle, whatever the actual circumstances. When Grendel harries Heorot, Hrothgar is all the same the glad-minded Hrothgar—the good king, who in all his sorrow had nothing to reproach himself. A man must be eadig (steadfast in his luck).