Grendel - Svartsot

En skabning af mosens mørke svælg var han

Næp var han levende, næp var han mand

Et udyr tyndt forklædt i menneskets form

Fra hvilken turses liv sprang denne orm?

Hvad er det, der overfor mig står?

Klædt i tand og klo og med filted' hår

Så høj som en eg, så usselt hugget ud

Intet hærdet blad kunne bryde hands pansred' hud

Hud som den af lindorms grå skællet brynje

Folkets hadske fjende

Fra hans slummer vækket af vores lystig' lag

Mord og død lagde han for dag

Grendel!

Han flænged' mine frænder med hans strimed' næve

For hands vrede kunn' man sig ej bjærge

Deres kød var reven, deres skaller kløved'

Ar gik før kvalen døvedes

Han trak sig til mosen, med hans stygge rov

Mætted' sig på blod og skrog

Frelse må vel komme fra en fremmed kyst

Før grendel slår hans sidste høst

Grendel du nævnes, nattens dødfødt skabning

Bragt på en slet vind, bragt på sorten ving'

Snart skal du dræbes af en kamp-klædt konning

Læng' skal vi synge om Grendels halshugning

He was a creature of the dark throat of the bog

Hardly was he alive, hardly was he man

A beast thinly disguised in human form

From which tour's life did this worm leap?

What is facing me?

Dressed in tooth and claw and with filted 'hair

As tall as an oak, so wretchedly carved out

No hardened leaf could break the hands pansred 'skin

Skin like that of lindorm's gray scaly armor

The people's hateful enemy

From his slumber awakened by our merry 'layer

Murder and death he brought to light

Grendel!

He tore 'my kinsmen with his strimed' fist

You could not save yourself from the wrath of your hands

Their flesh was torn, their shells cleaved '

Scars passed before the torment was deafened

He withdrew to the bog, with his ugly prey

Saturated 'on blood and carcass

Salvation must come from a foreign coast

Before grendel strikes his last harvest

Grendel you mentioned, the stillborn creature of the night

Brought on a plain wind, brought on the black wing '

Soon you must be killed by a battle-dressed king

Long 'we shall sing about Grendel's beheading