So lived the clansmen in cheer and revel
a winsome life, till one began
to fashion evils, that field of hell.
grendel this monster grim was called,

march-riever mighty, in moorland living,
in fen and fastness; fief of the giants
the hapless wight a while had kept
since the creator his exile doomed.
on kin of cain was the killing avenged
by sovran god for slaughtered abel.
ill fared his feud, and far was he driven,
for the slaughter’s sake,
from sight of men. of cain awoke all that woful breed,
etins and elves and evil-spirits,