I think your Glasgow Beowulf is better Robin. It is so many years since I
found Beocat that I cant remember the author, although he wasnt a well known
poet. I think he was/is a humorist, probably British and I think Beocat is
just one poem out of a book of similar. Perhaps he could be googled.
Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 11:54 PM
Subject: Re: Beocat
>> Beocat
>>
>> Brave Beocat, brood-kit of Ecgthmeow,
>
> Lord, this is magic, Douglas!
>
> Any idea who wrote it?
>
> ... and the last line:
>
>> Short-haired Hrodent-slayer, greatest of the pussy-Geats.
>
> Yeeeeee!!!!
>
> Robin
>
>> Hearth-pet of Hrothgar in whose high halls
>> He mauled without mercy many fat mice,
>> Night did not find napping nor snack-feasting.
>> The wary war-cat, whiskered paw-wielder,
>> Bearer of the burnished neck-belt, gold-braided collar band,
>> Feller of fleas; fatal, too, to ticks,
>> The work of wonder-smiths, woven with witches' charms,
>> Sat on the throne-seat, his ears like sword-points
>> Upraised, sharp-tipped, listening for peril-sounds,
>> When he heard from the moor-hill howls of the hell-hound,
>> Gruesome hunger-grunts of Grendel's Great Dane,
>> Deadly doom-mutt, dread demon-dog.
>> Then boasted Beocat, noble barrow-kitten,
>> Bane of barrow-bunnies, bold seeker of nest-booty:
>> "If hand of man unhasped the heavy hall-door
>> And freed me to frolic forth to fight the fang-bearing fiend,
>> I would lay the whelpling low with lethal claw-blows;
>> Fur would fly and the foe would taste death-food.
>> But resounding snooze-noise, stern slumber-thunder,
>> Nose-music of men snoring mead-hammered in the wine-hall,
>> Fills me with sorrow-feeling; for Fate does not see fit
>> To send some fingered folk to lift the firm-fastened latch
>> That I might go grapple with the grim ghoul-pooch."
>> Thus spoke the mouse-shredder, hunter of hall-pests,
>> Short-haired Hrodent-slayer, greatest of the pussy-Geats.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
>> http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
>>
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