Grendel's Dog

[gc429@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (John Strauss)]

This was up on Suzanna Grey's refrigerator. I dunno what book it
came out of, so this is reprinted without permission. If anyone 
recognizes the source, please let me know. I am curious to see
what other gems came with it.


Grendel's Dog, from BEOCAT
by the Old English Epic's Unknown Author's Cat
(Modern English verse translation by the Editor's Cat)

Brave Beocat,  brood kit of Ecgthmeow,
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 battle-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 spake the mouse-shredder,   hunter of hall-pests,
Short-haired Hrodent-slayer,   greatest of the pussy-Geats.