PROLOGUE The nations of the far North, A there was none braver, more hardy, nobler, than the Danes-none whose deeds in war were sung of more proudly at the feasts of earl and thane. Many were the kings whose names came from the in- spired lips of Skalds, as their hands struck the stringed harp, in warlike or in mournful chords but of these names none were treasured inore reverently than those of the Skyldings, the oldest royal house known to Danish tradition. It is a very long time-over a thousand years-since the Danes ruled in England. Yet even then the deeds of the Skyldings were tales of long ago. So long ago that they had become mixed up with much fable and especially the beginnings of the fa- Beowulf mous race were so intertwined with the wonders of heathen Scandinavian antiquity that it has never been possible to decide exactly how much was history and how much myth. The father of the race, Skyld of the Sheaf, was great in the memory of his people. With his nobles-his...