Lines 1384-1389
Beowulf's famous maxim: 'Wyrd oft nereth unfaegne eorl, thonne his ellen deah' — fate often spares an undoomed man when his courage holds; and that each must seek glory before death.
Read in Books4Free →Wyrd, Fame, and the Heroic Code
From Beowulf by Anonymous
The poem repeatedly meditates on wyrd (fate), the pursuit of lasting fame as the only defense against mortality, and the tension between pagan heroism and Christian providence.
Lines 455
'Gaeth a wyrd swa hio scel' — 'Fate goes ever as it must', one of the poem's most-quoted lines.
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