Observations placeholder

Not least among these mighty aids
Was the hilted sword that Hrothgar’s spokesman
Unferth, lent him in his hour of trial
Hrunting was its name, unique and ancient
Its edge was iron, annealed in venom
And tempered in blood; in battle it never
Failed any hero whose hand took it up
At his setting out on a stern adventure
For the house of foes.  This was not the first time
That it had to do heroic work

Beowulf [description and the smith]

Then the golden hilt was given into the hand
Of the older warrior, the white haired leader
A Giant had forged it.  With the fall of the demons
It passed into the possession of the prince of the Danes,
This work of wonder smiths………..
On clear gold labels let into the cross piece
It was rightly told in runic letters
Set down and sealed, for whose sake it was
That the sword was first forged, that finest of iron
Spiral hilted, serpent bladed

Beowulf [destruction of the sword]

The blood it [the dragon] had shed
Made the sword dwindle into deadly icicles
The war tool wasted away.  It was wonderful indeed
How it melted away entirely, as the ice does in the spring
When the Father unfastens the frost’s grip
Unwinds the water’s ropes …..
The engraved blade
Had melted and burnt away; the blood was too hot
The fiend that had died there too deadly by far