Excellent Quotes: Beowulf

Perhaps the most famous start to any poem ever occurs in the Danish epic elegy to the Scandinavian hero, Beowulf. Well, maybe "There once was a man from Nantucket" is a better known opening but that ditty doesn't feature Grendel:

"Hwaet we Gar-Dena in gear-dagum
peod-cyninga prym gefrunon
hu oa aepelingas ellen fremedon."

-Heaney, Seamus. Beowulf. New York (NY): W.W. Norton & Co., 2000. P. 2-3.

I know, I know; it makes about as much sense as the opening verse of Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky. But it actually rocks! Below is the English translation from Seamus Heaney with the first two words modified by your pal iClipse:

"Listen up! The Spear-Danes in days gone by
and the kings who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of those princes' heroic campaigns."

PS - Heaney himself has created some pretty awesome poetry. Witness this quote from his "The Cure at Troy," which used to open each edition of the woefully shuttered and sorely-missed magazine, DoubleTake: "History says, Don't hope on this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime the longed-for tidal wave of justice can rise up, and hope and history rhyme." Oh, and U2 did a nice job with that on "Peace on Earth"; now playing on iTunes.