Seamus Heaney’s translation is online.
On the Swedish mainland, the Geats (yahts) of this time are ruled by King Hygelac (hee-ye-lahk). His supporting warriors are here called thanes, so the hero is first introduced as “Hygelac’s thane.” His proper name, Beowulf, won’t be introduced until he comes to the door of Hrothgar’s hall. But we learn that Hygelac’s court knows about the monster harassing the Danes, and this young man has decided that the quest has his name on it.
Our hero’s first action in the story is to hire a shipbuilder to make a ship for crossing to Denmark. Old English poetry often uses “kennings,” phrases to stand for an ordinary noun. In this passage, he commands them to build a “wave-crosser” so that he can take the “swan’s road (or riding).” With omens consulted and the ship finished, he takes fourteen men with their gear and sets out, and the ship is said to fly like a bird.
It doesn’t seem to take long to cross to Denmark. They’re on the water for one overnight, and then they sight land. Like England, the Sjaelland Island of Denmark has chalk cliffs facing the sea.
On the cliffs, a guard sees the ship coming. If it were a fleet, that would signal an attack, but just one ship isn’t a great danger. When the ship comes to shore, the men drag the keel up on the narrow beach, and the watchman has ridden his pony down a path to meet them.
We don’t know the watcher’s name, he is just a thane of Hrothgar. On horseback, he shakes his spear to challenge them. He asks them, “Who are you and where have you come from?” He notes that they are in battle-gear and seem noble, but he’s also sure that they are not arriving by invitation. “Now I must know your lineage, lest you go hence/as false spies, travel further/into Danish territory.” (here I’m quoting R. M. Liuzza’s translation, used in my book)
“The eldest one answered him,/leader of the troop, unlocked his word-hoard.” This is a common phrase in Old English poetry. As a “kenning,” it’s a perfect image from their culture, because everyone kept his valuables in a locked wooden chest. A man has words locked up as treasures inside his chest; to speak, he must unlock the word-hoard.
The “eldest one,” “leader of the troop,” now explains that they are thanes of Hygelac of the Geats, and that his own father was Ecgtheow. The name “Ecgtheow” is, like most Old English names, a compound of two words. “Ecg” means “sword blade,” and it’s pronounced like “edge.” “Theow” means “servant.” They have come in friendship to Hrothgar, to help him with the fiend, the hidden evildoer, the corpse-maker.
The dialogue they have with the coast guard seems familiar to fans of the Lord of the Rings, because Beowulf was Tolkien’s model when he composed the dialogue between Aragorn and any of the Rohirrim who are meeting him. The guard answers Beowulf by stating a proverb that a good warrior must judge both words and deeds. Because they are stating a friendly intent, his men will guard their ship while he guides them to Hrothar’s hall.