The Marmot has a bowel movement...

Beowulf Fights the Dragon

Illustration by J. R. Skelton

H. E. Marshall, Stories of Beowulf Told to the Children

(New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1908)

(Image from Wikipedia)

The Marmot had the living 'sheet' scared out of him in a civil defense drill yesterday. I admit that I was worried myself. Seoul is only about 20 miles from the DMZ, so one of Kim Jong-il's state-of-the-art nuclear boomlets hefted onto a cart and hauled from the North by a donkey could reach Seoul in about seven hours.

So when the sirens started, I figured that I had just about enough time to finish my two afternoon lectures, take the subway home, do my exercises, drink a couple of ice-cold beers, have dinner, and tutor my two kids in English before taking shelter under some protective blankets until morning.

I seem to have survived.

I recall these drills from 1995, so when the sirens started at a little past 2:00 p.m., I knew exactly what was happening. As the sirens wailed on and on, the young students in my Medieval literature course looked around at each other, clueless, so I told them that Kim Jong-il was attacking. That got some nervous laughter. About that time, the screaming jets flew over low, and actual fear crossed some of their faces.

"Those are the missiles," I said, eliciting still more fear.

Then, I laughed and went on teaching ... though I considered reminding them of this heartening statement:

"Wyrd oft nereð unfaégne eorl þonne his ellen déah."

These are Beowulf's words to Unferth after the latter has questioned the hero's ability to defeat the monster Grendel, and they can be found in lines 572b-573 of the manuscript. Translated, they say:

"Fate often spares an undoomed man if his courage endures."

Still ... if the missiles were actually falling all around, then like The Marmot, I just might need a new pair of britches myself.