1892 Drinks of the world

DRINKS.

40

one man another Hrothgar Beowulf, and bade him hail, gave him command of the wine-hall." % It * %

** He strode under the clouds,

*

until he the wine-house, the golden hall of men, most readily perceiv'd, richly variegated." The mead-hall seems to have answered the purpose of a common hall, as v^e see by the following. Speak- ing of Hrothgar, the poet says :

2 "// ran through his mind that he a hall-house would command, a great mead-house^ men to make, which the sons of men should ever hear of; and there within all distribute to young and old,

as to him God had given, except the people's share, and the lives of men.

Then I heard that widely the work was proclaim'd to many a tribe through this mid-earth that a public place was building." Mead was considered a glorified liquor fit for Men, and is thus sung of by the bard Taliesin :

2 Line 135, etc.

1 Line 1432, etc.