From one of Anthony Madrid's reviews (HERE).
What You Can Learn from Beowulf
Cliff Fyman. Fatstick Magazine Spring 1998, p. 39.
How to accept a compliment
If you undertake a voyage to save someone
you don’t need to tell him in advance you’re coming
Don’t use a weapon for what you can do by hand
When in trouble look up
If a king’s wife gives you a necklace for a gift
give it away quickly to someone else
If your rival offers you his sword to do battle with
don’t borrow it
If you have any doubts
don’t say them
If it’s going to be your day
you don’t even need to bring an oxygen tank
to fight a battle below a lake
& if it isn’t going to be your day
nothing you bring would matter anyway
When traveling to learn to sleep with one eye open
If you sleep in a hall with forty men
a monster’s bound to eat the hell
out of at least one of you
When you meet the person who insists you borrow his sword
which splits in half & almost gets you killed—?
act like it’s nothing
In fact nod like you’re honored
when he presents you with the snapped off handle
as a token of admiration of your strength
No matter how many dragons you slaughtered today
there’s one more out there waiting for you
Stand on ceremony if that’s what the scene says
Which means not taking anyone or any gesture lightly
Don’t get married if you’re an athlete warrior hero
because it’ll take away your crazy courage
yet through fifty drifting winters
you’ll long for the warm
dry sleep of dreaming lovers
Don’t let success go to your head
but take what’s coming to you
Enjoy your presents while they last
Remember the names of your ancestors
If someone wants to reward you with seven horses
even if you have a small ship
take them anyway
to your tiny goat farm in the snow
Learn to voice your direct love for men and women
Take on every challenge no matter how mammoth the scale
Work through the night
Remember the names of people you meet once
If a dragon grabs you by the neck see it
as an opportunity to establish yourself
