With much labour: rightly was
The battle divided, but that a god shielded me.

Or, to translate more prosaically:–

"Beowulf, the son of Ecgtheow, addressed the meeting. See, son of
Healfdene, Prince of the Scyldings; we have joyfully brought thee this
gift from the sea which thou beholdest, for a proof of our valour. I
obtained it with difficulty, gloriously, fighting beneath the waves: I
dared the task with great toil. Evenly was the battle decreed, but that
a god afforded me his protection."

In this short passage, many of the words are now obsolete: for example,
_mathelian_, to address an assembly (_concionari_); _lac_, a gift;
_wig_, war; _guth_, battle; and _leod_, a prince. _Ge-digde_,
_ge-nethde_, and _ge-twæfed_ have the now obsolete particle _ge_-, which
bears much the same sense as in High German. On the other hand, _bearn_,
a bairn; _sunu_, a son; _sæ_, sea; _tacen_, a token; _wæter_, water; and
_weorc_, work, still survive: as do the verbs _to bring_, _to look_, and
_to shield_. _Lust_, pleasure, whence _lustum_, joyfully, has now
restricted its meaning in modern English, but retains its original sense
in High German.

A few lines from the "Chronicle" under the year 1137, during the reign
of Stephen, will give an example of Anglo-Saxon in its later and corrupt
form, caught in the act of passing into Chaucerian English:–

This gære for the King | This year fared the King
Stephan ofer sæ to Normandi; | Stephen over sea to Normandy;
and ther wes under | and there he was