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• Argument
• The Story of Beowulf
• I.: And First of the Kindred of Hrothgar.
• II.: Concerning Hrothgar, and How He Built the House Called Hart. Also Grendel Is Told Of.
• III.: How Grendel Fell Upon Hart and Wasted It.
• IV.: Now Comes Beowulf Ecgtheow’s Son to the Land of the Danes, and the Wall-warden Speaketh With Him.
• V.: Here Beowulf Makes Answer to the Land-warden, Who Showeth Him the Way to the King’s Abode.
• VI.: Beowulf and the Geats Come Into Hart.
• VII.: Beowulf Speaketh With Hrothgar, and Telleth How He Will Meet Grendel.
• VIII.: Hrothgar Answereth Beowulf and Biddeth Him Sit to the Feast.
• IX.: Unferth Contendeth In Words With Beowulf.
• X.: Beowulf Makes an End of His Tale of the Swimming. Wealhtheow, Hrothgar’s Queen, Greets Him; and Hrothgar Delivers to Him the Warding of the Hall.
• XI.: Now Is Beowulf Left In the Hall Alone With His Men.
• XII.: Grendel Cometh Into Hart: of the Strife Betwixt Him and Beowulf.
• XIII.: Beowulf Hath the Victory: Grendel Is Hurt Deadly and Leaveth Hand and Arm In the Hall.
• XIV.: The Danes Rejoice; They Go to Look On the Slot of Grendel, and Come Back to Hart, and On the Way Make Merry With Racing and the Telling of Tales.
• XV.: King Hrothgar and His Thanes Look On the Arm of Grendel. Converse Betwixt Hrothgar and Beowulf Concerning the Battle.
• XVI.: Hrothgar Giveth Gifts to Beowulf.
• XVII.: They Feast In Hart. the Gleeman Sings of Finn and Hengest.
• XVIII.: The Ending of the Tale of Finn.
• XIX.: More Gifts Are Given to Beowulf. the Brising Collar Told Of.
• XX.: Grendel’s Dam Breaks Into Hart and Bears Off Aeschere.
• XXI.: Hrothgar Laments the Slaying of Aeschere, and Tells of Grendel’s Mother and Her Den.
• XXII.: They Follow Grendel’s Dam to Her Lair.
• XXIII.: Beowulf Reacheth the Mere-bottom In a Day’s While, and Contends With Grendel’s Dam.
• XXIV.: Beowulf Slayeth Grendel’s Dam, Smiteth Off Grendel’s Head, and Cometh Back With His Thanes to Hart.
• XXV.: Converse of Hrothgar With Beowulf.
• XXVI.: More Converse of Hrothgar and Beowulf: the Geats Make Them Ready For Departure.
• XXVII.: Beowulf Bids Hrothgar Farewell: the Geats Fare to Ship.
• XXVIII.: Beowulf Comes Back to His Land. of the Tale of Thrytho.
• XXIX.: Beowulf Tells Hygelac of Hrothgar: Also of Freawaru His Daughter.
• XXX.: Beowulf Forebodes Ill From the Wedding of Freawaru: He Tells of Grendel and His Dam.
• XXXI.: Beowulf Gives Hrothgar’s Gifts to Hygelac, and By Him Is Rewarded. of the Death of Hygelac and of Heardred His Son, and How Beowulf Is King of the Geats: the Worm Is First Told Of.
• XXXII.: How the Worm Came to the Howe, and How He Was Robbed of a Cup; and How He Fell On the Folk.
• XXXIII.: The Worm Burns Beowulf’s House, and Beowulf Gets Ready to Go Against Him. Beowulf’s Early Deeds In Battle With the Hetware Told Of.
• XXXIV.: Beowulf Goes Against the Worm. He Tells of Herebeald and HÆthcyn.
• XXXV.: Beowulf Tells of Past Feuds, and Bids Farewell to His Fellows. He Falls On the Worm, and the Battle of Them Begins.
• XXXVI.: Wiglaf Son of Weohstan Goes to the Help of Beowulf: NÆgling, Beowulf’s Sword, Is Broken On the Worm.
• XXXVII.: They Two Slay the Worm. Beowulf Is Wounded Deadly: He Biddeth Wiglaf Bear Out the Treasure.
• XXXVIII.: Beowulf Beholdeth the Treasure and Passeth Away.
• XXXIX.: Wiglaf Casteth Shame On Those Fleers.
• Xl.: Wiglaf Sendeth Tiding to the Host: the Words of the Messenger.
• Xli.: More Words of the Messenger. How He Fears the Swedes When They Wot of Beowulf Dead.
• Xlii.: They Go to Look On the Field of Deed.
• Xliii.: of the Burial of Beowulf.

IV.

NOW COMES BEOWULF ECGTHEOW’S SON TO THE LAND OF THE DANES, AND THE WALL-WARDEN SPEAKETH WITH HIM.

• SO care that was time-long the kinsman of Healfdene
• Still seeth’d without ceasing, nor might the wise warrior
• Wend otherwhere woe, for o’er strong was the strife
• All loathly so longsome late laid on the people,
• Need-wrack and grim nithing, of night-bales the greatest.
• Now that from his home heard the Hygelac’s thane,
• Good midst of the Geat-folk; of Grendel’s deeds heard he.
• But he was of mankind of might and main mightiest
• In the day that we tell of, the day of this life,
• All noble, strong-waxen. He bade a wave-wearer
• Right good to be gear’d him, and quoth he that the war-king
• Over the swan-road he would be seeking,
• The folk-lord far-famed, since lack of men had he.
• Forsooth of that faring the carles wiser-fashion’d
• Laid little blame on him, though lief to them was he;
• The heart-hardy whetted they, heeded the omen.
• There had the good one, e’en he of the Geat-folk,
• Champions out-chosen of them that he keenest
• Might find for his needs; and he then the fifteenth
• Sought to the sound-wood. A swain thereon show’d him,
• A sea-crafty man, all the make of the land-marks.
• Wore then a while, on the waves was the floater,
• The boat under the berg, and yare then the warriors
• Strode up on the stem; the streams were a-winding
• The sea ’gainst the sands. Upbore the swains then
• Up into the bark’s barm the bright-fretted weapons,
• The war-array stately; then out the lads shov’d her,
• The folk on the welcome way shov’d out the wood-bound.
• Then by the wind driven out o’er the wave-holm
• Far’d the foamy-neck’d floater most like to a fowl,
• Till when was the same tide of the second day’s wearing
• The wound-about-stemm’d one had waded her way
• So that then they that sail’d her had sight of the land,
• Bleak shine of the sea-cliffs, bergs steep up above,
• Sea-nesses wide reaching; the sound was won over,
• The sea-way was ended: then up ashore swiftly
• The band of the Weder-folk up on earth wended;
• They bound up the sea-wood, their sarks on them rattled,
• Their weed of the battle, and God there they thanked
• For that easy the wave-ways were waxen unto them.
• But now from the wall saw the Scylding-folks’ warder,
• E’en he who the holm-cliffs should ever be holding,
• Men bear o’er the gangway the bright shields a-shining,
• Folk-host gear all ready. Then mind-longing wore him,
• And stirr’d up his mood to wot who were the men-folk.
• So shoreward down far’d he his fair steed a-riding,
• Hrothgar’s Thane, and full strongly then set he a-quaking
• The stark wood in his hands, and in council-speech speer’d he:
• What men be ye then of them that have war-gear,
• With byrnies bewarded, who the keel high up-builded
• Over the Lake-street thus have come leading,
• Hither o’er holm-ways hieing in ring-stem?
• End-sitter was I, a-holding the sea-ward,
• That the land of the Dane-folk none of the loathly
• Faring with ship-horde ever might scathe it.
• None yet have been seeking more openly hither
• Of shield-havers than ye, and ye of the leave-word
• Of the framers of war naught at all wotting,
• Or the manners of kinsmen. But no man of earls greater
• Saw I ever on earth than one of you yonder,
• The warrior in war-gear: no hall-man, so ween I,
• Is that weapon-beworthy’d, but his visage belie him,
• The sight seen once only. Now I must be wotting
• The spring of your kindred ere further ye cast ye,
• And let loose your false spies in the Dane-land a-faring
• Yet further afield. So now, ye far-dwellers,
• Ye wenders o’er sea-flood, this word do ye hearken
• Of my one-folded thought: and haste is the handiest
• To do me to wit of whence is your coming.