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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.

VII.

BEOWULF SPEAKETH WITH HROTHGAR, AND TELLETH HOW HE WILL MEET GRENDEL.

• WORD then gave out Hrothgar the helm of the Scyldings:
• I knew him in sooth when he was but a youngling,
• And his father, the old man, was Ecgtheow hight;
• Unto whom at his home gave Hrethel the Geat-lord
• His one only daughter; and now hath his offspring
• All hardy come hither a lief lord to seek him.
• For that word they spake then, the sea-faring men,
• E’en they who the gift-scat for the Geat-folk had ferry’d,
• Brought thither for thanks, that of thirty of men-folk
• The craft of might hath he within his own handgrips,
• That war-strong of men. Now him holy God
• For kind help hath sent off here even to us,
• We men of the West Danes, as now I have weening,
• ’Gainst the terror of Grendel. So I to that good one
• For his mighty mood-daring shall the dear treasure bid.
• Haste now and be speedy, and bid them in straightway,
• The kindred-band gather’d together, to see us,
• And in words say thou eke that they be well comen
• To the folk of the Danes. To the door of the hall then
• Went Wulfgar, and words withinward he flitted:
• He bade me to say you, my lord of fair battle,
• The elder of East-Danes, that he your blood knoweth,
• And that unto him are ye the sea-surges over,
• Ye lads hardy-hearted, well come to land hither;
• And now may ye wend you all in war-raiment
• Under the battle-mask Hrothgar to see.
• But here let your battle-boards yet be abiding,
• With your war-weed and slaughter-shafts, issue of words.
• Then rose up the rich one, much warriors around him,
• Chosen heap of the thanes, but there some abided
• The war-gear to hold, as the wight one was bidding.
• Swift went they together, as the warrior there led them,
• Under Hart’s roof: went the stout-hearted,
• The hardy neath helm, till he stood by the high-seat.
• Then Beowulf spake out, on him shone the byrny,
• His war-net besown by the wiles of the smith:
• Hail to thee, Hrothgar! I am of Hygelac
• Kinsman and folk-thane; fair deeds have I many
• Begun in my youth-tide, and this matter of Grendel
• On the turf of mine own land undarkly I knew.
• ’Tis the seafarers’ say that standeth this hall,
• The best house forsooth, for each one of warriors
• All idle and useless, after the even-light
• Under the heaven-loft hidden becometh.
• Then lightly they learn’d me, my people, this lore,
• E’en the best that there be of the wise of the churls,
• O Hrothgar the kingly, that thee should I seek to,
• Whereas of the might of my craft were they cunning;
• For they saw me when came I from out of my wargear,
• Blood-stain’d from the foe whenas five had I bounden,
• Quell’d the kin of the eotens, and in the wave slain
• The nicors by night-tide: strait need then I bore,
• Wreak’d the grief of the Weders, the woe they had gotten;
• I ground down the wrathful; and now against Grendel
• I here with the dread one alone shall be dooming,
• In Thing with the giant. I now then with thee,
• O lord of the bright Danes, will fall to my bidding,
• O berg of Scyldings, and bid thee one boon,
• Which, O refuge of warriors, gainsay me not now,
• Since, O free friend of folks, from afar have I come,
• That I alone, I and my band of the earls,
• This hard heap of men, may cleanse Hart of ill.
• This eke have I heard say, that he, the fell monster,
• In his wan-heed recks nothing of weapons of war;
• Forgo I this therefore (if so be that Hygelac
• Will still be my man-lord, and he blithe of mood)
• To bear the sword with me, or bear the broad shield,
• Yellow-round to the battle; but with naught save the hand-grip
• With the foe shall I grapple, and grope for the life
• The loathly with loathly. There he shall believe
• In the doom of the Lord whom death then shall take.
• Now ween I that he, if he may wield matters,
• E’en there in the war-hall the folk of the Geats
• Shall eat up unafear’d, as oft he hath done it
• With the might of the Hrethmen: no need for thee therefore
• My head to be hiding; for me will he have
• With gore all bestain’d, if the death of men get me;
• He will bear off my bloody corpse minded to taste it;
• Unmournfully then will the Lone-goer eat it,
• Will blood-mark the moor-ways; for the meat of my body
• Naught needest thou henceforth in any wise grieve thee.
• But send thou to Hygelac, if the war have me,
• The best of all war-shrouds that now my breast wardeth,
• The goodliest of railings, the good gift of Hrethel,
• The hand-work of Weland. Weird wends as she willeth.