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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.

VIII.

HROTHGAR ANSWERETH BEOWULF AND BIDDETH HIM SIT TO THE FEAST.

• SPAKE out then Hrothgar the helm of the Scyldings:
• Thou Beowulf, friend mine, for battle that wardeth
• And for help that is kindly hast sought to us hither.
• Fought down thy father the most of all feuds;
• To Heatholaf was he forsooth for a hand-bane
• Amidst of the Wylfings. The folk of the Weders
• Him for the war-dread that while might not hold.
• So thence did he seek to the folk of the South-Danes
• O’er the waves’ wallow, to the Scyldings beworshipp’d.
• Then first was I wielding the weal of the Danefolk,
• That time was I holding in youth-tide the gemrich
• Hoard-burg of the heroes. Dead then was Heorogar,
• Mine elder of brethren; unliving was he,
• The Healfdene’s bairn that was better than I.
• That feud then thereafter with fee did I settle;
• I sent to the Wylfing folk over the waters’ back
• Treasures of old time; he swore the oaths to me.
• Sorrow is in my mind that needs must I say it
• To any of grooms, of Grendel what hath he
• Of shaming in Hart, and he with his hate-wiles
• Of sudden harms framed; the host of my hallfloor,
• The war-heap, is waned; Weird swept them away
• Into horror of Grendel. It is God now that may lightly
• The scather the doltish from deeds thrust aside.
• Full oft have they boasted with beer well bedrunken,
• My men of the battle all over the ale-stoup,
• That they in the beer-hall would yet be abiding
• The onset of Grendel with the terror of edges.
• But then was this mead-hall in the tide of the morning,
• This warrior-hall, gore-stain’d when day at last gleamed,
• All the boards of the benches with blood besteam’d over,
• The hall laid with sword-gore: of lieges less had I
• Of dear and of doughty, for them death had gotten.
• Now sit thou to feast and unbind thy mood freely,
• Thy war-fame unto men as the mind of thee whetteth.
• Then was for the Geat-folk and them all together
• There in the beer-hall a bench bedight roomsome,
• There the stout-hearted hied them to sitting
• Proud in their might: a thane minded the service,
• Who in hand upbare an ale-stoup adorned,
• Skinked the sheer mead; whiles sang the shaper
• Clear out in Hart-hall; joy was of warriors,
• Men doughty no little of Danes and of Weders.