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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.

XXI.

HROTHGAR LAMENTS THE SLAYING OF AESCHERE, AND TELLS OF GRENDEL’S MOTHER AND HER DEN.

• SPAKE out then Hrothgar the helm of the Scyldings:
• Ask no more after bliss; for new-made now is sorrow
• For the folk of the Danes; for Aeschere is dead,
• He who was Yrmenlaf’s elder of brethren,
• My wise man of runes, my bearer of redes,
• Mine own shoulder-fellow, when we in the war-tide
• Warded our heads and the host on the host fell,
• And the boars were a-crashing; e’en such should an earl be,
• An atheling exceeding good, e’en as was Aeschere.
• Now in Hart hath befallen for a hand-bane unto him
• A slaughter-ghost wandering; naught wot I whither
• The fell one, the carrion-proud, far’d hath her back-fare,
• By her fill made all famous. That feud hath she wreaked
• Wherein yesternight gone by Grendel thou quelledst
• Through thy hardihood fierce with grips hard enow,
• For that he over-long the lief people of me
• Made to wane and undid. In the war then he cringed,
• Being forfeit of life. But now came another,
• An ill-scather mighty, her son to awreak;
• And further hath she now the feud set on foot,
• As may well be deemed of many a thane,
• Who after the wealth-giver weepeth in mind,
• A hard bale of heart. Now the hand lieth low
• Which well-nigh for every joy once did avail you.
• The dwellers in land here, my people indeed,
• The wise-of-rede hall-folk, have I heard say e’en this:
• That they have set eyes on two such-like ere-while,
• Two mickle mark-striders the moorland a-holding,
• Ghosts come from elsewhere, but of them one there was,
• As full certainly might they then know it to be,
• In the likeness of woman; and the other shap’d loathly
• All after man’s image trod the tracks of the exile,
• Save that more was he shapen than any man other;
• And in days gone away now they named him Grendel,
• The dwellers in fold; they wot not if a father
• Unto him was born ever in the days of erewhile
• Of dark ghosts. They dwell in a dim hidden land,
• The wolf-bents they bide in, on the nesses the windy,
• The perilous fen-paths where the stream of the fell-side
• Midst the mists of the nesses wends netherward ever,
• The flood under earth. Naught far away hence,
• But a mile-mark forsooth, there standeth the mere,
• And over it ever hang groves all berimed,
• The wood fast by the roots over-helmeth the water.
• But each night may one a dread wonder there see,
• A fire in the flood. But none liveth so wise
• Of the bairns of mankind, that the bottom may know.
• Although the heath-stepper beswinked by hounds,
• The hart strong of horns, that holt-wood should seek to
• Driven fleeing from far, he shall sooner leave life,
• Leave life-breath on the bank, or ever will he
• Therein hide his head. No hallow’d stead is it:
• Thence the blending of water-waves ever upriseth
• Wan up to the welkin, whenso the wind stirreth
• Weather-storms loathly, until the lift darkens
• And weepeth the heavens. Now along the rede wendeth
• Of thee again only. Of that earth yet thou know’st not,
• The fearful of steads, wherein thou mayst find
• That much-sinning wight; seek then if thou dare,
• And thee for that feud will I guerdon with fee,
• The treasures of old time, as erst did I do,
• With the gold all-bewounden, if away thence thou get thee.