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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.

XXXII.

HOW THE WORM CAME TO THE HOWE, AND HOW HE WAS ROBBED OF A CUP; AND HOW HE FELL ON THE FOLK.

• NOT at all with self-wielding the craft of the worm-hoards
• He sought of his own will, who sore himself harmed;
• But for threat of oppression a thrall, of I wot not
• Which bairn of mankind, from blows wrathful fled,
• House-needy forsooth, and hied him therein,
• A man by guilt troubled. Then soon it betided
• That therein to the guest there stood grisly terror;
• However the wretched, of every hope waning
•  . . . . . . . . 
• The ill-shapen wight, whenas the fear gat him,
• The treasure-vat saw; of such there was a many
• Up in that earth-house of treasures of old,
• As them in the yore-days, though what man I know not,
• The huge leavings and loom of a kindred of high ones,
• Well thinking of thoughts there had hidden away,
• Dear treasures. But all them had death borne away
• In the times of erewhile; and the one at the last
• Of the doughty of that folk that there longest lived,
• There waxed he friend-sad, yet ween’d he to tarry,
• That he for a little those treasures the longsome
• Might brook for himself. But a burg now all ready
• Wonn’d on the plain nigh the waves of the water,
• New by a ness, by narrow-crafts fasten’d;
• Within there then bare of the treasures of earls
• That herd of the rings a deal hard to carry,
• Of gold fair beplated, and few words he quoth:
• Hold thou, O earth, now, since heroes may hold not,
• The owning of earls. What! it erst within thee
• Good men did get to them; now war-death hath gotten,
• Life-bale the fearful, each man and every
• Of my folk; e’en of them who forwent the life:
• The hall-joy had they seen. No man to wear sword
• I own, none to brighten the beaker beplated,
• The dear drink-vat; the doughty have sought to else-whither.
• Now shall the hard war-helm bedight with the gold
• Be bereft of its plating; its polishers sleep,
• They that the battle-mask erewhile should burnish:
• Likewise the war-byrny, which abode in the battle
• O’er break of the war-boards the bite of the irons,
• Crumbles after the warrior; nor may the ring’d byrny
• After the war-leader fare wide afield
• On behalf of the heroes: nor joy of the harp is,
• No game of the glee-wood; no goodly hawk now
• Through the hall swingeth; no more the swift horse
• Beateth the burg-stead. Now hath bale-quelling
• A many of life-kin forth away sent.
• Suchwise sad-moody moaned in sorrow
• One after all, unblithely bemoaning
• By day and by night, till the welling of death
• Touch’d at his heart. The old twilight-scather
• Found the hoard’s joyance standing all open,
• E’en he that, burning, seeketh to burgs,
• The evil drake, naked, that flieth a night-tide,
• With fire encompass’d; of him the earth-dwellers
• Are strongly adrad; wont is he to seek to
• The hoard in the earth, where he the gold heathen
• Winter-old wardeth; nor a whit him it betters.
• So then the folk-scather for three hundred winters
• Held in the earth a one of hoard-houses
• All-eked of craft, until him there anger’d
• A man in his mood, who bare to his man-lord
• A beaker beplated, and bade him peace-warding
• Of his lord: then was lightly the hoard searched over,
• And the ring-hoard off borne; and the boon it was granted
• To that wretched-wrought man. There then the lord saw
• That work of men foregone the first time of times.
• Then awaken’d the Worm, and anew the strife was;
• Along the stone stank he, the stout-hearted found
• The foot-track of the foe; he had stept forth o’er-far
• With dark craft, over-nigh to the head of the drake.
• So may the man unfey full easily outlive
• The woe and the wrack-journey, he whom the Wielder’s
• Own grace is holding. Now sought the hoard-warden
• Eager over the ground; for the groom he would find
• Who unto him sleeping had wrought out the sore:
• Hot and rough-moody oft he turn’d round the howe
• All on the outward; but never was any man
• On the waste; but however in war he rejoiced,
• In battle-work. Whiles he turn’d back to his howe
• And sought to his treasure-vat; soon he found this,
• That one of the grooms had proven the gold,
• The high treasures; then the hoard-warden abided,
• But hardly forsooth, until come was the even,
• And all anger-bollen was then the burg-warden,
• And full much would the loath one with the fire-flame pay back
• For his drink-vat the dear. Then day was departed
• E’en at will to the Worm, and within wall no longer
• Would he bide, but awayward with burning he fared,
• All dight with the fire: it was fearful beginning
• To the folk in the land, and all swiftly it fell
• On their giver of treasure full grievously ended.