Beowulf (c. AD 700-1000) is a heroic epic poem. At 3,183 lines, it is notable for its length. The work has risen to such prominence that it is sometimes called "England's national epic."

Part history and part mythology, the saga is set in the late 5th century and during the 6th century after the Anglo-Saxons had begun their migration and settlement in England, and before it had ended, a time when the Anglo-Saxons were either newly arrived or in close contact with their Germanic kinsmen in Scandinavia and northern Germany. The poem could have been transmitted in England by people of Geatish origins, and it may not be a coincidence that whereas Beowulf is the most well-known Anglo-Saxon work left to posterity, the most well-known Anglo-Saxon archaeological find, Sutton Hoo, also showed close connections with Scandinavia. It has consequently been suggested that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham in East Anglia, and that the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffings, were descendants of the Geatish Wulfings.

For many winters, the court of the Danish king, Hrothgar has been terrorized by a fearsome monster called Grendel, who comes at nightfall to devour men in their sleep. Beowulf slays the monster and is fêted as a hero - but joy turns to horror when Grendel's mother arrives to avenge the killing of her son.

Some see this story as a reflection of the constant cycle of warfare during turbulent times, when alliances were as quickly broken as forged, and peace was never more than fragile. Beowulf also slays Grendel's mother, but is himself condemned to a bloody end. Fifty years later, he is mortally wounded in a last conflict with a dragon.

Beowulf is both the first English literary masterpiece and one of the earliest European epics written in the vernacular, or native language, instead of literary Latin. The story survives in one fragile manuscript copied by two scribes near the end of the 10th or the first quarter of the 11th century. The author is unknown, and some scholars still believe 'Beowulf' was composed during the eighth century, some have suggested it may be later, perhaps even contemporary with this manuscript. It's most likely that the poem had no single author, but was handed down by word of mouth, constantly evolving in its retelling.

The manuscript was badly damaged by fire in 1731, and its charred edges crumbled over time, losing words on the outer margins of the leaves. Finally, each leaf was carefully pasted into a frame to stop this process. Of course the frames and the paste holding them in place obliterated a little more of the text! Fortunately, many of the lost words were recovered from a copy made before the manuscript deteriorated. Today, ultraviolet light and other technologies reveal erasures, text under the frames, and characteristics of the manuscript that were previously undetectable.

The Beowulf manuscript is now in the British Library, (visit the BL's Changing Language site for a treat!) but has been made accessible to all by The Electronic Beowulf Project. It was once owned by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, an "antiquary" or collector of Anglo-Saxon Charters and manuscripts, whose library was among three foundation collections brought together by the creation of the British Museum in 1753.

Sir Robert bound Beowulf with four other MSS in a combined codex known as Cotton MS.Vitellius A.xv, the 15th item on the first shelf of the "press" of manuscripts under the bust of Emperor Vitellius in his library. Other manuscripts in the Cotton Library were also cataloged by their proximity to busts of Roman Emperors, which stood atop a series of bookcases! Even now, the MSS are referenced by the "emperor pressmark" system.

Translations
The first translation, by Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin and published in 1815, was to Latin, in connection with the first publication of his transcription. Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, greatly unsatisfied with this translation, made the first translation into a modern language — Danish — which was published in 1820. After Grundtvig's travels to England came the first English translation, by J. M. Kemble in 1837. William Morris & A. J. Wyatt's translation was published in 1895.

Since then there have been numerous translations of the poem in English. Irish poet Seamus Heaney and E. Talbot Donaldson have both published translations with W.W. Norton of New York. Heaney's translation is interestingly influenced by Hiberno-English. Other popular translations of the poem include those by Howell D. Chickering, C. L. Wrenn, Fr Klaeber, Frederick Rebsamen, E.T. Donaldson's very literal prose version, and Burton Raffel's verse rendering. An online free verse translation by David Breeden can be found at http://www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/

J. R. R. Tolkien believed the translation by J. J. Earle was not accurate, and did not convey the meaning and symbolism of the storyline or the beauty of the prose of the poem. Chauncey Brewster Tinker was much more positive about the translation, however. Tolkien never made a translation of his own, since he believed that the only function of a translation was to act as a crib sheet for someone reading the original, as he explains in his essay "On Translating Beowulf." Various publishers, among them Michael Drout, have made plans at one time or another to assemble loose scraps of translations of various passages that Tolkien made for his lectures and publish them as "Tolkien's translation of Beowulf", but the Tolkien Estate has not approved the idea.

A few years ago, Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney released Beowulf: A New Translation (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2000). The book has won the prestigious Whitbread literary prize for poetry and has received critical acclaim from many sources.[17]

There are also interpretations, if not translations, of Beowulf, including one written by Robert Nye.

Full translation available at Project Gutenberg or on this site.

The Story
Scholars agree that Beowulf can be divided according to the three main battles of the poem.

First battle: Grendel
Beowulf is challenged by a Danish coast guard, by Evelyn Paul (1911).Beowulf begins with the story of King Hroðgar, who built the great hall Heorot for his people. In it he, his wife Wealhþeow, and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating, until Grendel, who is angered by the singing and an outcast from society, attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hroðgar's warriors while they sleep. Hroðgar and his people, helpless against Grendel's attacks, abandon Heorot.

Beowulf, a young warrior, hears of Hroðgar's troubles and with his king's permission then leaves his homeland to help Hroðgar.

Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. After they fall asleep, Grendel enters the hall and attacks, devouring one of Beowulf's men. But Grendel dare not touch the throne of Hroðhgar, because he is protected by the almighty God. Beowulf, feigning sleep, leaps up and grabs Grendel's arm in a wrestling hold, and the two battle until it seems as though the hall might fall down due to their fighting. Beowulf's men draw their swords and rush to his help, but their swords break upon Grendel's arm due to the thorny spikes and iron-tough skin of the monster. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his home in the marshes to die.

Second battle: Grendel's mother
The next night, after celebrating Grendel's death, Hroðgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's Mother appears, however, and attacks the hall. She kills Hroðgar's most trusted warrior, Æschere, in revenge for Grendel's death.

Hroðgar, Beowulf, and their men track Grendel's Mother to her lair under an eerie lake. Beowulf prepares himself for battle; he is presented with a sword, Hrunting, by a warrior called Unferð. After stipulating a number of conditions (upon his death) to Hroðgar (including the taking in of his kinsmen, and the inheritance by Unferð of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf dives into the lake. There, he is swiftly detected and attacked by Grendel's mother. Unable to harm Beowulf through his armour, Grendel's mother drags him to the bottom of the lake. There, in a cavern containing her son's body and the remains of many men that the two have killed, Grendel's mother fights Beowulf.

Grendel's mother at first prevails, after Beowulf, finding that the sword (Hrunting) given him by Unferð cannot harm his foe, discards it in fury. Again, Beowulf is saved from the effects of his opponent's attack by his armour and, grasping a mighty sword from Grendel's mother's armoury (which, the poem tells us, no other man could have hefted in battle), Beowulf beheads her. Travelling further into the lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse; he severs the head, and with it he returns to Heorot, where he is given many gifts by an even more grateful Hroðgar.

Third battle: The dragon
Beowulf fights the dragonBeowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, late in Beowulf's life, a slave steals a golden cup from a dragon's lair at Earnaness. When the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning up everything in sight. Beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but only one of the warriors, a brave young man named Wiglaf, stays to help Beowulf, because the rest are too afraid. Beowulf kills the dragon with Wiglaf's help, but Beowulf dies from the wounds he has received. After he is cremated, Beowulf is buried on a cliff overlooking the sea, where sailors are able to see his barrow. The dragon's treasure is buried with him, rather than distributed to his people, as was Beowulf's wish, because of the curse associated with the hoard.

A further note: according to Seamus Heaney's translation (Beowulf: A New Verse Translation) Wiglaf says this to the cowardly warriors who fled the battle.

So it is goodbye to all you know and love
on your home ground, the open-handedness,
the giving of war swords. Every one of you
with freeholds of land, our whole nation,
will be dispossessed, once-princes from beyond
get tidings of how you turned and fled
and disgraced yourselves. A warrior will sooner
die than live a life of shame.

Readings from Beowulf (audio files)

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