Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction

  • Beowulf between Myth and History
    Beowulf between Song and Text
    Beowulf between Court and Cloister
    Beowulf between Old and Modern English

A Note on the Text
A Note to the Second Edition
Reading Old English

Beowulf

Glossary of Proper Names
Genealogies
The Geatish-Swedish Wars

Appendix A: Characters Mentioned in Beowulf

  1. From Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks
  2. From the Liber Monstrorum
  3. From Alcuin, Letter to “Speratus” (797)
  4. West-Saxon Royal Genealogies
    1. From Asser, Life of King Alfred (893)
    2. From Æthelweard, Chronicle
  5. “The Fight at Finnsburh”
  6. Widsith

Appendix B: Analogues to the Themes and Events in Beowulf

  1. From Grettissaga (c. 1300)
    1. The Fight in the Hall
    2. The Fight at the Falls
  2. From Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum
  3. From Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla (c. 1223-35), Ynglinga saga
  4. From The Life of Saint Gildas
  5. From Blickling Homily 17

Appendix C: Christians and Pagans

  1. Gregory the Great, Letter to Abbot Mellitus (601)
  2. From Bede the Venerable, Ecclesiastical History of the English People
  3. From St Boniface, Letters
    1. Letter 46 (c. 738)
    2. Letter 73 (c. 746)
  4. Wulfstan, On False Gods
  5. Laws against Paganism
    1. From Wulfstan, Canons of Edgar no. 16
    2. From the Laws of Cnut, 1-5

Appendix D: Contexts for Reading Beowulf

  1. Wulfstan, Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (1014)
  2. Ælfric, Life of St Edmund (c. 995)
  3. Vainglory (before c. 975)

Appendix E: Translations of Beowulf

  1. Sharon Turner, The History of the Manners, Landed Property, Government,
    Laws, Poetry, Literature, Religion and Language of the Anglo-Saxons     (1805)
  2. John Josias Conybeare, Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1826)
  3. J.M. Kemble, A Translation of the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf (1835)
  4. From Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Anglo-Saxon Literature,” North American Review (1838)
  5. A. Diedrich Wackerbarth, Beowulf: An Epic Poem Translated from the Anglo-Saxon into English Verse (1849)
  6. John Earle, The Deeds of Beowulf (1892)
  7. William Morris and A.J. Wyatt, The Tale of Beowulf Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats (1895)
  8. Francis B. Gummere, The Oldest English Epic (1909)
  9. William Ellery Leonard, Beowulf (1923)
  10. R.K. Gordon, The Song of Beowulf (1923)
  11. Charles W. Kennedy, Beowulf (1940)
  12. Edwin Morgan, Beowulf (1952)
  13. Burton Raffel, Beowulf (1963)
  14. E. Talbot Donaldson, Beowulf (1966)
  15. Kevin Crossley-Holland, Beowulf (1968)
  16. Michael Alexander, Beowulf (1973)
  17. Howell D. Chickering, Jr., Beowulf (1977)
  18. S.A.J. Bradley, Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1982)
  19. Stanley B. Greenfield, A Readable Beowulf (1982)
  20. Ruth P.M. Lehmann, Beowulf (1988)
  21. Marc Hudson, Beowulf (1990)
  22. Frederick Rebsamen, Beowulf (1991)
  23. R.M. Liuzza, Beowulf (1999)
  24. Seamus Heaney, Beowulf (2000)

Works Cited and Recommended Reading

Posted on October 29, 2015