xvii + 58 pp. A prose translation preceded by Donaldson's substantial introduction. From the introduction: "The chief purpose of this translation is to try to preserve for the reader what the translator takes to be the most striking characteristic of the style of the original: extraordinary richness of rhetorical elaboration alternating with—often combined with—the barest simplicity of statement"; "no received English style that I know, modern or archaic, sounds anything like Beowulf: there seems to be no accepted alternate to a literal rendering" (xii).

The translation begins:

[Prologue: The Earlier History of the Danes]

Yes, we have heard of the glory of the Spear-Danes' kings in the old days—how the princes of that people did brave deeds.

Often Scyld Scefing took mead-benches away from enemy bands, from many tribes, terrified their nobles—after the time that he was first found helpless. He lived to find comfort for that, became great under the skies, prospered in honors until every one of those who lived about him, across the whale-road, had to obey him, pay him tribute. That was a good king. (1)

And ends:

Then the brave in battle rode round the mound, children of nobles, twelve in all, would bewail their sorrow and mourn their king, recite dirges and speak of the man. They praised his great deeds and his acts of courage, judged well of his prowess. So it is fitting that man honor his liege lord with words, love him in heart when he must be led forth from the body. Thus the people of the Geats, his hearth-companions, lamented the death of their lord. They said that he was of world-kings the mildest of men and the gentlest, kindest to his people, and most eager for fame. (55)

It was reused in The Norton Anthology of English Literature, rev. ed. (1968) through 6th ed. (1993); reprinted in Donaldson, Beowulf (Norton Critical Edition), ed. Joseph F. Tuso (1975), and Beowulf: A Prose Translation (Norton Critical Edition), ed. Nicholas Howe (2002).

• Hugh Magennis, Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2011), 22-23.

GR represents the descriptor "a new prose translation" as part of the book's title.

BAM.