128 pp. A complete prose translation. Here in its first appearance, it is presented as a children's book in the series The King's Treasuries of Literature (ed. Sir A. T. Quiller Couch), in small format with b/w illus. title page, a very simply written introduction, and classroom-appropriate questions in the back (p. 119, e.g., "Which is the most interesting of Beowulf's three fights?"). After these questions, the translation is followed by appendices giving translations of the Cædmon story and The Battle of Brunanburh (123-38). The translation was reused in Gordon, trans., Anglo-Saxon Poetry (1926), and became widely circulated among adult readers.

The text begins:

Lo! we have heard the glory of the kings of the Spear-Danes in days gone by, how the chieftains wrought mighty deeds. Often Scyld-Scefing wrested the mead-benches from troops of foes, from many tribes; he made fear fall upon the earls. After he was first found in misery (he received solace for that), he grew up under the heavens, lived in high honour, until each of his neighbours over the whale-road must needs obey him and render tribute. That was a good king! (13)

And ends:

Then men bold in battle, sons of chieftains, twelve in all, rode about the mound; they were minded to utter their grief, to lament the king, to make a chant and to speak of the man; they exalted his heroic life and praised his valorous deed with all their strength.

Thus it is fitting that a man should extol his friendly lord in words, should heartily love him, when he must needs depart from his body and pass away. Thus did the men of the Geats, his hearth-companions, bewail the fall of their lord; they said that among the kings of the world he was the mildest of men and most kindly, most gentle to his people and most eager for praise. (117-18)

Fry and MO1 interpret the description "rendered into English prose" as part of the title, but it is not differentiated by typography or placement from "by Professor R. K. Gordon."

BAM.