Book is xv + 405 pp. + 64 unpaginated plates; b/w illustrations (plates reproducing paintings by many artists); the copy seen concludes with a 2-page publisher's advertisement of two other works by Guerber. The Beowulf chapter, whose text is revised from the version in Guerber's Legends of the Middle Ages, Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art (1896), has 4 illustrations: "A Sea-King's Grave" by Count Harrach, opposite p. 2; "Beowulf Vows to Slay Grendel" by Evelyn Paul, opposite p. 4; "Beowulf Challenged by the Coastguard" by Evelyn Paul, opposite p. 6; and "Funeral of a Northern Chief" by F. Cormon, opposite p. 16. Only Corman's had appeared in the 1896 version.

The Beowulf story follows a very brief introduction and retains from the 1896 version brief translation extracts by Conybeare, "Metcalfe" (a misattribution of translations by Thomas Wright, carried over from her 1896 volume), C. F. Keary (from an 1882 article by Keary in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature), and Longfellow. To these, Guerber adds in this 1909 version one new extract from the translation of J. L. Hall (p. 6). The 1909 version was reprinted several times.

The retelling begins:

Hrothgar (the modern Roger), King of Denmark, was a descendant of Odin, being the third monarch of the celebrated dynasty of the Skioldungs, whose chief boast was their descent from Skeaf, or Skiold, Odin's son, who had one day drifted mysteriously to their shores. Full of excitement the people crowded round to look at this wonderful infant, who lay smiling sweetly in the middle of a boat, on a sheaf of ripe wheat, surrounded by priceless weapons and jewels. Now it happened that at that very time the Danes were seeking for a ruler. They therefore immediately recognised the hand of Odin in this mysterious advent, proclaimed the child king, and obeyed him loyally as long as he lived. Years went by, and at last Skeaf felt the sure hand of death closing upon him. Anxiously he called his nobles about him and explained to them the manner in which he must needs leave them. Obeying his orders, therefore, they prepared a boat, and decked it lavishly with gold and jewels. Then, seeing that all was ready, the dying monarch dragged himself on board and stretched his limbs on a funeral pyre, in the midst of which rose a sheaf of corn. So he drifted out into the wide ocean, disappearing as mysteriously as he had come. (1-2)

And ends:

Meanwhile the warriors were standing helplessly by, trying to conceal their grief over the death of their dear chief. Beowulf, seeing their sorrow, made one last effort to address them. In a faint but eager voice he spoke to them all of the love that he felt for them, and reminded them of the great deeds that had marked his reign. With some of his old fire he urged them to maintain the honour of their race, so that the name of Geate should still be known far and wide among all men as the symbol of courage and loyalty. Finally he expressed a desire to be buried in a mighty mound on a projecting headland, which could be seen far out at sea, and would be called by his name.

                                     "'And now,
Short while I tarry here—when I am gone,
Bid them upon yon headland's summit rear
A lofty mound, by Rona's seagirt cliff;
So shall my people hold to after times
Their chieftain's memory, and the mariners
That drive afar to sea, oft as they pass,
Shall point to Beowulf's tomb.'"
                         Beowulf (Conybeare's tr.).

These directions were all piously carried out by a mourning people, who decked his mound with the gold he had won, and erected above it a Bauta, or memorial stone, to show how dearly they had loved their brave king Beowulf, who had died to save them from the fury of the dragon. (16-17; double sets of quotation marks and attribution of verse extract in original)

The book was republished in 2005 by Kegan Paul, without resetting; acknowledgments for reproductions of the artwork are added in captions to some the plates.

Not in Fry or GR.

MO1 considers Guerber's crediting to "Keary" of the translated lines on p. 3 to be a likely misattribution, but they have now been traced to C. F. Keary, "The Mythology of the Eddas: How Far of True Teutonic Origin," Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature 12 (1882): 517-90, at 582.

MO2 conflates Guerber's Myths and Legends with a different book by her, The Book of the Epic (1913); the two works had been correctly differentiated in MO1 (p. 163).

BAM.