xvi + 380 pp. 2nd ed. The Beowulf summary is unchanged from the 1st edition (1956), but other sections of the book are significantly revised, as is explained in preface. The summary of the poem on pp. 340-41 is part of a brief discussion of Beowulf (339-43) and includes short extracts from the Charles W. Kennedy translation (corresponding to ll. 720-27, 1357b-60, and 1372b-76a).

The summary begins:

Hrothgar, a rich and powerful king of the Danes, ruled long in peace and prosperity, but after a time horror descended upon his kingdom in the shape of a ferocious monster called Grendel who attacked Heorot, the hall in which Hrothgar lived,

Storming the building     he burst the portal
Though fashioned of iron,     with fiendish strength;
Forced open the entrance     in savage fury
And rushed in rage     o'er the shining floor.
A baleful glare     from his eyes was gleaming
Most like to a flame. (340)

And ends:

The aged Beowulf set out to attack the dragon and slew it with the help of one of his retainers, but Beowulf himself received fatal wounds in the combat, and the poem ends with an account of the building of his funeral pyre and the chanting of praises by his warriors as they rode around it. (341)

Not in MO2.

BAM.