xvi + 382 pp. 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 MO1.

Both Fry and MO2 give the author's surname as Blair. Both also attribute the short translated passages to the author, but they are taken from Kennedy's verse translation (see Descriptive Notes, above). GR does not mention the passages in direct translation.

BAM (from 1966 reprint).