Book is xiv + 415 pp. J. R. R. Tolkien's translation in prose (13-105), published with a preface and introduction by Christopher Tolkien (vii-xiv, 1-11), and with notes and commentary by J. R. R. Tolkien assembled by Christopher Tolkien for publication (107-30, 131-353). The translation was "completed by 1926" (vii). These materials directly relating to the Beowulf translation are published here with the tale Sellic Spell and the poem The Lay of Beowulf; see separate records for these two items. The book also contains, on its half-title page and dust jacket, 4 Beowulf-related drawings by J. R. R. Tolkien, for which see separate records.

The translation begins:

Lo! the glory of the kings of the people of the Spear-Danes in days of old we have heard tell, how those princes did deeds of valour. Oft Scyld Scefing robbed the hosts of foemen, many peoples, of the seats where they drank their mead, laid fear upon men, he who first was found forlorn; comfort for that he lived to know, mighty grew under heaven, throve in honour, until all that dwelt nigh about, over the sea where the whale rides, must hearken to him and yield him tribute—a good king was he! (13)

And ends:

Then about the tomb rode warriors valiant, sons of princes, twelve men in all, who would their woe bewail, their king lament, a dirge upraising, that man praising, honouring his prowess and his mighty deeds, his worth esteeming—even as is meet that a man should his lord beloved in words extol, in heart cherish, when forth he must from the raiment of flesh be taken far away.

Thus bemourned the Geatish folk their master's fall, comrades of his hearth, crying that he was ever of the kings of earth of men most generous and to men most gracious, to his people most tender and for praise most eager. (105)

BAM.