Book is xiii + 318 pp. + 12 unnumbered pp. of images (between pp. 185 and 186); includes maps, manuscript images, and diagrams and photographs of artifacts. The half-title page gives alternative title/description: "3182 lines of alliterative verse beginning | Hwæt we gardena in geardagum. | Printed often, since Kemble (1833) | under the title | BEOWULF" (i). The full text of Beowulf, divided into two major sections ("Beowulf the Young Hero" and "Beowulf the King") with titled subsections, is preceded by a foreword (vii-ix) and a substantial introduction (1-38), the latter concluding with each editor's separate mini-essay on the nature of the poem; and is followed by a section detailing editorial problems and approaches (163-75), genealogical tables and a guide to the Swedish-Geatish wars (177-82), Leslie Webster's essay "Archaeology and Beowulf" (183-94), translations of several other Old English poems in whole or in part (Widsith, Deor, Waldere, The Battle of Finnesburh, and Maxims I) (195-217), a series of further historical documents of relevance to Beowulf (218-32), a bibliography (233-37), a glossary (238-312), and an appendix demonstrating a proposed new punctuation system for editions of Old English poetry (313-18), presenting ll. 1-114 as an example. (A full edition of Beowulf prepared according to these principles is Bruce Mitchell and Susan Irvine, eds., Beowulf Repunctuated [2000], q.v.)

Alastair Reid's "Poem Written in a Copy of Beowulf" (a translation from Borges) is quoted in full in the foreword (ix). Portions of Henry Sweet's neo-Old English tale "Bēowulfes sīþ" (1897) are quoted on pp. 32-33 of the introduction. See Relationships, above.

The Old English text presented with conventional punctuation begins:

[title] THE FIGHT WITH GRENDEL (lines 1-1250)

[subtitle] [Scyld Scefing]

HWÆT!

WĒ GĀR-DEna     in geārdagum
þēodcyninga     þrym gefrūnon,
hū ðā æþelingas     ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scēfing     sceaþena þrēatum
monegum mǣgþum     meodosetla oftēah,
egsode eorlas     syððan ǣrest wearð
fēasceaft funden.     Hē þæs frōfre gebād,
wēox under wolcnum,     weorðmyndum þāh
oð þæt him ǣghwylc     þāra ymbsittendra
ofer hronrāde     hȳran scolde,
gomban gyldan.     Þæt wæs gōd cyning. (45)

And ends:

Þā ymbe hlǣw riodan     hildedēore
æþelinga bearn     ealra twelfe,
woldon care cwīðan     ond cyning mǣnan,
wordgyd wrecan     ond ymb wer sprecan,
eahtodan eorlscipe     ond his ellenweorc
duguðum dēmdon.     Swā hit gedēfe bið
þæt mon his winedryhten     wordum herge,
ferhðum frēoge     þonne hē forð scile
of līchaman     lǣded weorðan,
swā begnornodon     Gēata lēode
hlāfordes hryre,     heorðgenēatas:
cwǣdon þæt hē wǣre     wyruldcyninga
mannum mildust     ond monðwǣrust,
lēodum līðost     ond lofgeornost. (161)

The portion of the Old English text presented with a proposed new system of punctuation begins:

[title] [Scyld Scefing]

HWÆT!

WĒ GĀR-DEna     in geārdagum
þēodcyninga     þrym gefrūnon᛫
hū ðā æþelingas     ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scēfing     sceaþena þrēatum
monegum mǣgþum     meodosetla oftēah᛫
egsode eorlas᛫     syððan ǣrest wearð
fēasceaft funden᛫     hē þæs frōfre gebād᛫
wēox under wolcnum᛫     weorðmyndum þāh
oð þæt him ǣghwylc     þāra ymbsittendra
ofer hronrāde     hȳran scolde
gomban gyldan᛫     þæt wæs gōd cyning. (315)

And ends:

Þanon untȳdras     ealle onwōcon
eotenas ond ylfe     ond orcn͡eas
swylce gīgantas     þā wið gode wunnon
lange þrāge᛫     hē him ðæs lēan forgeald. (318)

BAM.