Book is 160 pp. Alexander gives original verse translations of several Old English poems or excerpts from poems, preceded by a general introduction, note on the translation, and acknowledgments (9-25); each selection or group of selections also has its own brief headnote. The book's main content is followed by commentary notes, a series of appendices, a glossary of proper names, and a list of further resources (125-60). Four segments of Beowulf are included: "The Funeral of Scyld Scefing," "Beowulf's Voyage to Denmark," "The Mere," and "'The Lay of the Last Survivor.'"

Alexander writes that he has "borrowed the form of the Old English verse in making these versions," aiming to "keep to the original metre as far as possible and at all times to give a faithful impression of its vigour. I have been more careful to achieve a correct stress-pattern than to keep the alliteration absolutely regular" (22). Embedded in his acknowledgments (in reference to the example and mentorship of Peter Whigham), Alexander states his view, which he finds embodied in Whigham's own work, that "it is the business of the translator, once he has done his homework and made himself aware of everything there is in his original, to decide which of those elements can be reproduced in the living language and strive to recreate them, ruthlessly ignoring those which can not" (25).

The first Beowulf segment, "The Funeral of Scyld Scefing," begins:

At the hour shaped for him Scyld departed,
the many-strengthed moved into his Master's keeping.

They carried him out to the current sea,
his sworn arms-fellows, as he himself had asked
while he wielded by his words, Ward of the Scyldings,
beloved folk-founder; long had he ruled.

A boat with a ringed neck rode in the haven,
icy, out-eager, the aetheling's vessel,
and there they laid out their lord and master,
dealer of wound gold, in the waist of the ship,
in majesty by the mast.
                                   A mound of treasures
from far countries was fetched aboard her,
and it is said that no boat was ever more bravely fitted out
with the weapons of a warrior, war accoutrement,
bills and byrnies; on his breast were set
treasures & trappings to travel with him
on his far faring into the flood's sway.

And the final segment, "'The Lay of the Last Survivor,'" ends:

["]This hardened helmet healed with gold
shall lose its shell. They sleep now
whose work was to burnish the battle-mask;
so the cuirass that in the crash took
bite of iron amid breaking shields:
it moulders with the man. This mailshirt travelled far,
hung from a shoulder shouldered warriors;
it shall not jingle again.
                                    There's no joy from harp-play,
gleewood's gladness, no good hawk
swings through hall now, no swift horse
tramps at threshold. The threat came:
falling has felled a flowering kingdom."

Not in Fry.

BAM.