Book is 218 pp. This volume—which is designated as the "bilingual edition," not as a "2nd edition" (the so-named 2nd edition of The Earliest English Poems will appear in 1977)—reproduces the translations from Alexander's Earliest English Poems (1966), now alongside the Old English text.

The book's main content is preceded by Alexander's introduction, note on the translation, and acknowledgments from The Earliest English Poems (with a new note indicating the use of Old English text from the volumes of The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, ed. George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie) (9-25). Each selection or group of selections also has its own headnote from The Earliest English Poems, and the material following the main subject matter—commentary notes, appendices, glossary of proper names, and a list of further resources—likewise is reproduced from that book (183-218). As in the original edition, 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.'"

The first segment, "The Funeral of Scyld Scefing," begins in Modern English:

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. (58)

And in Old English:

Him ða Scyld gewat     to gescæphwile
felahror feran     on frean wære.
Hi hyne þa ætbæron     to brimes faroðe,
swæse gesiþas,     swa he selfa bæd,
þenden wordum weold     wine Scyldinga;
leof landfruma     lange ahte.
Þær æt hyðe stod     hringedstefna,
isig ond utfus,     æþelinges fær.
Aledon þa     leofne þeoden,
beaga bryttan,     on bearm scipes,
mærne be mæste.     Þær wæs madma fela
of feorwegum,     frætwa, gelæded;
ne hyrde ic cymlicor     ceol gegyrwan
hildewæpnum     ond heaðowædum,
billum ond byrnum;     him on bearme læg
madma mænigo,     þa him mid scoldon
on flodes æht     feor gewitan. (59)

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

["]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." (68)

And in Old English:

["]Sceal se hearda helm     [hyr]sted golde
fætum befeallen;     feormynd swefað,
þa ðe beadogriman     bywan sceoldon,
ge swylce seo herepad,     sio æt hilde gebad
ofer borda gebræc     bite irena,
brosnað æfter beorne.     Ne mæg byrnan hring
æfter wigfruman     wide feran,
hæleðum be healfe.     Næs hearpan wyn,
gomen gleobeames,     ne god hafoc
geond sæl swingeð,     ne se swifta mearh
burhstede beateð.     Bealocwealm hafað
fela feorhcynna     forð onsended!" (69)

This new bilingual edition not noted in MO1 or MO2. GR specifies that the new edition presents facing-page text and translation.

BAM.