Book is (i)-(viii) + i-xcvi + 288 pp. The Beowulf section of the book follows a long introduction on meter (i-xcvi), then presentations in Old English, Latin, and Modern English of Cædmon's Hymn, Bede's Death Song, and Widsith (1-29). After a short introduction to Beowulf (30-34), Conybeare gives a full presentation of the poem in Modern English, oscillating between verse translation (in blank verse) and condensed prose paraphrase (35-79), followed by a brief analytical comment (79-81). Next, for those passages which had been fully translated in the foregoing Modern English section, he gives the Old English text, presented in parallel columns with a Latin translation of the same passages (82-136). This is followed by a collation of the Thorkelin transcription with the original MS (137-55) and commentary notes (156-67). The remainder of the book consists of a large Appendix compiled by Conybeare's brother William Daniel Conybeare, containing materials that J. J. Conybeare had intended to include, and a list of errata on p. 287.

Conybeare's Modern English presentation of Beowulf (a mix of blank verse translation and prose paraphrase) begins:

List! we have learnt a tale of other years,
Of kings and warrior Danes, a wondrous tale,
How æthelings bore them in the brunt of war.

Thus the poet announces what has now so entirely indeed become "a tale of other years," that little or no light can be drawn even from the copious stores of Scaldic literature for the illustration of either the personages or events which it commemorates.

The introduction is occupied by the praises of Scefing, a chieftain of the Scylding family, (who appears to have been the founder of a kingdom in the western part of Denmark,) and of his son and successor Beowulf. The embarkation of the former on a piratical expedition is then detailed at some length. In this expedition (if I rightly understand the text) himself and his companions were taken or lost at sea.

[title] CANTO I

Beowulf now ascended the throne of his father, and was after a long and prosperous reign succeeded by his son Healfdene, who became the father of three sons and a daughter (Elan), given in marriage to a chieftain of the Scylfings. Of his three sons, Heorogar, Hrothgar, and Halgatil, the eldest appears to have died before himself, the second (Hrothgar) succeeded to the throne, and is represented as being at the period of the present story much advanced in years. Soon after his accession to the royal dignity he had employed himself, we are told, in the erection of a splendid palace or hall (named Heorot or Heort) for the reception and entertainment of his friends and companions in war.

A hall of mead, such as for space and state
The elder time ne'er boasted; there with free
And princely hand he might dispense to all
(Save the rude crowd and men of evil minds)
The good he held from Heaven. That gallant work,
Full well I wot, through many a land was known
Of festal halls the brightest and the best.
Hertha its name,—for so the monarch will'd
Whose word was power; beneath that echoing roof
His bidden guests he honour'd, dealing oft
Bracelet and ring of the pure silver wrought,
Fit gift for high and princely festival. (35-36)

And ends:

[title] CANTO XLIII, and last,

Much of which is unfortunately obliterated, commences thus:—

Then work'd the Gothic folk that earth-rais'd tomb
Unwearied. High they hung the kingly helm
And corslet bright, and blade of warrior steel:
So had himself besought them:—in the midst
The sorrowing chieftains placed their long-lov'd lord.
Then on the barrow's steep they bad aspire
The funeral flame. High roll'd the wreathed smoke,
The winds of heav'n were hush'd till the keen fire
Had burst the bony tenement of the breast.
Then sad at heart they mourn'd their master's fate,
In joyless strains, e'en as a woman mourns.
*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
Then rear'd his people near the ocean flood
An ample tower, conspicuous from afar
To the sea-ranger. High it stood, and broad;
Nor ceas'd for ten days space (so bad their chief)
The beacon's fire; ten days the well fed flame
Rose by that wall.

They then cast into the tomb a part of the golden ornaments which they had removed from the treasury of the dragon, "which remain still in the earth (adds the poet, if I understand him rightly) as useless as they were in the custody of their former guardian." This done, they naturally occupied themselves for some time in recounting the many valiant and generous actions which had signalized the long and useful life of their monarch.

So mourn'd the Dane, so they who wont to share
Counsel and converse with their aged lord.
And fondly told, how of all earthly kings
Mildest in bearing, boldest in the fray,
He sought and won the meed of deathless fame. (78-79)

In the parallel presentation of Old English excerpts and their Latin translation that follows, the Old English begins:

Hwæt we Gar-Dena
In ʒear-daʒum
Ðeod cyninʒa
Ðrym ʒefrunon,
Hu ða Æðelinʒas
Ellen fremodon.

[title] Canto I.

Ðæt heal-reced
Hatan wolde,
Medo ærn micel,
Men ʒewyrcean,
Ðone yldo bearn
Æfre ʒefrunon;
And ðær on innan
Eall ʒedælan
Geonʒum and ealdum,
Swylce him God sealde,
Buton folc-scare
And feorum ʒumena.
Tha ic wide ʒefræʒn
Weorc ʒebannan
Maniʒre mæʒðe
Geond ðisne middan-ʒeard.
Folcstede frætwan
Him on fyrste ʒelomp
Ædre mid yldum
Thæt hit wearð ealʒearo
Heal-ærna mæst.
Scop him Heort naman
Se the his wordes ʒeweald
Wide hæfde.
He beotne aleh,
Beaʒas dælde,
Sinc æt symle.
Sele hlifade. (82-83)

The parallel Latin translation begins:

Aliquid nos de Bellicorum Danorum
In diebus antiquis
Popularium regum
Gloriâ accepimus,
Quomodo tunc principes
Virtute valuerint.

[title] Canto I.

Iste domum aulicam
Jubere voluit,
Hydromelis aulam magnam,
Homines ædificare,
Quam priores
Semper celebrarunt;
Et ibi intus
Omnia distribuere
Junioribus ac senioribus,
Tanquam ipsi Deus concesserat,
Præter populi turbam
Et pravos (v. peregrinos) homines.
Hoc latè intellexi
Opus celebrari
In multis regionibus
Per hunc medium-orbem.
Domicilium adornare
Ei primum obtigit
Facile inter homines
Ita ut esset omnino perfecta
Aularum maxima.
Finxit ei "Hertha" nomen
Qui jubendi potestatem
Latè habuit.
(Ibi) invitatos collocavit,
Annulos distribuit,
Aurum in symposio.
Aula resonabat. (82-83; italics as in original)

The Old English ends:

[title] XLIII.

Him ða ʒeʒiredan
Geata leode
Ad on eorðan
Unwaclicne,
Helm behonʒen,
Hilde bordum,
Beorhtum byrnum,
Swa he bena wæs.
Aleʒdon ða to middes
Mærne ðeoden,
Hæleð hiofende
Hlaford leofne.
Onʒunnon ða on beorʒe
Bæl-fyra mæst
Wiʒend weccan.
Wud wrec astah
Sweart of swic ðole.
   *   *   *   *
Wind blond ʒelæʒ
Oð ðæt he ða banhus
Gebrocen hæfde
Hat on hreðre.
Hiʒum unrote
Mod-ceare mændon
Mondryhtnes cwælm.
Swylce ʒiomorʒyd
. . . . at meowle
   *   *   *   *
Heofon rece sealʒ
Geweorhdon ða
Wedra leode.
. . . seo on lide
Se wæs hea and brad,
Eðlidenðum
Wide to syne.
And becn bredon
On tyn daʒum,
Beadu rofis
Becn bronda
Be wealle beworhton.
   *   *   *   *
Swa beʒnornodon
Geata leode
Hlafordes . . . re . .
Heorð-ʒeneatas
Cwæðon ðæt he wære
Worold cyninʒnes
Mannum mildust,
And mond rærust,
Leodum liðost,
And leof ʒeornost. (134-36; dots and asterisks for unintelligible text as in original)

And the parallel Latin translation ends:

[title] XLIII

Illi (Beowulfo) tunc erexerunt
Gothica gens
Tumulum in terrâ
Strenuè,
Galeam suspendebant,
Bellicum clypeum,
Splendidam loricam,
Uti jusserat.
Collocabant tunc in medio
Magnum principem,
Milites lugentes
Dominum dilectum.
Inceperunt tunc in tumulo
Ignem rogi maximum
Milites excitare.
Ligni fumus ascendit
Ater . . . . . . .
   *   *   *   *
Ventus quiescebat
Donec osseam domum
Disruperat
Calor in pectore.
Mente tristes
Animo solliciti lugebant
Regis necem.
Tanquam næniis
. . . . . . mulier.
   *   *   *   *
Altum ædificium
Exstruebant statim
Æolica gens.
. . . illud ad mare
Erat altum ac latum,
Navigantibus
Latè videndum.
Et ignem ampliabant
Per decem dies,
Jussu principis
Ignem pyræ
Ad murum erigebant.
   *   *   *   *
Ita lugebant
Gothica gens
Principis (interitum?) . .
Familiares
Dicebant, quod erat
E mundi regibus
Hominibus mitissimus,
Et manu fortissimus,
Populo facillimus,
Et amoris cupidissimus. (134-36; dots and asterisks for unintelligible text as in original)

• Hugh Magennis, Translating Beowulf: Modern Versions in English Verse (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2011), 48-50.

Along with Conybeare's edited selections of Old English text and translations or paraphrases in Latin, for the Modern English renderings Fry and MO1 single out the presence of verse translations, while GR singles out "English paraphrase." For Beowulf, both are present in alternation, as described above.

MO2 describes Conybeare's Beowulf renderings as "Passages translated first into Latin and thence into English blank verse." This order of procedure may be a logical inference from the fact that the Old English and Latin are presented in parallel, even though they are preceded in the book's contents by the Modern English verse-and-prose rendering.

BAM.