Book is xiv + 415 pp. The Lay of Beowulf, as published, is two versions of a verse retelling of Beowulf's conflict with Grendel ("Beowulf and Grendel," 56 lines, pp. 417-19) or with Grendel and his mother ("Beowulf and the Monsters," 120 line, pp. 420-25), in 8-line tail-rhyme stanzas but ballad-like in their treatment of the story. From Christopher Tolkien's note:

On the cover page [of the manuscript] there is … a pencilled note "Intended to be sung." As mentioned in the Preface I remember his singing this ballad to me when I was seven or eight years old, in the early 1930s (but of course it may have been in existence years before that). I think it very probable that it was the first version, Beowulf and Grendel, that he sang. (416)

C. Tolkien makes no reference to the tune to which the song was sung, but it appears to have been written for the tune of "The Fox Went Out on a Winter's Night"; see comments in Fimi, "Tolkien and Folklore," p. 28 (Scholarship, below).

"Beowulf and Grendel" begins:

Grendel came forth in the dead of night;
the moon in his eyes shone glassy bright,
as over the moors he strode in might,
     until he came to Heorot.
Dark lay the dale, the windows shone;
by the wall he lurked and listened long,
and he cursed their laughter and cursed their song
     and the twanging harps of Heorot. (417)

And ends:

The demon's head in the hall did hang
and grinned from the wall while minstrels sang,
till flames leapt forth and red swords rang,
     and hushed were the harps of Heorot.
And latest and last one hoar of head,
as he lay on a hard and stony bed,
and venom burned him and he bled,
     remembered the light of Heorot. (419)

"Beowulf and the Monsters" begins:

Grendel came forth at dead of night;
the moon in his eyes shone glassy bright,
as over the moors he strode in might
     until he came to Heorot.
Dark lay the dale, the windows shone;
by the wall he lurked and listened long,
and he cursed their laughter and cursed their song
     and the twanging harps of Heorot. (420)

And ends:

The demon's head in the hall did hang
and grinned from the wall while minstrels sang
till flames leapt forth and red swords rang
     and hushed were the harps of Heorot.
Latest and last one hoar of head,
as he lay on a hard and stony bed
and venom burned him, and he bled,
     remembered the light of Heorot. (425)

• Dimitra Fimi, "Tolkien and Folklore: Sellic Spell and The Lay of Beowulf," Mallorn 55 (2014): 27-28.

BAM (1st U.S. ed.).