Longfellow's Poetry and Poets of Europe is xix + 779 pp., in 2 vols. paginated continuously. Its first chapter, "Anglo-Saxon Language and Poetry" (1-7), is a reduced version of a review article published in 1838; in this anthology, the chapter serves as an introductory overview of Old English literature, following which are Longfellow's selections from that literature.

Longfellow here removes from the text's earlier state lengthy samples of several Old English texts he had given in translations (mostly by others), including the one passage of Beowulf that Longfellow had translated himself; this passage is presented separately in the same book as a titled piece of poetry, "Beowulf's Expedition to Heort" (q.v.). The 1838 review had included a prose summary of Beowulf, and Longfellow retains it here substantially unaltered.

The chapter "Anglo-Saxon Language and Poetry" is further revised under the new title "Anglo-Saxon Literature" in Longfellow's Collected Prose, 2 vols. (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1857), 1:384-411, where the prose summary appears on pp. 393-95; see separate record.

The prose summary begins:

The poem begins with a description of King Hrothgar the Scylding, in his great hall of Heort, which reëchoed with the sound of harp and song. But not far off, in the fens and marshes of Jutland, dwelt a grim and monstrous giant, called Grendel, a descendant of Cain. This troublesome individual was in the habit of occasionally visiting the Scylding's palace by night, to see, as the author rather quaintly says, "how the doughty Danes found themselves after their beer-carouse." (4)

And ends:

Beowulf has grown old. He has reigned fifty years; and now, in his gray old age, is troubled by the devastations of a monstrous Fire-drake, so that his metropolis is beleaguered, and he can no longer fly his hawks and merles in the open country. He resolves, at length, to fight with this Fire-drake; and, with the help of his attendant, Wiglaf, overcomes him. The land is made rich by the treasures found in the dragon's cave; but Beowulf dies of his wounds.

Thus departs Beowulf, the Sea-Goth, of the world-kings the mildest to men, the strongest of hand, the most clement to his people, the most desirous of glory. (4)

Fry, MO1, and GR represent the whole portion of Longfellow's anthology The Poets and Poetry of Europe (1845) that contains this prose summary as a reprint of an 1838 review article. However, this 1845 work uses a greatly reduced verson of the 1838 article as an introductory chapter, giving it the new title "Anglo-Saxon Language and Poetry" (vol. 1, pp. 1-7). This is followed by a series of titled anthology sections containing translated material mostly by others, including 5 passages from Beowulf in a section entitled "Poem of Beowulf" (vol. 1, pp. 8-10).

The prose summary is not represented in MO2.

BAM. The comments comparing this text to the reprint in Longfellow's Collected Prose (1857) are based on digital images of an 1857 copy at the University of California, via Hathitrust.org.