Volume 1 of Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is 455 pp. The essay "Anglo-Saxon Literature" (pp. 384-411), here independent of its surroundings, is a revised version of Longfellow's "Anglo-Saxon Language and Poetry," which had served as an introduction to his selections from Old English literature in his 1845 anthology The Poets and Poetry of Europe (vol. 1, pp. 1-8). The essay as printed in 1845 was a significant reduction from its earliest form, an 1838 review article. All three forms contain the prose summary of Beowulf, that portion of the essay remaining substantively unaltered from version to version of the larger essay.

In this 1857 treatment of the essay as a whole, Longfellow makes a few trivial changes to wording; he also eliminates Old English where in 1845 he had retained it alongside his running translations or paraphrases of individual lines or phrases. At a larger scale, he deletes from its 1845 form a few paragraphs and notes. However, keeping the essay's overall length approximately the same as in 1845, he also restores in whole or in part some translations from Old English texts that he had provided in 1838 and removed in 1845 (see, in 1857, pp. 403-4, 407-8, and 409-10), and in one case even enlarges a translation from 1838 that had been removed from it in 1845: on pp. 402-3 he expands his translation from Soul and Body II from its original 14 lines in 1838 (p. 122) to 41 lines, taking this fuller form from his presentation of the poem as an anthology piece in 1845 (where it is found on p. 28 of vol. 1).

Longfellow's continuing revision of this essay for its 1857 republication—and in particular, his ongoing adjustment of the quantity and type of primary material from Old English that is provided in translation (including his choice not to re-integrate his translated excerpt from Beowulf that had appeared in 1838 and was in the 1845 anthology)—brings about sufficient evolution of the Beowulf summary's context to warrant a separate database entry. This version of the essay is the one reprinted subsequently.

The 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." (393-94)

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. (395)

Fry, MO1, and GR represent the essay "Anglo-Saxon Literature" that contains this prose summary as a straightforward reprint of an 1838 review article. However, this 1857 work presents a further revised verson of the 1845 revision of the original 1838 article, with significant changes at each stage (see Descriptive Notes, above).

Both Fry and GR give the 1857 book's title as Collected Prose. The printed title is Prose Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Longfellow's prose summary (1838, 1845, 1857) is not represented in MO2.

BAM, from digital facsimile of a copy at the University of California, via Hathitrust.org.