A translation of Beowulf, lines 3137-82, presented as a freestanding poetic segment of 46 lines, and inscribed "In memory of George Mackay Brown" (the Orcadian poet, who had died the previous year). Heaney would later make several revisions to the Times Literary Supplement version as he incorporated it into his full 1999 translation.

The translation begins:

The Geat people built a pyre for Beowulf,
stacked it four-square from the ground up,
and hung helmets on it, as he had instructed,
surrounding it with war-shields and shining mail.
Then his warriors laid him in the middle of it,
mourning a lord who had been far-famed and beloved. (4)

And ends:

Then twelve warriors rode around the tomb,
chieftains' sons, champions in battle,
all of them distraught, chanting in dirges,
mourning his loss as a man and a king.
They extolled his heroic nature and exploits
and gave thanks for his greatness; which was the proper thing
for a man should praise a lord who is dear
and cherish his memory when that moment comes
when he has to be conveyed from his bodily home.
So the Geat people, his hearth companions,
sorrowed for the lord who had been laid low.
They said that of all the kings upon earth
he was the man who had been mildest and gentlest,
the kindest to his people and the keenest for renown. (4)

Not mentioned specifically in MO2, but MO2 1987(c) references Heaney's "many other fragmentary translations" in advance of his 1999 full translation.

BAM (from digital images accessed via The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive, GaleCengage).