xxxiii + 225 pp. Old English text (a reproduction of Klaeber's Beowulf, 4th ed., ed. Fulk, Bjork, and Niles, with a small number of deviations listed on pp. xxvii-xxviii), facing a verse translation in which "every line has four beats, and alliteration is a structural element … present in every line, but as unobtrusively as I could manage" (xxv). The translation, which is slightly compressed (totaling 3064 lines), is preceded by an introduction on the poem (xi-xxi), a note on the translation technique (xxiii-xxvi), the list of deviations from Klaeber 4, a table of pronunciations of proper names, and a map.

The Old English text as given begins:

Hwæt wē Gār-Dena     in ġeārdagum,
þēodcyninga     þrym ġefrūnon,
hū ðā æþelingas     ellen fremedon.

Oft Scyld Scēfing     sceaþena þrēatum,
monegum mǣġþum     meodosetla oftēah,
eġsode eorl[as],     syððan ǣrest wearð
fēasceaft funden.     Hē þæs frōfre ġebad:
wēox under wolcnum,     weorðmyndum þāh,
oð þæt him ǣġhwylċ     þāra ymbsittendra
ofer hronrāde     hȳran scolde,
gomban ġyldan.     Þæt wæs gōd cyning. (2)

And the Modern English text en face begins:

OF THE STRENGTH OF THE SPEAR-DANES in days gone by
we have heard, and of their hero-kings:
the prodigious deeds those princes performed!
Often Scyld Scefing shattered the ranks
of hostile tribes and filled them with terror.
He began as a foundling but flourished later
and grew to glory beneath the sky,
until the countries on every coast
over the waves where the whales ride
yielded to him with yearly tribute
to keep the peace. He was a good king. (3)

The Old English text ends:

Þā ymbe hlǣw riodan     hildedīore,
æþelinga bearn,     ealra twelf(e),
woldon (care) cwīdan     (ond c)yning mǣnan,
wordġyd wrecan,     ond ymb w(er) sprecan;
eahtodan eorlscipe     ond his ellenweorc
duguðum dēmdon—     swā hit ġedē(fe) bið
þæt mon his winedryhten     wordum herġe,
ferhðum frēoġe,     þonne hē forð scile
of l(ī)ċhaman     (lǣ)ded weorðan.
Swā begnornodon     Ġēata lēode
hlāfordes (hry)re,     heorðġenēatas;
cwǣdon þæt hē wǣre     wyruldcyning[a]
manna mildust     ond mon(ðw)ǣrust,
lēodum līðost     ond lofġeornost. (204-6)

And the Modern English facing translation ends:

                      Twelve warriors rode
around Beowulf's barrow, chanting
solemn dirges and mourning his death.
They praised his nobility and his war-prowess
with the highest praise, as was only proper,
for a man should honor his own lord
on the day when he journeys forth from the flesh.

Thus the Geats all grieved and lamented
the noble lord whom they so loved.
They cried out that he was, of all the world's kings,
the kindest and the most courteous man,
the most gracious to all, and the keenest for glory. (205-7)

BAM.