Book is viii + 164 pages, portions unpaginated; b/w illus. The book is compilation, to accompany the 2007 film release of Robert Zemeckis, dir., Beowulf, of both the original draft of the screenplay (1997) and the final draft (2005), together with concept art, two songs, and various notes of explanation.

The 2005 screenplay is the primary content of the second half of the book. The major content of the first part of the book is the 1997 screenplay ([15]-[121]), preceded by a Foreword by Avary (3-13) and followed by early concept art for the film ([123]-[132]). A "Middleword" by Avary (135-41) serves as a preface to the 2005 screenplay version ([143]-[260]), which is followed by an Afterword by Gaiman (261-62) and the lyrics of 2 drafted songs by Gaiman, "We Are Beowulf's Army" and "Nail 'Em to the Wall," that were not represented fully in the film (263-64).

Avary's "Middleword" explains the history of the film's eventual production under the direction of Zemeckis, using Gaiman and Avary's 2005 rewrite of the screenplay.

The screenplay retains the epigraph of the 1997 version, whose translation is an (uncredited) borrowing from Chickering's translation of 1977 with one change in line 1:

Hwæt! We Gar-Dena     in geår-dagum,
peod-cyniga,     prym gefrunon,
hu oå æpelingas     ellen fremedon!

Listen! We have heard     of the Spear-Danes' glory
In the old days,     the kings of tribes--
How noble princes     showed great courage!

"Beowulf"
Lines 1-3
Original Author Unknown ([144]; errors in Old English sic)

The text of the screenplay begins:

FADE IN:

OVER BLACK:

NORTHERN DENMARK

518 A.D.

THE AGE OF HEROES

1.     INT. HEROT—MEAD HALL—NIGHT

We hear a VOICE. A young soprano voice SINGING a solemn descant. Chanting and trolling in a haunting, ancient dialect.

SINGER (O.S.)

Hwaet! We Gar-Deena     in gear-dagum
peod-cyninga     prym gefrunon,
hu oa aepelingas     ellen fremedon …

Now we see a beautiful FEMININE FORM of glittering gold,shimmering with light reflected. It's all unclear, however, as if we're seeing it through an underwater dream, or perhaps a memory from which all detail has faded. The slinky form rotates in a slow dance, briefly revealing what looks like a long tail.

PULL BACK TO REVEAL that the entire image is inside the pupil of an EYE, and the feminine form is actually a reflection of fire.

The eye belongs to KING BEOWULF (50). ([145]; errors in Old English sic; capitalization and formatting as in original)

And it ends:

And rising out of the water is Grendel's Mother, golden and beautiful … with her long, exquisite finger, she becons Wiglaf …

A strange look flickers across the old warrior's eyes … a look we haven't seen before …

And Wiglaf steps into the water … walking toward her …

Just as the last of the setting sun, for a moment, burns green as any emerald, and the darkness falls we …

FADE OUT: ([260]; ellipses and formatting as in original; final colon sic)

• Kristin Noone, “The Monsters and the Heroes: Neil Gaiman’s Beowulf,” Weird Fiction Review 1 (2010): 139–53, at 148–51.

BAM.