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Cover of Beowulf

Poetry

Beowulf

Translated by John Lesslie Hall

With Emma Sweeney

A hero is hired to kill a monster that has been plaguing the land.

First published
1877
Length
26,417 words
Reading time
About 1 hr 51 min
Language
English (US)

About the book

Horothgar, King of the Danes, invites warriors from neighboring kingdoms to his great mead hall with the hope that one of them will solve his problem. A monster named Grendel has been terrorizing the land and killing his people. One of the warriors who answers this call is our epic hero, Beowulf.

The Beowulf Manuscript, also known as the Nowell Codex, dates back to the late 10th century or early 11th century and is the only copy in existence. In 1731, the manuscript was damaged from the Cotton Library fire, making several lines in the poem unreadable. Today, with the help of modern technology, advanced techniques are being used not only to preserve the document from further degradation but also to reveal missing letters. All this is done to ensure that this epic story will continue to live on for many more generations.

the Read4Max reading text contains approximately 26,417 words arranged in 47 navigable sections.

The source metadata identifies Translator: John Lesslie Hall; Annotator: Emma Sweeney.

About the author

Anonymous

The source metadata attributes this work to anonymous rather than to a named individual.

No personal biography is supplied because the source record does not establish a named creator.

Contributors

Translator

John Lesslie Hall

Annotator

Emma Sweeney

Reading options

  • A complete text with direct section navigation in the browser reader.
  • A downloadable EPUB for phones, tablets, desktop reading apps, and compatible ereaders.
  • Book and contributor metadata are checked against the source edition before indexing.

Themes and ideas

  • Epic poetry, English (Old)
  • Monsters
  • Dragons

Table of contents

Open reader
Show all 47 sections
  1. Preface
  2. The Story
  3. Beowulf
  4. I
  5. II
  6. III
  7. IV
  8. V
  9. VI
  10. VII
  11. VIII
  12. IX
  13. X
  14. XI
  15. XII
  16. XIII
  17. XIV
  18. XV
  19. XVI
  20. XVII
  21. XVIII
  22. XIX
  23. XX
  24. XXI
  25. XXII
  26. XXIII
  27. XXIV
  28. XXV
  29. XXVI
  30. XXVII
  31. XXVIII
  32. XXIX
  33. XXX
  34. XXXI
  35. XXXII
  36. XXXIII
  37. XXXIV
  38. XXXV
  39. XXXVI
  40. XXXVII
  41. XXXVIII
  42. XXXIX
  43. XL
  44. XLI
  45. XLII
  46. XLIII
  47. Endnotes