were like him – !’ Heroic narrative? Battle-poetry? Moral commentary? Perhaps these strange terms are to our times either wraiths or bugaboos or both. Let those who shy at them read Beowulf – for something serious which is kept alive by a deep fantasy, for something traditional, strong, and severe, which must return.
edwin morgan
NOTE ON TEXT
The translation is based on the text of Klaeber’s third edition (revised), but other editions have been consulted and Klaeber’s reading has not always been followed.
Passages in square brackets, marked with an asterisk, represent either presumed omissions in the Beowulf manuscript or parts of it which are too badly damaged to be read with any certainty.
