Beowulf is the longest poem in Old English, the language spoken in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest, and is the only Anglo-Saxon epic preserved in its entirety. It was composed in southwest Sweden, sometime before the eighth century, and taken to England, where it was re-worked and Christianised. The only manuscript of the poem in existence is thought to be of the tenth century; it is held in the British Library. The author of the epic remains unknown.

The epic relates the adventures of the hero Beowulf and his successive battles with the monster Grendel, with Grendel’s mother, and with a dragon guarding a hoard of treasure. It is a simple story which is nevertheless enthralling, and gives us an invaluable glimpse into the everyday lives of the people whose heroic deeds it relates.

Beowulf contains three thousand one hundred and eighty-four lines, and is written in alliterative verse. Each line is divided into two by a break or ceasura and on each side of the caesura are two stressed syllables. At least one stressed syllable in the first half of the line begins with the same sound as a stressed syllable in the second half of the line. Different rhythms are created by alliterating different stressed syllables, rather than through the use of rhyme and metre.

Over the last two centuries, Beowulf has been translated several times into modern English. The first complete translation was a literal, prose translation by John Mitchell Kemble in 1837. This was followed by translations in verse including that by John Lesslie Hall in 1892 - this is generally regarded as very faithful to the original. Many more translations appeared in the 20th century. These include Francis Gummere’s translation of 1910. Gummere retains the alliterative rhythm and caesura (though unmarked). Other translations - more imaginative and easier on the ear - are Michael Alexander’s 1973 rendition in alliterative verse and Howell D. Chickering's 1977 rendition into verse that is almost as terse as the original. The most popular recent translation is by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, published in 1999.

Presented here is the story of Beowulf and translated extracts from the poem; all have been taken from various sources in the public domain.