Produced by Charlene Taylor, Ted Garvin, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's note: In Germanic languages [=a] signifies "a macron"; [o,] "o with Ogonek"; and so forth. [gh] represents yogh. Common accents are shown ['a] acute, [`a] grave, [^a] circumflex. aesc, eth and thorn are expanded to ae, dh and th; a-umlaut to ae, etc, o-slash to oe. [Illustration: Drida (Thryth) reproached for her Evil Deeds _From MS Cotton Nero D. I, fol. 11 b_ "That is no way for a lady to behave." (Ne bidh swylc cw[=e]nl[=i]c th[=e]aw | idese t[=o] efnanne: _Beowulf_, ll 1940-1.) ] BEOWULF AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE POEM WITH A DISCUSSION OF THE STORIES OF OFFA AND FINN BY R. W. CHAMBERS Dey mout er bin two deloojes: en den agin dey moutent. UNCLE REMUS, _The Story of the Deluge_. CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1921 * * * * * TO PROF. WILLIAM WITHERLE LAWRENCE DEAR PROF. LAWRENCE, When, more than four years ago, I asked you to allow me to dedicate this volume to you, it was as a purely personal token of gratitude for the help I had received from what you have printed, and from what you have written to me privately. Since then much has happened: the debt is greater, and no longer purely personal. We in this country can never forget what we owe to your people. And the self-denial which led them voluntarily to stint themselves of food, that we in Europe might be fed, is one of many things about which it is not easy to speak. Our heart must indeed have been hardened if we had not considered the miracle of those loaves. But I fear that to refer to that great debt in the dedication to this little book may draw on me the ridicule incurred by the poor man who dedicated his book to the Universe. Nevertheless, as a fellow of that College which has just received from an American donor the greatest benefaction for medical research which has ever been made in this country of ours, I may rejoice that the co-operation between our nations is being continued in that warfare against ignorance and disease which some day will become the only warfare waged among men. Sceal hring-naca ofer heafu bringan l[=a]c ond luf-t[=a]cen. Ic th[=a] l[=e]ode w[=a]t ge widh f[=e]ond ge widh fr[=e]ond faeste geworhte, [=ae]ghwaes unt[=ae]le ealde w[=i]san. R. W. C. * * * * * {vii} PREFACE