_Beowulf_ has been commonly regarded as exceptional, on account of its length and complexity, among the remains of the old Teutonic poetry. This view is hardly consistent with a right reading of _Waldere_, or of _Maldon_ either, for that matter. It is not easy to make any great distinction between _Beowulf_ and _Waldere_ in respect of the proportions of the story. The main action of _Beowulf_ is comparable in extent with the action of _Waltharius_. The later adventure of _Beowulf_ has the character of a sequel, which extends the poem, to the detriment of its proportions, but without adding any new element of complexity to the epic form. Almost all the points in which the manner of _Beowulf_ differs from that of _Finnesburh_ may be found in _Waldere_ also, and are common to _Waldere_ and _Beowulf_ in distinction from _Hildebrand_ and _Finnesburh_. The two poems, the poem of _Beowulf_ and the fragments of _Waldere_, seem to be alike in the proportion they allow to dramatic argument, and in their manner of alluding to heroic matters outside of their own proper stories, not to speak of their affinities of ethical tone and sentiment. The time of the whole action of _Beowulf_ is long. The poem, however, falls naturally into two main divisions--_Beowulf in Denmark_, and the _Death of Beowulf_. If it is permissible to consider these for the present as two separate stories, then it may be affirmed that in none of the stories preserved in the old poetic form of England and the German Continent is there any great length or complexity. _Hildebrand_, a combat; _Finnesburh_, a defence of a house; _Waldere_, a champion beset by his enemies; _Beowulf in Denmark_, the hero as a deliverer from pests; _Beowulf's Death_ in one action; _Maldon_ the last battle of an English captain; these are the themes, and they are all simple. There is more complexity in the story of _Finnesburh_, as reported in _Beowulf_, than in all the rest; but even that story appears to have observed as much as possible the unity of action. The epic singer at the court of the Dane appears to have begun, not with the narrative of the first contest, but immediately after that, assuming that part of the story as known, in order to concentrate attention on the vengeance, on the penalty exacted from Finn the Frisian for his treachery to his guests.