PART I

PART I

CHAPTER I. THE HISTORICAL ELEMENTS

SECTION I. The Problem 1 SECTION II. The Geatas--their Kings and their Wars 2 SECTION III. Heorot and the Danish Kings 13 SECTION IV. Leire and Heorot 16 SECTION V. The Heathobeardan 20 SECTION VI. Hrothulf 25 SECTION VII. King Offa 31

CHAPTER II. THE NON-HISTORICAL ELEMENTS

SECTION I. The Grendel Fight 41 SECTION II. The Scandinavian Parallels--Grettir and Orm 48 SECTION III. Bothvar Bjarki 54 SECTION IV. Parallels from Folklore 62 SECTION V. Scef and Scyld 68 SECTION VI. Beow 87 SECTION VII. The house of Scyld and Danish parallels--Heremod-Lotherus and Beowulf-Frotho 89

CHAPTER III. THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN, DATE AND STRUCTURE OF THE POEM

SECTION I. Is _Beowulf_ translated from a Scandinavian original? 98 SECTION II. The dialect, syntax and metre of _Beowulf_ as evidence of its literary history 104 SECTION III. Theories as to the structure of _Beowulf_ 112 SECTION IV. Are the Christian elements incompatible with the rest of the poem? 121 {x}