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Composed by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon singer toward the end of the first millennium AD, Beowulf is an Old English epic recounting the adventures of Beowulf, a Geatish hero from present-day Sweden. He is called on by Hrothgar, King of the Danes, to defeat Grendel, the powerful monster that threatens his great hall.

As one of the earliest extant poems in a modern European language, it depicts a feudal world of blood, victory, and death–a world that exalts heroes who travel great distances to prove their strength, at impossible odds, against supernatural demons and beasts.

Ringing with the beauty, power, and artistry that have kept it alive for a thousand years, this venerable tale is now available as a portable, elegantly designed clothbound edition with an elastic closure and a new introduction.