THE three lectures that follow were delivered at
the invitation of the University of London in the
Senate House in January and February 1950.
They make no claim to be an exhaustive study of
Beowulf, but merely consider some of its problems from
a particular approach. This has necessitated the repeat-
ing of much that has often been said before, and no
attempt is made to refer to previous writers on matters
which are now universally accepted, for this could
hardly have been done without writing much of the
history of Beowulf scholarship in footnote form. In order
to keep the footnotes within reasonable bounds I have
confined them to references to original authorities, or
to studies on the topics with which I have been speci-
fically concerned.

I should like to express my gratitude to Sir Frank
Stenton, Dr. K. Sisam, and Professor B. Dickins for
reading this work in manuscript and giving me much
helpful criticism and advice; to Miss B. Hill, of St.
Hilda's College, for valuable help with the proofs; and
to the staff of the Clarendon Press for the care and speed
with which they have produced this book.

D. W.

ST. HILDA'S COLLEGE
OXFORD
9 September 1950