Sample of Beowulf Style Poetry

The translation we are using for class is a reasonably good one, but doesn't make the division of lines as clear as it could. The following translation should give you a better sense of what Old English poetry might look like:

Then the angry sea-wolf               swam to the bottom

carried to her den                              the lord of those rings,

clutched him so hard                        he might not draw sword,

no matter how heartstrong.     Terrible water beasts

attacked as they plunged,          strange sea creatures