Beowulf, Word for Word

The complete Old English poem with a deliberately literal Modern English gloss. Every gloss stays in the original word order, even when the result sounds awkward.

AI translation · not a scholarly edition. This is an experimental personal learning aid. The glosses are best-effort readings and can be wrong. One Old English word may need several English words; they remain one linked group. † marks an uncertain guess; [fragment] marks damaged text.

Click an Old English word to highlight its English partner on the right. You can also click an English gloss. Click elsewhere or press Escape to clear the highlight.

Play Ēalā!, an Old English word game.

Reader version: word-for-word · 30 September 2026