The four funerals in Beowulf

It is well known that the old English poem Beowulf begins and ends with funerals and includes the third as a digression part way through. Now for the first time a fourth funeral (hitherto disguised as poetic imagery) is identified from archaeological evidence. A detailed analysis of the four funerals establishes their thematic and structural importance revealing them as pillars around which the poem is built. The poet is revealed as a literate antiquarian of considerable structural skill; one who explores feminist issues plays with numbers and enjoys a pun; who establishes an ideal then probes its darker side.The author''s unique knowledge of Anglo-Saxon culture provides constant surprises and enlightenment. This book will be invaluable to all students of the poem for its fresh and detailed reading its identification of a coherent structure and its establishment of the integrity of the surviving texts.