How to Cite Beowulf: A Student’s Guide

Citing Beowulf presents a peculiar knot for students to untangle. You’re dealing with an ancient epic poem, which means the rules are a bit different from your average novel. The original author is unknown, and the version you’re reading is almost certainly a translation. This guide will show you how to cite Beowulf accurately for your paper, focusing on MLA format but touching on other citation styles too.

How to Cite Beowulf in MLA: The Works Cited Entry

A Beowulf MLA citation begins with the title when you treat the poem as an anonymous work, followed by “Translated by” and the translator. If your paper analyzes the translator’s choices, MLA also allows the entry to begin with the translator. Either way, the entry is alphabetized on your works cited page by its first word.

The reason for two options is that Beowulf has no known writer. The poem survives in a single Old English manuscript, so the words you read in class belong to a modern translator such as Seamus Heaney, whose verse translation from W. W. Norton is the edition most students are assigned. Every entry for this poem needs the same core information:

• The translator, credited after the title
• The title, in italics
• The publisher, such as W. W. Norton
• The year of publication
• Line numbers for in-text citations

Here is the title-first entry, which is the default for an anonymous work:

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Translated by Seamus Heaney, W. W. Norton, 2000.

Here is the translator-first entry, which suits a paper that focuses on the translation itself:

Heaney, Seamus, translator. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. W. W. Norton, 2000.

An entry that begins with the title is alphabetized under “B” on your works cited page, so it sits among the other entries beginning with B rather than under Heaney. Choose one form and keep it consistent, and follow your instructor’s preference if the syllabus states one.

Your paper	Start the entry with	In-text citation
Discusses the story, themes, or characters	The title, Beowulf, then “Translated by Seamus Heaney”	(Beowulf lines 24–25)
Analyzes the translator’s word choices	The translator, Heaney, Seamus, translator	(Heaney lines 24–25)
Follows an instructor’s stated rule	Whichever form the syllabus requires	Match the entry you chose

For more general help with book entries, see our guide on how to cite books, and for the rules behind these examples, read about MLA style.

Citing Beowulf in Text: Line Numbers vs. Page Numbers

When citing Beowulf in text, give line numbers instead of page numbers whenever your edition prints them. The first citation uses the label “lines” or “line,” as in (Beowulf lines 24–25), and later citations give the number alone, as in (31). A line number lets a reader find the passage in any printing of the same translation, whereas a page number changes from one edition to the next.

This is the convention used for other long poems and for numbered works such as a play, where act and scene numbers play the same role. Here is a short passage from Heaney’s opening, quoted with a slash to mark the line break:

The poem insists that “Behavior that’s admired / is the path to power among people everywhere” (Beowulf lines 24–25).

The parenthetical reference begins with the first element of your Works Cited entry. If the entry begins with the title, the citation begins with the title. If it begins with Heaney, the citation begins with Heaney. When a quotation spans several lines, join the first and last line number with a dash.

I remember being confused about this because a friend’s copy printed line numbers in the margin and mine did not. We had to double-check that we were discussing the same part of the story. If your edition lacks line numbers, use the page number instead, as in (Heaney 35), and never invent line numbers that your copy does not show. For help weaving the quotation into your own sentence, see how to introduce quotations.

One caution applies to every translation. Each translator numbers the lines of their own version, and those lines follow the Old English closely but not exactly, so line 703 in one translation may not match line 703 in another. Always cite the numbers printed in the edition you actually used.

The MLA Style Center describes this pattern in its answer on the number to use in a parenthetical citation for a poem. Mastering these small details is what separates a good paper from a great one, and our overview of citations offers a deeper look at the wider rules, including how the same logic carries over to the Bible and its book, chapter, and verse divisions.

Is Beowulf Italicized?

Yes, Beowulf is italicized when it refers to the poem. MLA, APA, and Chicago all italicize the titles of book-length works, and Beowulf is a long poem published as a book. The hero of the story is not italicized, and neither is the translator. Quotation marks are reserved for shorter works, such as a single poem or a chapter inside a collection.

The same rule applies in your Works Cited entry and in the running text of your paper. You would write that Beowulf was composed in Old English, but that Beowulf the hero fights Grendel, with no formatting at all on the hero.

Element	How to format it
The poem, Beowulf	Italics, because it is a book-length work
The hero, Beowulf	No formatting, because it is a character
Translated by Seamus Heaney	Plain text, with no italics or quotation marks
A short poem inside a collection	Quotation marks, with the collection title in italics

These conventions are shared across the major styles, so you do not need to change the formatting of the title when you switch from one to another. What changes is where the title sits in the entry and how the translator is credited.

Beowulf APA Citation and Chicago Style

A Beowulf APA citation places the title in the lead position because the poem has no known writer, then credits the translator in parentheses after the title, as in (S. Heaney, Trans.). The in-text citation uses the title and the year, and the style allows line numbers in place of page numbers for classical works like this one.

The APA Style team explains the translator format in its guide on how to cite translated works. Applied to the Heaney edition, the reference entry and in-text citation look like this:

Beowulf: A new verse translation (S. Heaney, Trans.). (2000). W. W. Norton & Company.

(Beowulf, 2000, lines 24–25)

The translator is credited in parentheses after the title and before the period, and the reference list is alphabetized by the title. For the broader rules, see our page on APA style.

Chicago style leads the bibliography entry with the translator and adds the city of publication. Chicago’s two systems differ in the text. One cites the year and line numbers in parentheses, and the other places the line numbers in a footnote.

Heaney, Seamus, trans. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.

The table gathers every format in this guide for comparison. Check each entry against your instructor’s style sheet, since small details differ between versions of a style.

Style	Works Cited / References Example	In-Text Citation Example
MLA 9, title first	Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Translated by Seamus Heaney, W. W. Norton, 2000.	(Beowulf lines 24–25)
MLA 9, translator first	Heaney, Seamus, translator. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. W. W. Norton, 2000.	(Heaney lines 24–25)
APA 7	Beowulf: A new verse translation (S. Heaney, Trans.). (2000). W. W. Norton & Company.	(Beowulf, 2000, lines 24–25)
Chicago 17	Heaney, Seamus, trans. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.	(Heaney 2000, lines 24–25)

Notice that MLA leaves the year out of the in-text citation, while the other two styles include it. If you need to switch between styles quickly, a citation generator or our guide to Chicago style can save time.

Citing an Anthology or PDF Version of Beowulf

When Beowulf appears inside a larger collection such as The Norton Anthology of English Literature, the entry begins with the poem’s title, credits the translator, and then identifies the anthology and its editor. When you read the poem as an online PDF, the entry keeps the same core details and adds the host website and the address of the file.

The anthology is a multivolume set, so the entry must also acknowledge the editors and the volume. It looks more complex than a standalone book, but it is manageable once you see it laid out. The page range in this example is illustrative, so replace it with the range printed in your own volume.

Beowulf. Translated by Seamus Heaney, The Norton Anthology of English Literature, general editor, Stephen Greenblatt, 10th ed., vol. A, W. W. Norton, 2018, pp. 42–111.

Sometimes you might use an online PDF of the text, like this version of Beowulf. You treat it as an online document, so the entry still credits the translator and looks for line numbers, but it also includes the website title and the web address. The translator of that edition is Francis B. Gummere, and the entry in MLA format reads as follows:

Beowulf. Translated by Francis B. Gummere, Gordon State College, faculty.gordonstate.edu/cperkowski/1501/Beowulf.pdf.

For more specific guidance on file-based sources, you can review this article on how to cite a PDF.

Beowulf Citation FAQ

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