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The article explores the etymology of Beowulf's name, challenging the idea that it stems from a minor agricultural deity and proposing instead an Old Gotlandic origin. Topics include theophoric analysis, Old English personal names with the prototheme "beadu-", and the prevalence of Ing in Germanic theophoric names.

The article reconsiders a magic chant interpretation in the Old Man's Lament in the poem "Beowulf," wherein an anonymous father is depicted mourning for his deceased child. It discusses the sorrow in the lyric of the poem and argues that the elegy sang by the father alludes to a ritual practice with Odinic associations and is a magic chant intended to restore life to the dead. It analyzes the context of Old Man's Lament and relates it to Germanic mythology and its use of Old Norse language.

The author critiques Irish poet Seamus Heaney's translation of the epic poem "Beowulf." Topics include a debate on the subject of cultural appropriation created by dialectical diction in Heaney's translation, the unsettled question of whether the dialect mystifies the text and excludes certain readers, the solution offered by Heaney to mystification problem in the introduction according to his supporters and the reason for the attention received by the dialectal word "bawn" in the translation.