<span>"The greatest of the English epics is <i>Beowulf</i>, written shortly after the year 700, probably by a monk in a Northumbrian monastery. The subject matter is an accumulation of centuries of pagan and Christian legends. These are given local and contemporary color by the description of many of the eight century social manners. This epic has great pictorial power, stately speeches, momentous action and the portrait of the idealized King. Beowulf, the mildest, kindest, and most beloved of men, makes this long poem one of the most important heritages from our Teutonic ancestors. The reflections of the author show a Christian point of view, while the descriptions of the ceremonies are pagan. The original text, mutilated and incomplete, written in a most archaic English, was a challenge to the translator, William Morris. "To Morris, the story,' so writes H. Holliday Sparling, 'or what remains of it, was </span><span>intelligible and interesting, but not even he could render it in terms that are intelligible to any but a highly trained reader." (Ege, Otto F.) <i>Beowulf</i> was "done out" of the Old English by William Morris, assisted by A.J. Wyatt, in 1894. In 1895, it was issued as the thirty-second publication of the Kelmscott Press, founded in 1891 by Morris. The type is the "Troy", Morris' second type of design of which he wrote, "... herein the task I set myself was to redeem the Gothic character from the charge of unreadableness... I think I may claim (the "Troy") to be as readable as a roman". The Kelmscott volumes generally are regarded more as objects of art than readable books. Nevertheless, Morris' ideals did more to raise the standard of printing in many countries and to encourage individual expression than the work of any other printer who preceded him". (Ege, Otto F.)Original Leaves from Famous BooksOtto F. Ege Collection</span>