Preface; List of abbreviations; List of changes from Klaeber's text; 1. The Beowulf-poet and his metrical grammar; 2. The alliterative and metrical principles of Beowulf: Kuhn's 'laws' and the transformational rule; 3. The three kinds of half-lines: extra-metrical alliteration and type A3; 4. Displacement; 5. Stressed proclitic adjectives: X-positions and the insertion rule; 6. Problems with the identification of clause-non-initial half-lines: the proclitic onset; 7. Half-lines with internal clause divisions: the transformational rule (revised); 8. The alliterative requirement of unstressed prefixes and the copulative conjunctions; 9. The alliterative requirement of prepositions and the proclitic adverbs and instrumentals; 10. The alliterative requirement of proclitic adjectives and pronouns: the alliterative rule of proclitics; 11. Displaced and detached proclitics; 12. The three classes of compounds: the alliterative requirement of class I compounds; 13. The alliterative behaviour of class II compounds; 14. The alliterative behaviour of class III compounds and simplexes; 15. Metrical typology and the metrical grammar; 16. Conclusions; Appendix; Glossary of technical terms; Bibliography; Index of alliteration, scansion and metrical clause structure; Index of verses specially discussed.