Lookout: Who are you, strangers? Beowulf: My friend, we are Geats and we come in peace. I am Beowulf and I wish to speak with Hrothgar, your king. Lookout: If you are truly the famous Beowulf then ...

Beowulf famously begins with an Old English word that has no direct modern equivalent: "HWAET." J. R. R. Tolkien, in his day ...