Beowulf – its Structure There is considerable diversity of opinion regarding the structure of the poem Beowulf. This essay hopes to enlighten the reader on some of the opinions expressed by literary scholars on this topic. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature states: It is generally believed that several originally separate texts were combined in the poem, and, although not whether proof is obtainable, the theory itself is not improbable. These scenes are usually supposed to be four and to deal with the following topics: (1) Beowulf's fight with Grendel, (2) the fight with Grendel's mother, (3) the return of Beowulf, (4) the fight with the dragon (v1,ch3,s3,n16). Alvin A. Lee in his essay, "Symbolic Metaphor and the Design of Beowulf", essentially agrees that there are four divisions in the structure of the poem: by getting a little closer to the text but still thinking of it in terms of its overall design, one can recognize four [italics mine] main myths or symbolic episodes, each of which is concentrated at appropriate points in the narrative but also extends its effect, with different emphases, throughout the poem ( 148). But Lee's four divisions are not the same as those first mentioned. The first part of Lee culminates with the construction of Heorot; the second part, when Grendel devastates Heorot; the third, the advent of Beowulf and the victories over Grendel and his mother; and fourth, the hero's death and return to chaos (148). The three-part, or tripartite, division of Beowulf is more popular than the four-part division. F.P. Magoun, Jr. divided the poem into three separate stories designated as A, A-prime, and B. Magoun's A corresponds to the events up until Beowulf's return to the Geats; B, the fight with the dragon and the end. But A prime includes a variant or alternative version of the Grendel story that an Anglo-Saxon publisher of the poem wished to preserve and include in his anthology of Beowulf poems (Clark 22). So Magoun would have three divisions in the structure of the poem instead of four. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt, editors of Literature of the Western World, agree with him: It is clear that the sequence of monster fights provides the structure of the poem. . . In this poem of just over 3000 lines, about a thousand lines are dedicated to each of the three monsters, and it has been suggested that Beowulf was intended to be performed over three evenings, each dedicated to a new monster. (1273).