Scholarship focusing on adaptations of Beowulf for children has thrived in the last decade including the publication of anthologies, bibliographies and academic monographs (e.g., Beowulf as Children’s Literature, 2021) In the case of Spanish adaptations of Beowulf for children, the work of Olivares Merino (2009) and María José Gómez-Calderón (2012), amongst others, have contributed to a better understanding of the earliest attempts to adapt the Old English poem.
The present paper aims to offer a close examination of Vallvé and Myrbach’s 1933 Beowulf, the first ever version of the poem in Spanish. A prose adaptation for young readers of the “famous epic poem from 700 AD”, claimed by the author to be based on “the manuscript kept at the British Museum”, Vallvé’s retelling includes a number of departures from the Old English text that are worth exploring. The modifications introduced when narrating Beowulf’s swimming contest with Brecca, the depiction of Heorot and the Danish court, “the boxing match” with Grendel, the treatment given to the supernatural or the devices used to create suspense will be considered against the wider context for the publication of this adaptation of the poem and Vallvé’s career adapting and writing for a number of audiences.