 The edition was conceived by George Philip Krapp (1872–1934), who edited volumes 1, 2, and 5 while Professor of English at Columbia University, with the assistance of his student and colleague Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie.Krapp died partway through editing volume 3, and Dobbie completed this edition before going on to complete the series by editing volumes 6 (which came out in 1942) and 4 (which emerged in 1953).According to Henry Wiggins, the long gap before the publication of Volume 4 was partly due

to Elliott's feeling that there was no urgency about completing the "Beowulf" volume, because there were so many competent editions.