In 1921 Howard Hanson received the Prix de Rome, which gave him the opportunity to live, study, and work in Italy for three years. During a side trip to England, Hanson came across a copy of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, as translated by William Morris and A.J. Wyatt. Thinking that its ending would make a striking musical setting, Hanson started work on the Lament for Beowulf in Scotland, which was, as Hanson later wrote, "an environment rugged, swept with mist, and wholly appropriate to the scene" of the piece. Hanson continued his setting back in Rome, and completed it in 1925 just after he had returned to America and taken the post of director of the Eastman School of Music. The work was given its premiere at the 1926 Ann Arbor Festival, in a performance conducted by Hanson himself (who later recorded the work as well).

The poem, which dates to approximately 700 A.D., tells of Beowulf's killing of the monster Grendel and its mother, his long reign as King of the Geats, his mortal struggle with a dragon that ends in the deaths of both, and Beowulf's funeral rites. It is this last portion of the story that Hanson sets in his work. The composer once made reference to the "austerity and stoicism" and the "heroic atmosphere" of the poem, and it is these qualities that he emphasized in his musical setting—an imposing one for mixed chorus and full orchestra—along with the timeless quality of the poem and its humanity.

There is a dramatic stride to the orchestra prelude that opens the work. As a funeral pyre is constructed, women lament the death of their king, communicate their "sorrow careful," in music of unaffected sadness. Great words are spoken of Beowulf, and the music turns dramatic as the chorus, singing in majestic polyphony, recounts the treasures that are to be buried with him. The work ends with a eulogy of the hero, with the words of praise accompanied by lovely, peaceful music.

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