According to Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien began his series of lectures on "Beowulf" in a most striking way, entering the room silently, fixing the audience with a look, and suddenly declaiming in Old English the opening lines of the poem, starting "with a great cry of "!"" It was a dramatic impersonation of an Anglo-Saxon bard in a mead hall, and it made the students realize that "Beowulf" was not just a set text but "a powerful piece of dramatic poetry". Decades later, W. H. Auden wrote to his former professor, thanking him for the "unforgettable experience" of hearing him recite "Beowulf", and stating "The voice was the voice of Gandalf".