The rule prohibiting possessives as antecedents started appearing in
handbooks and public discussion about 60 or 70 years ago and was not a
part of what was taught as English grammar before that.  There was an
extensive discussion of the Possessive Antecedent Prohibition on the
American Dialect Society list, culminating in a longish and excellent
analysis by Arnold Zwicky.  You can find a summary of the analysis at

http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~zwicky/adshand.pdf

This is a good example of a rule of grammar that isn't, one that is very
recent in its inception but has made it into handbooks and even the SAT,
even though some of the best writers violate regularly.

Herb




I think the 2nd sounds clearer because the pronoun 'he' of the first one
should not refer back to an adjective (Hrothgar's), not to mention that
leaves "Beowulf" as the antecedent for "he".

____________________________
Larry Beason, Associate Professor
Director of Composition
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36688-0002
251-460-7861

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