Last bird around university fails initial English work (7)
I believe the answer is:
beowulf
'initial english work' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'last bird around university fails' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'last' could be 'be' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'be' is located in the answer.
'around' could be 'o' (a round letter) and 'o' is found in the answer.
'university' could be 'u' (abbreviation for university) and 'u' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for beowulf that I've seen before include "Anglo-Saxon epic poem" , "[SCAN-DIN-AVIAN] poem" , "Old English saga" , "Old English epic poem" , "Germanic hero" .)