21st century

R. D. Fulk, of Indiana University, published the first facing-page edition and translation of the entire Nowell Codex manuscript in the
Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library series in 2010.[78]

Following research in the King's College London Archives, Carl Kears proposed that John Porter's translation, published in 1975 by Bill
Griffiths' Pirate Press, was the first complete verse translation of the poem entirely accompanied by facing-page Old English.[79]

Translating Beowulf is one of the subjects of the 2012 publication Beowulf at Kalamazoo, containing a section with 10 essays on
translation, and a section with 22 reviews of Heaney's translation (some of which compare Heaney's work with that of Anglo-Saxon
scholar Roy Liuzza).[80]

J. R. R. Tolkien's long-awaited translation (edited by his son, Christopher) was published in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and
Commentary.[81][82] This also includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf in his tale, Sellic Spell.

Maria Dahvana Headley published 'The Mere Wife' in 2018, retelling the story from the point of view of Grendel's Mother.[83]

Sources and analogues

Neither identified sources nor analogues for Beowulf can be definitively proven, but many conjectures have been made. These are
important in helping historians understand the Beowulf manuscript, as possible source-texts or influences would suggest time-frames of
composition, geographic boundaries within which it could be composed, or range (both spatial and temporal) of influence (i.e. when it
was "popular" and where its "popularity" took it).

There are Scandinavian sources, international folkloric sources, and Celtic sources.[d][84]

Scandinavian parallels and sources

19th century studies proposed that Beowulf was translated from a lost original Scandinavian work, but this idea was quickly abandoned.
But Scandinavian works have continued to be studied as a possible source.[85] Proponents included Gregor Sarrazin writing in 1886 that
an Old Norse original version of Beowulf must have existed,[86] but that view was later debunked by Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (1914) who
pointed out that Beowulf is fundamentally Christian and written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been pagan.[87]

Grettis saga
The epic's possible connection to Grettis saga, an Icelandic family saga, was made early on by Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1878).[88]

Grettis saga is a story about Grettir Ásmundarson, a great-grandson of an Icelandic settler, and so cannot be as old as Beowulf. Axel Olrik
(1903) claimed that on the contrary, this saga was a reworking of Beowulf, and others followed suit.[86]

However, Friedrich Panzer (1910) wrote a thesis in which both Beowulf and Grettis saga drew from a common folkloric source, and this
encouraged even a detractor such as W. W. Lawrence to reposition his view, and entertain the possibility that certain elements in the saga
(such as the waterfall in place of the mere) retained an older form.[86]

The viability of this connection has enjoyed enduring support, and was characterized as one of the few Scandinavian analogues to receive
a general consensus of potential connection by Theodore M. Andersson (1998).[89] But that same year, Magnús Fjalldal published a
volume challenging the perception that there is a close parallel, and arguing that tangential similarities were being overemphasized as
analogies.[90]

Hrolf kraki and Bodvar Bjarki

Another candidate for an analogue or possible source is the story of Hrolf kraki and his servant, the legendary bear-shapeshifter Bodvar
Bjarki. The story survives in Old Norse Hrólfs saga kraka and Saxo's Gesta Danorum. Hrolf kraki, one of the Skjöldungs, even appears as
"Hrothulf" in the Anglo-Saxon epic. Hence a story about him and his followers may have developed as early as the 6th century.[91]

International folktale sources

Bear's Son Tale

Friedrich Panzer (1910) wrote a thesis that the first part of Beowulf (the Grendel Story) incorporated preexisting folktale material, and
that the folktale in question was of the Bear's Son Tale (Bärensohnmärchen) type, which has surviving examples all over the world.[92][86]

This tale type was later catalogued as international folktale type 301, now formally entitled "The Three Stolen Princesses" type in Hans
Uther's catalogue, although the "Bear's Son" is still used in Beowulf criticism, if not so much in folkloristic circles.[86]

However, although this folkloristic approach was seen as a step in the right direction, "The Bear's Son" tale has later been regarded by
many as not a close enough parallel to be a viable choice.[93] Later, Peter A. Jorgensen, looking for a more concise frame of reference,
coined a "two-troll tradition" that covers both Beowulf and Grettis saga: "a Norse 'ecotype' in which a hero enters a cave and kills two