The location of the composition of the poem is also intensely disputed. In 1914, F.W.

Moorman, the first professor of English Language at

University of Leeds, claimed that Beowulf was composed in Yorkshire,[119] but E. Talbot Donaldson claims that it was probably composed
more than twelve hundred years ago, during the first half of the eighth century, and that the writer was a native of what was then called
West Mercia, located in the Western Midlands of England. However, the late tenth-century manuscript "which alone preserves the poem"
originated in the kingdom of the West Saxons – as it is more commonly known.[120] Donaldson wrote that "the poet who put the
materials into their present form was a Christian and ... poem reflects a Christian tradition".[121]

Politics and warfare

Stanley B. Greenfield has suggested that references to the human body throughout Beowulf emphasise the relative position of thanes to
their lord. He argues that the term "shoulder-companion" could refer to both a physical arm as well as a thane (Aeschere) who was very
valuable to his lord (Hrothgar). With Aeschere's death, Hrothgar turns to Beowulf as his new "arm."[122] Also, Greenfield argues the foot
is used for the opposite effect, only appearing four times in the poem. It is used in conjunction with Unferð (a man described by Beowulf
as weak, traitorous, and cowardly). Greenfield notes that Unferð is described as "at the king's feet" (line 499). Unferð is also a member of
the foot troops, who, throughout the story, do nothing and "generally serve as backdrops for more heroic action."[123]

Daniel Podgorski has argued that the work is best understood as an examination of inter-generational vengeance-based conflict, or
feuding.[124] In this context, the poem operates as an indictment of feuding conflicts as a function of its conspicuous, circuitous, and
lengthy depiction of the Geatish-Swedish wars—coming into contrast with the poem's depiction of the protagonist Beowulf as being
disassociated from the ongoing feuds in every way.[124]

See also
List of Beowulf characters
On Translating Beowulf
Sutton Hoo helmet § Beowulf

References

Notes
a. "wíg" means "fight, battle, war, conflict"[18] and "láf" means "remnant, left-over"[19]
b. That is, R.D. Fulk's 1992 A History of Old English Meter.
c. For instance, by Chauncey Brewster Tinker in The Translations of Beowulf,[69] a comprehensive survey of 19th-century translations
and editions of Beowulf.
d. Ecclesiastical or biblical influences are only seen as adding "Christian color", in Andersson's survey. Old English sources hinges on
the hypothesis that Genesis A predates Beowulf.
e. Ludwig Laistner (1889), II, p. 25; Stopford Brooke, I, p. 120; Albert S. Cook (1899) pp. 154–156.
f. In the interim, Max Deutschbein (1909) is credited by Andersson to be the first person to present the Irish argument in academic form.
He suggested the Irish Feast of Bricriu (which is not a folktale) as a source for Beowulf—a theory that was soon denied by Oscar
Olson.[87]
g. von Sydow was also anticipated by Heinz Dehmer in the 1920s as well besides the writers from the 19th century in pointing out "The
Hand and the Child" as a parallel.[98]
h. Carney also sees the Táin Bó Fráech story (where a half-fairy hero fights a dragon in the "Black Pool (Dubh linn)"), but this has not
received much support for forty years, as of Andersson's writing.

Citations
1. Hanna, Ralph (2013). Introducing English Medieval Book History: Manuscripts, their Producers and their Readers (https://books.googl
e.com/books/about/Introducing_English_Medieval_Book_Histor.html?id=8XBmLwEACAAJ). Liverpool University Press.
ISBN 9780859898713. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
2. "Beowulf" (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/beowulf). Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins.
3. Chase, Colin. (1997). The dating of Beowulf. pp. 9–22. University of Toronto Press
4. Robinson 2001, ?: "The name of the author who assembled from tradition the materials of his story and put them in their final form is
not known to us."
5. Robinson 2001: "Like most Old English stories, Beowulf has no title in the unique manuscript in which it survives (British Library,
Cotton Vitellius A.xv, which was copied round the year 1000 AD), but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is
its subject".
6. Mitchell & Robinson 1998, p. 6 (https://books.google.com/?id=uujn741w2Y4C&pg=PA6).
7. Greenblatt, Stephen; Simpson, James; David, Alfred, eds. (2012). The Norton Anthology of English Literature (Ninth ed.). New York:
W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 36–39. ISBN 9780393912494.
8. Chickering, Howell D. (1977). Beowulf (dual-language ed.). New York: Doubleday.
9. Newton, Sam (1993). The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia. Woodbridge, Suffolk, ENG: Boydell &
Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-361-4.
10. Waugh, Robin (1997). "Literacy, Royal Power, and King-Poet Relations in Old English and Old Norse Compositions". Comparative
Literature. 49 (4): 289–315. doi:10.2307/1771534 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F1771534). JSTOR 1771534 (https://www.jstor.org/stabl
e/1771534).