Beowulf

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This article is about the epic story. For the character, see Beowulf (hero). For
other uses, see Beowulf (disambiguation).
Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf Cotton MS Vitellius A XV f. 132r.jpg
First page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. xv
Author(s) Unknown
Language West Saxon dialect of Old English
Date disputed (c.? 700�1000 AD)
State of existence Manuscript suffered damage from fire in 1731
Manuscript(s) Cotton Vitellius A. xv (c.? 975�1010 AD)[1]
First printed edition Thorkelin (1815)
Genre Epic heroic writing
Verse form Alliterative verse
Length c.? 3182 lines
Subject The battles of Beowulf, the Geatish hero, in youth and old age
Personages Beowulf, Hygelac, Hrothgar, Wealh�eow, Hrothulf, �schere, Unferth,
Grendel, Grendel's mother, Wiglaf, Hildeburh.
Beowulf (/'be??w?lf/;[2] Old English: Beowulf ['be?owulf]) is an Old English epic
poem consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important works
of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among
scholars; the only certain dating pertains to the manuscript, which was produced
between 975 and 1025.[3] The anonymous poet is referred to by scholars as the
"Beowulf poet".[4]

The story is set in Scandinavia in the 6th century. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats,
comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall in Heorot has
been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's
mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to
Geatland (G�taland in modern Sweden) and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years
later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his
death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a tower on a headland in his
memory.

The poem survives in a single copy in the manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. It
has no title in the original manuscript, but has become known by the name of the
story's protagonist.[5] In 1731, the manuscript was damaged by a fire that swept
through Ashburnham House in London that had a collection of medieval manuscripts
assembled by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton; the margins were charred, and a number of
readings were lost.[6] The Nowell Codex is housed in the British Library.

Contents
1 Historical background
2 Summary
2.1 First battle: Grendel
2.2 Second battle: Grendel's mother
2.3 Third battle: The dragon
3 Authorship and date
4 Manuscript
4.1 Provenance
4.2 Writing
4.3 Debate over oral tradition
5 Transcriptions and translations
5.1 Transcriptions
5.2 Translations and adaptations
6 Sources and analogues
6.1 Scandinavian parallels and sources
6.1.1 Grettis saga
6.1.2 Hrolf kraki and Bodvar Bjarki
6.2 International folktale sources
6.2.1 Bear's Son Tale
6.2.2 Celtic folktales
6.3 Classical sources
6.4 Biblical influences
7 Dialect
8 Form and metre
9 Interpretation and criticism
9.1 Paganism and Christianity
9.2 Politics and warfare
10 See also
11 References
11.1 Notes
11.2 Citations
11.3 Sources
12 External links
Historical background

Approximate central regions of tribes mentioned in Beowulf, with the location of

the Angles in Angeln. See Scandza for details of Scandinavia's political
fragmentation in the 6th century.
The events in the poem take place over most of the sixth century, and feature no
English characters. Some suggest that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century
at Rendlesham in East Anglia, as the Sutton Hoo ship-burial shows close connections
with Scandinavia, and the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffingas, may have been
descendants of the Geatish Wulfings.[7][8] Others have associated this poem with
the court of King Alfred the Great or with the court of King Cnut the Great.[9]

The poem blends fictional, legendary and historic elements. Although Beowulf
himself is not mentioned in any other Anglo-Saxon manuscript,[10] scholars
generally agree that many of the other figures referred to in Beowulf also appear
in Scandinavian sources (specific works are designated in the section titled
"Sources and analogues").[11] This concerns not only individuals (e.g., Healfdene,
Hro�gar, Halga, Hro�ulf, Eadgils and Ohthere), but also clans (e.g., Scyldings,
Scylfings and Wulfings) and certain events (e.g., the battle between Eadgils and
Onela). The raid by King Hygelac into Frisia is mentioned by Gregory of Tours in
his History of the Franks and can be dated to around 521.[12]

In Denmark, recent archaeological excavations at Lejre, where Scandinavian

tradition located the seat of the Scyldings, i.e., Heorot, have revealed that a
hall was built in the mid-6th century, exactly the time period of Beowulf.[13]
Three halls, each about 50 metres (160 ft) long, were found during the excavation.
[13]

The majority view appears to be that people such as King Hro�gar and the Scyldings
in Beowulf are based on historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia.[14] Like
the Finnesburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has
consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian figures such
as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic figures such as Offa, king
of the continental Angles.

Finds from the western mound, left, excavated in 1874, support Beowulf and the
sagas.[15]
19th-century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story.
Eadgils was buried at Uppsala (Gamla Uppsala, Sweden) according to Snorri
Sturluson. When the western mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874,
the finds showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c. 575, on a
bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. The eastern mound was excavated
in 1854, and contained the remains of a woman, or a woman and a young man. The
middle barrow has not been excavated.[16][15]

Summary
The protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of
the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel. Beowulf
kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel's mother with a giant's sword that he
found in her lair.

Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm
terrorized by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a
burial mound. He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but
they do not succeed. Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnan�s,
but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose name means "remnant of valour",
[a] dares to join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded in
the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his
honour.

Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels
great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural
demons and beasts. The poem also begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of
things," which is a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Although the poem
begins with Beowulf's arrival, Grendel's attacks have been an ongoing event. An
elaborate history of characters and their lineages is spoken of, as well as their
interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour. The
warriors form a kind of brotherhood linked by loyalty to their lord. The poem
begins and ends with funerals: at the beginning of the poem for Scyld Scefing
(26�45) and at the end for Beowulf (3140�3170).

First battle: Grendel

Beowulf begins with the story of Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Heorot
for himself and his warriors. In it, he, his wife Wealhtheow, and his warriors
spend their time singing and celebrating. Grendel, a troll-like monster said to be
descended from the biblical Cain, is pained by the sounds of joy.[19] Grendel
attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hrothgar's warriors while they
sleep. Hrothgar and his people, helpless against Grendel, abandon Heorot.

Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hrothgar's troubles and with his
king's permission leaves his homeland to assist Hrothgar.[20]

Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf refuses to use any weapon
because he holds himself to be the equal of Grendel.[21] When Grendel enters the
hall, Beowulf, who has been feigning sleep, leaps up to clench Grendel's hand.[22]
Grendel and Beowulf battle each other violently.[23] Beowulf's retainers draw their
swords and rush to his aid, but their blades cannot pierce Grendel's skin.[24]
Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs
to his home in the marshes where he dies.[25] Beowulf displays "the whole of
Grendel's shoulder and arm, his awesome grasp" for all to see at Heorot. This
display would fuel Grendel's mother's anger in revenge.[26]

Second battle: Grendel's mother

The next night, after celebrating Grendel's defeat, Hrothgar and his men sleep in
Heorot. Grendel's mother, angry that her son has been killed, sets out to get
revenge. "Beowulf was elsewhere. Earlier, after the award of treasure, The Geat had
been given another lodging"; his assistance would be absent in this battle.[27]
Grendel's mother violently kills �schere, who is Hrothgar's most loyal fighter, and
escapes.

Hrothgar, Beowulf, and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake.
Unfer�, a warrior who had earlier challenged him, presents Beowulf with his sword
Hrunting. After stipulating a number of conditions to Hrothgar in case of his death
(including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's
estate), Beowulf jumps into the lake, and while harassed by water monsters gets to
the bottom, where he finds a cavern. Grendel's mother pulls him in, and she and
Beowulf engage in fierce combat.

At first, Grendel's mother appears to prevail, and Hrunting proves incapable of

hurting the woman; she throws Beowulf to the ground and, sitting astride him, tries
to kill him with a short sword, but Beowulf is saved by his armour. Beowulf spots
another sword, hanging on the wall and apparently made for giants, and cuts her
head off with it. Travelling further into Grendel's mother's lair, Beowulf
discovers Grendel's corpse and severs his head with the sword, whose blade melts
because of the "hot blood". Only the hilt remains. Beowulf swims back up to the rim
of the pond where his men wait. Carrying the hilt of the sword and Grendel's head,
he presents them to Hrothgar upon his return to Heorot. Hrothgar gives Beowulf many
gifts, including the sword N�gling, his family's heirloom. The events prompt a long
reflection by the king, sometimes referred to as "Hrothgar's sermon", in which he
urges Beowulf to be wary of pride and to reward his thegns.[28]

Third battle: The dragon

Main article: The dragon (Beowulf)

Beowulf face to face with the fire-breathing dragon

Beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. One day, fifty
years after Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother, a slave steals a golden cup
from the lair of a dragon at Earnan�s. When the dragon sees that the cup has been
stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight. Beowulf and his
warriors come to fight the dragon, but Beowulf tells his men that he will fight the
dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow. Beowulf descends to do battle
with the dragon, but finds himself outmatched. His men, upon seeing this and
fearing for their lives, retreat into the woods. One of his men, Wiglaf, however,
in great distress at Beowulf's plight, comes to his aid. The two slay the dragon,
but Beowulf is mortally wounded. After Beowulf dies, Wiglaf remains by his side,
grief-stricken. When the rest of the men finally return, Wiglaf bitterly admonishes
them, blaming their cowardice for Beowulf's death. Afterward, Beowulf is ritually
burned on a great pyre in Geatland while his people wail and mourn him, fearing
that without him, the Geats are defenceless against attacks from surrounding
tribes. Afterwards, a barrow, visible from the sea, is built in his memory (Beowulf
lines 2712�3182).[29]

Authorship and date

The dating of Beowulf has attracted considerable scholarly attention and opinion
differs as to whether it was first written in the 8th century or whether the
composition of the poem was nearly contemporary with its eleventh century
manuscript and whether a proto-version of the poem (possibly a version of the
Bear's Son Tale) was orally transmitted before being transcribed in its present
form. Albert Lord felt strongly that the manuscript represents the transcription of
a performance, though likely taken at more than one sitting.[30] J. R. R. Tolkien
believed that the poem retains too genuine a memory of Anglo-Saxon paganism to have
been composed more than a few generations after the completion of the
Christianisation of England around AD 700,[31] and Tolkien's conviction that the
poem dates to the 8th century has been defended by Tom Shippey, Leonard Neidorf,
Rafael J. Pascual, and R.D. Fulk, among others.[32][33][34] An analysis of several
Old English poems by a team including Neidorf suggests that Beowulf is the work of
a single author.[35]

The claim to an early 11th-century date depends in part on scholars who argue that,
rather than the transcription of a tale from the oral tradition by an earlier
literate monk, Beowulf reflects an original interpretation of an earlier version of
the story by the manuscript's two scribes. On the other hand, some scholars argue
that linguistic, palaeographical, metrical, and onomastic considerations align to
support a date of composition in the first half of the eighth century;[36][37][38]
[39] in particular, the poem's apparent observation of etymological vowel-length
distinctions in unstressed syllables (described by Kaluza's law) has been thought
to demonstrate a date of composition prior to the earlier ninth century.[33][34]
However, scholars disagree about whether the metrical phenomena described by
Kaluza's Law prove an early date of composition or are evidence of a longer
prehistory of the Beowulf meter;[40] B.R. Hutcheson, for instance, does not believe
Kaluza's Law can be used to date the poem, while claiming that "the weight of all
the evidence Fulk presents in his book[b] tells strongly in favour of an eighth-
century date."[41]

Manuscript
Main article: Nowell Codex

Remounted page, British Library Cotton Vitellius A.XV

Beowulf survives in a single parchment manuscript dated on palaeographical grounds
to the late 10th or early 11th century. The manuscript measures 245 � 185 mm.[42]

Provenance
The poem is known only from a single manuscript, which is estimated to date from
around 975�1025, in which it appears with other works.[3] The manuscript therefore
dates either to the reign of �thelred the Unready, characterised by strife with the
Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, or to the beginning of the reign of Sweyn's son Cnut
the Great from 1016. The Beowulf manuscript is known as the Nowell Codex, gaining
its name from 16th-century scholar Laurence Nowell. The official designation is
"British Library, Cotton Vitellius A.XV" because it was one of Sir Robert Bruce
Cotton's holdings in the Cotton library in the middle of the 17th century. Many
private antiquarians and book collectors, such as Sir Robert Cotton, used their own
library classification systems. "Cotton Vitellius A.XV" translates as: the 15th
book from the left on shelf A (the top shelf) of the bookcase with the bust of
Roman Emperor Vitellius standing on top of it, in Cotton's collection. Kevin
Kiernan argues that Nowell most likely acquired it through William Cecil, 1st Baron
Burghley, in 1563, when Nowell entered Cecil's household as a tutor to his ward,
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.[43]

The earliest extant reference to the first foliation of the Nowell Codex was made
sometime between 1628 and 1650 by Franciscus Junius (the younger).[44]:91 The
ownership of the codex before Nowell remains a mystery.[44]:120

The Reverend Thomas Smith (1638�1710) and Humfrey Wanley (1672�1726) both
catalogued the Cotton library (in which the Nowell Codex was held). Smith's
catalogue appeared in 1696, and Wanley's in 1705.[45] The Beowulf manuscript itself
is identified by name for the first time in an exchange of letters in 1700 between
George Hickes, Wanley's assistant, and Wanley. In the letter to Wanley, Hickes
responds to an apparent charge against Smith, made by Wanley, that Smith had failed
to mention the Beowulf script when cataloguing Cotton MS. Vitellius A. XV. Hickes
replies to Wanley "I can find nothing yet of Beowulph."[46] Kiernan theorised that
Smith failed to mention the Beowulf manuscript because of his reliance on previous
catalogues or because either he had no idea how to describe it or because it was
temporarily out of the codex.[47]

It suffered damage in the Cotton Library fire at Ashburnham House in 1731. Since
then, parts of the manuscript have crumbled along with many of the letters.
Rebinding efforts, though saving the manuscript from much degeneration, have
nonetheless covered up other letters of the poem, causing further loss. Kevin
Kiernan, in preparing his electronic edition of the manuscript, used fibre-optic
backlighting and ultraviolet lighting to reveal letters in the manuscript lost from
binding, erasure, or ink blotting.[48]

Writing
The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom
wrote the prose at the beginning of the manuscript and the first 1939 lines before
breaking off in mid sentence. The first scribe made a point of carefully
regularizing the spelling of the original document by using the common West Saxon
language and by avoiding any archaic or dialectical features. The second scribe,
who wrote the remainder, with a difference in handwriting noticeable after line
1939, seems to have written more vigorously and with less interest. As a result,
the second scribe's script retains more archaic dialectic features, which allow
modern scholars to ascribe the poem a cultural context.[49] While both scribes
appear to have proofread their work, there are nevertheless many errors.[50] The
second scribe was ultimately the more conservative copyist as he did not modify the
spelling of the text as he wrote but copied what he saw in front of him. In the way
that it is currently bound, the Beowulf manuscript is followed by the Old English
poem Judith. Judith was written by the same scribe that completed Beowulf as
evidenced through similar writing style. Wormholes found in the last leaves of the
Beowulf manuscript that are absent in the Judith manuscript suggest that at one
point Beowulf ended the volume. The rubbed appearance of some leaves also suggest
that the manuscript stood on a shelf unbound, as is known to have been the case
with other Old English manuscripts.[49] From knowledge of books held in the library
at Malmesbury Abbey and available as source works, as well as from the
identification of certain words particular to the local dialect found in the text,
the transcription may have taken place there.[51]

Debate over oral tradition

The question of whether Beowulf was passed down through oral tradition prior to its
present manuscript form has been the subject of much debate, and involves more than
simply the issue of its composition. Rather, given the implications of the theory
of oral-formulaic composition and oral tradition, the question concerns how the
poem is to be understood, and what sorts of interpretations are legitimate.

Scholarly discussion about Beowulf in the context of the oral tradition was
extremely active throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The debate might be framed starkly
as follows: on the one hand, we can hypothesise a poem put together from various
tales concerning the hero (the Grendel episode, the story of Grendel's mother, and
the fire drake narrative). These fragments would have been told for many years in
tradition, and learned by apprenticeship from one generation of illiterate poets to
the next. The poem is composed orally and extemporaneously, and the archive of
tradition on which it draws is oral, pagan, Germanic, heroic, and tribal. On the
other hand, one might posit a poem which is composed by a literate scribe, who
acquired literacy by way of learning Latin (and absorbing Latinate culture and ways
of thinking), probably a monk and therefore profoundly Christian in outlook. On
this view, the pagan references would be a sort of decorative archaising.[52][53]
There is a third view that sees merit in both arguments above and attempts to
bridge them, and so cannot be articulated as starkly as they can; it sees more than
one Christianity and more than one attitude towards paganism at work in the poem;
it sees the poem as initially the product of a literate Christian author with one
foot in the pagan world and one in the Christian, himself perhaps a convert (or one
whose forebears had been pagan), a poet who was conversant in both oral and
literary composition and was capable of a masterful "repurposing" of poetry from
the oral tradition.
However, scholars such as D.K. Crowne have proposed the idea that the poem was
passed down from reciter to reciter under the theory of oral-formulaic composition,
which hypothesises that epic poems were (at least to some extent) improvised by
whoever was reciting them, and only much later written down. In his landmark work,
The Singer of Tales, Albert Lord refers to the work of Francis Peabody Magoun and
others, saying "the documentation is complete, thorough, and accurate. This
exhaustive analysis is in itself sufficient to prove that Beowulf was composed
orally."[54]

Examination of Beowulf and other Old English literature for evidence of oral-
formulaic composition has met with mixed response. While "themes" (inherited
narrative subunits for representing familiar classes of event, such as the "arming
the hero",[55] or the particularly well-studied "hero on the beach" theme[56]) do
exist across Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic works, some scholars conclude that
Anglo-Saxon poetry is a mix of oral-formulaic and literate patterns, arguing that
the poems both were composed on a word-by-word basis and followed larger formulae
and patterns.[57]

Larry Benson argued that the interpretation of Beowulf as an entirely formulaic

work diminishes the ability of the reader to analyse the poem in a unified manner,
and with due attention to the poet's creativity. Instead, he proposed that other
pieces of Germanic literature contain "kernels of tradition" from which Beowulf
borrows and expands upon.[58][59] A few years later, Ann Watts argued against the
imperfect application of one theory to two different traditions: traditional,
Homeric, oral-formulaic poetry and Anglo-Saxon poetry.[59][60] Thomas Gardner
agreed with Watts, arguing that the Beowulf text is of too varied a nature to be
completely constructed from set formulae and themes.[59][61]

John Miles Foley wrote, referring to the Beowulf debate,[62] that while comparative
work was both necessary and valid, it must be conducted with a view to the
particularities of a given tradition; Foley argued with a view to developments of
oral traditional theory that do not assume, or depend upon, ultimately unverifiable
assumptions about composition, and instead delineate a more fluid continuum of
traditionality and textuality.[63][64][65][55]

Finally, in the view of Ursula Schaefer, the question of whether the poem was
"oral" or "literate" becomes something of a red herring.[66] In this model, the
poem is created, and is interpretable, within both noetic horizons. Schaefer's
concept of "vocality" offers neither a compromise nor a synthesis of the views
which see the poem as on the one hand Germanic, pagan, and oral and on the other
Latin-derived, Christian, and literate, but, as stated by Monika Otter: "... a
'tertium quid', a modality that participates in both oral and literate culture yet
also has a logic and aesthetic of its own."[67]

Transcriptions and translations

Transcriptions
Icelandic scholar Gr�mur J�nsson Thorkelin made the first transcriptions of the
manuscript in 1786 and published the results in 1815, working as part of a Danish
government historical research commission. He made one himself, and had another
done by a professional copyist who knew no Anglo-Saxon. Since that time, however,
the manuscript has crumbled further, making these transcripts a prized witness to
the text. While the recovery of at least 2000 letters can be attributed to them,
their accuracy has been called into question,[c] and the extent to which the
manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is uncertain.

Translations and adaptations

Main article: List of translations and artistic depictions of Beowulf
A great number of translations and adaptations are available, in poetry and prose.
Andy Orchard, in A Critical Companion to Beowulf, lists 33 "representative"
translations in his bibliography,[69] while the Arizona Center for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies published Marijane Osborn's annotated list of over 300
translations and adaptations in 2003.[70] Beowulf has been translated into at least
23 other languages.[71]

19th century

In 1805, the historian Sharon Turner translated selected verses into modern
English.[72] This was followed in 1814 by John Josias Conybeare who published an
edition "in English paraphrase and Latin verse translation."[72] In 1815, Gr�mur
J�nsson Thorkelin published the first complete edition in Latin.[72] N. F. S.
Grundtvig reviewed this edition in 1815 and created the first complete verse
translation in Danish in 1820.[72] In 1837, John Mitchell Kemble created an
important literal translation in English.[72] In 1895, William Morris & A. J. Wyatt
published the ninth English translation.[72] Many retellings of Beowulf for
children began appearing in the 20th century.[73]

20th century

In 1909, Francis Barton Gummere's full translation in "English imitative meter" was
published,[72] and was used as the text of Gareth Hinds's graphic novel based on
Beowulf in 2007.

First published in 1928, Frederick Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg[74]
(which included the poem in Old English, an extensive glossary of Old English
terms, and general background information) became the "central source used by
graduate students for the study of the poem and by scholars and teachers as the
basis of their translations."[75]

Seamus Heaney's 1999 translation of the poem (referred to by Howell Chickering and
many others as "Heaneywulf"[76]) was both praised and criticized. The US
publication was commissioned by W. W. Norton & Company, and was included in the
Norton Anthology of English Literature.

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.[77]

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.[78]

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).[79]

J. R. R. Tolkien's long-awaited translation (edited by his son, Christopher) was

published in 2014 as Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary.[80][81] This also
includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf in his tale, Sellic Spell.

The Mere Wife, by Maria Dahvana Headley, was published in 2018. It relocates the
action to a wealthy community in 20th century America and is told primarily from
the point of view of Grendel's mother.[82]

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][83]

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.[84] Proponents included Gregor
Sarrazin writing in 1886 that an Old Norse original version of Beowulf must have
existed,[85] 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.[86]

Grettis saga
The epic's possible connection to Grettis saga, an Icelandic family saga, was made
early on by Gu�brandur Vigf�sson (1878).[87]

Grettis saga is a story about Grettir �smundarson, 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.[85]

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.[85]

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).[88] But that
same year, Magn�s Fjalldal published a volume challenging the perception that there
is a close parallel, and arguing that tangential similarities were being
overemphasized as analogies.[89]

Hrolf kraki and Bodvar Bjarki

See also: B�dvar 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 Hr�lfs saga kraka and Saxo's Gesta Danorum. Hrolf kraki, one of the
Skj�ldungs, 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.[90]

International folktale sources

See also: Bear's Son Tale
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 (B�rensohnm�rchen) type, which has surviving
examples all over the world.[91][85]

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.[85]

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.[92] 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 giants, usually of different sexes";[93] which has emerged as a more
attractive folk tale parallel, according to a 1998 assessment by Andersson.[94][95]

Celtic folktales
Similarity of the epic to the Irish folktale "The Hand and the Child" had already
been noted by Albert S. Cook (1899), and others even earlier,[e][96][86][f] Swedish
folklorist Carl Wilhelm von Sydow (1914) then made a strong argument for the case
of parallelism in "The Hand and the Child", because the folktale type demonstrated
a "monstrous arm" motif that corresponded with Beowulf wrenching off Grendel's arm.
For no such correspondence could be perceived in the Bear's Son Tale or Grettis
saga.[g][97][96]

James Carney and Martin Puhvel also agree with this "Hand and the Child"
contextualisation.[h] Puhvel supported the "Hand and the Child" theory through such
motifs as (in Andersson's words) "the more powerful giant mother, the mysterious
light in the cave, the melting of the sword in blood, the phenomenon of battle
rage, swimming prowess, combat with water monsters, underwater adventures, and the
bear-hug style of wrestling."[98]

In the Mabinogion Teyrnon discovers the otherworldly boy child Pryderi fab Pwyll ,
the principle character of the cycle, after cutting off the arm of a monstrous
beast which is stealing foals from his stables, an episode which is highly
reminiscent in its description of the Grendel tale.

Classical sources
Attempts to find classical or Late Latin influence or analogue in Beowulf are
almost exclusively linked with Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid. In 1926, Albert
S. Cook suggested a Homeric connection due to equivalent formulas, metonymies, and
analogous voyages.[99] In 1930, James A. Work also supported the Homeric influence,
stating that encounter between Beowulf and Unferth was parallel to the encounter
between Odysseus and Euryalus in Books 7�8 of the Odyssey, even to the point of
both characters giving the hero the same gift of a sword upon being proven wrong in
their initial assessment of the hero's prowess. This theory of Homer's influence on
Beowulf remained very prevalent in the 1920s, but started to die out in the
following decade when a handful of critics stated that the two works were merely
"comparative literature",[100] although Greek was known in late 7th century
England: Bede states that Theodore of Tarsus, a Greek, was appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury in 668, and he taught Greek. Several English scholars and churchmen are
described by Bede as being fluent in Greek due to being taught by him; Bede claims
to be fluent in Greek himself.[101]

Frederick Klaeber, among others, argued for a connection between Beowulf and Virgil
near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular
epic in a Germanic world represents Virgilian influence. Virgil was seen as the
pinnacle of Latin literature, and Latin was the dominant literary language of
England at the time, therefore making Virgilian influence highly likely.[102]
Similarly, in 1971, Alistair Campbell stated that the apologue technique used in
Beowulf is so rare in epic poetry aside from Virgil that the poet who composed
Beowulf could not have written the poem in such a manner without first coming
across Virgil's writings.[103]

Biblical influences
It cannot be denied that Biblical parallels occur in the text, whether seen as a
pagan work with "Christian colouring" added by scribes or as a "Christian
historical novel, with selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as 'local
colour'," as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in "The Christian Theme of Beowulf".[104]
Beowulf channels the Book of Genesis, the Book of Exodus, and the Book of
Daniel[105] in its inclusion of references to the Genesis creation narrative, the
story of Cain and Abel, Noah and the flood, the Devil, Hell, and the Last Judgment.
[104]

Dialect
Beowulf cropped.png
Part of a series on
Old English
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vte
The poem mixes the West Saxon and Anglian dialects of Old English, though it
predominantly uses West Saxon, as do other Old English poems copied at the time.
[106]

There is a wide array of linguistic forms in the Beowulf manuscript. It is this

fact that leads some scholars to believe that Beowulf has endured a long and
complicated transmission through all the main dialect areas.[107] The poem retains
a complicated mix of the following dialectical forms: Mercian, Northumbrian, Early
West Saxon, Kentish and Late West Saxon.[44]:20�21 There are in Beowulf more than
3100 distinct words, and almost 1300 occur exclusively, or almost exclusively, in
this poem and in the other poetical texts. Considerably more than one-third of the
total vocabulary is alien from ordinary prose use. There are, in round numbers,
three hundred and sixty uncompounded verbs in Beowulf, and forty of them are
poetical words in the sense that they are unrecorded or rare in the existing prose
writings. One hundred and fifty more occur with the prefix ge- (reckoning a few
found only in the past-participle), but of these one hundred occur also as simple
verbs, and the prefix is employed to render a shade of meaning which was perfectly
known and thoroughly familiar except in the latest Anglo-Saxon period. The nouns
number sixteen hundred. Seven hundred of them, including those formed with
prefixes, of which fifty (or considerably more than half) have ge-, are simple
nouns, at the highest reckoning not more than one-quarter is absent in prose. That
this is due in some degree to accident is clear from the character of the words,
and from the fact that several reappear and are common after the Norman Conquest.
[108]

Form and metre

An Old English poem such as Beowulf is very different from modern poetry. Anglo-
Saxon poets typically used alliterative verse, a form of verse in which the first
half of the line (the a-verse) is linked to the second half (the b-verse) through
similarity in initial sound. In addition, the two-halves are divided by a caesura:
"Oft Scyld Scefing \\ scea�ena �reatum" (l. 4). This verse form maps stressed and
unstressed syllables onto abstract entities known as metrical positions. There is
no fixed number of beats per line: the first one cited has three (Oft SCYLD
SCEFING, with ictus on the suffix -ING) whereas the second has two (SCEA�ena
�REATum).

The poet has a choice of epithets or formulae to use in order to fulfil the
alliteration. When speaking or reading Old English poetry, it is important to
remember for alliterative purposes that many of the letters are not pronounced in
the same way as in modern English. The letter ?h?, for example, is always
pronounced (Hro�gar: ['hro�gar]), and the digraph ?cg? is pronounced [d?], as in
the word edge. Both ?f? and ?s? vary in pronunciation depending on their phonetic
environment. Between vowels or voiced consonants, they are voiced, sounding like
modern ?v? and ?z?, respectively. Otherwise they are unvoiced, like modern ?f? in
fat and ?s? in sat. Some letters which are no longer found in modern English, such
as thorn, ?�?, and eth, ?�? � representing both pronunciations of modern English ?
th?, as /?/ in thing and /�/ this � are used extensively both in the original
manuscript and in modern English editions. The voicing of these characters echoes
that of ?f? and ?s?. Both are voiced (as in this) between other voiced sounds:
o�er, la�leas, su�ern. Otherwise they are unvoiced (as in thing): �unor, su�,
so�f�st.

Kennings are also a significant technique in Beowulf. They are evocative poetic
descriptions of everyday things, often created to fill the alliterative
requirements of the metre. For example, a poet might call the sea the "swan-road"
or the "whale-road"; a king might be called a "ring-giver." There are many kennings
in Beowulf, and the device is typical of much of classic poetry in Old English,
which is heavily formulaic. The poem also makes extensive use of elided metaphors.
[109]

J. R. R. Tolkien argued in Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics that the poem is
not an epic, and, while no conventional term exactly fits, the nearest would be
elegy.[110]

Interpretation and criticism

David Woodard appears as both Beowulf and Grendel in the stage production Exploding
Beowulf (Berlin, 2010)
The history of modern Beowulf criticism is often said to begin with J. R. R.
Tolkien,[111] author and Merton professor of Anglo-Saxon at University of Oxford,
who in his 1936 lecture to the British Academy criticised his contemporaries'
excessive interest in its historical implications.[112] He noted in Beowulf: The
Monsters and the Critics that as a result the poem's literary value had been
largely overlooked and argued that the poem "is in fact so interesting as poetry,
in places poetry so powerful, that this quite overshadows the historical
content..."[113]

Paganism and Christianity

In historical terms, the poem's characters would have been Norse pagans (the
historical events of the poem took place before the Christianisation of
Scandinavia), yet the poem was recorded by Christian Anglo-Saxons who had mostly
converted from their native Anglo-Saxon paganism around the 7th century � both
Anglo-Saxon paganism and Norse paganism share a common origin as both are forms of
Germanic paganism. Beowulf thus depicts a Germanic warrior society, in which the
relationship between the lord of the region and those who served under him was of
paramount importance.[114]

In terms of the relationship between characters in Beowulf to God, one might recall
the substantial amount of paganism that is present throughout the work. Literary
critics such as Fred C. Robinson argue that the Beowulf poet tries to send a
message to readers during the Anglo-Saxon time period regarding the state of
Christianity in their own time. Robinson argues that the intensified religious
aspects of the Anglo-Saxon period inherently shape the way in which the poet
alludes to paganism as presented in Beowulf. The poet calls on Anglo-Saxon readers
to recognize the imperfect aspects of their supposed Christian lifestyles. In other
words, the poet is referencing their "Anglo-Saxon Heathenism." In terms of the
characters of the epic itself, Robinson argues that readers are "impressed" by the
courageous acts of Beowulf and the speeches of Hrothgar (181). But one is
ultimately left to feel sorry for both men as they are fully detached from supposed
"Christian truth" (181). The relationship between the characters of Beowulf, and
the overall message of the poet, regarding their relationship with God is debated
among readers and literary critics alike.

At the same time, Richard North argues that the Beowulf poet interpreted "Danish
myths in Christian form" (as the poem would have served as a form of entertainment
for a Christian audience), and states: "As yet we are no closer to finding out why
the first audience of Beowulf liked to hear stories about people routinely
classified as damned. This question is pressing, given... that Anglo-Saxons saw the
Danes as 'heathens' rather than as foreigners."[115] Grendel's mother and Grendel
are described as descendants of Cain, a fact which some scholars link to the Cain
tradition.[116]

Other scholars disagree, however, as to the meaning and nature of the poem: is it a
Christian work set in a Germanic pagan context? The question suggests that the
conversion from the Germanic pagan beliefs to Christian ones was a prolonged and
gradual process over several centuries, and it remains unclear the ultimate nature
of the poem's message in respect to religious belief at the time it was written.
Robert F. Yeager notes the facts that form the basis for these questions:

That the scribes of Cotton Vitellius A.XV were Christian beyond doubt, and it is
equally sure that Beowulf was composed in a Christianised England since conversion
took place in the sixth and seventh centuries. The only Biblical references in
Beowulf are to the Old Testament, and Christ is never mentioned. The poem is set in
pagan times, and none of the characters is demonstrably Christian. In fact, when we
are told what anyone in the poem believes, we learn that they are pagans. Beowulf's
own beliefs are not expressed explicitly. He offers eloquent prayers to a higher
power, addressing himself to the "Father Almighty" or the "Wielder of All." Were
those the prayers of a pagan who used phrases the Christians subsequently
appropriated? Or, did the poem's author intend to see Beowulf as a Christian Ur-
hero, symbolically refulgent with Christian virtues?[117]

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,[118] 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.[119] Donaldson wrote that "the
poet who put the materials into their present form was a Christian and ... poem
reflects a Christian tradition".[120]

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."[121] Also, Greenfield argues the foot
is used for the opposite effect, only appearing four times in the poem. It is used
in conjunction with Unfer� (a man described by Beowulf as weak, traitorous, and
cowardly). Greenfield notes that Unfer� is described as "at the king's feet" (line
499). Unfer� is also a member of the foot troops, who, throughout the story, do
nothing and "generally serve as backdrops for more heroic action."[122]

Daniel Podgorski has argued that the work is best understood as an examination of
inter-generational vengeance-based conflict, or feuding.[123] 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.[123]

See also
Anglo-Saxon England portal
List of Beowulf characters
On Translating Beowulf
Sutton Hoo helmet � Beowulf
Heliand, a Germanic epic and the largest known work of written Old Saxon
References
Notes
"w�g" means "fight, battle, war, conflict"[17] and "l�f" means "remnant, left-
over"[18]
That is, R.D. Fulk's 1992 A History of Old English Meter.
For instance, by Chauncey Brewster Tinker in The Translations of Beowulf,[68] a
comprehensive survey of 19th-century translations and editions of Beowulf.
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.
Ludwig Laistner (1889), II, p. 25; Stopford Brooke, I, p. 120; Albert S. Cook
(1899) pp. 154�156.
In the interim, Max Deutschbein [de] (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.[86]
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.[97]
Carney also sees the T�in B� Fr�ech 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.
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External links
Beowulf
at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Wikimedia Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Data from Wikidata
Full digital facsimile of the manuscript on the British Library's Digitised
Manuscripts website
Electronic Beowulf, edited by Kevin Kiernan, 4th online edition (University of
Kentucky/The British Library, 2015)
Beowulf manuscript in The British Library's Online Gallery, with short summary and
podcast
Annotated List of Beowulf Translations: The List � Arizonal Center for Medieval and
Renaissance Studies
online text (digitised from Elliott van Kirk Dobbie (ed.), Beowulf and Judith,
Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, 4 (New York, 1953))
Beowulf introduction Article introducing various translations and adaptations of
Beowulf
Beowulf translated by John Lesslie Hall at Standard Ebooks
Beowulf public domain audiobook at LibriVox
The tale of Beowulf (Sel.3.231); a digital edition of the proof-sheets with
manuscript notes and corrections by William Morris in Cambridge Digital Library
vte
Beowulf
Characters
BeowulfGrendelGrendel's
motherHro�garEcg�eowHygelacHeardred�schereOnelaWealh�eowWiglafUnfer�HygdThe
DragonList of Beowulf characters
First page of Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon copy)
Scholars and
translators
Michael J. AlexanderNora K. ChadwickP. J. CosijnKevin Crossley-HollandMichael D. C.
DroutFrancis Barton GummereSeamus Heaney Beowulf: A New Verse TranslationRoy
LiuzzaWilliam MorrisFrederick KlaeberLaurence NowellBurton RaffelGr�mur J�nsson
ThorkelinJ. R. R. Tolkien Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary"Beowulf: The
Monsters and the Critics"Beowulf and the Critics"On Translating Beowulf""Sellic
Spell"Finn and HengestCharles Leslie WrennJohn Lesslie Hall
Depictions
Books
GrendelEaters of the Dead
Film
Grendel Grendel GrendelBeowulf (1999)The 13th WarriorNo Such ThingOutlanderBeowulf
& Grendel (Wrath of Gods)GrendelBeowulf (2007)Beowulf: Prince of the GeatsBeowulf:
Return to the Shieldlands
See also
Anglo-Saxon paganismBattle of FinnsburgHeorotHruntingN�glingNowell Codex