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=//Beowulf//= From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: [|navigation], [|search] This article is about the epic poem. For the character, see [|Beowulf (hero)]. For other uses, see [|Beowulf (disambiguation)]. First page of //Beowulf// in Cotton Vitellius A. xv || //**Beowulf**// ( [|/][|ˈ][|b][|eɪ][|.][|ɵ][|w][|ʊ][|l][|f][|/] ; in [|Old English] [|[ˈbeːo̯wʊlf]] or [|[ˈbeːəwʊlf]] ) is the conventional title[|[][|note 1][|]] of an [|Old English] heroic [|epic poem] consisting of 3182 [|alliterative long lines], set in [|Scandinavia], commonly cited as one of the most important works of [|Anglo-Saxon literature]. It survives in a single manuscript known as the [|Nowell Codex]. Its composition by an anonymous [|Anglo-Saxon] poet[|[][|note 2][|]] is dated between the 8th[|[][|1][|]][|[][|2][|]] and the early 11th century.[|[][|3][|]] In 1731, the manuscript was badly damaged by a fire that swept through a building housing a collection of Medieval manuscripts assembled by [|Sir Robert Bruce Cotton]. The poem fell into obscurity for decades, and its existence did not become widely known again until it was printed in 1815 in an edition prepared by the Icelandic scholar [|Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin].[|[][|4][|]] In the poem, [|Beowulf], a hero of the [|Geats] in Scandinavia, comes to the help of [|Hrothgar], the king of the [|Danes], whose [|mead hall] (Heorot) has been under attack by a being known as [|Grendel]. After Beowulf slays him, [|Grendel's mother] attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to [|Geatland] in [|Sweden] and later becomes king of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a [|dragon], but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants bury him in a [|tumulus], a burial mound, in Geatland. [[|hide]]
 * ~ //Beowulf// ||
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg/250px-Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg width="250" height="397" caption="Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg"]]
 * ~ Author(s) ||< Unknown ||
 * ~ Language ||< [|Old English] (West Saxon and some Anglian) ||
 * ~ Date ||< Unknown, sometime between the 8th and 11th century ||
 * ~ State of existence ||< Manuscript suffered damage from fire in 1731 ||
 * ~ Manuscript(s) ||< [|Cotton Vitellius A. xv] ||
 * ~ First printed edition ||< by [|Thorkelin] (1815) ||
 * ~ Genre ||< Narrative heroic poetry ||
 * ~ Verse form ||< [|Alliterative verse] ||
 * ~ Length ||< //c//. 3186 lines ||
 * ~ Subject ||< The battles of Beowulf, the Geatish hero, in youth and old age ||
 * ~ Setting ||< Denmark and Sweden ||
 * ~ Personages ||< Include [|Beowulf], [|Hygelac], [|Hrothgar], [|Wealhtheow], [|Hrothulf], [|Æschere], [|Unferth], [|Grendel], [|Grendel's mother], [|Wiglaf], [|Hildeburh]. ||
 * ==Contents==
 * [|1] [|Story]
 * [|1.1] [|Structured by battles]
 * [|1.1.1] [|First battle: Grendel]
 * [|1.1.2] [|Second battle: Grendel's mother]
 * [|1.1.3] [|Third battle: The dragon]
 * [|1.2] [|Structured by funerals]
 * [|1.2.1] [|First Funeral: Scyld Scefing (lines 1–52)]
 * [|1.2.2] [|Second Funeral: Hildeburg’s kin (lines 1107–24)]
 * [|1.2.3] [|Controversial Funeral: Lay of the Last Survivor (lines 2247–66)]
 * [|1.2.4] [|Third Funeral: Beowulf (lines 3137–82)]
 * [|2] [|Historical background]
 * [|3] [|Sources and analogues]
 * [|4] [|The Beowulf manuscript]
 * [|4.1] [|Provenance]
 * [|4.2] [|Writing]
 * [|4.3] [|Transcription]
 * [|5] [|Authorship and date]
 * [|5.1] [|Debate over oral tradition]
 * [|5.2] [|Dialect]
 * [|6] [|Form and metre]
 * [|7] [|Interpretation and criticism]
 * [|8] [|Translations and glossaries]
 * [|9] [|Artistic adaptations]
 * [|10] [|Notes]
 * [|11] [|Bibliography]
 * [|11.1] [|Dictionaries]
 * [|11.2] [|Text]
 * [|11.3] [|Audio]
 * [|11.4] [|Scholarship]
 * [|12] [|References]
 * [|13] [|External links] ||

[[|edit]] Story
The main protagonist, [|Beowulf], a hero of the [|Geats], comes to the aid of [|Hrothgar], the 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 sword, which giants once used, that Beowulf found in Grendel's mother's lair. Later in his life, Beowulf is himself king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorised by a [|dragon] 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 into its lair, at [|Earnanæs], but only his young Swedish relative [|Wiglaf] dares join him. Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded. He is buried in a [|tumulus] or burial mound, by the sea. 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] ("into the middle of affairs") or simply, "in the middle", 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 are spoken of, as well as their interactions with each other, debts owed and repaid, and deeds of valour.

[[|edit]] Structured by battles
Jane Chance (Professor of English, [|Rice University]) in her 1980 article "The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother" argued that there are two standard interpretations of the poem: one view which suggests a two-part structure (i.e., the poem is divided between Beowulf's battles with [|Grendel] and with the dragon) and the other, a three-part structure (this interpretation argues that Beowulf's battle with [|Grendel's mother] is structurally separate from his battle with Grendel).[|[][|5][|]] Chance stated that, "this view of the structure as two-part has generally prevailed since its inception in [|J.R.R. Tolkien]'s //[|Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics]// in //Proceedings of the British Academy 22// (1936)."[|[][|5][|]] In contrast, she argued that the three-part structure has become "increasingly popular."[|[][|5][|]]

[[|edit]] First battle: Grendel
Beowulf is challenged by a Danish coast guard, Evelyn Paul (1911). //Beowulf// begins with the story of King Hroðgar, who constructed the great hall [|Heorot] for his people. In it he, his wife [|Wealhþeow], and his warriors spend their time singing and celebrating, until Grendel, a troll-like monster who is pained by the noise, attacks the hall and kills and devours many of Hroðgar's warriors while they sleep. But Grendel does not touch the throne of Hroðgar, for it is described as protected by a powerful god. Hroðgar and his people, helpless against Grendel's attacks, abandon Heorot. Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland, hears of Hroðgar's troubles and with his king's permission leaves his homeland to help Hroðgar. Beowulf and his men spend the night in Heorot. Beowulf bears no weapon because this would be an "unfair advantage" over the unarmed beast. After they fall asleep, Grendel enters the hall and attacks, devouring one of Beowulf's men. Beowulf has been feigning sleep and leaps up to clench Grendel's hand. The two battle until it seems as though the hall might collapse. Beowulf's retainers draw their swords and rush to his aid, but their blades can not pierce Grendel's skin. Finally, Beowulf tears Grendel's arm from his body at the shoulder and Grendel runs to his home in the marshes to die.

[[|edit]] Second battle: Grendel's mother
The next night, after celebrating Grendel's death, Hrothgar and his men sleep in Heorot. Grendel's mother, angered by the death of her son, appears and attacks the hall. She kills Hroðgar's most trusted warrior, [|Æschere], in revenge for Grendel's death. Hroðgar, Beowulf and their men track Grendel's mother to her lair under a lake. Beowulf prepares himself for battle; he is presented with a sword, [|Hrunting], by [|Unferth], a warrior who had doubted him and wishes to make amends. After stipulating a number of conditions to Hroðgar in case of his death (including the taking in of his kinsmen and the inheritance by Unferth of Beowulf's estate), Beowulf dives into the lake. He is swiftly detected and attacked by Grendel's mother. However, she is unable to harm Beowulf through his armour and drags him to the bottom of the lake. In a cavern containing Grendel's body and the remains of men that the two have killed, Grendel's mother and Beowulf engage in fierce combat. At first, Grendel's mother appears to prevail. Beowulf, finding that Hrunting cannot harm his foe, discards it in fury. Beowulf is again saved from his opponent's attack by his armour. Beowulf grabs a magical sword from the Grendel's mother's treasure, and with it beheads her. Travelling further into the lair, Beowulf discovers Grendel's corpse and severs its head. The blade of the magic sword melts like ice when it touches Grendel's toxic blood, until only the hilt is left. This hilt is the only treasure that Beowulf carries out of cavern, which he presents to Hroðgar upon his return to Heorot.[|[][|6][|]] Beowulf then returns to the surface and to his men at the "ninth hour" (l. 1600, "nōn", about 3pm).[|[][|7][|]] He returns to Heorot, where Hroðgar gives Beowulf many gifts, including the sword [|Nægling], his family's heirloom.

[[|edit]] Third battle: The dragon
A 1908 depiction of Beowulf fighting the dragon by J. R. Skelton. 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 an unnamed [|dragon] at [|Earnaness]. 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 display and fearing for their lives, creep back into the woods. One of his men, however, Wiglaf, who finds great distress in seeing Beowulf's plight, comes to Beowulf's aid. The two slay the dragon, but Beowulf is mortally wounded. Beowulf is buried in Geatland on a cliff overlooking the sea, where sailors are able to see his [|tumulus]. The dragon's treasure is buried with him, in accordance with Beowulf's wishes, rather than distributed to his people, and there is a curse associated with the hoard to ensure that Beowulf's wish is kept.

[[|edit]] Structured by funerals
It is widely accepted that there are three funerals in //Beowulf.//[|[][|8][|]] The funerals are also paired with the three battles described above.[|[][|8][|]] The three funerals share similarities regarding the offerings for the dead and the change in theme through the description of each funeral. Gale Owen-Crocker (Professor of Anglo-Saxon, [|University of Manchester]) in //The Four Funerals in Beowulf// (2000) argues that a passage in the poem, commonly known as “The Lay of the Last Survivor” (lines 2247–66), is an additional funeral.[|[][|8][|]] The funerals are themselves involved in the ritual of hoarding: the deposition of sacrificial objects with both religious and socio-economic functions.[|[][|9][|]]

[[|edit]] First Funeral: Scyld Scefing (lines 1–52)
The first funeral in the poem is of [|Scyld Scefing] (translated in some versions as "Shield Shiefson") the king of the Danes.[|[][|10][|]] The first section of the poem, (the first [|fitt]), helps the poet illustrate the settings of the poem by introducing Hrothgar’s lineage. The funeral leads to the introduction of the hero, Beowulf and his confrontation with the first monster, Grendel. This passage begins by describing Scyld’s glory as a “scourge of many tribes, a wrecker of mead-benches.”[|[][|10][|]] Scyld’s glory and importance is shown by the prestigious death he obtains through his service as the king of the Danes.[|[][|8][|]] His importance is proven once more by the grand funeral given to him by his people: his funeral at sea with many weapons and treasures shows he was a great soldier and an even greater leader to his people.[|[][|8][|]] The poet introduces the concepts of a heroic society through Scyld. The possessions buried with the king are elaborately described to emphasise the importance of such items.[|[][|8][|]] The importance of these earthly possessions are then used to establish this dead king’s greatness in respect to the treasure.[|[][|8][|]] Scyld’s funeral helps the poet to elaborate on the glory of battle in a heroic society and how earthly possessions help define a person‘s importance. This funeral also helps the poet to develop the plot to lead into the confrontation between the protagonist, Beowulf, and the main antagonist, Grendel.

[[|edit]] Second Funeral: Hildeburg’s kin (lines 1107–24)
The second funeral in the poem is that of [|Hildeburg’s] kin and is the second fitt of this poem.[|[][|10][|]] The funeral is sung about in Heorot as part of a lay during the feasting to mark Beowulf's victory over Grendel. The death of Hildeburg’s brother [|Hnæf], son(s) and, later, her husband [|Finn] the Frisian king are sung about as the result of fighting in [|Frisia] between the visiting Danish chieftain Hnæf and his retainers (including one [|Hengest]) and Finn's followers. The funeral mirrors the use of funeral offerings for the dead with extravagant possessions in Scyld's funeral.[|[][|10][|]] Hildeburg’s relatives are buried with their armour and gold to signify their importance.[|[][|8][|]] However, the relatives’ funeral differs from the first as it was a cremation ceremony. Furthermore, the poet focuses on the strong emotions of those who died while in battle.[|[][|10][|]] The gory details of “heads melt[ing], gashes [springing] open...and the blood [springing] out from the body’s wounds”[|[][|10][|]] describes war as a horrifying event instead of one of glory.[|[][|8][|]] Although the poet maintains the theme of possessions as important even in death, the glory of battle is challenged by the vicious nature of war. The second funeral displays different concepts from the first and a change of direction in the plot that leads to Beowulf's fight against Grendel's Mother.

[[|edit]] Controversial Funeral: Lay of the Last Survivor (lines 2247–66)
"The Lay of the Last Survivor" is arguably an addition to the other three funerals in //Beowulf// because of the striking similarities that define the importance of the other burials.[|[][|8][|]] The parallels that identify this passage with the other three funerals are the similar burial customs, changes in setting and plot, and changes of theme. The lament appears to be a funeral because of the Last Survivor’s description of burial offerings that are also found in the funerals of Scyld Scefing, Hildeburg’s kin, and Beowulf.[|[][|8][|]] The Last Survivor describes the many treasures left for the dead such as the weapons, armour and golden cups[|[][|10][|]] that have strong parallels to Scyld’s “well furbished ship...,bladed weapons and coats of mail,”[|[][|10][|]] Hildeburg’s Kin’s “blood-plastered coats of mail [and] boar-shaped helmets”[|[][|10][|]] and Beowulf's treasure from the dragon.[|[][|10][|]] An additional argument towards viewing this passage as a funeral lies in the statement, “tumbling hawk [and] swift horse”[|[][|10][|]] mentioned in the poem. This is an animal offering which was a burial custom during the era in which the poem takes place.[|[][|8][|]] Moreover this passage, like the other funerals, signifies changes in setting and plot.[|[][|8][|]] One can also argue that it is the 3rd part to the poem since it describes the settings during the time lapse for the final battle between Beowulf and the Dragon. The poet also describes death in battle as horrifying, a concept continued from the second part of the poem, through the Last Survivor’s eyes.[|[][|8][|]]

[[|edit]] Third Funeral: Beowulf (lines 3137–82)
The barrow of [|Skalunda], a barrow that was identified by the archaeologist [|Birger Nerman] as Beowulf's burial mound.[|[][|11][|]] The fourth and final funeral of the poem is Beowulf's funeral. During the final battle against the dragon, Beowulf receives fatal wounds and dies. The greatness of Beowulf's life is demonstrated through this funeral, particularly through the many offerings of his people.[|[][|8][|]] "Weohstan's son (pause) commanded it be announced to many men (pause) that they should fetch from afar wood for the pyre."[|[][|10][|]] for their leader's funeral. The dragon's remains are thrown into the sea, a parallel to Scyld's burial in his ship. Beowulf's funeral is the fourth fitt of the poem and acts as an [|epilogue] for the hero who is the "most gracious and fair-minded, kindest to his people and keenest to win fame."[|[][|10][|]]

[[|edit]] Historical background
Approximate central regions of tribes mentioned in Beowulf with the location of the [|Angles]. See [|Scandza] for details of Scandinavia's political fragmentation in the 6th century. The events described in the poem take place in the late 5th century, after the [|Anglo-Saxons] had begun migration and settlement in England, and before the beginning of the 7th century, a time when the Saxons were either newly arrived or in close contact with their fellow [|Germanic kinsmen] in Scandinavia and [|Northern Germany]. The poem could have been transmitted in England by people of [|Geatish] origins.[|[][|12][|]] It has been suggested that //Beowulf// was first composed in the 7th century at [|Rendlesham] in [|East Anglia], as [|Sutton Hoo] also shows close connections with Scandinavia, and also that the East Anglian royal dynasty, the [|Wuffings], were descendants of the [|Geatish] [|Wulfings].[|[][|13][|]][|[][|14][|]] Others have associated this poem with the court of King [|Alfred], or with the court of King [|Canute].[|[][|3][|]] //[|Ohthere]'s mound// The poem deals with [|legends], was composed for entertainment, and does not separate between fictional elements and real historic events, such as the raid by King [|Hygelac] into [|Frisia]. Scholars generally agree that many of the personalities of //Beowulf// also appear in Scandinavian sources (specific works designated in the following section).[|[][|15][|]] This does not only concern people (e.g., [|Healfdene], [|Hroðgar], [|Halga], [|Hroðulf], [|Eadgils] and [|Ohthere]), but also [|clans] (e.g., [|Scyldings], [|Scylfings] and [|Wulfings]) and some of the events (e.g., the [|Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern]). The dating of the events in the poem has been confirmed by archaeological excavations of the [|barrows] indicated by [|Snorri Sturluson] and by Swedish tradition as the graves of [|Ohthere] (dated to c. 530) and his son [|Eadgils] (dated to c. 575) in [|Uppland], Sweden.[|[][|16][|]][|[][|17][|]][|[][|18][|]] 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//.[|[][|19][|]] Three halls, each about 50 metres long, were found during the excavation.[|[][|19][|]] Finds from [|Eadgils]' mound, left, excavated in 1874 at [|Uppsala] In [|Sweden] supported //Beowulf// and the sagas. [|Ongenþeow]'s barrow, right, has not been excavated.[|[][|16][|]][|[][|17][|]] The majority view appears to be that people such as King Hroðgar and the Scyldings in //Beowulf// are based on real people in 6th-century Scandinavia.[|[][|20][|]] Like the //[|Finnsburg Fragment]// and several shorter surviving poems, //Beowulf// has consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian personalities such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic personalities such as [|Offa], king of the continental [|Angles]. 19th-century archeological evidence may confirm elements of the //Beowulf// story. [|Eadgils] was buried at [|Uppsala], according to [|Snorri Sturluson]. When Eadgils' mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds supported //Beowulf// and the sagas. They showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. These remains include a [|Frankish] sword adorned with gold and garnets and a [|tafl] game with Roman pawns of ivory. He was dressed in a costly suit made of Frankish cloth with golden threads, and he wore a belt with a costly buckle. There were four cameos from the Middle East which were probably part of a casket. This would have been a burial fitting a king who was famous for his wealth in Old Norse sources. [|Ongenþeow]'s barrow (to the right in the photo) has not been excavated.[|[][|16][|]][|[][|17][|]]

[[|edit]] Sources and analogues
Neither [|provenance], identified sources, nor [|analogues] for //Beowulf// can be proven. Both of these are important in regards to the uncertainty surrounding the //Beowulf// manuscript, as the works which it draws from or influences suggest time-frames of composition, geographic boundaries from 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 five main categories in which potential sources and/or analogues are included: [|Scandinavian] parallels, [|classical] sources, [|Irish] sources and analogues, [|ecclesiastical] sources, and echoes in other [|Old English] texts.[|[][|21][|]] Early studies into Scandinavian sources/analogues proposed that //Beowulf// was a translation of an original Scandinavian work, but this idea has been discarded. In 1878, [|Guðbrandur Vigfússon] made the connection between //Beowulf// and the //[|Grettis saga]//. This is currently one of the only [|Scandinavian] [|analogues] to receive a general consensus of potential connection.[|[][|21][|]] Tales concerning the [|Skjöldungs], possibly originating as early as the 6th century, were later used as a narrative basis in such texts as //[|Gesta Danorum]// by [|Saxo Grammaticus] and //[|Hrólfs saga kraka]//. Some scholars see //Beowulf// as a product of these early tales along with //[|Gesta Danorum]// and //[|Hrólfs saga kraka]//. Paul Beekman Taylor used the [|//Ynglingasaga//] as proof that the //Beowulf// poet was likewise working from [|Germanic] tradition.[|[][|21][|]] Friedrich Panzer attempted to contextualise //Beowulf// and other Scandinavian works, including //Grettis saga//, under the international [|folktale] type 301B, or [|"The Bear's Son" tale]. However, although this approach—the "shift ... from the quasi-historical or legendary materials ... to the folktale line of inquiry," was seen as a step in the right direction, "The Bear's Son" tale was seen as too universal. In a term coined by [|Peter Jørgensen], the "two-troll tradition," a more concise frame of reference was found. The "two-troll tradition" refers to "a [|Norse] [|'ecotype'] in which a hero enters a cave and kills two giants, usually of different sexes." Both //Grettis saga// and //Beowulf// fit this [|folktale] type.[|[][|21][|]] Scholars who favored [|Irish] parallels directly spoke out against [|pro-Scandinavian] theories, citing them as unjustified. [|Wilhelm Grimm] is noted to be the first person to ever link //Beowulf// with Irish folklore. Max Deutschbein is noted as the first person to present the argument in academic form. He suggested the Irish [|//Feast of Bricriu//] as a source for //Beowulf//—a theory that was soon denied by Oscar Olson. Swedish folklorist Carl Wilhelm Von Sydow argued against both Scandinavian translation and source material due to his theory that //Beowulf// is fundamentally [|Christian] and written at a time when any Norse tale would have most likely been [|pagan] in nature.[|[][|21][|]] In the late 1920s, Heinzer Dehmer suggested //Beowulf// as contextually based in the [|folktale] type “The Hand and the Child,” due to the [|motif] of the “monstrous arm”—a motif that distances //Grettis saga// and //Beowulf// and further aligns //Beowulf// with Irish parallelism. [|James Carney] and Martin Puhvel also agree with this “Hand and the Child” contextualisation. Carney also ties //Beowulf// to Irish literature through the //[|Táin Bó]// //[|Fráech]// story. Puhvel supported the “Hand and the Child” theory through such motifs as “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.”[|[][|21][|]] 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. James A. Work's essay, “Odyssean Influence on the //Beowulf//,” also supported the Homeric influence. He stated 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 them both 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”[|[][|21][|]] although Greek was known in contemporary England. [|Bede] states that Theodore, 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.[|[][|22][|]] At this time, Homer's poems were used as textbooks for the study of Greek. [|Friedrich Klaeber] somewhat led the attempt to connect //Beowulf// and [|Virgil] near the start of the 20th century, claiming that the very act of writing a secular epic in a [|Germanic] world is contingent on Virgil. 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.[|[][|23][|]] Similarly, in 1971, [|Alistair Campbell] stated that the [|apologue] technique used in //Beowulf// is so infrequent in the epic tradition aside from when Virgil uses it that the poet who composed //Beowulf// could not have written the poem in such a manner without first coming across [|Virgil's] writings.[|[][|21][|]] A large number of similarities in episodes, themes, and description in the two epics have been identified. Some specific examples of these are things such as: Some more fundamental structural similarities are things such as: Whether seen as a pagan work with “Christian coloring” added by scribes or as a “Christian historical novel, with selected bits of paganism deliberately laid on as [|'local color'], as Margaret E. Goldsmith did in “The Christian Theme of //Beowulf//,”[|[][|24][|]] it cannot be denied that [|Christianity] pervades the text, and with that, the use of the [|Bible] as a source. //Beowulf// channels [|//Genesis//], [|//Exodus//], and [|//Daniel//][|[][|21][|]] in its inclusion of references to [|God's creation of the universe], the story of [|Cain], [|Noah] and the [|flood], [|devils] or the [|Devil], [|Hell], and the [|Last Judgement].[|[][|24][|]] The [|Bible] can fall into both the category of [|ecclesiastical] sources and also this category, as the //Beowulf// poet would have relied on [|Old English] translations.
 * The reception of Beowulf by the coast guard with drawn spear and a challenge but the situation is quickly smoothed over by an explanation of why the ship has arrived parallels Aeneas' landing and very similar reception with drawn spear by Pallas in book VIII of the Aeneid.
 * The court bard in both epics sings of the creation of the world.
 * A human like giant, a Cyclops in the //Aeneid// book III, Grendel in //Beowulf//, coming into a hall every day to eat members of the hero's crew.
 * Hercules (//Aeneid// book VIII) following a trail to the giant Cacus' cave where he wrestles with him and kills him parallels Beowulf following a trail to Grendel's mother's cave where he wrestles with and kills her.
 * The scene in the forest of the hero shooting a "huge" beast with his bow and arrow while his men watch, and the men retrieve the body - a deer in the //Aeneid//, and a sea snake in //Beowulf//.
 * The commissioning of a special metallic shield to fight Turnus in the //Aeneid// and the dragon in //Beowulf//.
 * The hero's sword shattering in his final battle before he is killed, at the end of the poem - Turnus' in the //Aeneid// and Beowulf's in //Beowulf//.
 * The following of a deer leading to a critical encounter with the enemy.
 * Youths riding around on horses at the funeral of a great man - Anchises and Pallas in the //Aeneid// and Beowulf in //Beowulf//.
 * A woman predicting the fall and destruction of the nation by invaders - Cassandra in book II of the //Aeneid// and "A Geatish Woman" in //Beowulf//.
 * The division of both poems into two distinct phases - a first half Odyssean phase of wandering and adventuring in a different land and a second half Iliadic phase upon taking leadership in a new kingdom and fighting a terrible enemy there.
 * Beowulf's landing, an awkward reception at first, and stay at Heorot, being begged to stay there to fight king Hrothgar's enemies paralleling Aeneas' landing and stay at Carthage, again, awkward at first, including being begged to stay there to fight the queen's enemies, but the hero decides to leave in spite of being promised great wealth and privilege.
 * The hero works for and under another king for half the epic. In //Beowulf//, Hrothgar. In the //Aeneid//, king Latinus.[|[][|23][|]]

[[|edit]] The Beowulf manuscript
Remounted page, [|British Library] Cotton Vitellius A.XV //Beowulf// survives in a single manuscript dated on paleographical grounds to the late tenth or early eleventh century. The manuscript measures 195 x 130 mm.

[[|edit]] Provenance
The earliest known owner of the //Beowulf// manuscript is the 16th-century scholar [|Laurence Nowell], after whom the manuscript is named, though its official designation is [|British Library], Cotton Vitellius A.XV because it was one of [|Robert Bruce Cotton]'s holdings in the [|Cotton Library] in the middle of the 17th century. 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].[|[][|3][|]] 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, professor of English at the [|University of Kentucky], is foremost in the computer digitalisation and preservation of the manuscript (the Electronic Beowulf Project[|[][|25][|]]), using fibre-optic backlighting to further reveal lost letters of the poem. The poem is known only from this single manuscript, which is estimated to date from close to [|AD 1000]. Kiernan has argued from an examination of the manuscript that it was the author's own working copy. He dated the work to the reign of [|Canute the Great].[|[][|3][|]] The poem appears in what is today called the //Beowulf// manuscript or [|Nowell Codex] (British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv), along with other works. The earliest extant reference to the first foliation of the Nowell Codex was made sometime between 1628 and 1650 by [|Franciscus Junius (the younger)].[|[][|3][|]] The owner of the codex before Nowell remains a mystery.[|[][|3][|]] Reverend [|Thomas Smith] and [|Humfrey Wanley] undertook the task of cataloguing the Cotton library, in which the Nowell Codex was held. Smith’s catalogue appeared in 1696, and Humfrey’s in 1705.[|[][|26][|]] The Beowulf manuscript itself is mentioned in name for the first time in a letter 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."[|[][|26][|]] It has been 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.[|[][|26][|]]

[[|edit]] Writing
The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote the first 1939 lines and a second who wrote the remainder, so the poem up to line 1939 is in one handwriting, whilst the rest of the poem is in another.[|[][|3][|]] The script of the second scribe is archaic.[|[][|3][|]] Both scribes proofread their work down to even the most minute error. The second scribe slaved over the poem for many years "with great reverence and care to restoration".[|[][|3][|]] The first scribe's revisions can be broken down into three categories "the removal of dittographic material; the restoration of material that was inadvertently omitted or was about to be omitted; and the conversion of legitimate, but contextually incorrect words to the contextually proper words. These three categories provide the most compelling evidence that the scribe was generally attentive to his work while he was copying, and that he later subjected his work to careful proofreading." The work of the second scribe bears a striking resemblance to the work of the first scribe of the [|Blickling homilies], and so much so that it is believed they derive from the same [|scriptorium].[|[][|3][|]] From knowledge of books held in the library at [|Malmesbury Abbey] and available as source works, and from the identification of certain words particular to the local dialect found in the text, the transcription may have been made there.[|[][|27][|]] However, for at least a century, some scholars have maintained that the description of Grendel’s lake in Beowulf was borrowed from [|St. Paul]’s vision of Hell in Homily 16 of the Blickling homilies.[|[][|3][|]] Most intriguing in the many versions of the Beowulf FS is the transcription of alliterative verse. From the first scribe's edits, emenders such as Klaeber were forced to alter words for the sake of the poem. "The lack of alliteration in line 1981 forced Klaeber in his edition, for example, to change //side// (the scribe's correction) to //heal//. The latter scribe revealed not only astute mechanical editing, but also unbridled nourishment of the physical manuscript itself.".[|[][|28][|]] Over the years Beowulf scholars have put the work of the scribes under intense scrutiny, many debate whether the scribes even held a copy as some believe they worked solely from oral dictation. Men such as [|Benjamin Thorpe] saw many errors in rhetoric and diction, implying that the transcribing made little to no sense. Most intriguing however becomes the abhorrence of the first scribe's mechanical editing. This reveals the strength of Beowulf's oral history as poetic flow were prioritised over dialect/ grammatical coherency.[|[][|28][|]]

[[|edit]] Transcription
Icelandic scholar [|Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin] made the first transcriptions of the manuscript in 1786 and published the results in 1815, working under a historical research commission of the Danish government. He made one himself, and had another done by a professional copyist who knew no Anglo-Saxon. Since that time, the manuscript has crumbled further, and the Thorkelin transcripts remain a prized secondary source for Beowulf scholars. The recovery of at least 2000 letters can be attributed to these transcripts. Their accuracy has been called into question, however (//e.g.,// by Chauncey Brewster Tinker in //The Translations of Beowulf//,[|[][|29][|]] a comprehensive survey of 19th-century translations and editions of //Beowulf//), and the extent to which the manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is unclear.

[[|edit]] Authorship and date
//Beowulf// was written in England, but is set in Scandinavia. It has variously been dated to between the 8th and the early 11th centuries. It is an epic poem told in historical perspective; a story of epic events and of great people of a heroic past. Although its author is unknown, its themes and subject matter are rooted in [|Germanic heroic poetry], in Anglo-Saxon tradition recited and cultivated by [|Old English] poets called [|scops]. Opinion differs as to whether the composition of the poem is contemporary with its transcription, or whether the poem was composed at an earlier time (possibly as one of the [|Bear's Son Tales]) and orally transmitted for many years, and then transcribed at a later date. Lord (1960:[//[|page needed]//]) felt strongly the manuscript represents the transcription of a performance, though likely taken at more than one sitting. Kiernan (1996) argues on the basis of [|paleographical] and [|codicological] evidence, that the poem is contemporary with the manuscript.[|[][|30][|]] Kiernan's reasoning has in part to do with the much-discussed political context of the poem: it has been held by most scholars, until recently, that the poem was composed in the 8th century on the assumption that a poem eliciting sympathy for the Danes could not have been composed by Anglo-Saxons during the Viking Ages of the 9th and 10th centuries, and that the poem celebrates the namesakes of 8th Century [|Mercian] Kings.[|[][|31][|]] Kiernan argues against an 8th-century provenance because this would still require that the poem be transmitted by Anglo-Saxons through the Viking Age, holds that the paleographic and codicological evidence encourages the belief that Beowulf is an 11th-century composite poem, and states that Scribe A and Scribe B are the authors and that Scribe B is the more poignant of the two.[|[][|30][|]] This matches with the royal house of England in the early 11th Century being Danish, making the poem politically compatible with this time period. The view of [|J. R. R. Tolkien] is that the poem retains a much too genuine 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.[|[][|1][|]] Tolkien's conviction that the poem dates to the 8th century is defended by [|Tom Shippey] (2007).[|[][|32][|]] The celebration of deeds of ancient Danish and Swedish heroes, the poem beginning with a tribute to the royal line of Danish kings, but written in the dominant literary dialect of Anglo-Saxon England, for a number of scholars points to the 11th century reign of [|Canute], the Danish king whose empire included all of these areas, and whose primary place of residence was in England, as the most likely time of the poem's creation, the poem being written as a celebration of the king's heroic royal ancestors, perhaps intended as a form of artistic flattery by one of his English courtiers. A suggestion made by [|John Mitchell Kemble] (1849) and defended by Jäching (1976) puts a //terminus post quem// of the early 9th century on the [|Finnesburg] episode at least. Kemble identifies the character of [|Hnæf] son of [|Hoc] with the historical [|Alamannic] nobleman [|Hnabi] son of [|Huoching] (d. ca. 788), worked into the earlier episode set in Frisia around AD 800 at the earliest.[|[][|33][|]] The 11th century date is due to scholars who argue that, rather than transcription of the tale from the oral tradition by a literate monk, //Beowulf// reflects an original interpretation of the story by the poet.[|[][|1][|]][|[][|34][|]]

[[|edit]] 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 the mere matter of how it was composed. 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 Grendel's mother story, and the firedrake narrative). These fragments would be held 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.[|[][|35][|]][|[][|36][|]] 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, separated from each other by hundreds of years; it sees the poem as originally the product of a literate Christian author with one foot in the pagan world and one in the Christian, himself a convert perhaps or one whose forbears had been pagan, a poet who was conversant in both oral and literary milieus and was capable of a masterful "repurposing" of poetry from the oral tradition; this early Christian poet saw virtue manifest in a willingness to sacrifice oneself in a devotion to justice and in an attempt to aid and protect those in need of help and greater safety; good pagan men had trodden that noble path and so this poet presents pagan culture with equanimity and respect; yet overlaid upon this early Christian poet's composition are verses from a much later reformist "fire-and-brimstone" Christian poet who vilifies pagan practice as dark and sinful and who adds satanic aspects to its monsters. [|M. H. Abrams] and [|Stephen Greenblatt] assert in their introduction to //Beowulf// in the //[|Norton Anthology of English Literature]// that, "The poet was reviving the heroic language, style, and pagan world of ancient Germanic oral poetry […] it is now widely believed that //Beowulf// is the work of a single poet who was a [|Christian] and that his poem reflects well-established Christian tradition."[|[][|37][|]] 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. In his landmark work, //[|The Singer of Tales]//, [|Albert Lord] refers to the work of [|Francis P. 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.”[|[][|38][|]] Examination of //Beowulf// and other [|Anglo-Saxon] poetry 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",[|[][|39][|]] or the particularly well-studied "hero on the beach" theme[|[][|40][|]]) 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.[|[][|41][|]] Larry Benson argued that the interpretation of //Beowulf// as an entirely formulaic work diminishes the ability of the reader to analyze 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.[|[][|42][|]][|[][|43][|]] A few years later, Ann Watts published a book in which she argued against the imperfect application of traditional, Homeric, oral-formulaic theory to Anglo-Saxon poetry. She also argued that the two traditions are not comparable and should not be regarded as such.[|[][|43][|]][|[][|44][|]] Thomas Gardner agreed with Watts, in a paper published four years later which argued that the //Beowulf// text is of too varied a nature to be completely constructed from formulae and themes.[|[][|43][|]][|[][|45][|]] [|John Miles Foley] held, specifically with reference to the //Beowulf// debate,[|[][|46][|]] 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, finally unverifiable assumptions about composition, and that discard the oral/literate dichotomy focused on composition in favor of a more fluid continuum of traditionality and textuality.[|[][|47][|]][|[][|48][|]][|[][|49][|]][|[][|50][|]] Finally, in the view of Ursula Schaefer, the question of whether the poem was "oral" or "literate" becomes something of a [|red herring].[|[][|51][|]] 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."[|[][|52][|]]

[[|edit]] Dialect
This article is part of [|a series] on: **[|Old English]** || **Use**[show] * [|Orthography] **Literature**[show] * [|Old English literature] **History**[show] * [|History of English] **Legacy**[show] * [|Middle English] 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.[//[|citation needed]//] 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.[|[][|3][|]] The poem retains a complicated mix of the following dialectical forms: [|Mercian], [|Northumbrian], Early West Saxon, Kentish and Late West Saxon.[|[][|3][|]] Kiernan argues that it is virtually impossible that there could have been a process of transmission which could have sustained the complicated mix of forms from dialect to dialect, from generation to generation, and from scribe to scribe.[|[][|3][|]] Kiernan’s argument against an early dating based on a mixture of forms is long and involved, but he concludes that the mixture of forms points to a comparatively straightforward history of the written text as: > ... an 11th-century MS; an 11th-century Mercian poet using an archaic poetic dialect; and 11th-century standard literary dialect that contained early and late, cross-dialectical forms, and admitted spelling variations; and (perhaps) two 11th-century scribes following slightly different spelling practices.[|[][|3][|]] According to this view, Beowulf can largely be seen to be the product of antiquarian interests and that it tells readers more about "an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon’s notions about Denmark, and its pre-history, than it does about the age of [|Bede] and a 7th- or 8th-century Anglo-Saxon’s notions about his ancestors’ homeland."[|[][|3][|]] There are in Beowulf rather more than thirty-one hundred distinct words, and almost thirteen hundred 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-fourth 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.[|[][|53][|]]
 * = [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Beowulf_cropped.png/150px-Beowulf_cropped.png width="150" height="33" caption="Beowulf cropped.png" link="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beowulf_cropped.png"]]
 * **Dialects**[show] * [|Kentish]
 * [|Mercian]
 * [|Northumbrian]
 * [|West Saxon]
 * ([|Runic alphabet] · [|Latin alphabet])
 * [|Grammar]
 * [|Phonology]
 * (//**Beowulf**// · //[|Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]// · //[|Cædmon's Hymn]//)
 * [|Development of Old English]
 * (Influences: [|Germanic] · [|Latin] · [|Norse] · [|Brittonic])
 * [|Early Modern English]
 * [|Modern English]
 * See also: [|Changes to Old English vocabulary] ||
 * = This box:* [|view]
 * [|talk]
 * [|edit] ||

[[|edit]] 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] that uses [|alliteration] as the principal structuring device to unify lines of poetry, as opposed to other devices such as [|rhyme], a tool which is used rather infrequently. This is a technique 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 **Sc**yld **Sc**efing \\ **sc**eaþena þreatum" (l. 4). This is a form of [|accentual verse], as opposed to our [|accentual-syllabic verse]. There are four beats in every line – and two in every half-line. The poet has a choice of [|epithets] or formulae to use in order to fulfill 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 the same way as they are in [|modern English]. The letter "h", for example, is always pronounced (Hroðgar: HROTH-gar), and the digraph "cg" is pronounced like "dj", 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, þ, and eth, ð – representing both pronunciations of modern English "th", as in "cloth" and "clothe" – 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 "clothe") between other voiced sounds: oðer, laþleas, suþern. Otherwise they are unvoiced (as in "cloth"): þunor, suð, soþfæst. [|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].[|[][|54][|]] [|J. R. R. Tolkien] argued that the poem is an [|elegy].[|[][|1][|]]

[[|edit]] Interpretation and criticism
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 largely 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. [|M. H. Abrams] and [|Stephen Greenblatt] note that: > Although Hrothgar and Beowulf are portrayed as morally upright and enlightened Pagans, they fully espouse and frequently affirm the values of Germanic heroic poetry. In the poetry depicting warrior society, the most important of human relationships was that which existed between the warrior – the [|thane] – and his lord, a relationship based less on subordination of one man's will to another's than on mutual trust and respect. When a warrior vowed loyalty to his lord, he became not so much his servant as his voluntary companion, one who would take pride in defending him and fighting in his wars. In return, the lord was expected to take care of his thanes and to reward them richly for their valor.[|[][|55][|]] This society was strongly defined in terms of [|kinship]; if someone was killed, it was the duty of surviving [|kin] to exact revenge either with their own lives or through [|weregild], a payment of reparation.[|[][|55][|]] Stanley B. Greenfield (professor of English, [|University of Oregon]) 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."[|[][|56][|]] In addition, Greenfield argues the foot is used for the opposite effect, only appearing four times in the poem. It is used in conjunction with [|Unferth] (a man described by Beowulf as weak, traitorous, and cowardly). Greenfield notes that Unferth is described as “at the king’s feet” (line 499). Unferth is also a member of the foot troops, who, throughout the story, do nothing and “generally serve as backdrops for more heroic action.”[|[][|57][|]] At the same time, Richard North (professor of English, University College London) 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."[|[][|58][|]] [|Grendel's mother] and [|Grendel] are described as descendants of [|Cain], a fact which some scholars link to [|The Cain Tradition].[|[][|59][|]] 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 very slow 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 (Professor of literature, [|University of North Carolina at Asheville]) notes the facts that form the basis for these questions: > That the scribes of Cotton Vitellius A.XV were Christian is beyond doubt; and it is equally certain that Beowulf was composed in a Christianised England, since conversion took place in the sixth and seventh centuries. Yet 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?[|[][|60][|]] Writer E. Talbot Donaldson seemed extremely certain in his criticism of the poem, focusing on the exact age and locational elements that surrounded the poem itself. He claimed that it was probably composed more than twelve hundred years ago during the first half of the eighth century. Donaldson also believes the writer to be a native of what was then 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.[|[][|61][|]] As a result of the 1731 fire that seriously damaged the manuscript, Donaldson claims that several lines and words have been lost from the poem. Concerning language, Donaldson argues that the reason as to why Beowulf is difficult to connect with is because there have been numerous transcriptions starting from the poem's composition up until it was copied into manuscript form. Even though there have been many debates about whether there are Christian entities present within the poem, Donaldson is certain that "the poet who put the materials into their present form was a Christian and...poem reflects a Christian tradition".[|[][|61][|]] He points out the use of God and his recognised will as well as describing Grendel as a descendant of Cain. He also mentions the inclusion of [|Heaven] and [|Hell] in the poem as the dead await God's judgement while the damned such as Grendel and his mother are to be thrust into the flames of Hell. [|J.R.R. Tolkien], author and Merton professor of Anglo-Saxon at [|Oxford University], criticised his contemporaries' own literary criticism of the poem as being confused by their interest in its historical implications.[|[][|1][|]] He noted that as a result the poem had mostly been overlooked as a literary benchmark until his 1936 criticism //[|Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics]// suggested that the poem’s nature “is in fact so interesting as poetry, in places poetry so powerful, that this quite overshadows the historical content…”[|[][|1][|]]

[[|edit]] Translations and glossaries
In 1805, [|Sharon Turner] translated selected verses into [|modern English].[|[][|62][|]] This was followed in 1814 by [|John Josias Conybeare] who published an edition "in English paraphrase and Latin verse translation."[|[][|62][|]] In 1815, [|Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin] published the first complete edition in [|Latin].[|[][|62][|]] [|Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig] reviewed this edition in 1815 and created the first complete verse translation in Danish in 1820.[|[][|62][|]] In 1837, [|J. M. Kemble] created an important literal translation in English.[|[][|62][|]] In 1895, [|William Morris] & A. J. Wyatt published the ninth English translation.[|[][|62][|]] During the early 20th century, [|Frederick Klaeber]'s //[|Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg]// (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."[|[][|63][|]] In 1999, [|Nobel Laureate] [|Seamus Heaney]'s edition of //Beowulf// was published by [|Faber & Faber] and includes "Northern Irish diction and turns of phrase." In 2000, [|W.W. Norton] added it to the //[|Norton Anthology of English Literature].//[|[][|62][|]]

[[|edit]] Artistic adaptations
Main article: [|List of artistic depictions of Beowulf]

[[|edit]] Notes

 * 1) **[|^]** "Like most Old English poems, 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." (Robinson)
 * 2) **[|^]** "The name of the poet who assembled from tradition the materials of his story and put them in their final form is not known to us" (Robinson). In scholarship, the poet is commonly referred to as the "//Beowulf// poet".

[[|edit]] Dictionaries

 * Cameron, Angus, et al. //[|Dictionary of Old English]// (Microfiche). Toronto: Published for the Dictionary of Old English Project Centre for Medieval Studies University of Toronto by the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1986/1994.

[[|edit]] Text

 * Hypertext editions**:
 * [|Facsimile (1882) of the 18th century autotypes of the cotton MS Vitellius A XV]
 * Breeden, David. //[|The Adventures of Beowulf: an Adaptation from the Old English]//.
 * [|Klaeber, Frederick], ed. //[|Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg]//. Third ed. Boston: Heath, 1950.
 * Lancashire, Ian (for the Department of English, [|University of Toronto]). //[|Beowulf: Representative Poetry Online]//.
 * [|McMaster University]. //[|Beowulf in hypertext]//.
 * [|Northern Virginia Community College]. [|Comparison of various English translations].
 * [|Ringler, Dick] ([|University of Wisconsin–Madison]). //[|Beowulf: A New Translation For Oral Delivery]//.
 * [|Slade, Benjamin]. //[|Beowulf on Steorarume (Beowulf in Cyberspace)]//.
 * [|University of Virginia]. [|Audio reading of //Beowulf// in] [|Old English].
 * Modern English translations**:
 * [|Alexander, Michael]. //Beowulf : A Verse Translation//. Penguin Classics;. Rev. ed. London: New York, 2003.
 * Anderson, Sarah M., Alan Sullivan, and Timothy Murphy. //Beowulf//. A Longman Cultural Edition;. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004.
 * [|Crossley-Holland, Kevin]; Mitchell, Bruce. //Beowulf: A New Translation//. London: Macmillan, 1968
 * Donaldson, E. Talbot, and Nicholas Howe. //Beowulf : A Prose Translation : Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. A Norton Critical Edition//. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2002.
 * Garmonsway, George Norman, et al. //Beowulf and Its Analogues//. (Revised 1980). ed. London: Dent, 1980.
 * [|Gordon, R.K.]. [|//The Song of Beowulf:Translation into English prose//]. New York, 1922. [|ISBN 978-0-486-27264-1]
 * Gummere, Francis Barton (1855-1919). 'Beowulf'. St Petersburg, Florida:Red and Black Publishers, 2007. [|ISBN 978-0-9791813-1-3]. (Translation originally published in 1909.)
 * [|Heaney, Seamus]. //[|Beowulf: A New Verse Translation]//. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. [|ISBN 0-393-32097-9]
 * Hudson, Marc. //Beowulf//. Introduction and notes by Martin Garrett. Ware: Wordsworth Classics, 2007.
 * Lehmann, Ruth. //Beowulf : An Imitative Translation//. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1988.
 * Liuzza, R. M. //Beowulf: A New Verse Translation//. Orchard Park, NY: Broadview Press, 2000.
 * Osborn, Marijane. //[|Annotated List of Beowulf Translations]//.
 * [|Ringler, Dick]. //Beowulf: A New Translation For Oral Delivery//. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2007. [|ISBN 978-0-87220-893-3]
 * [|Raffel, Burton]. //Beowulf: A New Translation with an Introduction by Burton Raffel//, afterword by [|Robert P. Creed] New York: Mentor/[|New American Library], 1963.
 * Rebsamen, Frederick R. //Beowulf : A Verse Translation//. 1st ed. New York, NY: Icon Editions, 1991.
 * Swanton, Michael (ed.). //Beowulf// (Manchester Medieval Studies). Manchester: University, 1997.
 * Szobody, Michelle L. & Justin Gerard (Illustrator) //[|Beowulf, Book I: Grendel the Ghastly]//. Greenville, SC: Portland Studios, 2007. [|ISBN 978-0-9797183-0-4]
 * [|Wright, David]. //Beowulf//. [|Panther Books], 1970. [|ISBN 0-586-03279-7]
 * Old English and modern English**:
 * I. Chickering, Howell D. //Beowulf: a dual-language edition.//New York: Anchor books ed., 1977,1989, 2006 [|ISBN 0-385-06213-3]
 * Fulk, R.D. [|//The// Beowulf //Manuscript: Complete Texts and// The Fight at Finnsburgh.] Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010. [|ISBN 978-0-674-05295-6]. [|Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library] 3.
 * [|Heaney, Seamus]. //[|Beowulf: A New Verse Translation]//. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001. [|ISBN 0-393-32097-9]
 * Old English with glossaries**:
 * Alexander, Michael. //Beowulf: A Glossed Text//. Second ed. Penguin: London, 2000.
 * Jack, George. //Beowulf : A Student Edition//. Oxford University Press: New York, 1997.
 * [|Klaeber, Frederick], ed. //[|Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg]//. Third ed. Boston: Heath, 1950.
 * Mitchell, Bruce, et al. //[|Beowulf: An Edition with Relevant Shorter Texts].// Oxford, UK: Malden Ma., 1998.
 * Porter, John. //Beowulf: text and translation//. Anglo-Saxon Books, 1991.
 * [|Wrenn, C.L.], ed. //Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragment//. 3rd ed. London: Harrap, 1973.

[[|edit]] Audio

 * [|Ringler, Dick] & [|Norman Gilliland]. //[|Beowulf: The Complete Story—A Drama]//. Madison, WI: NEMO Productions, 2006. ISBN [|ISBN 0-9715093-2-8]
 * Baker, P. //[|Readings from Beowulf]//. In Old English.

[[|edit]] Scholarship

 * [|M.H. Abrams] and [|Stephen Greenblatt]. //[|Norton Anthology of English Literature]: The Middle Ages (Vol 1), Beowulf//. New York: [|W.W. Norton], 2000. 29–32.
 * Alfano, Christine. "[|The Issue of Feminine Monstrosity: A Re-evaluation of Grendel's Mother]." //Comitatus// 23 (1992): 1–16.
 * Anderson, Sarah. Ed. Introduction and historical/cultural contexts. Longman Cultural Edition, 2004. [|ISBN 0-321-10720-9]
 * Battaglia, Frank. "The Germanic Earth Goddess in Beowulf." //Mankind Quarterly// 31.4 (Summer 1991): 415–46.
 * [|Chadwick, Nora K.] "The Monsters and Beowulf." //The Anglo-Saxons: Studies in Some Aspects of Their History//. Ed. Peter ed Clemoes. London: Bowes & Bowes, 1959. 171–203.
 * Carruthers, Leo. "Rewriting Genres: //Beowulf// as Epic Romance", in //Palimpsests and the Literary Imagination of Medieval England//, eds. Leo Carruthers, Raeleen Chai-Elsholz, Tatjana Silec. New York: Palgrave, 2011. 139–55.
 * Chance, Jane. "The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother." //New Readings on Women in Old English Literature.// Eds. Helen Damico and Alexandra Hennessey Olsen. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. 248–61.
 * Creed, Robert P. Reconstructing the Rhythm of Beowulf.
 * Damico, Helen. //Beowulf's Wealhtheow and the Valkyrie Tradition.// Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984.
 * [|Drout, Michael]. //[|Beowulf and the Critics].//
 * Gillam, Doreen M. "The Use of the Term 'Aeglaeca' in Beowulf at Lines 893 and 2592." //Studia Germanica Gandensia// 3 (1961): 145–69.
 * //The Heroic Age, Issue 5.// "[|Anthropological and Cultural Approaches to Beowulf]." Summer/Autumn 2001.
 * Horner, Shari. //[|The Discourse of Enclosure: Representing Women in Old English Literature]//. New York: SUNY Press, 2001.
 * Jensen, S.R. //Beowulf and the Swedish Dragon// (Sydney, 1993): available online.
 * —— //Beowulf and the Monsters// (Sydney, corr. edn 1998): extracts available online.
 * —— //Beowulf and the Battle-beasts of Yore//, with illustrations by Derek Allen (Sydney, 2004): available online.
 * Nicholson, Lewis E. (Ed.). //An Anthology of Beowulf Criticism//. (1963), Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. [|ISBN 0-268-00006-9]
 * North, Richard. //Origins of Beowulf: From Vergil to Wiglaf.// Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
 * Orchard, Andy. //A Critical Companion to Beowulf//. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2003.
 * ——. //Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript//. Toronto: [|University of Toronto] Press, 2003.
 * Owen-Crocker, Gale (2000). //The Four Funerals in Beowulf: And the Structure of the Poem//. New York: Manchester University Press.
 * Robinson, Fred C. //The Cambridge Companion to Beowulf// (2001). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 143.
 * Stanley, E.G. "[|Did Beowulf Commit 'Feaxfeng' against Grendel's Mother.]" //Notes and Queries// 23 (1976): 339–40.
 * [|Tolkien, J.R.R.]. //[|Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics]// (1983). London: George Allen & Unwin. [|ISBN 0-04-809019-0]
 * Trask, Richard M. "Preface to the Poems: Beowulf and Judith: Epic Companions." //Beowulf and Judith : Two Heroes//. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1998. 11–14.
 * Waterhouse, Ruth. "Beowulf as Palimpsest", in //Monster theory: reading culture//, ed. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen. University of Minnesota Press, 1996. 26-39.
 * Lerer, Seth. "Dragging the Monster from the Closet: Beowulf and the English Literary Tradition." []

[[|edit]] References

 * 1) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] [|//**d**//] [|//**e**//] [|//**f**//] [|Tolkien, J. R. R.] (1958). //Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics//. London: Oxford University Press. p. 127.
 * 2) **[|^]** Hieatt, A. Kent (1983). //Beowulf and Other Old English Poems//. New York: Bantam Books. p. xi–xiii.
 * 3) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] [|//**d**//] [|//**e**//] [|//**f**//] [|//**g**//] [|//**h**//] [|//**i**//] [|//**j**//] [|//**k**//] [|//**l**//] [|//**m**//] [|//**n**//] [|//**o**//] [|//**p**//] Kiernan, Kevin (1996). [|//Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript//]. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. footnote 69 pg 162, 90, 258, 257, 171, xix–xx, xix, 3, 4, 277–278, 23–34, 29, 29, 60, 62, footnote 69 162. [|ISBN] [|0-472-08412-7] . [].
 * 4) **[|^]** [|Bruce Mitchell & Fred C. Robinson, //Beowulf: an edition with relevant shorter texts//, Blackwell Publishing, 1998, p. 6].
 * 5) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] Chance, Jane (1990). Helen Damico and Alexandra Hennessey Olsen. ed. //The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother//. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 248.
 * 6) **[|^]** Greenblatt, Stephen (2006). //The Norton Anthology of English Literature//. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 65.
 * 7) **[|^]** Jack, George. //Beowulf: A Student Edition//. Oxford University Press, USA. p. 123.
 * 8) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] [|//**d**//] [|//**e**//] [|//**f**//] [|//**g**//] [|//**h**//] [|//**i**//] [|//**j**//] [|//**k**//] [|//**l**//] [|//**m**//] [|//**n**//] [|//**o**//] Owen-Crocker, Gale (2000). //The Four Funerals in Beowulf: And the Structure of the Poem//. New York: Manchester University Press. pp. 1–5, 23, 31, 34, 44, 52, 65–69, 84–86, 104–105.
 * 9) **[|^]** Tarzia, Wade (1989). The Hoarding Ritual in Germanic Epic Tradition.. The [|Journal of Folklore Research] 26:2. pp. 99–121.
 * 10) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] [|//**d**//] [|//**e**//] [|//**f**//] [|//**g**//] [|//**h**//] [|//**i**//] [|//**j**//] [|//**k**//] [|//**l**//] [|//**m**//] [|Greenblatt, Stephen]; M.H. Abrahams (2006). //The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume A: Middle Ages//. New York: Norton & Company. pp. 34–35, 57–58, 81, 99–100.
 * 11) **[|^]** Ewald, Gustav (1950). "Är Skalunda hög kung Beowulfs grav?" (in Swedish). //Västgöta-Bygden// **1**: 335–336. (Om *Birger Nermans och °Carl Otto Fasts idéer angående hednatima kungars gravplats.)
 * 12) **[|^]** M. H. Abrams, general ed.. (1986). //The Norton Anthology of English Literature//. W. W. Norton and Co., Ltd. p. 19. [|ISBN] [|0-393-95472-2].
 * 13) **[|^]** //Beowulf: a Dual-Language Edition//. New York, NY: Doubleday. 1977.
 * 14) **[|^]** Newton, Sam (1993). //The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia//. Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Boydell & Brewer Ltd.. [|ISBN] [|0-85991-361-9].
 * 15) **[|^]** Shippey, T. A. (Summer 2001). "Wicked Queens and Cousin Strategies in Beowulf and Elsewhere, Notes and Bibliography". //In the Heroic Age// (5).
 * 16) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] Klingmark, Elisabeth (in Swedish). //Gamla Uppsala, Svenska kulturminnen 59//. Riksantikvarieämbetet.
 * 17) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] Nerman, Birger (1925). //Det svenska rikets uppkomst//. Stockholm.
 * 18) **[|^]** [|"Ottar's Mound"]. Swedish National Heritage Board . [] . Retrieved 2007-10-01.
 * 19) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] Niles, John D. (October 2006). [|"Beowulf's Great Hall"]. //History Today// **56** (10): 40–44 . [].
 * 20) **[|^]** Anderson, Carl Edlund (1999). [|"Formation and Resolution of Ideological Contrast in the Early History of Scandinavia (Ph.D. thesis)"] (PDF). University of Cambridge, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic (Faculty of English). p. 115 . [] . Retrieved 2007-10-01.
 * 21) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] [|//**d**//] [|//**e**//] [|//**f**//] [|//**g**//] [|//**h**//] [|//**i**//] Andersson, Theodore M.."Sources and Analogues." //A Beowulf Handbook.// Eds. Bjork, Robert E. and John D. Niles. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. 125–148. Print.
 * 22) **[|^]** Bede, Ecclesiastical History, V.24
 * 23) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] Tom Burns Haber, //A Comparative Study of the Beowulf and the Aeneid//, Princeton: 1931
 * 24) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] Irving, Edward B., Jr.. “Christian and Pagan Elements.” //A Beowulf Handbook.// Eds. Bjork, Robert E. and John D. Niles. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. 175–192. Print.
 * 25) **[|^]** [|"Electronic Beowulf"]. The University of Kentucky . [] . Retrieved 2007-11-06.
 * 26) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] Joy, Eileen A (2005). [|"Thomas Smith, Humfrey Wanley, and the Little-Known Country of the Cotton Library"] (PDF). Electronic British Library Journal. pp. 2, 24, 24, footnote 24 . [] . Retrieved 2008-03-03.
 * 27) **[|^]** Lapidge, Michael (1996). //Anglo-Latin literature, 600–899//. London: Hambledon Press. p. 299. [|ISBN] [|1-85285-011-6].
 * 28) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] Kevin Kiernan. Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1996. Print.
 * 29) **[|^]** [|Gutenberg copy] of Chauncey Brewster Tinker's //The Translations of Beowulf// (1903)
 * 30) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] Kiernan (1996)[//[|page needed]//]
 * 31) **[|^]** Kiernan (1996)[//[|page needed]//][//[|clarification needed]//]
 * 32) **[|^]** Tom Shippey, 'Tolkien and the Beowulf-poet' in: //Roots and Branches// (2007), [|Walking Tree Publishers] [|ISBN 978-3-905703-05-4].
 * 33) **[|^]** Hans Jänichen //Die alemannischen Fürsten Nebi und Berthold und ihre Beziehungen zu den Klöstern St. Gallen und Reichenau//, Blätter für deutsche Landesgeschichte (1976), pp. 30–40.[|[1]]
 * 34) **[|^]** Heaney, Seamus (2000). //Beowulf: A New Verse Translation//. New York: Norton.
 * 35) **[|^]** "The Christian Coloring of Beowulf" (F. A. Blackburn, PMLA 12 (1897), 210–17)
 * 36) **[|^]** "The Pagan Coloring of Beowulf" (Larry D. Benson, in Old English Poetry: fifteen essays. R.P. Creed, ed. Providence (Rhode Island): Brown University Press, 1967: 193–213).
 * 37) **[|^]** Abrams, M.H.; Greenblatt, Stephen (2000). //The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages (Vol 1), Beowulf//. New York: [|W.W. Norton]. p. 29.
 * 38) **[|^]** Lord, Albert. //The Singer of Tales.// Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960. p. 198
 * 39) **[|^]** [|Zumthor, Paul]. “The Text and the Voice.” Transl. Marilyn C. Englehardt. New Literary History 16(1984):67–92
 * 40) **[|^]** Crowne, D.K. 'The Hero on the Beach: An Example of Composition by Theme in Anglo-Saxon Poetry', Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 61 (1960)
 * 41) **[|^]** Benson, Larry D. "The Literary Character of Anglo-Saxon Formulaic Poetry" Publications of the Modern Language Association 81 (1966):, 334–41
 * 42) **[|^]** Benson, Larry. "The Originality of //Beowulf//" //The Interpretation of Narrative.// Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970. pp 1–44
 * 43) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] Foley, John M. //Oral-Formulaic Theory and Research: An Introduction and Annotated Bibliography//. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985. p. 126
 * 44) **[|^]** Watts, Ann C. //The Lyre and the Harp: A Comparative Reconsideration of Oral Tradition in Homer and Old English Epic Poetry//. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969. p. 124, et al.
 * 45) **[|^]** Gardner, Thomas. "How Free Was the //Beowulf// Poet?" //Modern Philology.// 1973. p. 111–27.
 * 46) **[|^]** Foley, John Miles. The Theory of Oral Composition: History and Methodology. Bloomington: IUP, 1991, pp. 109 f.
 * 47) **[|^]** Bäuml, Franz H. "Varieties and Consequences of Medieval Literacy and Illiteracy", in Speculum, Vol. 55, No. 2 (1980), pp. 243–244.
 * 48) **[|^]** Havelock, Eric Alfred. Preface to Plato. Vol. 1 A History of the Greek Mind, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA: 1963.
 * 49) **[|^]** Curschmann, Michael. The Concept of the Formula as an Impediment to Our Understanding of Medieval Oral Poetry” Medievalia et Humanistica, n.s. 8(1977):63–76
 * 50) **[|^]** Zumthor, Paul. "The Text and the Voice." Transl. Marilyn C. Englehardt. //New Literary History// 16(1984):67–92
 * 51) **[|^]** Schaefer, Ursula. Vokalitat: Altenglische Dichtung zwischen Mundlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit, ScriptOralia 39 (Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1992)
 * 52) **[|^]** Monika Otter. [|"'Vokalitaet: Altenglische Dichtung zwischen Muendlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit'"]. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 9404 . [] . Retrieved 2010-04-19.
 * 53) **[|^]** Ritchie Girvan. Beowulf and the Seventh Century Language and Content. Methuen & Company Ltd. # New Feller Lane: Lodon EC4. 1971. Print.
 * 54) **[|^]** "Beowulf." //Norton Anthology of English Literature//. ed. Stephen Greenblatt. 8th Edition. pp 29–33
 * 55) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] Abrams, M.H.; Greenblatt, Stephen (2000). //The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages (Vol 1), Beowulf//. New York: [|W.W. Norton]. p. 30.
 * 56) **[|^]** Greenfield, Stanley. (1989) //Hero and Exile.// London: Hambleton Press, 59
 * 57) **[|^]** Greenfield, Stanley. (1989) //Hero and Exile.// London: Hambleton Press, 61
 * 58) **[|^]** Richard North, "//The King's Soul: Danish Mythology in Beowulf//," in the //Origins of Beowulf: From Vergil to Wiglaf//, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 195
 * 59) **[|^]** Williams, David:"Cain and Beowulf: A Study in Secular Allegory. University of Toronto Press, 1982
 * 60) **[|^]** Yeager, Robert F.. [|"Why Read Beowulf?"]. National Endowment For The Humanities . [] . Retrieved 2007-10-02.
 * 61) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] *Tuso, F. Joseph. "Beowulf: The Donaldson Translation Backgrounds and Sources Criticism." Norton and Company; New York, 1975.
 * 62) ^ [|//**a**//] [|//**b**//] [|//**c**//] [|//**d**//] [|//**e**//] [|//**f**//] [|//**g**//] Osborn, Marijane. [|"Annotated List of Beowulf Translations"] . [] . Retrieved 2007-11-21.
 * 63) **[|^]** [|"Bloomfield, Josephine. Benevolent Authoritarianism in Klaeber's Beowulf: An Editorial Translation of Kingship"] (PDF). //Modern Language Quarterly// **60** (2). June 1999 . [].
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