Beowulf

Author: Unknown, most likely an ecclesiastic. Some candidates:

Date: Uncertain, scholarly opinions vary, placing it at various points between the 8th and the early 11th century. The only thing certain is that the single manuscript which contains it is probably of early 11th century origin.

Source: Manuscript: Cotton Vitellius A xv, Nowell Codex, folios 129a-198b, late 10th or early 11th century, from library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1571-1631) at Ashburnham House, Little Dean's Yard, Westminster; damaged by fire 1731, now at the British Museum; Thorkelin transcripts 1786-87. The manuscript also contains Judith, The Wonders of the East, Life of St. Christopher, Letter of Alexander the Great to Aristotle.

First Folio image and Transliteration: | large | small |

Genre and Form: Epic poem in 3,182 lines of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse (approximately 4 main stresses or beats per line plus alliteration of initial consonants or vowel sounds in selected words in each line)

References:

Electronic Beowulf Project: http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/eBeowulf/guide.htm
Old English Manuscripts: http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/oe/oe-texts.html
Old English Index at Virginia: http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/index.html
Resources for Mediæval Studies: http://www.3wis.nl/paul/medsource.html
Beowulf Criticism: http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/courses/Beo.Criticism.html
The Labyrinth at Georgetown: http://www.georgetown.edu/labyrinth/Virtual_Library/Medieval_Studies.html
Robert Hazenfrantz's Beowulf Bibliography: http://spirit.lib.uconn.edu/Medieval/beowulf.html
Rachel Zirkelbach's Pages on Beowulf: http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/eliot/722/index.htm#mainmenu

 

Historical Background:

Though the story is for the most part fictional, it may have some grounding on historical figures dating back to the 6th century. Some of the figures in Beowulf are also referred to in Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum (13th c.), itself a partly fictionalized history of the Danes by a 13th century Danish historian (the work also contains the story of Hamlet, called Amleth in Books 3-4 of Saxo's work).

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