Дата публикации:

University of Toronto Quarterly

fb0a9862



Купить или узнать подробнее


The date of Beowulf , debated for almost a century, is a small question with large consequences. Does the poem provide us with an accurate if idealized view of early Germanic culture? Or is it rather a creature of nostalgia and imagination, born of the desire of a later age to create for itself a glorious past?

Examinations of the date of Beowulf have tremendous significance for Anglo-​Saxon culture in general.

Beowulf is considered to be the oldest surviving example of a heroic epic written in Old English. Depicting the Germanic ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons, specifically the Danes and the Geats, it deals with the time period that followed the invasion of England by Germanic tribes in However, while it is generally acknowledged that the epic was written long after the events it describes, scholarly consensus regarding where and when Beowulf was written remains elusive with proposed dates ranging from the early eighth century to the late tenth century.

The only surviving manuscript of Beowulf , generally dated to around , was severely damaged in a fire at the Cottonian Library in London which destroyed much of the physical evidence i. Although each of these methods has particular strengths, none of them has succeeded in establishing a definitive date. It is beyond the scope of this article to give a summary of the evidence that has been used to date Beowulf.



Купить или узнать подробнее