Examinations of the date of Beowulf have tremendous significance for
Anglo-Saxon culture in general.
This book will be a milestone, and deserves to be widely read. The early
Beowulf that overwhelmingly emerges here asks hard questions, and the
same strictly defined measures of metre, spelling, onomastics,
semantics, genealogy, and historicity all cry out to be tested further
and applied more broadly to the whole corpus of Old English verse. Andy
Orchard, Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of
Oxford.
The datingof Beowulf has been a central question in Anglo-Saxon studies
for the past two centuries, since it affects not only the interpretation
of Beowulf, but also the trajectory of early English literary history.
By exploring evidence for the poem's date of composition, these essays
contribute to a wide range of pertinent fields, including historical
linguistics, Old English metrics, onomastics, and textual criticism.
Many aspects of Anglo-Saxon literary culture are likewise examined, as
contributors gauge the chronological significance of the monsters,
heroes, history, and theology brought together in Beowulf. Discussions
of methodology and the history of the discipline also figure prominently
in this collection.
Overall, the dating of Beowulf here provides a productive framework for
evaluating evidence and drawing informed conclusions about its
chronological significance. These conclusions enhance our appreciation
of Beowulf and improve our understanding of the poem's place in literary
history.
Leonard Neidorf is a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.
Contributors: Frederick M. Biggs, Thomas A. Bredehoft, George Clark,
Dennis Cronan, Michael D.C. Drout, Allen J. Frantzen, R.D. Fulk, Megan
E. Hartman, Joseph Harris, Thomas D. Hill, Leonard Neidorf, Rafael J.
Pascual, Tom Shippey
