Why Do We Still Read Beowulf

Why Do We Still Read Beowulf?

Beowulf is an Old English poem of man and monster that has been a classroom classic for generations. Its own survival as a text is nearly as epic as the story it tells. Beowulf survives in one manuscript (5X8 inches) which is housed in London at the British Library. A variety of evidence suggests that it began as an oral poem, passed by singers of one generation to the next. It is a good guess that it would have disappeared, along with the singers themselves, if someone had not caused the poem to be written down around 1000 A.D. No one knows who “wrote” Beowulf. Like all early oral poetry, it had as many authors as singers who performed it. The singers may have performed it when the warriors gathered in meadhalls to celebrate their prowess at gatherings like those described in Beowulf. In fact, it is from this poem that we derive many of the details for our reconstructions of Anglo-Saxon Social life. Imagine how many times the original story changed as it was passed on from singer to singer? It was told orally for 500 years before it was ever written down.

Why an Old English poem with a Scandinavian hero exists at all is a mystery. As a member of the tribe of Geats whose significant adventures took place in Denmark and Scandinavia, Beowulf seems an unpromising hero for an English folk epic. At the time the manuscript was being copied, Scandinavian raiders had been ravaging English shores for two centuries. This inauspicious timing has been used by some scholars to bolster their arguments that Beowulf was composed before the coming of the Northmen about 790 A.D. However, a poem featuring a Scandinavian hero may have been able to flourish at the court of King Cnut, who added England to his Danish empire in 1016.

Finally, to the list of mysteries surrounding Beowulf, we must add the ambiguous role of Christianity in the poem. The monks that eventually wrote the poem down were no doubt Christian. But, the only Biblical references in the poem 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 idol worshipping 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.”

Apart from its historical value, Beowulf is a moving epic of great literary quality. It has served as an inspiration for many later writers, among them J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 1895, William Morris, the designer and poet, published and helped translate an edition of Beowulf, one of the poems which had a major influence on his own writing. Most recently, in 1999, the distinguished Irish poet, Seamus Heaney wrote a very successful modern translation of the poem with an emphasis on the spoken nature of its verses.