Beowulf how old is the story

It is possibly the oldest surviving long poem in Old English and is commonly cited as one of the most important works of Old English literature. It was written in England some time between the 8th and the early 11th century. The poem is set in Scandinavia. 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. The warrior culture that results from this early feudal arrangement is extremely important, both to the story and to our understanding of Saxon civilization.

Strong kings demand bravery and loyalty from their warriors, whom they repay with treasures won in war. Mead-halls such as Heorot in Beowulf were places where warriors would gather in the presence of their lord to drink, boast, tell stories, and receive gifts. Although these mead-halls offered sanctuary, the early Middle Ages were a dangerous time, and the paranoid sense of foreboding and doom that runs throughout Beowulf evidences the constant fear of invasion that plagued Scandinavian society.

Only a single manuscript of Beowulf survived the Anglo-Saxon era. For many centuries, the manuscript was all but forgotten, and, in the s, it was nearly destroyed in a fire. It was not until the nineteenth century that widespread interest in the document emerged among scholars and translators of Old English.

It was not until , when the Oxford scholar J. Beowulf is now widely taught and is often presented as the first important work of English literature, creating the impression that Beowulf is in some way the source of the English canon. But because it was not widely read until the s and not widely regarded as an important artwork until the s, Beowulf has had little direct impact on the development of English poetry.

In fact, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Pope, Shelley, Keats, and most other important English writers before the s had little or no knowledge of the epic. It was not until the mid-to-late twentieth century that Beowulf began to influence writers, and, since then, it has had a marked impact on the work of many important novelists and poets, including W. Beowulf is often referred to as the first important work of literature in English, even though it was written in Old English, an ancient form of the language that slowly evolved into the English now spoken.

As English history developed, after the French Normans conquered the Anglo-Saxons in , Old English was gradually broadened by offerings from those languages. Thus modern English is derived from a number of sources. As a result, its vocabulary is rich with synonyms. Fortunately, most students encountering Beowulf read it in a form translated into modern English. Still, a familiarity with the rudiments of Anglo-Saxon poetry enables a deeper understanding of the Beowulf text.

Old English poetry is highly formal, but its form is quite unlike anything in modern English. Each line of Old English poetry is divided into two halves, separated by a caesura, or pause, and is often represented by a gap on the page, as the following example demonstrates:. Much has been written about this epic poem, and it will surely continue to inspire scholarly investigation and debate, both literary and historical.

For decades students have undertaken the difficult task of learning Old English in order to read it in its original language. The poem has also inspired fresh creative works, from Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" to Michael Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead," and it will probably continue to do so for centuries to come. Originally written in Old English, the first translation of the poem was into Latin by Thorkelin, in connection with his transcription of Two years later Nicolai Grundtvig made the first translation into a modern language, Danish.

The first translation into modern English was made by J. Kemble in In total, it is estimated that the epic poem has been translated into 65 languages. Since then there have been many modern English translations. The version done by Francis B. Gummere in is out of copyright and freely available at several websites.

Many more recent translations, in both prose and verse form, are available today. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile.

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