Nothing in all this is autobiographical: unlike the poets of Deor and Widsith, the poet of Beowulf is not concerned with his own identity ; ;

Since none of these glimpses of poetizing without writing is intended to incorporate a signature into the epic matter, there is prima-facie evidence that Beowulf and the Homeric poems each derive from an oral tradition.

Proceeding from Parry's conclusions and adopting one of his schemata, Francis P. Magoun, Jr., argues that Beowulf likewise was created from a legacy of oral formulas inherited and extended by bards of successive generations, and the thesis is striking and compelling.

W. F. Bryan suggests that certain kennings in Beowulf were selected sometimes for appropriateness and sometimes for ironic inappropriateness, but such a view would appear untenable unless it is denied that the language of Beowulf is formulaic.

It is false to be certain of having discovered in the language of Beowulf such effects as intentional irony.

The ratio is thoroughly remarkable, because the lines are so long -- half again as long as those of Beowulf.

Beowulf (; in Old English or ) is the conventional title of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.

After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated.

After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle.

The main protagonist, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel.

Later in his life, Beowulf is himself king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorised by a dragon whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound.

Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded.

Beowulf is considered an epic poem in that the main character is a hero who travels great distances to prove his strength at impossible odds against supernatural demons and beasts.

Jane Chance ( Professor of English, Rice University ) in her 1980 article " The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel's Mother " argued that there are two standard interpretations of the poem: one view which suggests a two-part structure ( i. e., the poem is divided between Beowulf's battles with Grendel and with the dragon ) and the other, a three-part structure ( this interpretation argues that Beowulf's battle with Grendel's mother is structurally separate from his battle with Grendel ).

Beowulf is challenged by a Danish coast guard, Evelyn Paul ( 1911 ). Beowulf begins with the story of King Hroðgar, who constructed the great hall Heorot for his people.

Beowulf prepares himself for battle ; he is presented with a sword, Hrunting, by Unferth, a warrior who had doubted him and wishes to make amends.

However, she is unable to harm Beowulf through his armour and drags him to the bottom of the lake.

The Bible can fall into both the category of ecclesiastical sources and also this category, as the Beowulf poet would have relied on Old English translations.

An Old English poem such as Beowulf is very different from modern poetry.

Some dragons are said to breathe fire or to be poisonous, such as in the Old English poem Beowulf.

One such epic is the Old English story Beowulf.

** Beowulf ( Old English )

Although elves could be considered to be beautiful and potentially helpful beings in some sections of English-speaking society throughout its history, Old English evidence also attests to alignments of elves with demons, as for example in line 112 of Beowulf.

* Michael Crichton's Eaters of the Dead is a fabricated recreation of the Old English epic Beowulf in the form of a scholastic translation of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's tenth century manuscript.

Those dialects came to be known as Englisc ( literally " Anglish "), the language today referred to as Anglo-Saxon or Old English ( the language of the poem Beowulf ).

Old English kennings are all of the simple type, possessing just two elements, e. g. for “ sea ”: seġl-rād “ sail-road ” ( Beowulf 1429 b ), swan-rād “ swan-road ” ( Beowulf 200 a ), bæð-weġ “ bath-way ” ( Andreas 513 a ), hron-rād “ whale-road ” ( Beowulf 10 ), hwæl-weġ “ whale-way ” ( The Seafarer 63 a ).

Old English poets often place a series of synonyms in apposition, and these may include kennings ( loosely or strictly defined ) as well as the literal referent: Hrōðgar maþelode, helm Scyldinga [...] “ Hrothgar, helm (= protector, lord ) of the Scyldings, said [...]” ( Beowulf 456 ).

Some of the most important surviving works of Old English literature are Beowulf, an epic poem ; the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record of early English history ; the Franks Casket, an early whalebone artefact ; and Caedmon's Hymn, a Christian religious poem.

The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative Verse ( poetry ) | verse and paragraph s, not in lines or stanza s.

The Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern was a 6th century battle recorded in the Norse sagas and referred to in the Old English epic Beowulf.

Hauer made his American debut in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle Nighthawks ( 1981 ), cast as a psychopathic and cold-blooded terrorist named " Wulfgar " ( after a character in the Old English poem Beowulf ).

In the Old English epic poem Beowulf, the Danish warriors drank mead.

The Old English poems Widsith and Beowulf, as well as works by later Scandinavian writers — notably by Saxo Grammaticus ( c. 1200 ) — provide some of the earliest references to Danes.

The initial section uses alliteration instead of rhyme, like much Old English heroic poetry ( e. g., Beowulf ): " Finally pounds of pancakes paired with lingonberries.

The name " Beowulf " comes from the main character in the Old English epic poem Beowulf, which was bestowed by Sterling because the eponymous hero is described as having " thirty men's heft of grasp in the gripe of his hand ".

Scholars have proposed that Sif's hair may represent fields of golden wheat, that she may be associated with fertility, family, wedlock and / or that she is connected to rowan, and that there may be an allusion to her role or possibly her name in the Old English poem Beowulf.

In the Old English poem Beowulf ( lines 2016 to 2018 ), Hroðgar's wife, Wealhþeow, moves through the hall serving mead to the warriors and defusing conflict.

Kevin Kiernan, professor of English at the University of Kentucky, is foremost in the computer digitalisation and preservation of the manuscript ( the Electronic Beowulf Project ), using fibre-optic backlighting to further reveal lost letters of the poem.

M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt assert in their introduction to Beowulf in the Norton Anthology of English Literature that, " The poet was reviving the heroic language, style, and pagan world of ancient Germanic oral poetry it is now widely believed that Beowulf is the work of a single poet who was a Christian and that his poem reflects well-established Christian tradition.

Themes found in early English literature, and specifically in the poem Beowulf, have a heavy presence in defining the ancient world Bilbo stepped into.

The strong influence of the Aeneid has been identified in the development of European vernacular literatures — some English works that show its influence being Beowulf, Layamon's Brut ( through the source text Historia Regum Britanniae ), The Faerie Queene, and Milton's Paradise Lost.