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.

In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the help of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall ( Heorot ) has been under attack by a being known as Grendel.

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 ).

Gale Owen-Crocker ( Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Manchester ) in The Four Funerals in Beowulf ( 2000 ) argues that a passage in the poem, commonly known as “ The Lay of the Last Survivor ” ( lines 2247 – 66 ), is an additional funeral.

It has also been argued that this is the third part of the poem since it describes the settings during the time lapse before the final battle between Beowulf and the Dragon.

Similarly, in 1971, Alistair Campbell stated that the apologue technique used in Beowulf is so infrequent in the epic tradition aside from when Virgil uses it that the poet who composed Beowulf could not have written the poem in such a manner without first coming across Virgil's writings.

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.

The poem appears in what is today called the Beowulf manuscript or Nowell Codex ( British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A. xv ), along with other works.

The Beowulf manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote the first 1939 lines and a second who wrote the remainder, so the poem up to line 1939 is in one handwriting, whilst the rest of the poem is in another.

Kiernan argues against an 8th-century provenance because this would still require that the poem be transmitted by Anglo-Saxons through the Viking Age, holds that the paleographic and codicological evidence encourages the belief that Beowulf is an 11th-century composite poem, and states that Scribe A and Scribe B are the authors and that Scribe B is the more poignant of the two.

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.

Larry Benson argued that the interpretation of Beowulf as an entirely formulaic work diminishes the ability of the reader to analyze the poem in a unified manner, and with due attention to the poet ’ s creativity.

There are in Beowulf rather more than thirty-one hundred distinct words, and almost thirteen hundred occur exclusively, or almost exclusively, in this poem and in the other poetical texts.

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.

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 ).

The Jutes have also been identified with the Eotenas ( ēotenas ) involved in the Frisian conflict with the Danes as described in the Finnesburg episode in the poem Beowulf ( lines 1068 – 1159 ).

Among the most important works of this period is the poem Beowulf, which has achieved national epic status in England.

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.

This is the manuscript that contains Beowulf.

Many manuscripts had become brittle and fragile, including the codex that contains the only known copy of Beowulf ( Cotton Vittelius A xv ).

The Nowell Codex, perhaps more commonly known as the manuscript containing the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf, also contains references to Cynocephali.

It is most famous as the manuscript containing the unique copy of the epic poem Beowulf ; in addition to this it contains a fragment of The Life of Saint Christopher, and the more complete texts Letters of Alexander to Aristotle, Wonders of the East and Judith.

Like the Finnsburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian personalities such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic personalities such as Offa, king of the continental Angles.

The poem Beowulf describes a draca (= dragon ) also as wyrm (= worm, or serpent ) and its movements by the Anglo-Saxon verb bugan = " to bend ", and says that it has a venomous bite ; all of these indicate a snake-like form and movement rather than with a lizard-like or dinosaur-like body as in later belief ( though the dragon of Beowulf does show several features that would later become popularized with dragons ; namely, it breathes fire, lives underground, and collects treasure ).

She appears in several versions relating to her husband, the Swedish king Eadgils, and / or to her father and rapist / lover / husband Halga ( the younger brother of king Hroðgar who received Beowulf ) and their son Hroðulf.

After fighting his way past several soldiers trying to keep anyone from entering or leaving, the warrior Beowulf offers his help to the castle's king, Hrothgar, who welcomes his help.

He is described as an Ylfing ( the Wylfings of Beowulf ) in several places, but also as a Völsung since he is described as the son of Sigmund and Borghild and the brother of Sinfjotle and Sigurd.

Beowulf is the name of several films based on the Old English poem of the same name:

19th-century archeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story.

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 ).

Specific plot elements and features in The Hobbit that show similarities to Beowulf include the title thief as Bilbo is called by Gollum and later also by Smaug, the underground path into the mountain, and Smaug's personality which leads to the destruction of Lake-town.

Lament elements figure in Beowulf, in the Hindu Vedas, and in ancient Near Eastern religious texts, including the Mesopotamian city laments such as the Lament for Ur and the Jewish Tanakh, ( which would later become the Christian Old Testament ).

In this talk, Tolkien speaks against critics who play down the fantastic elements of the poem ( such as Grendel and the dragon ) in favour of using Beowulf solely as a source for Anglo-Saxon history.

In his work Finn and Hengest, J. R. R. Tolkien argued that Hengist was a historical figure, and that Hengist came to Britain after the events recorded in the Finnesburg Fragment and Beowulf.

Chance compares the development and growth of Bilbo against other characters to the concepts of just kingship versus sinful kingship derived from the Ancrene Wisse ( which Tolkien had written on in 1929 ) and a Christian understanding of Beowulf.

Tolkien, an accomplished Beowulf scholar, claims the poem to be among his " most valued sources " in writing The Hobbit.

Tolkien is credited with being the first critic to expound on Beowulf as a literary work with value beyond merely historical, and his 1936 lecture Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics is still required reading for students of Anglo-Saxon.

Tolkien refines parts of Beowulf plot that he appears to have found less than satisfactorily described, such as details about the cup-thief and the dragon's intellect and personality.

In many ways the Smaug episode reflects and references the dragon of Beowulf, and Tolkien uses the episode to put into practice some of the ground-breaking literary theories he had developed about the Anglo-Saxon poem and its early medieval portrayal of the dragon as having bestial intelligence.

Tolkien identified in his 1936 lecture " Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics " a " Northern ' theory of courage '"— the heroic or " virtuous pagan " insistence to do the right thing even in the face of certain defeat without promise of reward or salvation:

" This theft of a cup, Smaug's knowledge of every item in the hoard, and the dragon's ensuing rampage all echo the story of Beowulf, on which Tolkien was a noted expert and which he described as one of his " most valued sources " for The Hobbit.

From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was a Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University, and a prominent critic of Beowulf — on which he gave a lecture at the British Academy in 1936.

In his lectures, Tolkien argued that the Hengest of " The Fight at Finnsburg " and Beowulf was an historical rather than a legendary figure and that these works record episodes from an orally composed and transmitted history of the Hengest named in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.

( It is not clear which side Friðiwulf was fighting on, but Tolkien thinks it likely he was staying in the hall with Hnæf, his foster-father and uncle ; this would explain why Beowulf emphasizes that Friðiwulf was laid on the funeral pyre at Hnæf's side.

Tolkien points out that Beowulf was unknown at the time and so could not have influenced Messenius to imagine Lotherus fleeing to Jutland.

Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths, particularly Beowulf, as well as modern works such as The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison.

J. R. R. Tolkien in his essay, ' Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics ' argues that Beowulf is a heroic elegy.

" Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics " was a 1936 lecture given by J. R. R. Tolkien on literary criticism on the Old English heroic epic poem Beowulf.

Tolkien, delivered in 1936, that Beowulf was established as a quintessentially English poem that, while Christian, looked back on a living memory of paganism.