The Dating of "Beowulf": A Reassessment

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, the essays in this volume 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

Table of Contents

Introduction
Beowulf and Language History - R D Fulk
Germanic Legend, Scribal Errors, and Cultural Change - Leonard Neidorf
Names in Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon England - Tom Shippey
The Limits of Conservative Composition in Old English Poetry - Megan E. Hartman
The Date of Composition of Beowulf and the Evidence of Metrical Evolution - Thomas A. Bredehoft
Beowulf and the Containment of Scyld in the West Saxon Royal Genealogy - Dennis Cronan
History and Fiction in the Frisian Raid - Frederick M. Biggs
'Give the People What They Want': Historiography and Rhetorical History of the Dating of Beowulf Controversy - Michael D. C Drout
'Give the People What They Want': Historiography and Rhetorical History of the Dating of Beowulf Controversy - Emily Bowman
'Give the People What They Want': Historiography and Rhetorical History of the Dating of Beowulf Controversy - Phoebe Boyd
A Note on the Other Heorot - Joseph Harris
Beowulf and Conversion History - Thomas D Hill
Material Monsters and Semantic Shifts - Rafael J. Pascual
Scandals in Toronto: Kaluza's Law and Transliteration Errors - George Clark
Afterword: Beowulf and Everything Else - Allen J. Frantzen