[49][50][51] An analysis of several Old English poems by a team including Neidorf suggests that Beowulf is the work of a single author. [d][117], 19th century studies proposed that Beowulf was translated from a lost original Scandinavian work; surviving Scandinavian works have continued to be studied as possible sources. In addition, the two halves are divided by a caesura: "Oft Scyld Scefing \\ sceaþena þreatum (l. 4). For example, the poem’s Danish King Hrothgar and his nephew Hrothulf are generally believed to have been based on historical figures. [20], The poem is tightly structured. It is used in conjunction with Unferð (a man described by Beowulf as weak, traitorous, and cowardly). The poem did not appear in print until 1815. [64] The Beowulf manuscript itself is identified by name for the first time in an exchange of letters in 1700 between George Hickes, Wanley's assistant, and Wanley. von Sydow was anticipated by Heinz Dehmer in the 1920s, besides the 19th century authors who pointed out "The Hand and the Child" as a parallel. [31][32], The poem contains many apparent digressions from the main story. The book includes Tolkien's own retelling of the story of Beowulf in his tale Sellic Spell, but not his incomplete and unpublished verse translation. [125][119] This tale type was later catalogued as international folktale type 301, now formally entitled "The Three Stolen Princesses" type in Hans Uther's catalogue, although the "Bear's Son" is still used in Beowulf criticism, if not so much in folkloristic circles. [134], Attempts to find classical or Late Latin influence or analogue in Beowulf are almost exclusively linked with Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Aeneid. The fight is long and terrible and a painful contrast to the battles of his youth. The poem begins in medias res or simply, "in the middle of things", a characteristic of the epics of antiquity. Anglo-Saxon poets typically used alliterative verse, a form of verse in which the first half of the line (the a-verse) is linked to the second half (the b-verse) through similarity in initial sound. [68], The tightly-interwoven structure of Old English poetry makes translating Beowulf a severe technical challenge. Dankbar nahm dieser sein Angebot an -- und Beowulf besiegte das Monster, wurde ein bedeutender Kriegsherr, König und starb schließlich den Heldentod. was it thence to go to the giver of rings, Hygelac Hrethling: at home he dwelt. After Beowulf dies, Wiglaf remains by his side, grief-stricken. In the second part the movement is slow and funereal: scenes from Beowulf’s youth are replayed in a minor key as a counterpoint to his last battle, and the mood becomes increasingly sombre as the wyrd (fate) that comes to all men closes in on him. Some suggest that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham in East Anglia, as the Sutton Hoo ship-burial shows close connections with Scandinavia, and the East Anglian royal dynasty, the Wuffingas, may have been descendants of the Geatish Wulfings. Kevin Kiernan argues that Nowell most likely acquired it through William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, in 1563, when Nowell entered Cecil's household as a tutor to his ward, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, then kills Grendel's mother with a giant's sword that he found in her lair. "[160], Daniel Podgorski has argued that the work is best understood as an examination of inter-generational vengeance-based conflict, or feuding. 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