Epic of Beowulf Essay - Dating and Locating the Composition of Beowulf

Dating and Locating the organic law of Beowulf Dating and locating the composition of Beowulf is im accomplishable to do with precision at this time because we do not have enough information approximately the poems specific historical context and because the poem is not constructed in such a consistently symbolic way to secure a single allegorical-historical interpretation.. Estimates of the date of the poems composition pass from 340 to 1025, with ca. 515-530 and 1000 being almost universally acknowledged as the possible extremes (Bjork 13). Current thinking is balanced between roughly this view and the new-fashioned ninth to early tenth centuries. critics generally agree upon an early period, ranging from the easy seventh to the early ninth century (Greenfield 66). The Cambridge History of side of meat and American Literature states in v1, ch3, s3,n11 . . . most of the historical events mentioned in Beowulf are to be dated within the first three decades of the sixth century. One clew to dating the composition was thought to lie in the use of the raillery merewioingas (translated by some scholars as Merovingian), a word which is used solely in this poem and in no other Old side of meat poetry or prose. In 752 the Merovingian dynasty ended, but poetic refer to it could have been added later so this is no real help. . . . the composition of the poem, thich is commonly thought to have taken place no later than the one-eighth century (Stanley 4). Scholars now consider that there were only five clock and places possessing the power and culture that could have supported the production of such a sophisticated work of art as Beowulf (1) seventh century due east Anglia (the age of Sutton Hoo) (2) late seventh to earl... ...ert Bjork and John D. Niles. Lincoln, neon Uiversity of Nebraska Press, 1997. Fulk, R.D.. textual Criticism. In A Beowulf Handbook, edited by Robert Bjork and John D. Niles. Lincoln, Nebraska Uiversity of Nebraska Pr ess, 1997. Greenfield, Stanley B. Nature and Quality of Old English Poetry. In Beowulf The Donaldson Translation, edited by Joseph F. Tuso. New York, W.W.Norton and Co. 1975. Stanley, E.G.. Beowulf. In The Beowulf Reader, edited by Peter S. Baker. New York grace Publishing, 2000. Thompson, Stephen P. The Beowulf poet and His World. In Readings on Beowulf, edited by Stephen P. Thompson. San Diego Greenhaven Press,1998. Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York G.P. Putnams Sons, 190721 New York Bartleby.com, 2000