May
23
/ 2017
Perhaps the oldest surviving long poem in Old English, Beowulf is commonly seen as one of the most important works of Old English Literature. While the date of the poem’s composition is still debated, the only certainty is that the physical manuscript was produced some time between 975 and 1025 AD. The author was an anonymous poet, perhaps of Anglo-Saxon descent, who is now referred to as the “Beowulf poet.” The actual poem does not have a specific title, so it has been named after the protagonist of the story. The full poem only survives in one manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. The manuscript was badly damaged in a fire at Ashburnham House in London in 1731. However, the
