On the Date of Composition of Beowulf

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Editor’s preface vii
4. Abbreviations viii
5. The Dating of Beowulf 1
6. Opinions on the Date of Beowulf, 1815–1980 3
7. The Eleventh-Century Origin of Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript 9
8. The Nowell Codex and the Poem of Beowulf 23
9. A Reconsideration of the Language of Beowulf 33
10. Metrical Style as Evidence for the Date of Beowulf 77
11. Hetware and Hugas: Datable Anachronisms in Beowulf 83
12. Beowulf, the Danish Invasions, and Royal Genealogy 101
13. The Audience of Beowulf and the Vikings 113
14. Skaldic Verse and the Date of Beowulf 123
15. Variation in Beowulf and the Poetic Edda: A Chronological Experiment 141
16. Saints’ Lives, Royal Lives, and the Date of Beowulf 161
17. Style as the Criterion for Dating the Composition of Beowulf 173
18. On the Date of Composition of Beowulf 187
19. The Date of Beowulf: Some Doubts and No Conclusions 197
20. Afterword: The Uses of Uncertainty: On the Dating of Beowulf 213
21. Index 221