Examinations of the date of Beowulf have tremendous significance
for Anglo-Saxon culture in general. 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, these essays
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
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