“Historically and archaeologically, Beowulf ends in around AD 550”
A new study of the Scandinavian epic Beowulf has dated the poem’s composition to around AD 550, up to 500 years earlier than previous claims. Swedish archaeologist Bo Gräslund (left), the man behind the research, explains more
What exactly is Beowulf? Beowulf is the only Old English text that can be called an ‘epic’. The story is set in sixth-century Scandinavia and follows the exploits of the Scandinavian hero Beowulf. The poem is preserved only in an Old English manuscript from around AD 1000. Who wrote Beowulf? The text has often been credited as a work of fiction by an unknown Christian poet in England. I disagree. Such an author would not have had the necessary access to Scandinavian traditions or been able to correctly describe the poem’s distinct Scandinavian material, ideological culture and pagan customs, especially cremations.
I don’t believe the poem was composed in England at all – the story is Scandinavian and there is no English tradition in it. But it has been processed for a much longer time in Old English than in Old Scandinavian – long enough for singers and scribes to misunderstand most personal names and metaphorical descriptions. It was probably transferred orally from Scandinavia to East Anglia around AD 600, in connection with a marriage between a Swedish princess and Rædwald, the East Anglian king who was probably buried in the Sutton Hoo ship. The poem then finally turned up in southern England, where it was written on parchment in a West Saxon dialect. When was the poem previously thought to have been composed? It has been dated to almost any time between the 7th and 11th centuries. Recent studies have shown that the poem was circulating in England at the end of the seventh or start of the eighth century. But since there is little Old English writing from an earlier date with which to compare it, there is nothing to say the poem is not older than this. Why do you date it to cAD 550? Historically and archaeologically, Beowulf ends in around AD 550. The best evidence for this is the gold rings that dominate the poem, and which inspired JRR Tolkien when writing The Lord of the Rings. Many gold neck and arm rings dating from AD 300–550 have been unearthed in Scandinavia, but not a single one dating from the 250 years that follow. No such rings have ever been found in Anglo-Saxon England from before the late Viking period, either. What does Beowulf tell us about Scandinavia in the sixth century? The poem takes place in the aftermath of a series of volcanic super-eruptions in the Americas, which in AD 536–550 caused a series of ice-cold summers in Scandinavia. This resulted in a terrible famine that may have eliminated half of the population. As I see it, the poem’s monsters, Grendel and the Snake or Dragon, are not expressions of primitive folk beliefs but are metaphorical descriptions of the deadly famine and terrible wars of the time.