Table Of ContentThe Dating of Beowulf
The date of Beowulf, debated for almost a century, is a small question with large consequences.
Does the poem provide us with an accurate if idealized view of early Germanic culture? Or is it
rather a creature of nostalgia and imagination, born of the desire of a later age to create for itself
a glorious past? If we cannot decide when, between the fifth and the eleventh centuries, the poem
was composed, we cannot distinguish what elements in Beowulf belong properly to the history of
material culture, to the history of myth and legend, to political history, or to the development of
the English literary imagination.
This book represents both individual and concerted attempts to deal with this important ques-
tion, and presents one of the most important inconclusions in the study of Old English. The con-
tributors raise so many doubts, turn up so much new and disturbing information, dismantle so
many long-accepted scholarly constructs that Beowulf studies will never be the same: henceforth
every discussion of the poem and its period will begin with reference to this volume.
tColin Chase, the editor of this volume, was a member of the Department of English and the
Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto.
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the dating
of beottmlf
edited by
COLIN CHASE
published in association with
The Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
by University of Toronto Press
Toronto Buffalo London
University of Toronto Press 1997
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-7879-6
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
The Dating of Beowulf
(Toronto Old English series ; no. 6)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8020-7879-6
1. Beowulf- Manuscripts. 2. Manuscript dating.
I. Chase, Colin, 1935-1984. II. University of Toronto.
Centre for Medieval Studies. III. Series.
PR1585.D38 1997 829'.3 C97-930683-3
This book has been published with the help of a grant from
the Publications Fund of University of Toronto Press.
contents
EDITOR'S PREFACE vii
ABBREVIATIONS Vlll
THE DATING OF BEOWULF 1
Opinions on the Date of Beowulf, 1815-1980 3
COLIN CHASE
The Eleventh-Century Origin of Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript 9
KEVIN S. KIERNAN
The Nowell Codex and the Poem of Beowulf 23
LEONARD E. BOYLE O.P.
A Reconsideration of the Language of Beowulf 33
ANGUS CAMERON, ASHLEY CRANDELL AMOS, and GREGORY WAITE,
with the assistance of SHARON BUTLER and ANTONETTE DIPAOLO HEALEY
Metrical Style as Evidence for the Date of Beowulf 77
THOMAS CABLE
Hetware and Hugas: Datable Anachronisms in Beowulf 83
WALTER GOFFART
Beowulf, the Danish Invasions, and Royal Genealogy 101
ALEXANDER CALLANDER MURRAY
The Audience of Beowulf and the Vikings 113
R.I. PAGE
Skaldic Verse and the Date of Beowulf 123
ROBERTA FRANK
Variation in Beowulf and the Poetic Edda: A Chronological Experiment 141
RORYMCTURK
Saints' Lives, Royal Lives, and the Date of Beowulf 161
COLIN CHASE
Style as the Criterion for Dating the Composition of Beowulf 173
PETER CLEMOES
On the Date of Composition of Beowulf 187
JOHN C. POPE
The Date of Beowulf: Some Doubts and No Conclusions 197
E.G. STANLEY
AFTERWORD: The Uses of Uncertainty: On the Dating of Beowulf 213
NICHOLAS HOWE
INDEX 221
toronto old English series
General Editor Editorial Board
ROBERTA FRANK P.A.M. CLEMOES
I.E. CROSS
H. GNEUSS
J.F. LEYERLE
M.B. PARKES
E.G. STANLEY
1 Computers and Old English Concordances edited by Angus Cameron,
Roberta Frank, and John Leyerle
2 A Plan for the Dictionary of Old English edited by Roberta Frank and
Angus Cameron
3 The Stowe Psalter edited by Andrew C. Kimmens
4 The Two Versions of Wcerferth's Translation of Gregory's Dialogues: An
Old English Thesaurus David Yerkes
5 Vercelli Homilies IX-XXIII edited by Paul E. Szarmach
6 The Dating of Beowulf edited by Colin Chase
7 Eleven Old English Rogationtide Homilies edited by Joyce Bazire and
James E. Cross
8 Old English Word Studies: A Preliminary Author and Word Index
Angus Cameron, Allison Kingsmill, and Ashley Crandell Amos
9 The Old English Life of Machutus edited by David Yerkes
editor's preface
This book is the result of a scholarly dialogue which took place between the autumn of 1978
and the spring of 1981. It began when contributors were asked to compose brief statements
describing the evidence they intended to investigate and the methodology each planned to adopt.
These statements were circulated to all participants at the end of May, 1979. In January, 1980,
contributors submitted finished papers, which were copied and circulated among the group.
Everyone then met in Toronto 20-23 April, 1980, to discuss the papers and to weigh the impli-
cations of what others had said. A six-month period for revising submissions in the light of what
had been heard at the conference followed. The final period, from October 1980 to spring 1981,
was devoted to preparing the papers for the press.
At the Toronto conference, all agreed that for our purposes the word Beowulf refers to a
literary artifact at least substantially the same as the poem found in Cotton Vitellius A. XV. We
agreed further to revise the papers in the light of what had been heard at the conference but not
to debate directly with one another. Finally, we acknowledge with gratitude that each of us has
learned from other contributors much that has had to go unnoted in the apparatus.
We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada, of the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Toronto and its Deans,
J.F. Leyerle and E.A. McCulloch, of the Update Fund of the University of Toronto, and of the
Dictionary of Old English Project, all of whom together made the Toronto conference possible.
Further, we are grateful to the Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of Toronto and its
Director, Norman Zacour, for supporting this project from initial planning to publication. We
wish also to thank Elaine Quanz, whose typographical skill and accuracy have been an editor's
delight.
My personal thanks are owing in a special way to those in Toronto who undertook many
editorial tasks and thus made it possible for this volume to be produced during my sabbatical
absence, particularly to Walter Goffart and Antonette diPaolo Healey, who generously volun-
teered to help with the index; to Prudence Tracy of the University of Toronto Press, whose
counsel was always wise and whose good humour was unfailing; to Anna Burko, our editorial
assistant, who bore the burdens of the day's heat in my absence; and to Angus Cameron and
Roberta Frank, whose generosity and hard work have at every turn made this book better.
Finally, for her cheerful efficiency and response to our needs at every stage of a long and complex
project, we wish to express a special debt of gratitude to Grace Vallis, executive secretary of the
Centre for Medieval Studies, to whom we dedicate this book.
C.C.
Pine, Colorado
June 1981
abbreviations
ca. 'around'
cf. 'compare'
ch(s). chapter(s)
col(s). column(s)
comp. compiled by
diss. dissertation
ed(s). edition(s), editor(s), edited by
e.g. 'for example'
esp. especially
f(f). following
fol(s). folio(s)
fn. footnote
i.e. 'namely'
intro. introduction
1(1). line(s)
MS(S) manuscript(s)
n(n). note(s)
N.F. Neue Folge
no(s). number(s)
OE Old English
OLF Old Low Franconian
ON Old Norse
OS Old Saxon
P(P). page(s)
Pt. part
r recto
repr. reprint(s), reprinted
rev. revised, revised by
s. 'century'
s.a. 'under the year'
SE southeastern
ser. series
s.v. 'under the word'
trans. translation, translator, translated by
V verso
WS West-Saxon
eWS early
1WS late
nWS non-
Abbreviations for grammatical terms are taken from Alistair Campbell's Old English Grammar
(Oxford 1959).
