Problems with Beowulf

The Forgery Hypothesis: Henry VIII, Protestant Legitimacy, Unemployed Monks and a Culture of Fabrication

Beowulf in the Canon of English Literature

Beowulf is supposedly an early medieval text written in the Anglo-Saxon language, which is often – though wrongly – called Early English. It is not, as will become clear by the end of this article. Among the few surviving Anglo-Saxon works, it stands front and centre in English Literature, forming the backbone of many university departments’ Anglo-Saxon offerings. The poem tells the story of dragon and monster-slaying in sixth-century Scandinavia, yet it was authored by an English monk. Consisting of 3,182 lines of verse, it has attracted countless opinions, making it a rich quarry for academic study.

Dialect and Stylistic Anomalies

However, over the past decade or so, its authenticity has been called into question. I am no Anglo-Saxon scholar, but some who are have pointed out that the text mixes dialects of Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, and both early and late West Saxon. This is highly unusual. Much of its vocabulary is alien to ordinary prose, and some detect stylistic similarities with the Odyssey and the Aeneid. Its date of composition is equally uncertain, placed anywhere between the seventh and eleventh centuries. Curiously, scholars have resisted subjecting it to radiocarbon dating. No characters in the poem are Christian, yet the text contains clear Biblical references. It is also striking that an English monk should compose an epic celebrating the Danes – precisely at a time when Viking raiders, often targeting wealthy Christian monasteries, were England’s greatest threat. Furthermore, Beowulf was not “discovered” until the seventeenth century, in a library.

The Case for Forgery

Suspicions are therefore growing – though not openly in English Literature departments – that the work may in fact be a forgery. When Henry VIII severed ties with Rome, a new Protestant nation hungered for an ancient heritage and cultural legitimacy. At the same time, monks – long experts in copying texts – found themselves out of traditional work. Many of them had been archivists, record keepers, and indeed forgers: producing false charters to establish land claims, fabricating papal seals for security, and even supplying forged documents to universities. Cambridge, for example, founded in the thirteenth century but keen to assert independence from Church interference, had papal letters forged to “prove” that a seventh-century pope had studied there.

A Wider Pattern of Fabrication?

Other supposedly Anglo-Saxon texts may also be forgeries. University departments dependent on enrolment numbers are unlikely to welcome such inquiries – first ignoring, then resisting them. Yet open dialogue should be encouraged. Mike Parker Pearson, in his recent re-evaluation of Stonehenge, described what he called the “received wisdom problem”: “It is difficult to put aside our taken-for-granted assumptions. We cling to what we think are certainties, and it can be difficult to recognise that a mistake has been made earlier—because it has taken on the status of incontrovertible fact.” This is precisely the problem I highlighted in my last post about the challenge of correcting entrenched historical narratives.

The Genuine Case of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by contrast is genuine. It consists of several texts dating from the ninth century, recounting the history of the kings of Wessex, Sussex, and Kent – who migrated with their families, retainers, and federates, rather than conducting an outright invasion (as I also discussed in my last post). The chronicles were written in Anglo-Saxon until around 1120, when English took over, presumably because Anglo-Saxon speakers had died out. Their successors continued in English, which was alive and well, existing alongside the various Anglo-Saxon dialects until those dialects eventually disappeared.

Further Reading

• MJ Harper, The History of Britain Revealed: The Shocking Truth about the English Language
• Stephen Oppenheimer, The Origins of the English, pp. 349, 430–431
• Michael Pye, The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are, pp. 160–162
• Nick Collins, How Maritime Trade and the Indian Subcontinent Shaped the World, pp. 296–305