Editing Beowulf (section)

== Historical background ==

[[File:Beowulf Tribes.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Tribes mentioned in ''Beowulf'', showing Beowulf's voyage to [[Heorot]] and a possible site of the poem's composition in [[Rendlesham]], [[Suffolk]], settled by [[Angles (tribe)|Angles]].<ref name="newton"/> See [[Scandza]] for details of Scandinavia's political fragmentation in the 6th century.]]

The events in the poem take place over the 5th and 6th centuries, and feature predominantly non-English characters. Some suggest that ''Beowulf'' was first composed in the 7th century at [[Rendlesham]] in [[East Anglia]], as the [[Sutton Hoo]] [[ship burial|ship-burial]] shows close connections with Scandinavia, and the East Anglian royal dynasty, the [[Wuffingas]], may have been descendants of the Geatish [[Wulfing]]s.<ref name="chickering">{{cite book |last=Chickering |first=Howell D. |title=Beowulf |edition=dual-language |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1977}}</ref><ref name="newton">{{cite book |last=Newton |first=Sam |title=The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia |location=Woodbridge, Suffolk, [[England]] |publisher=[[Boydell & Brewer]] |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-85991-361-4}}</ref> Others have associated this poem with the court of King [[Alfred the Great]] or with the court of King [[Cnut the Great]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Waugh|first=Robin |title=Literacy, Royal Power, and King-Poet Relations in Old English and Old Norse Compositions |journal=Comparative Literature |date=1997 |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=289–315 |doi=10.2307/1771534 |jstor=1771534 |issn = 0010-4124}}</ref>

The poem blends fictional, legendary, mythic and historical elements. Although Beowulf himself is not mentioned in any other Old English manuscript,<ref name="Grigsby 2005">{{cite book |last=Grigsby |first=John |title=Beowulf & Grendel : the truth behind England's oldest myth |publisher=Watkins |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-84293-153-0 |oclc=61177107 |page=12}}</ref> many of the other figures named in ''Beowulf'' appear in [[#Sources and analogues|Scandinavian sources]].<ref name="shippey">{{cite journal |last=Shippey |first=Tom A. |author-link=Tom Shippey |title=Wicked Queens and Cousin Strategies in Beowulf and Elsewhere, Notes and Bibliography |url=http://www.heroicage.org/issues/5/Shippey1.html |journal=The Heroic Age |issue=5 |date=Summer 2001}}</ref> This concerns not only individuals (e.g., [[Halfdan|Healfdene]], [[Hrothgar|Hroðgar]], [[Halga]], [[Hrólfr Kraki|Hroðulf]], [[Eadgils]] and [[Ohthere]]), but also [[Norse clans|clans]] (e.g., [[Scylding]]s, [[Yngling|Scylfings]] and Wulfings) and certain events (e.g., the [[Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern|battle between Eadgils and Onela]]). The raid by King [[Hygelac]] into [[Frisia]] is mentioned by [[Gregory of Tours]] in his ''History of the [[Franks]]'' and can be dated to around 521.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFYeAQAAIAAJ |title=Beowulf |last=Carruthers |first=Leo M. |date=1998 |publisher=Didier Erudition |page=37 |isbn=978-2864603474}}</ref>

The majority view appears to be that figures such as King Hrothgar and the Scyldings in ''Beowulf'' are based on historical people from 6th-century Scandinavia. Like the ''[[Finnesburg Fragment]]'' and several shorter surviving poems, ''Beowulf'' has consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian figures such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic figures such as [[Offa of Angel|Offa]], king of the continental Angles.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.carlaz.com/phd/cea_phd_chap4.pdf |last=Anderson |first=Carl Edlund |year=1999 |title=Formation and Resolution of Ideological Contrast in the Early History of Scandinavia |type=PhD thesis |publisher=University of Cambridge, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic (Faculty of English) |page=115 |access-date=1 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170123194132/https://www.carlaz.com/phd/cea_phd_chap4.pdf |archive-date=23 January 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, one scholar, [[Roy Liuzza]], feels that the poem is "frustratingly ambivalent", neither myth nor folktale, but is set "against a complex background of legendary history ... on a roughly recognizable map of Scandinavia", and comments that the Geats of the poem may correspond with the [[Gautar]] (of modern [[Götaland]]).{{sfn|Liuzza|2013|pp=14–15}}

[[File:Eadgil's barrow.PNG|thumb|upright=1.4|Finds from [[Gamla Uppsala]]'s western mound, left, excavated in 1874, support ''Beowulf'' and the sagas.<ref name="Nerman"/>]]

Nineteenth-century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the ''Beowulf'' story. Eadgils was buried at Uppsala ([[Gamla Uppsala]], Sweden) according to [[Snorri Sturluson]]. When the western mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, {{circa|575}}, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. The eastern mound was excavated in 1854, and contained the remains of a woman, or a woman and a young man. The middle barrow has not been excavated.<ref name="klingmark">{{cite book |last=Klingmark |first=Elisabeth |title=Gamla Uppsala, Svenska kulturminnen 59 |language=sv |publisher=Riksantikvarieämbetet}}</ref><ref name="Nerman">{{cite book |last=Nerman |first=Birger |year=1925 |title=Det svenska rikets uppkomst |trans-title=The Rise of the Swedish Realm |location=Stockholm |publisher=Generalstabens Litogrufiska Anstalt |oclc=13283561}}</ref>

In Denmark, recent (1986–88, 2004–05)<ref name="Niles">Niles, John D., [http://www.britannica.com/magazine/article?query=great+hall&id=1 "Beowulf's Great Hall"], ''[[History Today]]'', October 2006, '''56''' (10), pp. 40–44</ref> archaeological excavations at [[Lejre]], where Scandinavian tradition located the seat of the Scyldings, [[Heorot]], have revealed that a hall was built in the mid-6th century, matching the period described in ''Beowulf'', some centuries before the poem was composed.<ref name="Niles HT">{{cite journal |last=Niles |first=John D. |author-link=John Niles (scholar) |title=Beowulf's Great Hall |journal=History Today |volume=56 |issue=10 |date=October 2006 |url=http://www.historytoday.com/john-d-niles/beowulf%E2%80%99s-great-hall |pages=40–44}}</ref> Three halls, each about {{convert|50|m}} long, were found during the excavation.<ref name="Niles HT"/>