Beowulf

Introduction

Beowulf meets archaeology. As the barrow in Vendel (in Sweden) was specified as the barrow of Ohthere by local tradition, an excavation was undertaken in 1917. The dating was consistent with that of Beowulf and the sagas: the early 6th century. Norse sources also relate that a place called Vendel was the place of Ohthere's death. This poem, about Danish and Swedish kings as well as heroes, was protected in England because the English people are descendants of Germanic tribes called the Angles, Saxons, with Jutes. Jutes and northern Saxon tribes came from what is at the present southern Denmark and northern Germany. Therefore, Beowulf notifies a story about the fold days in their homeland.

The poem is a work of fiction, but it states a confirmed historic event, the raid by king Hygelac into Frisia, ca 516. Many of the personalities of Beowulf (e.g., Healfdene, Hroðgar, Halga, Eadgils and Ohthere), clans (e.g. Scyldings, Scylfings and Wulfings) and some of the events (e.g. the Battle on the Ice) also come into view in early Scandinavian sources, such as the Prose Edda, Gesta Danorum, the legendary sagas, etc. In these sources, especially the Kraki tales deal with the same set of people in Denmark and Sweden (Bjork, pp.45-56).

As a result, lots of people and events depicted in the epic were perhaps real, dating from between 450 and 600 in Denmark and southern Sweden (Geats and Swedes). As far as Sweden is concerned, this dating has been confirmed by archaeological excavations of the barrows specified by Snorri Sturluson and by Swedish tradition as the graves of Eadgils as well as Ohthere in Uppland. Similar to the Finnsburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian personalities such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic personalities such as Offa, king of the continental Angles (Douglas, pp.53-60).

Eadgils was buried at Uppsala, according to Snorri Sturluson. When Eadgils' mound (to the left) was excavated, in 1874, the finds supported Beowulf and the sagas. They showed that a powerful man was buried in this large barrow, c 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings. These remains include a Frankish sword adorned with gold and garnets and a tafl game with Roman pawns of ivory. He was dressed in a costly suit made of Frankish cloth with golden threads, and he wore a belt with a costly buckle. A burial fitting a king who was well known for his wealth in Old Norse sources. The events take place after the Anglo-Saxons had begun their migration and settlement in England, and before it had ended. The traditions behind the poem would consequently have arrived in England at a time when the Anglo-Saxons were still in close dynastic as well as personal contacts with their Germanic kinsmen in Scandinavia and northern Germany (Shippey, pp.14-20).

Even as it can be said that Beowulf is the single important extant Old English poem that addresses matters heroic rather ...