A FEW NOTES ABOUT BEOWULF’S ORIGINS
Beowulf is widely believed to be the oldest surviving poem in any modern European language. It is most likely the sole survivor of what many scholars believe was a thriving epic tradition dating from the sixth and seventh centuries. Originally composed in the oral tradition, the Beowulf epic provides us with valuable insights into the traditions and values of the early Norsepeoples of the North Atlantic region. It is assumed that the epic began as a pagan account of national history and heroism. Some time in the ninth century Beowulf was written down in the Old English dialect, recorded by Christian monks in England from that era. The poem exists today as a hybrid piece—retaining pagan and feudal remnants while assuming a language that is newly Christian. Epic poetry was the genre of choice for early Europeans, lending itself to oral repetition and storytelling.

A sole copy of Beowulf not only survived Henry VIII’s destruction of the Catholic monasteries in the sixteen century, but also escaped serious harm during a 1731 fire that ravaged the British Museum, where it can be viewed today in the library of the British Museum in London.

The Burton Raffel translation is widely regarded as the definitive edition of the first English epic.
-From the Introduction to Beowulf by Burton Raffel

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