Home›Open Questions›When was Beowulf composed, as distinct from when the surviving manuscript was written?Open QuestionsWhen was Beowulf composed, as distinct from when the surviving manuscript was written?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "When was Beowulf composed, as distinct from when the surviving manuscript was written?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/when-was-beowulf-composed-as-distinct-from-when-the-surviving-manuscript-was-written.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). When was Beowulf composed, as distinct from when the surviving manuscript was written?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/when-was-beowulf-composed-as-distinct-from-when-the-surviving-manuscript-was-writtenCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-when-was-beowulf-composed-as-distinct-fr, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {When was Beowulf composed, as distinct from when the surviving manuscript was written?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/when-was-beowulf-composed-as-distinct-from-when-the-surviving-manuscript-was-written}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionThe one manuscript is dated on palaeographic grounds to about 975 to 1025, and that date is not seriously contested. The date of composition is, and estimates have ranged across three centuries. Arguments from metre, from linguistic archaism, from the historical allusions and from the poem's Christian frame have each been made to carry the case and each has been answered. The atlas records the manuscript date as a date and the composition date as disputed, rather than choosing.What would resolve this A dating argument that does not depend on assumptions about the transmission it is trying to establish. Linguistic and metrical tests have been the most productive line, and a test whose result is independent of whether the poem was copied and modernised on its way to the surviving manuscript would settle far more than another reading of the historical allusions.OpenOld English philology, historical linguistics and metrics, palaeographyR. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles (eds.), Klaeber's Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, fourth editionCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnBeowulf, Other Writings Well-attested Source Klaeber's Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, fourth editionR. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles (eds.)tier 1SourcesKlaeber's Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, fourth editiontier 1R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork and John D. Niles (eds.), University of Toronto Press, 2008Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year