can somebody please tell me who wrote the original "Beowulf"?

Question

and where it's a great place to find it?thank you!

i have seen a lot of versions with different authors wich one's the best?

Answer 1

The original author is unknown.

The translation that I use when I teach is Seamus Heaney's recent translation. It's very accurate while maintaining the beauty and readability of the original poetry.

Answer 2

Authorship and Questions
According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, most scholars believe that Beowulf was written by a Christian poet [3]. Grendel and Grendel's Mother are described as descendants of Cain, and share similarities with antagonists in medieval Christian stories. Since the Beowulf poet was also very knowledgeable about pagan beliefs, the descriptions of Grendel and Grendel's mother, for example, could owe as much to pagan beliefs about trolls as they do to Christian beliefs about demons. In addition, Beowulf's cremation at the end of the poem also refers to a pagan practice. On one view, the problem is resolved by supposing that, even though Beowulf was a pagan, the poem's Christian audience could admire his heroic deeds. Beowulf may thus be a product of the poet's knowledge of both Christian beliefs and the ancient history of his people. However, this approach may overestimate the historical knowledge and multicultural tolerance of the poem's last redactor. A somewhat more complex view, typical of oral traditional scholars, suggests that in the long history of the poem's transmission, a pre-Christian heroic narrative has been "baptised," perhaps superficially and with references only to those features of Christian tradition consistent with a heroic ethos. In whatever manner the two are combined, the result is a poem that seems to have appeal and to be intelligible outside of a Christian belief system.

Professor Robert F. Yeager notes the role of Christianity poses one of the mysteries surrounding Beowulf: "That the scribes of Cotton Vitellius A.XV were Christian is beyond doubt; and it is equally certain that Beowulf was composed in a Christianized England, since conversion took place in the sixth and seventh centuries. Yet the only Biblical references in Beowulf are to the Old Testament, and Christ is never mentioned. The poem is set in pagan times, and none of the characters is demonstrably Christian. In fact, when we are told what anyone in the poem believes, we learn that they are idol worshipping pagans. Beowulf’s own beliefs are not expressed explicitly. He offers eloquent prayers to a higher power, addressing himself to the “Father Almighty” or the “Wielder of All.” Were those the prayers of a pagan who used phrases the Christians subsequently appropriated? Or, did the poem’s author intend to see Beowulf as a Christian Ur-hero, symbolically refulgent with Christian virtues?" [4]

Answer 3

It was written by an unknown anglo-saxon poet... however when you find english versions you may find different transcriptions or translations written by various authors.

The following sites can give you more details on how to study the piece of literature as well as the history behind it and it's importance to english literature as one of the first written documents of a story.

Answer 4

no one really knows, they do know that a librarian saved it from a fire in the library. It was at that point that writer were writing all things by hand and it was a very important thing that Beowulf was saved, because there were so few copies of it.

Answer 5

Geoffry Chaucer

Answer 6

both are incredible! Write proper English, right here proper is an adjective enhancing English Write English incredible, right here incredible is an adverb enhancing writing i like the first one. the second one one sounds as if the author wrote undesirable English, even as the first one sounds like a guiding idea.

Answer 7

No one knows that, all you could possibly find is the earliest translator. It is a very old book, about as old as the Iliad.

Answer 8

Entire text: http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/AnoBeow.html

The original author is unknown.

Answer 9

The events described in the poem take place in the late 5th century and the early 6th century after the Anglo-Saxons had begun their migration and settlement in England, and before it had ended. The traditions describe a time when the Anglo-Saxons were either newly arrived or in close dynastic and personal contacts with their Germanic kinsmen in Scandinavia and northern Germany. Whereas Bede only mentioned Angles, Saxons and Jutes, it may not be a coincidence that whereas Beowulf is the most well-known Anglo-Saxon work left to posterity, the most well-known Anglo-Saxon archaeological find, Sutton Hoo, also showed close connections with Scandinavia. It has consequently been suggested that Beowulf was first composed in the 7th century at Rendlesham in East Anglia.

The poem deals with legends, i.e. it was composed for entertainment and does not separate between real historic events and fictional elements. It mentions a confirmed historic event, the raid by king Hygelac into Frisia, ca. 516. Many of the personalities of Beowulf (e.g., Healfdene, Hroðgar, Halga, Hroðulf, Eadgils and Ohthere), clans (e.g. Scyldings, Scylfings and Wulfings) and some of the events (e.g. the Battle on the Ice) also appear in early Scandinavian sources, such as the Prose Edda, Gesta Danorum, the legendary sagas, etc. As far as Sweden is concerned, the dating of Hygelac's expedition has been confirmed by archaeological excavations of the barrows indicated by Snorri Sturluson and by Swedish tradition as the graves of Eadgils and Ohthere in Uppland.

Consequently, many people and events depicted in the epic were probably real. Like 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.

Whilst it could be said that Beowulf is the only substantial extant Old English poem that addresses matters heroic rather than Christian, there are nonetheless Christian viewpoints expressed within the poem, and the overall judgement on both Christian and heroic society is ambiguous. Some scholars have suggested that the Christian elements were inserted later, perhaps by the scribe or scribes copying the manuscript.

A turning point in Beowulf scholarship came in 1936 with J.R.R. Tolkien's article Beowulf: the monsters and the critics when, for the first time, the poem and Anglo-Saxon literature were seriously examined for its literary merits—not just scholarship about the origins of the English language as was popular in the 19th century. Perhaps no other single academic article has been so instrumental in converting a medieval piece of literature from obscurity to prominence.

The precise date of the manuscript is debated, but most estimates place it close to 1000. Traditionally the poem's date of composition has been estimated, on linguistic and other grounds, as approximately 650–800. More recently, doubt has been raised about the linguistic criteria for dating, with some scholars suggesting a date as late as the 11th century, near the time of the manuscript's copying. The poem appears in what is today called the Beowulf manuscript or Nowell Codex (British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv), along with other works. The manuscript is the product of two different scribes, the second and more accurate scribe taking over at line 1939 of Beowulf.

The poem is known only from a single manuscript. The spellings in the surviving copy of the poem mix the West Saxon and Anglian dialects of Old English, though they are predominantly West Saxon, as are other Old English poems copied at the time. The earliest known owner is the 16th century scholar Laurence Nowell, after whom the manuscript is known, though its official designation is Cotton Vitellius A.XV due to its inclusion in the catalog of Robert Bruce Cotton's holdings in the middle of the 17th century. It suffered irreparable damage in the Cotton Library fire at the ominously-named Ashburnham House in 1731.

Icelandic scholar Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin made the first transcription of the manuscript in 1786 and published it in 1815, working under a historical research commission of the Danish government. Since that time, the manuscript has suffered additional decay, and the Thorkelin transcripts remain a prized secondary source for Beowulf scholars. Their accuracy has been called into question, however (e.g., by Chauncey Brewster Tinker in The Translations of Beowulf, a comprehensive survey of 19th century translations and editions of Beowulf), and the extent to which the manuscript was actually more readable in Thorkelin's time is unclear.

According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, most scholars believe that Beowulf was written by a Christian poet [2]. Grendel and Grendel's Mother are described as descendants of Cain, and share similarities with antagonists in medieval Christian stories. Since the Beowulf poet was also very knowledgeable about pagan beliefs, the descriptions of Grendel and Grendel's mother, for example, could owe as much to pagan beliefs about trolls as they do to Christian beliefs about demons. In addition, Beowulf's cremation at the end of the poem also refers to a pagan practice. On one view, the problem is resolved by supposing that, even though Beowulf was a pagan, the poem's Christian audience could admire his heroic deeds. Beowulf may thus be a product of the poet's knowledge of both Christian beliefs and the ancient history of his people. However, this approach may overestimate the historical knowledge and multicultural tolerance of the poem's last redactor. A somewhat more complex view, typical of oral traditional scholars, suggests that in the long history of the poem's transmission, a pre-Christian heroic narrative has been "baptised," perhaps superficially and with references only to those features of Christian tradition consistent with a heroic ethos. In whatever manner the two are combined, the result is a poem that seems to have appeal and to be intelligible outside of a Christian belief system.

Professor Robert F. Yeager notes the role of Christianity poses one of the mysteries surrounding Beowulf: "That the scribes of Cotton Vitellius A.XV were Christian is beyond doubt; and it is equally certain that Beowulf was composed in a Christianized England, since conversion took place in the sixth and seventh centuries. Yet the only Biblical references in Beowulf are to the Old Testament, and Christ is never mentioned. The poem is set in pagan times, and none of the characters is demonstrably Christian. In fact, when we are told what anyone in the poem believes, we learn that they are idol worshipping pagans. Beowulf’s own beliefs are not expressed explicitly. He offers eloquent prayers to a higher power, addressing himself to the “Father Almighty” or the “Wielder of All.” Were those the prayers of a pagan who used phrases the Christians subsequently appropriated? Or, did the poem’s author intend to see Beowulf as a Christian Ur-hero, symbolically refulgent with Christian virtues?"

Answer 10

Monks?