My college professor told me...?

Question

My college professor told me that Beowulf was actually written by a 18th century polygamist interest in profiting on the revived interest in ancient books. Is that true? He said anyone who still thinks its like from the 11 century is naive or uneducated.

Answer 1

never heard that, but then i have been busy having a life. i think there is probably info online. go, search!!!

Answer 2

maybe he gives you bad information to stimulate your desire to prove him wrong, in effect causing you to research the poem to further degree than you would, thus learning more than the course would ahve taught you...

(from WIKI...the worst source of info on the net)



The poem is known only from a single manuscript. The precise date of the manuscript is debated. Carbon dating has proven to be ineffective on the highly damaged manuscript. Traditionally the poem's date of composition has been estimated linguistically as well as examination of the physical pages and bindings of the manuscript as approximately 750–800. Other estimates place it close to AD 1000. More recently, doubt has been raised about the earlier dating estimates, with some scholars suggesting a date as late as the 11th century. 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 transcribing an earlier original, the second scribe taking over at line 1939 of Beowulf.

The spellings in 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,

Answer 3

Wow, your college professor told you that?
Perhaps you should reconsider your institute of higher learning then.
Kevin Kiernan, one of the foremost experts on Beowulf, actually placed it in the 11th century, rather than in the 8th or 9th century. Perhaps you should research this on your own, and take a hard look at how this professor got his credentials.

Answer 4

I think your college professor is wrong. It is suggested it was first composed in the 7th Century at Rendlesham in East Anglia.

Tell your college professor he is either naive or uneducated.

Answer 5

I don't agree with such a blanket statement. Make up your own mind. Read the teachings of Jesus yourself and follow what your heart and mind tell you. (Especially the Sermon on the Mount.) I do believe, however, that much of Jesus' actually teachings run counter to many Republican stated policies. Just because lots of Republicans wear their religion on their sleeves (like the Pharisees did) doesn't mean Jesus would support them politically.

Answer 6

Since the manuscript was known in the 16th century, it is highly doubtful that it was created in the 18th century.

Answer 7

I don't know where your college professor got his education from, but he should have his diploma stripped.
There are surviving copies of the *original* text. It was not written in the 18th century.
These pages have photos:
http://www.nvcc.edu/home/vpoulakis/translation/beowulf4.htm
http://historymedren.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.uky.edu/%7Ekiernan/BL/kportico.html

Answer 8

Actually parts of it seem to be from the 7th century. It seems to have been rewritten several times.
http://www.mcgoodwin.net/pages/beowulf.html#biht
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/

Answer 9

LOL...Beowulf is an obscure book by today's standards. I doubt you could pick people out in a shopping mall and ask them if they had read it...they have probably never heard of it.
Anyone who has heard of it has probably learned of it in school in some way, so they are probably familiar with the latest theories of its origin.

Answer 10

that's interesting, i don't know if it is true or not. i do know that M. Crichton wrote a 20th century version of it and renamed the story "eaters of the dead" or as the movie was called "the 13th warrior"

Answer 11

Your professor either has a very dry sense of humour, or he's an idiot. How does he account for references to the text that occur before it was supposedly "faked", LOL?