This story, while written in England, is set in Scandinavia and follows the exploits of a great warrior of the Geats, Beowulf.

Beowulf, as a literary work, represents the culmination of an era of early English history several decades after its transcription, the Normans would invade and bring with them new customs, language and forever transform English literature. This manuscript also includes accounts of saints’ lives and tales of travel to the Orient while wildly different in terms of content, all the stories in the Nowell codex focus on heroes and monsters, good and evil. Thankfully, the original was transcribed long before, likely by two different monks, the latter of whom is also thought to be the scribe of Judith (which may account for their similarities in writing style). It suffered damage in 1731, during the Cotton Library fire at Ashburham House where it had been stored efforts to bind and restore it were made but in the process some letters were lost. This poem is known from a single manuscript found in the Nowell Codex, and dated to 1,000 CE.

Wikimedia Commons.Īn epic poem of 3,182 lines, Beowulf is regarded as one of (if not the) most important works of Old English literature. Sköldar hänger längst relingen” by Swedish National Maritime Museums under CC Share-Alike 3.0.

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