List of Beowulf characters

Main articles: lists of figures in Germanic heroic legend and Beowulf

This is a list of Beowulf characters. Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem. Its creation dates to between the 8th[1] and the 11th centuries, the only surviving manuscript dating to circa 1010.[2] At 3183 lines, it is notable for its length. It has reached national epic status in England (although its setting is Scandinavia, not the British Isles).[3] There are a great many characters in Beowulf ranging from historical people such as Hygelac to purely mythological dragons.

  1. ^ Tolkien, J.R.R. (1958). Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics. Oxford University Press. p. 127.
  2. ^ Kiernan, Kevin S. (1997). Beowulf and the Beowulf Manuscript. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-08412-8.
  3. ^ The Question of genre in bylini and Beowulf by Shannon Meyerhoff, 2006 Archived 2007-11-17 at the Wayback Machine.