No English kings or events are mentioned. This shows that the poem was written before the Saxons, Geats, and other tribes migrated to England. It also helps to show that the poem was not rewritten or tampered with after it reached England. Thus we have a genuine historical look into the Middle Ages in the lands by the Baltic Sea.

The one surviving manuscript was written in Old English, a language used in the time of Beowulf. They did not call it Old English, of course; that is a name we give it in our modern English days. Here are some lines of the poem in Old English. Some letters are modernized but the old words and spelling are retained. The last survivor of the warrior band is lamenting the loss of all.

Næs hearpan wyn
gomen gleo-beames,    
ne god hafoc,
geond sæl swingeð…

The harp is silent,
No glad music sounds,     
nor any good hawk
Sweeps through the hall…

How To Read Beowulf
The original story, being in Old English and being in poem form, is not accessible to most modern readers. And it does not work well when poets translate and try to make a poem form, because the alliteration and stress patterns do not carry over into modern English. The new poems sound strained. Translators who use prose form can remain more true to the original meanings, and their versions retain much of the interest and power of the story.

Among prose translations, are complete versions that try to be as true to the original as possible and shortened versions that appear in literature books and children’s books. Every child above age ten or so can find a version to enjoy.

If the poet had not written the Beowulf story it would have been lost to history; we would know nothing about it. In your family history are there things you know because somebody kept it in a scrapbook or letter?

In your lifetime or your parents’ lifetime is there a story that should be passed on to descendants? When you think of a good one, write it down (Do you want to make a poem?), take pictures or draw pictures, and save it all for the future. Be sure to write the author’s name so you won’t be called an “unknown author” someday. Tell who you are, where you live, how you learned of the story, and the dates of the story and of your writing it. Then family descendants will not have to guess.

Copyright, 2004. The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com. Piece owned by Ruth Beechick. Long ago in history class a professor said, “History is for old people.” Ruth Beechick says she now qualifies. She especially likes showing that the Bible is true even though traditional history books disagree with it. She wrote a chapter on teaching history in You Can Teach Your Child Successfully.

¹ A remarkable book, After the Flood by Bill Cooper, gives the history of Beowulf and of other European genealogy, tracing king lines all the way back to Noah.