SOURCE: “The Dating of Beowulf,” in The Heroic Poetry of Dark-Age Britain: An Introduction to Its Dating, Composition, and Use as a Historical Source, University Press of America, Inc., 1997, pp. 41-63.

In the following essay, Evans examines the debate concerning the date of composition of Beowulf and argues that an oral version (probably composed between 685 and 725) of the poem preceded the earliest written version.

It is with no little trepidation that the present study enters the battle that has raged, and continues to rage, over the dating of Beowulf. It is clear that a wide array of knowledge and expertise from a variety of disciplines has been brought to bear on the question at hand. That the question remains a subject of often intense debate certainly is not attributable to any lack of interest, nor to a dearth of publications. To begin this particular contribution to the long-running...