SOURCE: “Beowulf and Nephi: A Literary View of the Book of Mormon,” in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 4, No. 3, Autumn, 1969, pp. 40-47.

In the following essay, Nichols focuses on the challenges faced by literary scholars of The Book of Mormon. The critic discusses the problems associated with evaluating the accuracy of the translation—emphasizing the lack of any source material—but also points out the value in studying the book's several complex personalities.

I

In all the wide world, past and present, there is no greater body of literature than that which we call English. And in all the annals of English literature, spanning thirteen centuries of impressive expression, no single matter has had greater impact on the creative genius than the life of Jesus Christ and the Biblical account of events surrounding that Life.

That matter, in Old English times, inspired the seventh-century Hymn by...