Beowulf: Difference between revisions

* [[Short Story]]: Compared to other poetry at the time - which tended to [[Wall of Text|bore readers with endless descriptive narratives of even the smallest plot points]] - ''Beowulf'' is rather concise and gets to the point very quickly.

* [[Shout-Out]]: A minstrel in the poem compares Beowulf to [[Norse Mythology|Sigurd Fafnebane]], a hero that was known throughout the Northern tribes since the 6th century. And it's [[Foreshadowing|fitting]].

* [[Spell My Name with an "S"]]: Various characters have had their names translated in several different ways across different translations. For example, the king of Geatland is most commonly named "Hygelac", but at least one translation uses "Higlac". Then there's Hrothgar's great-grandfather, who has been variously called "Scyld", "Shild", or "Shield". Beowulf's father's name has been translated as "Ecgtheow" and "Edgetho". Not even the eponymous hero himself is immune - while "Beowulf" is universally accepted as the translation, some passages in the original poem spell it as "Biowulf".

** The reason for this lies in that Anglo-Saxon, like most ancient languages, had no set spelling conventions. Authors wrote what they heard, and the latter part of the manuscript was copied by a second author at some point. It's entirely possible he spoke a different dialect than the original author.