Reconstructing Early Beowulf: Evidence from Andreas for the Ninth-Century Form of the Text

Abstract

The Old English hagiographical poem Andreas provides an important witness to the form and reception of Beowulf in the early medieval period. As scholarship in recent decades has confirmed, the author of Andreas drew pervasively from Beowulf in composing the hagiographical poem, borrowing phrases and extended passages to imbue the story of St. Andrew with heroic qualities. The present study tabulates the borrowed phraseology found in Andreas to systematically assemble a portrait of Beowulf as it was known to the poet of Andreas, most likely in the ninth century. The image reconstructed reveals that the text of Beowulf at this time had the same shape it possesses today, containing all the major episodes and speeches. The patterns of borrowings also suggest that Beowulf was admired for its heroic ethos and imagery, and was likely memorized verbatim. These findings accord well with an early (eighth-century) date for Beowulf.