Beowulf Lines 175–88 and the Transmission of Old English Poetry

Abstract:Lines 175–88 of Beowulf constitute a longstanding interpretive crux. One solution to this crux has been to regard the passage as wholly or partly inauthentic—a solution advocated by no less a scholar than J. R. R. Tolkien in his influential British Academy lecture on Beowulf. Evaluations of the passage's authenticity have hitherto centered on the question of whether it can be reconciled with the theological and aesthetic unities maintained throughout the poem. Notably absent from the discussion surrounding this passage is consideration of whether the hypothesis of interpolation can be reconciled with what is known about Anglo-Saxon scribal behavior and the transmission of Old English poetry. The present article aims to fill that void by surveying a wide range of evidence bearing on the historical plausibility of the claim that an interpolation is present in lines 175–88. It mounts a multifaceted defense of the passage's authenticity and demonstrates that an interpolation of the sort envisioned by Tolkien and other eminent scholars would be an unparalleled phenomenon in the extant poetic records.