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Beowulf, the epic poem of Derring-do and Monsters, was composed by one author, suggest research, pouring cold water on the idea that he had been sewn from two poems .
Beowulf, one of the most famous works of Old English, tells the story of the eponymous hero who defeated the monster Grendel and his mother, thus saving the Danes from a reign of terror, before to die after a battle in which he defeats a dragon.
But the poem has been the subject of a long debate. Some have argued that the work was the product of multiple poets, but others, including Lord of the Rings writer and author JRR Tolkien, said the evidence suggested it was a unique poet .
Recently, the debate has resurfaced, some suggesting that the poem is the result of two different works united: one involving the escapades of Beowulf in Denmark and one involving the dragon.
A study now completes a growing body of literature suggesting that Beowulf was composed by a single poet.
"The issue of fatherhood is a subject of constant interest for Beowulf's studies," said Leonard Neidorf, a professor of English literature at Nanjing University and co-author of the research. "Our article reopens the question in order to apply for the first time some of the most sophisticated calculation methods available for author identification."
In a letter published in the journal Nature Human Behavior, the team of American researchers explains how they came to their conclusion by splitting the two-part poem around points on which scholars have suggested a split and analyzing small elements of the text.
Although various aspects of the poem, including the use of words, themes, and style, have already been explored, the latest study looks at even smaller features of the text and how they are used. These include the use of certain types of breaks, the use of different rhythms and the appearance of words produced by joining others – such as "bone-house" (written in ban-hus), which the authors say the human body. The team also examined the use of groups of letters contained in words, which are important for the sound of a poem.
The results, from a computer analysis, reveal striking similarities in the way in which such features were used in both sections of the text. This suggests – although it can not conclusively prove – that it was the work of a single poet, say the researchers.
On the other hand, it has been discovered that Genesis, the ancient English epic, which is the product of more than one poet, exhibited marked differences, both in terms of reasons for breaks and the use of compound words , between what we think is its constituent parts.
But the mysteries remain – including the identity of the author of Beowulf. "The language that can be inferred from the language of the poem is that the author probably spoke the Mercian dialect and probably lived during the first half of the eighth century," said Madison Krieger, co-author of the Study of Harvard University.
In addition to the findings on Beowulf, the team says that this approach also supports the controversial claim that the old English poem Andreas, which describes the dramatic exploits of St Andrew, was composed by a poet named Cynewulf, who would have created at least four other works based on religion.
"With Cynewulf, our tests encourage researchers to reconsider a possibility that has not been seriously considered in the last fifty years," the researchers write.
Dr. Francis Leneghan, Beowulf's expert at Oxford University, said the study joined a body of evidence supporting the idea that Beowulf had been composed by only one poet. However, he said that it would be useful to apply the analysis to smaller parts of the text to test the idea that it might have been formed from many poems smaller assemblies, or that some lines may have been added over the centuries by scribes.
Leneghan said the authors' conclusions about Andreas were less convincing and would spark debate, noting that it was thought that the author of Andreas had most certainly read Beowulf and the works of Cynewulf. "The resemblances between Andreas and the works of Cynewulf are more likely to be the result of an imitation," he said.
Kriger pointed out that the results were not definitive. "We absolutely think that Andreas could be written by an impersonator of Cynewulf," he said. "Our work simply suggests that this might be a less likely explanation than scholars have believed in the past."
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