1731 There was an English literature before there was an England. Most of that literature, alas, is forever lost.
Only fragments have survived – principally the first text on which the mighty structure of English literature rests.
That we have Beowulf is the result of an almost miraculous series of accidents. It was composed – for recitation – probably in the 6th century, by pagan newcomers from north-eastern Europe. The epic was handed down, through generations of minstrels, or ‘scops’ – until, at the point when it would certainly have disappeared, a monk (or monks) transcribed it. We don’t know who, or where their monastery might have been. He/they evidently took the text down faithfully, but could not resist interpolating some pious Christian doctrine at various places. It’s easy to see where.
The 3,000-line (incomplete) narrative is divided into two parts, the first twice as long as the second. Beowulf is a Geat, a tribe in what we call Sweden. He is a mighty warrior. Not yet a king, but destined to be one. He comes to Denmark, to help Hrothgar, King of the Scyldings, whose great hall has been terrorised by Grendel, a monster from the nearby marshes, for twelve years.
Beowulf defeats Grendel in single combat. Then, when Grendel’s mother comes to take revenge, he drives her back to her watery lair and dives in to kill her underwater. There follows feasting, drinking, and treasure-giving before Beowulf sails back to his own people. In the second part of the epic, many years later, Beowulf is now King of the Geats, and his kingdom is terrorised by a great dragon. Beowulf slays the dragon, but is himself mortally wounded. The poem ends with his ceremonial burial.
The history of the sole Beowulf manuscript is, in its early career, mysterious. By the 16th century, however, it is known to have been in the possession of the antiquarian Laurence Nowell. As the British Library (the manuscript’s current custodian) records:
It was acquired in the 17th century by Sir Robert Cotton, a keen collector of old manuscripts whose library was presented to the nation by his grandson in 1700. However, the dilapidated state of Cotton’s house gave cause for concern over the collection’s safety. The library was moved first to Essex House in the Strand, then to Ashburnham House in Westminster … on 23 October, 1731, Ashburnham House was ravaged by a fire that destroyed or damaged a quarter of Cotton’s library. Beowulf was saved with other priceless manuscripts, but not before its edges were badly scorched.
In 1753 it came into the care of the more fire-proof British Museum. The hand that saved Beowulf is unknown.
Had English Literature, as a university-based discipline, not had an ‘epic’ on which to base itself, and an Anglo-Saxon literature to study, its academic respectability and evolution would have been very different. To speculate further, English literature itself would have been very different. J.R.R. Tolkien, to take an obvious example, was the greatest Beowulf scholar of the 20th century. And Tolkien’s view on the poem was uncompromising. It was the fantasy – the monsters, dragons, and epic battles – that made Beowulf great. And that, of course, inspired The Lord of the Rings. Had the manuscript burned in 1731, Tolkien’s saga would have burned with it.
The British Library has put the manuscript beyond the reach of any flames in its 1993 electronic/DVD facsimile version.