Beowulf, the Icelander. A comparative Study between the Poem and the Nordic Tradition

Abstract

This article examines the main roots of the epic poem Beowulf and suggests the
possibility of its belonging more to the Nordic/Germanic tradition rather than any other. As it
will be shown, this poem nourishes itself with elements that are extremely similar to those
used by Skaldic poets and Old Nordic Storytellers. To make the relation clearer between
these two traditions, the article focuses on five different issues: the first one deals with the
historical background when Beowulf might have been written, roughly the tenth or eleventh
century. Then, the essay focuses on a comparison between Old English and Old Nordic
poetry in order to see the structural interrelation between them. The following part deals
with content, comparing the poem to what is probably the most important Icelandic narrative
corpus. By comparing Beowulf with Icelandic sögur, the paper does not attempt to relate
such enormous literary works. The intention is to compare the main issues dealt with in the
texts. After analyzing the poem as a whole -structure and content-, the discussion swifts in
order to show the cultural issues that are of importance in understanding the correlation
between these texts, approaching them in the tradition of Proppian Folk-tale structure, and
thus dealing with Indo-European arguments that arguably state the origin of these
narratives.