It was probably written in Northumbrian or Midland, but was preserved
in a West Saxon translation.
There would seem to be some justifiable doubt as to the unity of
the poem. Though on the whole pagan and primitive in tone, it has
a considerable admixture of Christian elements, e.g. on pp. 29
and 30 and pp. 109-112, though the latter passage may be a late
interpolation. Generally speaking, the poetry and sentiments are
Christian in tone, but the customs are pagan. The author of the
article in The Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. i.,
to whom I owe much, says: 'I cannot believe that any Christian poet
could have composed the account of Beowulf's funeral.' One passage
is very reminiscent of Eph. vi. 16, viz. Chapter XXV. p. 111; whilst
page 25 (lower half) may be compared with Cædmon's Hymn. There are
also references to Cain and Abel and to the Deluge. Of Chapters
I.-XXXI. the percentage of Christian elements is four, whilst of
the remaining Chapters (XXXII. ad fin.) the percentage is ten, due
chiefly to four long passages. Note especially that the words in
Chapter II., 'And sometimes they went vowing at their heathen shrines
and offered sacrifices,' et seq., are quite inconsistent with the
Christian sentiment attributed to Hrothgar later in the poem. 'It
is generally thought,' says the writer in The Cambridge History of
English Literature, 'that several originally separate lays have been
combined into one poem, and, while there is no proof of this, it is
quite possible and not unlikely.'
There are in the poem four distinct lays: