Note 77 — Chapter VI

Dr. Karl Müllenhof (papers in Haupt’s “Zeitschrift”) follows the same line. His treatment is thus described by Mr. Henry Morley:—“The work was formed, he thinks, by the combination of several old songs—(1) ‘The Fight with Grendel,’ complete in itself, and the oldest of the pieces; (2) ‘The Fight with Grendel’s Mother,’ next added; then (3) the genealogical introduction to the mention of Hrothgar, forming what is now the opening of the poem. Then came, according to this theory, a poet, A, who worked over the poem thus produced, interpolated many passages with skill, and added a continuation, setting forth Beowulf’s return home. Last came a theoretical interloper, B, a monk, who interspersed religious sayings of his own, and added the ancient song of the fight with the dragon and the death of Beowulf. The positive critic not only finds all this, but proceeds to point out which passages are old, older, and oldest, where a few lines are from poet A, and where other interpolation is from poet B.”—“English Verse and Prose” in “Cassell’s Library of English Literature,” p. 11.