Note 125 — Chapter XI · MYTHOLOGIES AND FOLK-TALES.
Reading edition
‘Beowulf,’ we have said, is thought to have been first composed in English at the end of the seventh century. There was probably an earlier and more simple version of the poem which has come down to us. I do not mean to say that either Beowulf or Sigurd are simply personifications of the sun; only that some of their belongings and adventures have descended to them from sun-heroes.