古期英語詩『ベーオウルフ』の成立時期について

概要

論文の詳細を見る
Beowulf, an anonymous English epic, was written in the early medieval era. However, the date of when it was composed is unclear and as a result, attemps to date the work have been carried on since the discovery of the manuscript. It is generally accepted that the work could not have been composed in the period from 787 to 878, a time during which the Danes invaded England incessantly. So the views of scholars are split between two choices: the pre-Viking age and the post-Viking age. Around 1920, two of the most eminent Beowulf scholars, R. W. Chambers and Fr. Klaeber, both advocated dating Beowulf in the early eighth century, a view which has been accepted theory since then. But recently some highly original views, advocating the post-Viking age, have been presented, and the dating of Beowulf is now again an open question. This paper aims to investigate the old accepted theory and the newly presented ones to find a valid view concerning the date of composition. In my opinion, the episode of King Finn in Beowulf suggests something quite important regarding the issue of dating, and some items mentioned in Widsith, the oldest English alliterative poem, might also provide a clue to settling the debate.