ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -According to J.R.R. Tolkien–best known for his Lord of the Rings saga but also a respected literary scholar–Beowulf was almost certainly written by an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon poet shortly after England’s conversion to Christianity.

Detailed explanation-2: -Most scholars believe that Beowulf was written by a Christian author, who was most likely a monk, which explains the poem’s attempts to instill Christian morality in the reader.

Detailed explanation-3: -The author of Beowulf is unknown. It is possible that the poem was composed by and transmitted between several different poets before it was preserved in a single manuscript that dates to about 1000.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Beowulf story has its roots in a pagan Saxon past, but by the time the epic was written down, almost all Anglo-Saxons had converted to Christianity. As a result, the Beowulf poet is at pains to resolve his Christian beliefs with the often quite un-Christian behavior of his characters.

Detailed explanation-5: -While the narrative presented in Beowulf is that of the Vikings, the narrator can be identified as Christian, an element that would best appeal to the audience of Anglo-Saxon England.