Beowulf has often been mined for historical information. Rather more rarely have historians applied their expertise to the elucidation of the poem's literary qualities.
Recent scholarship has tended to see Beowulf as less romantic and more sophisticated than earlier scholarship did; it has de-emphasized folklore, mythology, and legendary history as preferred contexts for reading Beowulf in favor of the social and political life of Anglo-Saxon England itself.
The evidence of the Anglo-Saxons' own interest in the poem lies chiefly in the manuscript itself. It is of the late tenth or early eleventh century, a long time after the composition of the poem, which is usually thought to have taken place no later than the eighth century.
The way in which battles and war, the favourite occupation of our antiquity, are described deserves our attention before all else. There is something glorious in every battle-scene. Wolf, eagle and raven with joyous cry go forward in the van of the army, scenting their prey.
In Old English poetry the wolf, the eagle and the raven occur as satellites of battle some sixteen times in all. Wherever they come they convey the expectation of slaughter.
The Beowulf poet uses the same imagery at the end of the speech which near the end of the poem foretells the destruction of the Geatish nation now that Beowulf is dead.
The society, as in all heroic poetry, is aristocratic; there is no attempt to envisage a whole people. Even within its limits the picture is fragmentary, and we have but a partial account of matters connected with warfare, the business and occupation of king and retinue. There is no description of their habitual acts and employment. Except incidentally there is no reference to hunting, riding in contest, amusements and the like; the ordinary facts of life are taken for granted, likewise the familiar surroundings.
The hall is not described nor its contents. Feasting is mentioned, so unlike Homer, except in the most general terms. Drinks, especially wine, are just named, and wine was common in sixth-century England, known but hardly common in Scandinavia. The vessels too are named only in a general way, sincfaet, sele-ful, wunderfatu. Richly ornamented and costly bowls were certainly known, but the commoner sort of dish does not come in at all; nor does silver or glass, though a costly Anglo-Saxon goblet of glass was made, valued and exported. Everything specifically indicated is gold. Tapestries are mentioned...
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