Beowulf Poet

The identity of the Beowulf Poet is a mystery. Various research projects have tried to analyse the text for linguistic, historical or metrical features which could show that it was written by one or more persons. There are no named candidates. The early medieval mind did not consider the identity of authors important. It is also possible that, like a lot of folk tales and songs, there was no one author. Within a living folk tradition, songs and stories can change dramatically as they pass from person to person, and the version that is finally recorded can have changed enormously, with the influence of dozens of people, without any of them considering themselves the author.