TY  - BOOK
AU  - Shippey,T.A.
AU  - Project Muse
TI  - Beowulf and the North before the Vikings /Tom Shippey
T2  - Past imperfect
SN  - 9781802700541
AV  - DL61 .B469 2022
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Leeds
PB  - Arc Humanities Press
KW  - Beowulf
KW  - Electronic Books
N1  - 1; Introduction : fantasy or history? --; Poetry and archaeology --; Old legend, new reality --; The bigger picture --; The non-national epic; 2; b
N2  - Ever since Tolkien's famous lecture in 1936, it has been generally accepted that the poem Beowulf is a fantasy, and of no use as a witness to real history. This book challenges that view, and argues that the poem provides a plausible, detailed, and consistent vision of pre-Viking history which is most unlikely to have been the poet's invention, and which has moreover received strong corroboration from archaeology in recent years. Using the poem as a starting point, historical, archaeological, and legendary sources are combined to form a picture of events in the North in the fifth and sixth centuries: at once a Dark and a Heroic Age, and the time of the formation of nations. Among other things, this helps answer two long-unasked questions: why did the Vikings come as such a shock? And what caused the previous 250 years of security from raiders from the sea?
UR  - httpss://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=3388669&site=eds-live&custid=s3260518
ER  -