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The epic poem Beowulf is the most famous surviving work of Old English literature. For decades, scholars have hotly debated both when the poem was composed and whether it was the work of a single anonymous author ("the Beowulf poet"). Lord of the Rings' scribe J.R.R. Tolkien was among those who famously championed the single-author stance. Now researchers at Harvard University have conducted a statistical analysis and concluded that there was very likely just one author, further bolstering Tolkien's case. They published their findings in a recent paper [DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0570-1] [DX] in Nature Human Behavior.
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Tolkien Was Right: Scholars Conclude Beowulf Was Likely the Work of Single Author
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The Official Colorado State Vegetable is now the "state legislator".
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Sulla on Saturday April 20 2019, @05:03AM (3 children)
When we talk of the Odyssey or the Illiad we attribute them to Homer, but to my understanding he was the one who wrote them down (perhaps made his own touches) to oral stories that predate him. Is the writing style throughout the Odyssey / Illiad consistent with one author? Being that it came from an older oral history I imagine that the story has the voice of many different artists over time. Perhaps Homer was profound enough that in his writing of the works his own voice dominates anything that came before him.
Just because a work might not have one voice, does not mean that it was not a single anonymous author.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 20 2019, @05:26AM
As a young person I was stunned to learn that many of my favorite rock n’roll songs were adaptations/covers of Leadbelly recordings. Get a bit older/wiser and realize that Leadbelly was probably just the first to record various “public domain” songs.
Funny how one specific person tends to get crowned as THE creator when the final product is actually based on many peoples’ effort...
(Score: 2) by hellcat on Saturday April 20 2019, @01:59PM
Legend has it that Homer was blind, so writing may not have been one of his strengths.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer#Textual_transmission [wikipedia.org]
And scholars pretty much agree that the poems were around well before they were written down.
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(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday April 20 2019, @08:46PM
Typical Roman understanding of Greek history and culture, Sulla! Homer composed the poems, and they were transmitted orally by rhapsodes. They were not written down until hundreds of years later, by not-Homer people.