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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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Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(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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