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Abstract
[...]twice, maybe thrice faithless (and, Tolkien says, easily led). [...]other critics wanted more Ingeld, less monsters for other reasons, and Tolkien needed to squash that argument, too. Since we know so little about the history of early northern Europe, and since Beowulf is so old compared to just about everything else we have, people wanted to use it as a historical document. [...]this gets technical, but as I say to my students: technical is fun! and sometimes they believe me): In line 6a of Beowulf the manuscript says "egsode eorl," but this is probably not right. Because the line is "terrified the X." Scyld Scefing is so great because he terrorized one earl (a mere earl, not even a king)? [...]like all history, critical history is quirky, contingent with elements of randomness, which is why we're stuck with a weird view of the monsters in Beowulf thanks to Tolkien. Because of his defense of the monsters in contrast to the world of men, a lot of critics dumped the world of men and focused on the monsters.