Tom Shippey challenges the view that Beowulf is a fantasy and argues that using the poem as a starting point, historical, archaeological, and legendary sources can provide a plausible and consistent history of the North in the fifth and sixth centuries.

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction: Fantasy or History?

Chapter 1: Poetry and Archaeology

Chapter 2: Old Legend, New Reality

Chapter 3: The Bigger Picture

Chapter 4: The Non-National Epic?

Further Reading

Shippey Tom :

Tom Shippey has published extensively on Tolkien and on early medieval literature. His last book is Laughing Shall I Die: Lives and Deaths of the Great Vikings (2018).