     The epic poem Beowulf was written in Old English, also
called Anglo-Saxon, the language spoken on the island of Great
Britain after the arrival of the Angles and Saxons around 500
A.D. Their language survived and evolved until the Normans
conquered the island in 1066.  The author of Beowulf is unknown,
as is the date of its original composition—although some suppose
that the saga was written sometime in the 7th or 8th century.
Numerous recitations likely embellished the story and its
characters with fantastic elements and exaggerated character
traits, including godlike wisdom, intelligence, and nearly
superhuman strength and abilities. The poem was most assuredly
part of the previous oral tradition of story telling.  Beowulf
exists in its present form through one manuscript only, which
was penned in the 10th or early 11th century, and it barely
escaped a fire in 1731 at the Ashburnham House in Westminster,
England.  The first translation did not appear until 1815, and
even at that date, it was written in