Seeing how you people get to read the story in English class, I'm wondering how old you're told the manuscript is. Lately people have been trying to give the manuscipt a much younger date. The story obviously stems from events that occurred in the 5th and/or 6th centuries, but when was it actually written down? It was originally thought to be from the 8th century, but now more and more are claiming that it is as young as from the 11th century. The thing that makes me wonder is that the original text is so much more difficult to understand than, for example, the Widsith poem, which is younger than that. If Beowulf were older, shouldn't it then be easier to read and understand? Though I suppose the author could've written the text in a more poetic manner, with more kennings and stuff like that.