# Reading Old English

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-old-english/155765>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 18, 2003, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-old-english/155765 "2003-02-18T00:54:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-old-english/155765/61 "2003-02-24T20:35:30Z")

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[slight hijack]

Why is _Beowulf_ considered a “classic English” novel when it was not written in England (or at least, we don’t really know where) and the characters are recognizably not-English?

[/slight hijack]

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**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\
**Post date:** [February 24, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/reading-old-english/155765/62 "2003-02-24T21:20:13Z")

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Actually, _Beowulf_ is not usually considered a “classic English novel” – it’s a poem, not a novel. It almost certainly _was_ written in England, however; the manuscript came from West Saxony (now southwest England), and the poem itself is written in West Saxon. The characters are Scandinavian, but the text definitely isn’t.

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