@book{2022:shippey:beowulf_an,
title = {Beowulf and the North before the Vikings},
year = {2022},
note = {Ever since Tolkien’s famous lecture in 1936, it has been generally
accepted that the poem Beowulf is a fantasy, and of no use as a
witness to real history. This book challenges that view, and argues
that the poem provides a plausible, detailed, and consistent vision of
pre-Viking history which is most unlikely to have been the poet’s
invention, and which has moreover received strong corroboration from
archaeology in recent years. Using the poem as a starting point,
historical, archaeological, and legendary sources are combined to form
a picture of events in the North in the fifth and sixth centuries: at
once a Dark and a Heroic Age, and the time of the formation of
nations. Among other things, this helps answer two long-unasked
questions: why did the Vikings come as such a shock? And what caused
the previous 250 years of security from raiders from the sea?},
edition = {1},
publisher = {Arc Humanities Press},
address = {Yorkshire},
series = {Past Imperfect},
volume = {},
author = {Shippey, Tom}
}