In what language was the epic poem Beowulf originally written?

Beowulf was originally written in Old English, specifically in a text dominated by the Late West Saxon dialect. The poem is one of the greatest surviving works of Old English literature, although its anonymous author and exact composition date remain unknown.

The story is set in pagan Scandinavia and follows the Geatish hero Beowulf through battles with Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and a dragon. Its language is not the same as modern English: Old English had different vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and pronunciation. The opening word, “Hwæt,” is often translated as “Listen” or “Lo.”

The surviving poem contains about 3,182 alliterative lines and is preserved in the Nowell Codex, a manuscript produced around 975–1025. Scholars generally place the poem’s composition somewhere between about 700 and 1000, though the precise date is disputed. Middle English came later, Latin was widely used for scholarship and church writing, and Old Norse belongs to the Scandinavian linguistic tradition; none is the poem’s original language.