Which name is commonly given to the anonymous author of Beowulf?

The anonymous author of Beowulf is commonly called the Beowulf poet.

No author’s name survives with the poem, which is preserved in the single manuscript known as the Nowell Codex, or Cotton Vitellius A. xv. “Beowulf poet” is therefore a conventional scholarly label, not a claim that Beowulf was the writer’s personal name or official title.

The poem contains 3,182 lines of alliterative Old English verse and was copied by two scribes around the late tenth or early eleventh century. Its date of original composition remains disputed: proposals range from the eighth century to a period close to the surviving manuscript. Scholars also debate how much of the poem reflects earlier oral traditions.

A common mix-up is Cynewulf, whose name is associated with several Old English religious poems, and Cædmon, traditionally credited with Cædmon’s Hymn. Neither is securely identified as Beowulf’s author. The label “Beowulf poet” simply acknowledges the poem’s anonymity.