María José Gómez Calderón

Universidad de Sevilla

Popularizing Beowulf: End-of-the-Century Re-Writings

As a central text in the canon of English literary studies, Beowulf has traditionally received scholarly interest close to cult. However, in the last years the poem has experienced a process of "desacralization" at the hands of popular culture. The appearance of science-fiction novels, comics, films and other unclassifiable Beowulfian by-side products draws attention to the fact that the appeal of the poem is still powerful, yet somewhat different. This paper analyzes these end-of-the-century rewritings in order to explore the ways the poem's popularity survives nowadays for a non-educated audience in an environment alien to the more conventional Anglo-Saxon studies.