The anonymous Old English epic Beowulf is composed, weaving Germanic folklore, pagan heroic legends, and Christian motifs into 3,182 alliterative lines. Drawing on oral tales of monsters (Grendel, dragon) and Scandinavian tribal history, the poem transforms folk myth into sophisticated literary art. The sole manuscript survives a fire in 1731.

Beowulf demonstrates how oral folk epic becomes written national poetry, preserving Anglo-Saxon alliterative meter and kenning techniques (whale-road for sea) derived from oral formulaic composition. The poem influenced J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy poetics and Seamus Heaney's 1999 verse translation, proving folklore's enduring power for modern poets reimagining ancient forms.