The most revered work composed in Old English, Beowulf is a landmark of European literature. This handbook offers insights into all major aspects of this poem and its scholarly tradition, offering both a survey of scholarly trends in the study of Beowulf and a more sustained exploration of selected problems. Each chapter begins with a brief summary of its contents followed by a chronology of the most important books and articles on the particular topics it treats. The main part of the chapter covers the history of scholarly interest in the topic under consideration, a synthesis of present knowledge and opinion, and an analysis of scholarly work that remains to be done.