Beowulf and Beyond: Wednesday Morning Live Seminars with Dr Sam Newton FSA

Title image above: detail from the book-cover created by artist Michael Leonard for the translation of Beowulf by David Wright (Panther 1970) (©with kind permission of the Estate of the late Michael Leonard).

A series of weekly Wednesday morning seminars live in south-east Suffolk, exploring the great Old English poem Beowulf, one of the primary cultural documents , one of the primary cultural documents from the early history of the English-speaking peoples. We shall consider it closely, along with related texts, in the context of attempting to chart something of the forgotten soundscapes which would have been associated with the Sutton Hoo ship-burial.

Wednesday Morning Live Seminars, Autumn Term 2025, with Dr Sam Newton FSA

We begin at 10.15 and usually end by 13.15 (GMT) with a half-time break at c. 11.30. The fee for each seminar is £22.50 if booked through Eventbrite, or £20 by direct bank transfer. To arrange the latter, please email host@wuffings.co.uk .

Schedule for the first half of term:

• Wednesday 24th September
• Wednesday 1st October
• Wednesday 8th October
• Wednesday 15th October

Schedule for the second half of term:

• Wednesday 5th November
• Wednesday 12th November
• Wednesday 19th November
• Wednesday 26th November
• Wednesday 3rd December
• Wednesday 10th December

Above: The family-trees of the Lords and Ladies in the World of Beowulf (©Dr Sam Newton 2024)

Below: A sketch-map of the Peoples and Places in the World of Beowulf , also showing the approximate location the last battle of Beowulf's uncle Hygelac (©Dr Sam Newton 2019).

About Dr Sam Newton FSA

Sam Newton was awarded his Ph.D at the University of East Anglia in 1991. He published his first book, The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia, in 1993, and his second, The Reckoning of King Rædwald, in 2003. He has also published several papers, some of which are available on his website or on Academia, such as "The Forgotten History of St Bótwulf (Botolph)”, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, 43 (2016), pp. 521-550.

He has lectured widely around the country and abroad for over thirty years and has contributed to many radio and television programmes, especially Time Team (now back in business as Time Team Digital). He is Director of Wuffing Education and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Some Suggestions for Optional Background Reading

• Alexander, M. (tr.), The First Poems in English (Penguin Classics 2008).
• Bjork, R.E., & J.D. Niles (eds), A Beowulf Handbook (Nebraska University 1997, 1998).
• Chambers, R.W., Beowulf: An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion of the Stories of Offa and Finn (3rd edition, University of Cambridge 1959).
• Fulk, R. (ed.), Interpretations of Beowulf: A Critical Anthology (Indiana University 1991).
• Fulk, R., R.Bjork, & J.Niles (eds), Klaeber’s Beowulf, 4th Edition (Toronto 2008).
• Garmonsway, G., & J.Simpson, Beowulf and Its Analogues (Dent Everyman 1968, 1980).

• Lee, S., & E. Solopova, The Keys of Middle-earth: Discovering Medieval Literature through the Fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien (Palgrave Macmillan 2005).
• Neidorf, L. (ed.), The Dating of Beowulf – A Reassessment, Anglo-Saxon Studies 24 (Brewer 2014).
• Newton, S., The Origins of Beowulf and the pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia (Brewer 1993).
• Newton, S., The Reckoning of King Rædwald: The Story of the King linked to the Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial (Redbird 2003).
• Newton, S., "The Forgotten History of St Bótwulf (Botolph)”, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, 43 (2016), pp. 521-550.
• Shippey, T.A., Beowulf and the North before the Vikings (Arc Humanities Press 2022).

• Tolkien. J.R.R., Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode, ed. Alan Bliss (Allen & Unwin, 1982).
• Tolkien, J.R.R., (ed. C. Tolkien), The Monsters and the Critics and Other Essays (Allen & Unwin 1983).
• Tolkien, J. R. R. (tr.), Beowulf – A Translation and Commentary, ed. C. Tolkien (Harper Collins 2014).

• Wilson, R., The Lost Literature of Medieval England (Methuen 1952, 1970).

Some Online Resources

Highly recommended is Tom Shippey’s three-part special seminar series from 2017 on J.R.R.Tolkien and Beowulf with Signum University, which Signum University have kindly made available online on YouTube:

1. The Monsters and the Critics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBt05KUfzg

2. The Origins of England: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x98UBKDfl0E

3: The Glamour of Poesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl8-pYYLNFQ

n.b. There is some slight technical awkwardness on some of these recordings, but still well worth following.

If readers find these links as useful as I have, you can make a donation to Signum University at https://signumuniversity.org/fund/

What happens next:

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