Joseph’s Reviews > Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell > Status Update

So since Tolkien was a genius, he wrote a story which could, theoretically, serve as Beowulf's folktale source. And then he put it in Old English. þa wæs on þære tide sum swiþe sundhwæt cempa Breca hatte, Brandinga cynnes. Se Breca gemette þone cniht Beowulf be þam strande, þa he æt sume cierre com fram sunde be þam særiman.

So apparently, Beowulf is older than our surviving Scandinavian and German sources for Old Norse mythology and folklore. Tolkien, in fact, makes the argument that Odin's emergence as chief of the Norse pantheon happened after Beowulf was composed. Mind. Blown.

Now that I think about it, I once met someone who studied Beowulf in Old English.