3,182 lines are in the complete manuscript of beowulf.
how many lines are in the complete manuscript of beowulf?
3,182
beowulf returns home and eventually becomes king of his own people. one day, fifty years after beowulf's battle with grendel's mother, a slave steals a golden cup from the lair of a dragon at earnanæs. when the dragon sees that the cup has been stolen, it leaves its cave in a rage, burning everything in sight. beowulf and his warriors come to fight the dragon, but beowulf tells his men that he will fight the dragon alone and that they should wait on the barrow. beowulf descends to do battle with the dragon, but finds himself outmatched. his men, upon seeing this and fearing for their lives, retreat into the woods. one of his men, wiglaf, however, in great distress at beowulf's plight, comes to his aid. the two slay the dragon, but beowulf is mortally wounded. after beowulf dies, wiglaf remains by his side, grief-stricken. when the rest of the men finally return, wiglaf bitterly admonishes them, blaming their cowardice for beowulf's death. afterward, beowulf is ritually burned on a great pyre in geatland while his people wail and mourn him, fearing that without him, the geats are defenceless against attacks from surrounding tribes. afterwards, a barrow, visible from the sea, is built in his memory ("beowulf" lines 2712–3182).
beowulf
the "beowulf" manuscript was transcribed from an original by two scribes, one of whom wrote the prose at the beginning of the manuscript and the first 1939 lines before breaking off in mid sentence. the first scribe made a point of carefully regularizing the spelling of the original document by using the common west saxon language and by avoiding any archaic or dialectical features. the second scribe, who wrote the remainder, with a difference in handwriting noticeable after line 1939, seems to have written more vigorously and with less interest. as a result, the second scribe's script retains more archaic dialectic features which allow modern scholars to ascribe the poem a cultural context. while both scribes appear to proofread their work, there are nevertheless many errors. the second scribe was ultimately the more conservative copyist of the two as he did not modify the spelling of the text as he wrote but rather copied what he saw in front of him. in the way that it is currently bound, the "beowulf" manuscript is followed by the old english poem "judith". "judith" was written by the same scribe that completed "beowulf" as evidenced through similar writing style. worm-holes found in the last leaves of the "beowulf" manuscript that aren't present in the "judith" manuscript suggest that at one point "beowulf" ended the volume. the rubbed appearance of some leaves also suggest that the manuscript stood on a shelf unbound, as is known to have been the case with other old english manuscripts. from knowledge of books held in the library at malmesbury abbey and available as source works, and from the identification of certain words particular to the local dialect found in the text, the transcription may have taken place there.
beowulf