ABSTRACT
The subject matter of Beowulf contains both historical and fabulous elements. It has grown up out of a union of history and folk-tale. Most of the persons and many of the events dealt with have a historical basis. The figure of the hero Beowulf himself cannot be traced, and his feats against Grendel, the hag, and the dragon are obviously taken from folk-tale. In the first part of Beowulf two tribes play the chief rôles, the Geats and the Danes. Attempts have been made to identify the Geats with the Jutes, but it is more probable that they were the Gautar of ON records, the modern Götar. The name corresponds exactly and the position assigned to them is right. We know that the Gautar occupied at that time the southern part of Sweden, except a small district along the southern extremity of the peninsula, which was inhabited by Danes. Their country would correspond more or less to the modern Gottland.
