. Roles of the thane and the lord. Beowulf An Epic Poem Introduction The story of the hero Beowulf is the only surviving poem from Anglo-Saxon times. Beowulf was composed in Old English, probably in Northumbria in northeast England, sometime between the years 700 and 750. . To cover nearly 900 years of literary history, this course surveys and explains the major genres, literary movements, and historical contexts of a set of representative texts. Beowulf, first and foremost, is a long narrative poem. . It is over 3000 lines long and was written in Old English by an Anglo-Saxon poet (minstrel) or scop (pronounced shop).