If what my Lit. professor told me was true, than Beowulf was a Northman, or Viking! And the story takes place somewhere in Scandinavia!

Beowulf is a hero of the Geats (or Goths). Most of the drama is taking place in Geatland (modern southern Sweden). 1) "Beowulf is an Old English heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship. This work of Anglo-Saxon literature dates to between the 8th and the 11th century, the only surviving manuscript dating to circa 1010. At 3183 lines, it is notable for its length. It has risen to national epic status in England. In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, battles three antagonists: Grendel, who is attacking the Danish mead hall called Heorot and its inhabitants; Grendel's mother; and, later in life after returning to Geatland (modern southern Sweden) and becoming a king, an unnamed dragon. He is mortally wounded in the final battle, and after his death he is buried in a barrow in Geatland by his retainers." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf 2) "Geats, Geatas, Gautar, Goths, Gotar, Gøtar, Götar were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting Götaland ("land of the Geats") in modern Sweden. The name of the Geats also lives on in the Swedish counties of Västergötland and Östergötland, the Western and Eastern lands of the Geats, as well as in many toponyms." "The earliest mention of the Geats may appear in Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.), where they are referred to as Goutai. In the 6th century, they were referred to as Gautigoths and Ostrogoths (the Ostrogoths of Scandza) by Jordanes and as Gautoi by Procopius. In the Norse Sagas they are referred to as Gautar, and in Beowulf and Widsith as GÄ“atas. Geats should not be confused with the Thracian Getae. Beowulf and the Norse sagas name several Geatish kings, but only Hygelac finds confirmation in Liber Monstrorum where he is referred to as Rex Getarum and in a copy of Historiae Francorum where he is called Rege Gotorum. These sources concern a Viking raid into Frisia, ca 516, which is also described in Beowulf. Some decades after the events related in this epic, Jordanes described the Geats as a nation which was "bold, and quick to engage in war"." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geat 3) "As told in the surviving epic poem, Beowulf was the son of Ecgþeow, a warrior of the Swedish Wægmundings. Ecgþeow had slain Heaðolaf, a man from another clan named the Wulfings (according to Scandinavian sources, they were the ruling dynasty of the Geatish petty kingdom of Östergötland). Apparently, because the victim was from a prominent family the weregild was set too high, and so Ecgþeow was banished and had to seek refuge among the Danes. The Danish king Hroðgar generously paid the weregild, and had Ecgþeow swear an oath. Ecgþeow was in the service of the Geatish king Hreðel, whose daughter he married. They had Beowulf, who grew up with the Geats. Beowulf's childhood friend was Breca of the Brondings "supposed to be the inhabitants of the island Brännö, lying off the coast of West Gothland in the Cattegat". This would be a realistic location for a childhood friend of Beowulf, and the poem describes a swimming contest between them." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beowulf_%28hero%29 4) Text of Beowulf (with Old English text and modern text): http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~beowulf/main.html If you know English, it does not mena that you know Old English. Here the first line of the text: "Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas." Transltion in Modern English: "LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped, we have heard, and what honor the athelings won! Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes, from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore, awing the earls." (quoted source) ------- ADDED ------- 5) "The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutae were a Germanic people who are believed to have originated from Jutland (called Iutum in Latin) in modern Denmark, Southern Schleswig (South Jutland) and part of the East Frisian coast. While Bede places the homeland of the Jutes on the other side of the Angles relative to the Saxons, they have nonetheless been identified with people called the Eucii (or Saxones Eucii) who were evidently associated with the Saxons and dependents of the Franks in 536. A map of Tacitus' portrays a people called the Eudoses living in the north of Jutland and these may have been the later Iutae. Still others have preferred the identification with the Eotenas (Ä“otenas) involved in the Frisian conflict with the Danes as described in the Finnesburg episode in the poem Beowulf (lines 1068–1159). Others have interpreted the Ä“otenas as giants, as Jotuns ("ogres" in modern English), or as a kenning for "enemies". Yet another possible identification is with the obscure tribe called the Euthiones and probably associated with the Saxons. They are mentioned in a poem by Venantius Fortunatus (583) as being under the suzerainty of Chilperic I of the Franks. Even if Jutes were present to the south of the Saxons in the Rhineland or near the Frisians, this does not omit the possibility that they themselves were migrants from Jutland. Another modern hypothesis (the so-called "Jutish hypothesis"), accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary, states that the Jutes are identical with the Geats, a people who once lived in southern Sweden. In primary sources the Geats are referred to as Eotas, Iótas, Iútan, and Geátas. However, in both Widsith and Beowulf, the Eotenas in the Finn passage are neatly distinguished from the Geatas. It may be that the two tribal names happened to be confused, which has happened, for example, in the sources about the death of the Swedish king Östen. It is possible that the Jutes are a related people to the Geats and a Gothic people as it is mentioned in the Gutasaga that some inhabitants of Gotland left for mainland Europe (the Wielbark site in Poland is evidence of a Scandinavian migration)." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jutes