Tolkien was right: Scholars conclude Beowulf likely the work of single author

For decades, scholars have hotly debated both when the poem was composed and whether it was the work of a single anonymous author (“the Beowulf poet”). According to Madison Krieger, a postdoc in evolutionary dynamics at Harvard University and one of the new paper’s authors, the questions about Beowulf’s authorship began in earnest in 1815 with the publication of the first widely available edition of the poem. Krieger et al.’s analysis showed that Cynewulf was very likely the author of three (and possibly all four) of the signed poems, based on stylistic homogeneity, as well as an anonymous poem called Andreas, which tells the story of St. Andrew the Apostle.

Source: arstechnica.com