A mammoth king: Was the legend of King Hygelac in "Beowulf" inspired by a fossil find?

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Article

Publication Date

Fall 8-20-2017

Abstract

As far-fetched as it may seem, the death of a woolly mammoth thousands of years ago on an island in the Rhine-Meuse River Delta, near present-day Rotterdam in the Netherlands, could have led, millennia later, to the monsters and characters of “Beowulf.” The road from pachyderm to poem has many twists and turns, and following it calls for some literary and scientific sleuthing.

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Copyright © 2017 American Geosciences Institute. All rights reserved.

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