Beowulf
E21035
Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that recounts the heroic deeds of its eponymous warrior as he battles monsters and a dragon, and is considered one of the most important works of early English literature.
All labels observed (13)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T169154 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Beowulf Context triple: [Old English, hasLiteraryWork, Beowulf]
-
A.
Hildebrandslied
Hildebrandslied is an early medieval Old High German heroic poem that recounts a tragic duel between a father and son and is one of the oldest surviving works in the German language.
-
B.
Norse sagas
Norse sagas are medieval Icelandic prose narratives that recount the legendary heroes, gods, and historical events of the Norse and wider Scandinavian world.
-
C.
Homer's Iliad
Homer's Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem traditionally attributed to Homer that recounts a pivotal period of the Trojan War, focusing on the wrath of Achilles and the conflicts among gods and mortals.
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D.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance poem that tells the story of King Arthur’s knight Sir Gawain and his beheading game encounter with the mysterious Green Knight.
-
E.
Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman is a major Middle English allegorical poem, attributed to William Langland, that explores social justice and Christian spirituality through a series of dream visions.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Beowulf Target entity description: Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that recounts the heroic deeds of its eponymous warrior as he battles monsters and a dragon, and is considered one of the most important works of early English literature.
-
A.
Hildebrandslied
Hildebrandslied is an early medieval Old High German heroic poem that recounts a tragic duel between a father and son and is one of the oldest surviving works in the German language.
-
B.
Norse sagas
Norse sagas are medieval Icelandic prose narratives that recount the legendary heroes, gods, and historical events of the Norse and wider Scandinavian world.
-
C.
Homer's Iliad
Homer's Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem traditionally attributed to Homer that recounts a pivotal period of the Trojan War, focusing on the wrath of Achilles and the conflicts among gods and mortals.
-
D.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a late 14th-century Middle English chivalric romance poem that tells the story of King Arthur’s knight Sir Gawain and his beheading game encounter with the mysterious Green Knight.
-
E.
Piers Plowman
Piers Plowman is a major Middle English allegorical poem, attributed to William Langland, that explores social justice and Christian spirituality through a series of dream visions.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (63)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Old English epic poem
ⓘ
heroic poem ⓘ literary work ⓘ |
| adaptedAs |
films
ⓘ
graphic novels ⓘ novels ⓘ operas ⓘ |
| approximateCompositionCentury |
10th century
ⓘ
8th century ⓘ 9th century ⓘ early 11th century ⓘ |
| approximateLineCount | 3182 lines ⓘ |
| associatedTribe |
Danes
ⓘ
linked to:
Scandinavians
Geats ⓘ Swedes ⓘ |
| author | unknown ⓘ |
| authorship | anonymous ⓘ |
| centralConflict |
Beowulf vs Grendel
ⓘ
Beowulf vs Grendel's mother ⓘ Beowulf vs the dragon ⓘ |
| compositionDate | between 8th and early 11th century ⓘ |
| containsEpisode |
battle with Grendel in Heorot
ⓘ
battle with Grendel's mother in her mere ⓘ final battle with the dragon ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | England ⓘ |
| culturalSignificance |
earliest surviving epic poem in English
ⓘ
one of the most important works of early English literature ⓘ |
| featuresCharacter |
Grendel
ⓘ
Grendel's mother ⓘ Hrothgar ⓘ the dragon ⓘ |
| featuresGroup |
the Danes
ⓘ
linked to:
Scandinavians
the Geats ⓘ |
| genre |
epic poetry
ⓘ
heroic epic ⓘ |
| historicalElements | references to Scandinavian kings and tribes ⓘ |
| influenced |
J. R. R. Tolkien
ⓘ
modern fantasy literature ⓘ |
| language | Old English ⓘ |
| length | over 3000 lines ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | Old English literature ⓘ |
| literaryTradition | Anglo-Saxon literature ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | Beowulf ⓘ |
| manuscript | Nowell Codex ⓘ |
| manuscriptLocation | British Library ⓘ |
| manuscriptShelfmark | Cotton Vitellius A XV ⓘ |
| meter | Old English alliterative meter ⓘ |
| narrativeStructure | three main battles ⓘ |
| primaryLocation |
Denmark
ⓘ
Geatland ⓘ |
| protagonist | Beowulf ⓘ |
| religiousContext | Christian narrator with pagan setting ⓘ |
| setting | Scandinavia ⓘ |
| theme |
fate
ⓘ
generosity and gift-giving ⓘ good vs evil ⓘ heroism ⓘ kinship ⓘ loyalty ⓘ mortality ⓘ reputation ⓘ the heroic code ⓘ |
| verseForm | alliterative verse ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Beowulf Description of subject: Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that recounts the heroic deeds of its eponymous warrior as he battles monsters and a dragon, and is considered one of the most important works of early English literature.
Referenced by (99)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.