SOURCE: “The Interlace Structure of Beowulf,” in University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. XXXVII, No. 1, October, 1967, pp. 1-17.
In the following essay, Leyerle argues that the structure of Beowulf is analogous to the patterns of interlace decorative art common in Anglo-Saxon art of the seventh and eighth centuries. When the likelihood of this parallel is accepted, Leyerle states, the function of otherwise confusing episodes of the poem becomes apparent.
