Ritchie Girvan

Ritchie Girvan (1877 – c. 1958) was a Scottish literary scholar, author, and academic; throughout his career he was associated with the University of Glasgow, where he made his name studying the Old English poem Beowulf.

However Girvan accepts "the accuracy of the poet's knowledge regarding Geatish history ... [and] the historicity of Beowulf as king of the Geats."

Dobbie writes that "some of this may seem very far-fetched, ... but his book, as an honest and unprejudiced attempt to reconcile the inconsistent and often baffling evidence, deserves earnest consideration from every student of the poem.

Higher praise than is found in the learned critics, whose scholarship enables them to appreciate these things, could hardly be given to the detail, the tone, the style, and indeed to the total effect of Beowulf.

Yet this poetic talent, we are to understand, has all been squandered on an unprofitable theme: as if Milton had recounted the story of Jack and the Beanstalk in noble verse.