[1] The Prose Solomon and Saturn in the Nowell Codex (the Beowulf manuscript) is a question-and-answer text dealing chiefly with issues of biblical or Christian lore.
Patrick O'Neill has argued for a connection to the court of Alfred the Great (reigned 886 – 26 October 899),[4] but Daniel Anlezark sees the poem as fitting into the cultural milieu of Dunstan's Glastonbury in the mid-tenth century.
The poem's earlier editor, Robert Menner, argued that the weallende Wulf passage stems from ancient Hebrew legends regarding Nimrod and the builders of the Tower of Babel.
[9] Cilluffo sees parallels between the Vasa Mortis and the description of Fame in Virgil's Aeneid, as well as the nocturnal monster in the Anglo-Saxon Liber Monstrorum and the griffin in the Wonders of the East.
[10] Kathryn Powell has described these poetic versions as examples of "orientalist fantasy", which works to suppress anxieties about English cultural identity.
Powell suggests that the dialogues' original readers were encouraged to identify with the figure of Solomon, who is constructed as a model of Christian ideals and behaviour.