Time is out of Joint: Narrative Temporalities and Cognitive Blending in Beowulf

Beowulf features complex shifts in temporality, traditionally labeled "digressions," and a generally disjointed narrative structure, making it hard to follow for modern audiences. This article proposes a reframing of this much debated trait of the text by reading two episodes characterized by temporal entanglement and intense emotion, approaching them through the lens of cognitive literary study. Seen as cognitive blends within a specific mode of poetic production and drawing on a now partially lost tapestry of narrative traditions, such moments will be understood on their own terms as aesthetically pleasing and emotionally charged episodes rather than as haphazard interruptions to the main storyline.