What singles out Beowulf among all the other works of Anglo-Saxon poetry is the way its poet handles time. Unlike the narrative mode of the heroic lay or the folktale in which time moves in a progressive linear sequence in Beowulf temporal relationships happen to be quite complex. It is not only the dimension of the time span in it but also the arrangement of “past”, “present” and “future” which surprisingly seldom follow chronologically. The chronology of the poem as a whole is somewhat vague and the “past” and “future” in it so indefinitely marked that there is no clear beginning or end of the story in the historical time plane. And what makes the determination of the time boundaries of the poem even more complex are the poet’s references to events both from the biblical Creations and the final dissolution of the World.
Probably no other feature of the poem distinguishes it as much as its constant movement backwards and forwards in time forming an incredible net of temporal interdependences. The three points of the time line – “past”, “present” and “future” often exchange their places breaking the natural sequence of events and sometimes
The present tense in the poem is identified in most general terms chiefly through the narrative asides and it appears as though to refer only to the “present” of the poem’s performance which is obviously different from the “present” of the current reader and these two are separated by an immense gap in historical time which may deter the latter from fully understanding the poem. Something like “eternal present” is felt all through the poem in the presence of God in it whose existence is considered by the poet to be everlasting and that is why his image does not belong clearly to the “past”, “present” of “future”.
The future is not as clearly detectable as the past in Beowulf except for one occasion when it is marked by the phrase: “in later days” (line 2186) and this markedness is absolutely necessary in that case. A momentary glance at “future” helps the poet to give better explanations of the “present” or simply to get the reader interested. Future does not follow logically in the course of the poem but it springs up here and there like it does in lines 81-85 and 2015-2053 or it is the result of the poet’s wish to show his awareness
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