Editing Widsith (section)

==Date of composition==
There is some controversy as to when "Widsith" was first composed. Some historians, such as [[John D. Niles|John Niles]], argue that the work was invented after [[Alfred the Great|King Alfred]]'s rule to present "a common glorious past", while others, such as [[Kemp Malone]], have argued that the piece is an authentic transcription of old heroic songs.<ref name="hedeager">{{Cite book|last=Lotte|first=Hedeager|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3XCrAgAAQBAJ|title=Iron Age myth and materiality: an archaeology of Scandinavia, AD 400-1000|date=2011|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-60604-2|location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York, NY|pages=177–190|chapter=Knowledge production reconsidered|oclc=666403125}}</ref>{{rp|181}} Among the works appearing in the ''Exeter Book'', there are none quite like "Widsith",<ref name=hedeager />{{rp|182}} which may be by far the oldest extant work that gives a historical account of the [[Hlöðskviða|Battle of the Goths and the Huns]], recounted as legends in later Scandinavian works such as the ''[[Hervarar saga]]''.<ref name=hedeager />{{rp|179}} Archaeologist [[Lotte Hedeager]] argues that "Widsith" goes back to [[Migration Age]]-history—at least part of it was composed in the 6th century, and that the author demonstrates familiarity with regions outside of Britain, including [[Denmark]] and the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] coast.<ref name=hedeager />{{rp|184–186}}  Hedeager is here in agreement with [[R H Hodgkin|R.H. Hodgkin]]<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RpFVswEACAAJ|title=A History of the Anglo-Saxons|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1952|edition=3rd|volume=I|location=Cambridge|page=29|author=R.H. Hodgkin }}</ref> and [[Leonard Neidorf]], who argues that "when situated within the history of Anglo-Saxon culture and identity, 'Widsith' clearly belongs to a time prior to the formation of a collective Anglo-Saxon identity, when distinct continental origins were remembered and maintained by the Germanic migrants in the British Isles".<ref>Leonard Neidorf, "The Dating of ''Widsith'' and the Study of Germanic Antiquity," ''Neophilologus'' (January 2013)</ref>