Wesley Huff

Because if you have copies that are floating around North Africa and places like Egypt, and then you have copies in Syria, and you have copies out into Asia and into Europe and the British Isles, when mistakes pop up, they're geographically located. And because you have so many, you can compare and contrast them and figure out, okay, well, this obviously happened here at this time.

Because if you have copies that are floating around North Africa and places like Egypt, and then you have copies in Syria, and you have copies out into Asia and into Europe and the British Isles, when mistakes pop up, they're geographically located. And because you have so many, you can compare and contrast them and figure out, okay, well, this obviously happened here at this time.

And you can pinpoint those things. So this is a field called textual criticism. And we do this with all ancient documents. Like the Bible is a... a more kind of fleshed out field of textual criticism because we have so many manuscripts. But we do it with Marcus Aurelius. We even do it with Shakespeare with the different copies.

And you can pinpoint those things. So this is a field called textual criticism. And we do this with all ancient documents. Like the Bible is a... a more kind of fleshed out field of textual criticism because we have so many manuscripts. But we do it with Marcus Aurelius. We even do it with Shakespeare with the different copies.

And you can pinpoint those things. So this is a field called textual criticism. And we do this with all ancient documents. Like the Bible is a... a more kind of fleshed out field of textual criticism because we have so many manuscripts. But we do it with Marcus Aurelius. We even do it with Shakespeare with the different copies.

Because if you only have one copy, you have to trust that the person who copied that got it right.

Because if you only have one copy, you have to trust that the person who copied that got it right.

Because if you only have one copy, you have to trust that the person who copied that got it right.

Yeah. Which is the issue that we have for Beowulf. We only have one copy of Beowulf. And so we don't know what it looked like prior to that. So we just kind of accept that, okay, this is Beowulf. Like there's no way to compare and contrast the tradition of the manuscripts of Beowulf.

Yeah. Which is the issue that we have for Beowulf. We only have one copy of Beowulf. And so we don't know what it looked like prior to that. So we just kind of accept that, okay, this is Beowulf. Like there's no way to compare and contrast the tradition of the manuscripts of Beowulf.

Yeah. Which is the issue that we have for Beowulf. We only have one copy of Beowulf. And so we don't know what it looked like prior to that. So we just kind of accept that, okay, this is Beowulf. Like there's no way to compare and contrast the tradition of the manuscripts of Beowulf.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's legwork.

It's legwork.

It's legwork.

Yeah. And fortunately, in the modern era, we get computers involved, and that cuts out a lot of just manpower.

Yeah. And fortunately, in the modern era, we get computers involved, and that cuts out a lot of just manpower.

Yeah. And fortunately, in the modern era, we get computers involved, and that cuts out a lot of just manpower.