The dragon (Beowulf) His Lair in "Beowulf"" that the fight between Beowulf and the dragon tends to receive less critical attention than other portions of the poem, commenting that "Grendel and his dam have, as it were, become more beloved of the commentators". Conversely, Kemp Malone writes in "The Kenning in "Beowulf"" that Beowulf's fight with the dragon receives much critical attention, but that commentators fail to note that "the dragon was no fighter. Not that it refused to fight when challenged, but that it did not seek out Beowulf or anyone else. It left Beowulf to do the seeking out". In his
Beowulf (hero) attested to a monk from Durham and literally means "bee wolf" in Northumbrian. The 11th century English "Domesday Book" contains a recorded instance of the name "Beulf". A scholar named Sarrazin also suggested that the name "Beowulf" was derived from a mistranslation of "Böðvarr" where -"varr" was interpreted as "vargr" meaning "wolf". However, this etymology was questioned by Sophus Bugge, who instead suggested that the personage Böðvarr Bjarki was derived from Beowulf. In 2005, Andy Orchard theorized an etymology on the basis of the common Old Norse name "Þórólfr" (which literally translates to "Thor Wolf"), stating in parallel that a