Beowulf (; ang, Bēowulf ) is a legendary
Geat
The Geats ( ; ang, gēatas ; non, gautar ; sv, götar ), sometimes called ''Goths'', were a large North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the late Middle Ages. They are one of th ...
ish hero in
the eponymous epic poem, one of the oldest surviving pieces of English literature.
Etymology and origins of the character
A number of origins have been proposed for the name ''Beowulf''.
Beowulf
Henry Sweet
Henry Sweet (15 September 1845 – 30 April 1912) was an English philologist, phonetician and grammarian.''Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language'', as hosted oencyclopedia.com/ref>
As a philologist, he specialized in the Germanic lang ...
, a philologist and linguist specializing in
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
, proposed that the name ''Bēowulf'' literally means in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
"bee-wolf" or "bee-hunter" and that it is a
kenning
A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...
for "bear".
[Sweet, Henry. (1884) ''Anglo-Saxon Reader in Prose and Verse'' The Clarendon Press, p. 202.] Recorded instances of similar names mirror this etymology. The AD 1031 ''Liber Vitae'' records the name ''Biuuuwulf''. The name is attested to a monk from
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
and means ''bee wolf'' in the
Old Northumbrian dialect.
[Chadwick, Hector Munro (1983) ''The Origin of the English Nation'', p. 294. ] The 11th century English ''
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
'' contains a recorded instance of the name ''Beulf''.
[ The scholar suggested that the name ''Beowulf'' derived from a mistranslation of ''Böðvarr'' with -''varr'' interpreted as '']vargr
In the Philology, philologist and fantasy author J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction, a warg is a particularly large and evil kind of wolf that could be ridden by Orc (Middle-Earth), orcs. He derived the name and characteristics of his wargs ...
'' meaning "wolf".[''The Relation of the Hrolfs Saga Kraka and the Bjarkarimur to Beowulf'' by Olson, 1916, at Project Gutenberg]
However, Sophus Bugge
Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic ...
questioned this etymology, and instead suggested that the personage Böðvarr Bjarki derived from Beowulf.
Beow-Wolf
In 2005, Andy Orchard
Andrew Philip McDowell Orchard (born 27 February 1964) is a scholar and teacher of Old English, Norse and Celtic literature. He is Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College, Ox ...
theorized an etymology on the basis of the common Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
name ''Þórólfr'' (which literally translates to "Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred groves and trees, strength, the protection of humankind, hallowing, an ...
Wolf"), stating in parallel that a "more likely" meaning for the name would be the "wolf" of the Germanic god Beow.[Orchard, Andy. (2003) ''A Critical Companion to Beowulf'' ]
Biewolf
English philologist Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in th ...
proposed an etymological origin in a term for "Woodpecker
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. ...
" citing the Old Dutch
In linguistics, Old Dutch (Dutch: Oudnederlands) or Old Low Franconian (Dutch: Oudnederfrankisch) is the set of Franconian dialects (i.e. dialects that evolved from Frankish) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from aroun ...
term ''biewolf'' for the bird. Skeat states that the black woodpecker is common in Norway and Sweden and further reasons that the "indominatable nature" and that the "bird fights to the death" might have influenced the choice of the name.[Skaet, Walter William. (1877) "The Name Beowulf" from ''The Academy'' 24 February 1877, p. 163.] This etymological origin has been criticized as not being in accordance to Grimm's law
Grimm's law (also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift) is a set of sound laws describing the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC. First systematically put forward by Jacob Gr ...
and Skeat may have recanted the proposal at a later date.[Shippey, Tom A. ''Beowulf: The Critical Heritage'' pp. 387–88. ]
Beado-Wulf (war wolf)
The editors of Bosworth's monumental dictionary of Anglo-Saxon propose that Beowulf is a variant of beado-wulf meaning "war wolf" and that it is cognate with the Icelandic Bodulfr which also means "war wolf".
Beowulf before ''Beowulf''
Scholars have long debated the origins of the character Beowulf. Some have argued that Beowulf existed in heroic-legendary tradition prior to the composition of ''Beowulf,'' while others have believed that the ''Beowulf'' poet invented his Geatish protagonist. Leonard Neidorf
Leonard Neidorf (born ) is an American philologist who is Professor of English at Nanjing University. Neidorf specializes in the study of Old English and Middle English literature, and is a known authority on '' Beowulf''.
Biography
Raised in Voo ...
has argued that Beowulf was present in (now lost) heroic-legendary cycles before ''Beowulf'' was composed. Neidorf argued that the seventh-century usage of the name ‘Biuuulf’ (Beowulf), which involves an element (Beow) that was unproductive in contemporary name-giving, suggests that legends of Beowulf existed well before the composition of our extant poem.
Beowulf manuscript
Origins in Geatland
As told in the surviving epic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
, Beowulf was the son of Ecgtheow, a warrior of the Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
Wægmunding
The Wægmundings were a prominent probably Swedish clan (an ''ätt'', see Norse clans) in '' Beowulf''. A name such as ''Wægmunding'' meant "belongs to Wægmund", i.e. they were the descendants of a man named Wægmund. This was the normal way of ...
s. Ecgþeow had slain , a man from another clan (named the Wulfings) (according to Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
n sources, they were the ruling dynasty of the Geat
The Geats ( ; ang, gēatas ; non, gautar ; sv, götar ), sometimes called ''Goths'', were a large North Germanic tribe who inhabited ("land of the Geats") in modern southern Sweden from antiquity until the late Middle Ages. They are one of th ...
ish petty kingdom
A petty kingdom is a kingdom described as minor or "petty" (from the French 'petit' meaning small) by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it (e.g. the numerous kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England unified into ...
of Östergötland). Apparently, because the victim was from a prominent family, the ''weregild
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
'' was set too high, and so Ecgþeow was banished and had to seek refuge among the Danes
Danes ( da, danskere, ) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nationality native to Denmark and a modern nation identified with the country of Denmark. This connection may be ancestral, legal, historical, or cultural.
Danes generally regard t ...
. The Danish king Hroðgar
Hrothgar ( ang, Hrōðgār ; on, Hróarr) was a semi-legendary Danish king living around the early sixth century AD.
Hrothgar appears in the Anglo-Saxon epics ''Beowulf'' and ''Widsith'', in Norse sagas and poems, and in medieval Danish chroni ...
generously paid the ''weregild
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
'', and had Ecgþeow swear an oath.
Ecgþeow was in the service of the Geatish king
Geatish kings ( la, Rex Getarum/Gothorum; sv, Götakungar), ruling over the provinces of Götaland (Gautland/Geatland), appear in several sources for early Swedish history. Today, most of them are not considered historical.
This list follows t ...
Hreðel Hrethel ( ang, Hrēðel; gem-x-proto, Hrōþilaz, italic=no) is a king of the Geats''.
Name
Hrethel's name appears with both the root vowel and and with both the consonant (i.e. the phoneme , pronounced in Old English) and (which would ordi ...
, whose daughter he married. They had Beowulf, who grew up with the Geats. Beowulf's childhood friend was Breca the Bronding Breca (sometimes spelled Breoca or Brecca) was a Bronding who, according to the Old English language, Anglo-Saxon poem ''Beowulf'', was Beowulf's childhood friend. Breca defeated Beowulf in what, by consensus, is described as a ''swimming'' match.
...
"supposed to be the inhabitants of the island Brännö
Brännö is an island in the Southern Göteborg Archipelago and a locality situated in Göteborg Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 708 inhabitants in 2010 and belongs to the parish of Styrsö within Gothenburg Municipality.
...
, lying off the coast of West Gothland in the Cattegat
The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden i ...
". This would be a realistic location for a childhood friend of Beowulf, and the poem describes a swimming contest between them.
Zealand and Grendel
When King Hroðgar
Hrothgar ( ang, Hrōðgār ; on, Hróarr) was a semi-legendary Danish king living around the early sixth century AD.
Hrothgar appears in the Anglo-Saxon epics ''Beowulf'' and ''Widsith'', in Norse sagas and poems, and in medieval Danish chroni ...
, his wife Wealhþeow
Wealhtheow (also rendered Wealhþēow or Wealthow; ang, Ƿealhþēoƿ ) is a queen of the Danes in the Old English poem, '' Beowulf'', first introduced in line 612.
Character overview
Wealhtheow is of the Wulfing clan, Queen of the Danes. She i ...
, and his court were terrorized by the monstrous Grendel, Beowulf left Geatland (West Götaland
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...
) and sailed to Zealand
Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020.
It is the 1 ...
with fourteen warriors in order to pay his father's debt. During the night, Grendel arrived to attack the sleeping men and devoured one of the other Geats before seizing Beowulf. As no manmade weapon could harm Grendel, Beowulf fought back with his bare hands and tore off the beast's arm. Grendel fled back to the bog to die from his wound, and his arm was attached to the wall of Heorot
Heorot (Old English 'hart, stag') is a mead-hall and major point of focus in the Anglo-Saxon poem ''Beowulf''. The hall serves as a seat of rule for King Hrothgar, a legendary Danish king. After the monster Grendel slaughters the inhabitants of ...
. The next day, Beowulf was lauded and a skald (scop
A (
or ) was a poet as represented in Old English poetry. The scop is the Old English counterpart of the Old Norse ', with the important difference that "skald" was applied to historical persons, and scop is used, for the most part, to designa ...
) sang and compared Beowulf with the hero Sigmund
In Norse mythology, Sigmund ( non, Sigmundr , ang, Sigemund) is a hero whose story is told in the Völsunga saga. He and his sister, Signý, are the children of Völsung and his wife Hljod. Sigmund is best known as the father of Sigurð the d ...
.
However, during the following night Grendel's mother
Grendel's mother ( ang, Grendles mōdor) is one of three antagonists in the anonymous Old English poem ''Beowulf'' (c. 700-1000 AD), the other two being Grendel and the dragon. Each antagonist reflects different negative aspects of both the hero ...
arrived to avenge her son's death and collect ''weregild
Weregild (also spelled wergild, wergeld (in archaic/historical usage of English), weregeld, etc.), also known as man price (blood money), was a precept in some archaic legal codes whereby a monetary value was established for a person's life, to b ...
''. As Beowulf slept in a different building he could not stop her. He resolved to descend into the bog in order to kill her. They fought beside Grendel's corpse, and Beowulf finally won with the aid of an enchanted giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
sword stolen from the lair's plundered wooden box.
Return to Geatland, kingdom, and death
Having returned to Geatland, Beowulf is described as taking part in a raid (a genuine historic event) against the Franks
The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...
with his king Higlac. Higlac died during the raid, and Beowulf swam home in full armour. Back in Geatland, queen Hygd
Hygd, introduced in line 1925 of the poem '' Beowulf'', is the wife of King Hygelac of Geatland. She is the daughter of Hæreth.
After Beowulf defeats Grendel and Grendel's mother, he and his men returned to their native country, where they are ...
offered Beowulf the throne but Beowulf declined in favour of the young prince Heardred
Heardred (Proto-Norse *''Harðurāðaz''), died c. 530, is the son of Hygelac, king of the Geats, and his queen Hygd, in ''Beowulf''. After Hygelac's death, in Frisia, Hygd wants to make Hygelac's nephew Beowulf, king of Geatland, as she fears tha ...
. However, Heardred received two Swedish princes, Eadgils and Eanmund Eanmund was a Swedish prince of the Scylfing dynasty, whose existence is alleged in ''Beowulf''.''Beowulf'', lines 2612-2615.
Life according to ''Beowulf''
Unlike his relatives, Eanmund is only mentioned in Beowulf. Eanmund was the son of Ohther ...
who reported that they had fled their uncle Onela
Onela was according to ''Beowulf'' a Swedish king, the son of Ongentheow and the brother of Ohthere. He usurped the Swedish throne, but was killed by his nephew Eadgils, who won by hiring foreign assistance.
In Scandinavian sagas a Norwegian ki ...
who had usurped the Swedish throne. This led to a Swedish invasion in which Heardred was killed. Beowulf was proclaimed king and decided to avenge Heardred and to help Eadgils become king of Sweden.
The event when Onela
Onela was according to ''Beowulf'' a Swedish king, the son of Ongentheow and the brother of Ohthere. He usurped the Swedish throne, but was killed by his nephew Eadgils, who won by hiring foreign assistance.
In Scandinavian sagas a Norwegian ki ...
was slain was probably a historic event. Even though it is only briefly mentioned in Beowulf
''Beowulf'' (; ang, Bēowulf ) is an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The ...
, it occurs extensively in several Scandinavian sources where it is called the ''Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern The Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern was a 6th-century battle recorded in the Norse sagas and referred to in the Old English epic ''Beowulf''. It has been dated to c. AD 530.
The epic Beowulf
Beowulf is an epic poem that refers to the conflict, bu ...
''. For example, Snorri Sturluson wrote: ''Onela rode Raven, as they rode to the ice, but a second one, a grey one, hastened, wounded by spears, eastwards under Eadgils.'' ..''In this fight Onela died and a great many of his people. Then king Eadgils took from him his helmet Battle-boar and his horse Raven.''
(Although, in Snorri's text the names are in their corresponding Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
forms).
Beowulf ruled the Geats for 50 years, until his realm was terrorized by a fire-breathing dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
after a thief stole a golden cup from its hoard of treasure. After unsuccessfully attacking the dragon with his ''thegn
In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there ...
s'', Beowulf decided to pursue the monster into its lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf
Wiglaf (Proto-Norse: *'' Wīga laibaz'', meaning "battle remainder"; ang, Wīġlāf ) is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem ''Beowulf''. He is the son of Weohstan, a Swede of the Wægmunding clan who had entered the service of Beowulf, kin ...
dared join him. Beowulf's sword broke; but he dealt the dragon its death-blow with his dagger. He had been mortally wounded by the dragon's poisonous bite. Dying, he was carried out by Wiglaf, and with his last breaths named Wiglaf his rightful heir. His body was burned on a funeral pyre, and his ashes buried in a barrow by the sea.
The last three lines of the poem are, in Seamus Heaney
Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. 's translation:
:They he Geatssaid that of all the kings upon the earth,
:he was the man most gracious and fair-minded,
:kindest to his people and keenest to win fame.
The statement is clear, except for the final word, ''lof-geornest'' ('keenest to seek fame'), which is two-edged. It is no shame for a hero to seek fame, but it may be possible to be too eager for it.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beowulf (Hero)
Characters in Beowulf
Dragonslayers
English mythology
Fictional Vikings
Geats
Heroes in Norse myths and legends
Male characters in literature
Mythological kings
People whose existence is disputed
Fictional monster hunters
Fictional dragonslayers
Fictional swordfighters