Hæthcyn ( ang, Hæþcyn) is the son 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 ...

in the

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 ...

poem ''

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 ...

''. The hero Beowulf is Hæþcyn's nephew. Hæþcyn kills his elder brother Herebeald with an arrow in a hunting accident, which causes their father Hrethel to die from grief. Then Hæþcyn becomes king of Geatland. During the Swedish-Geatish wars, Hæþcyn kidnaps the Swedish queen, and is killed fighting with 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 ...

king

Ongenþeow Ongentheow (Old English: ''Ongenþeow'', ''Ongenþio'', ''Ongendþeow''; Old Norse: ''Angantýr'') (died ca. 515) was the name of a semi-legendary Swedish king of the house of Scylfings, who appears in Old English sources. He is generally iden ...

who saved her. The Geatish warriors seek refuge in

Hrefnesholt {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 Hrefnesholt is a location in ''Beowulf'' where the Geatish king Hæþcyn had taken the Swedish queen. The Swedish king Ongenþeow arrived to save her and killed Hæþcyn. The Geatish force was, however, reinforced ...

, where they are rescued by

Hygelac Hygelac ( ang, Hygelāc; non, Hugleikr; gem-x-proto, Hugilaikaz; la, Ch(l)ochilaicus or ''Hugilaicus''; died 521) was a king of the Geats according to the poem ''Beowulf''. It is Hygelac's presence in the poem which has allowed scholars to ...

, who arrives the next day with reinforcements. His warrior

Eofor Eofor (Proto-Norse *''Eburaz''), son of Wonred, was a Geatish warrior in ''Beowulf''. When the Swedes invaded Geatland (Götaland), the Geatish king Hæþcyn was killed by the Swedish king Ongenþeow. Hygelac, who became the new king, sent ...

kills the Swedish king. Hæþcyn is succeeded by

.''Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg'', 4th rev. edn by R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. lix.

References

Characters in Beowulf English heroic legends Kings of the Geats {{Notstub