Hæthcyn () is the son of the

Geatish king Geatish kings (; ), 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 the generally accepted identification bet ...

Hreðel in the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

poem ''

Beowulf ''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poetry, Old English poem, an Epic poetry, epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 Alliterative verse, alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and List of translat ...

''. 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 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 ide ...

who saved her. The Geatish warriors seek refuge in Hrefnesholt, where they are rescued by

Hygelac Hygelac (; ; ; or ''Hugilaicus''; died 516 or 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 tentatively date the setting of the poem as well as to infer tha ...

, 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 Eo ...

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 Legendary kings of the Geats {{Notstub