Hrothgar
Hrothgar 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 chronicles. In both Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian tradition, Hrothgar is a Scylding, the son of Halfdan, the brother of Halga, and the uncle of Hrólfr Kraki. Moreover, in both traditions, the mentioned characters were the contemporaries of the Swedish king Eadgils; and both traditions also mention a feud with men named Fróði and Ingeld. The consensus view is that Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian traditions describe the same person.
Names
Hrothgar, also rendered Hrōðgār, is an Old English form attested in Beowulf and Widsith, the earliest sources to mention the character. In non-English sources, the name appears in more or less corresponding Old Icelandic, Old Danish, and Latinized versions. He appears as Hróarr, Hroar, etc., in sagas and poetry, and as Ro or Roe in the Danish Latin chronicles. The form Hrōðgār is thought to have derived from the proto-Norse *Hrōþigaizaz "famous spear", i.e. Roger. The corresponding Old Norse name Hróarr and its variations are derived from *Hrōþigaizaz, and from the very close names *Hrōþiwarjaz "famous defender" or *Hrōþiharjaz "famous warrior".Anglo-Saxon poems
Hrothgar appears in two Anglo-Saxon poems, Beowulf and Widsith. Beowulf gives the fuller account of Hrothgar and how the Geatish hero Beowulf visited him to free his people from the trollish creature Grendel. Widsith only mentions Hrothgar, Heorot, his nephew Hroðulf and their enemy Ingeld, but can complete Beowulf in some cases where Beowulf does not give enough information. This is notably the case concerning the ending of his feud with Ingeld.''Beowulf''
In the epic poem Beowulf, Hrothgar is mentioned as the builder of the great hall Heorot and ruler of Denmark, when the Geatish hero Beowulf arrives to defeat the monster Grendel.When Hrothgar is introduced in Beowulf, it is explained that he was the second of four children of King Healfdene: he had an older brother, Heorogar, who was king before him; a younger brother Halga; and a sister, who was married to the king of Sweden. The sister is not named in the manuscript and most scholars agree this is a scribal error, but suggested names are Signy and Yrsa. Friderich Kluge accordingly suggested that the line be restored as hyrde ic þ elan cwen, rendering the Norse names in Old English forms. However, the only certain Swedish royal name ending in -ela that has come down to us is Onela, and according to the rules of alliteration, this means that the queen's name must have begun with a vowel. Sophus Bugge consequently identified her with the Swedish queen Yrsa. He thus suggested the line should be emended to read hyrde ic þelan cwen. Most 20th-century translators followed this suggestion. However, in Norse tradition, Yrsa was the daughter and lover/rape victim of Hrothgar's younger brother Halga, and the mother of Halga's son Hroðulf, and most modern translators simply leave the line as it is.
The poem further tells that Hrothgar was "slain in war" and so his kinsmen eagerly followed him. He is both honest and generous: "He broke no oaths, dealt out rings, treasures at his table". When Beowulf leads his men to Denmark, he speaks of Hrothgar to both a coast-guard and to Hrothgar's herald: he calls Hrothgar a "famed king", "famed warrior", and "protector of the Scyldings", and describes him as "old and good." The poet emphasizes that the Danes "did not find fault" with Hrothgar, "for that was a good King". When Beowulf defeats Grendel, Hrothgar rewards Beowulf and his men with great treasures, showing his gratitude and open-handedness. The poet says that Hrothgar is so generous that "no man could fault him, who wished to speak the truth."
Hrothgar was married to a woman named Wealhþeow, who was a Helming, probably defining her as a relative of Helm, the ruler of the Wulfings. When Hrothgar welcomes Beowulf, he recalls his friendship with Beowulf's family. He met Beowulf's father Ecgþeow "when I first ruled the Danes" after the death of Heorogar; he laments Heorogar's fall and recalls how he settled Ecgþeow's blood feud with the Wulfings. Hrothgar thanks God for Beowulf's arrival and victory over Grendel, and swears to love Beowulf like a son.
The poem introduces Hroðulf as Hrothgar's supporter and right-hand man; and we learn that Hroðulf is Hrothgar's nephew and that "each was true to the other". The common piece of information that Hrothgar's younger brother Halga is Hroðulf's father comes from Scandinavian sources, where Halga was unaware that Yrsa was his own daughter and either raped or seduced her. Yrsa herself was tragically also the result of Halga raping a woman.
Wealhþeow has borne Hrothgar two sons, Hreðric and Hroðmund, and Hroðulf is to be regent if Hrothgar dies before his sons are grown.
Hrothgar is plunged into gloom and near-despair after Grendel's mother attacks the hall and kills Hrothgar's best friend and closest advisor; but when Beowulf advises him not to despair, and that "it is better to avenge our friends than to mourn overmuch", Hrothgar leaps to his feet and thanks God for Beowulf's wise words, and leads the Danes and Geats out to attack the small lake where Grendel's mother lives.
After Beowulf defeats Grendel's mother, Hrothgar rewards him again, and then preaches a sermon in which he warns Beowulf to beware of arrogance and forgetfulness of God.
Beowulf takes his leave of Hrothgar to return home, and Hrothgar embraces him and weeps that they will not meet again. This is Hrothgar's last appearance in the poem. When Beowulf reports on his adventure to his lord Hygelac, he mentions that Hrothgar also had a daughter, Freawaru; it is not clear whether Freawaru was also the daughter of Wealhþeow or was born of an earlier marriage. Since the Danes were in conflict with the Heaðobards, whose king Froda had been killed in a war with the Danes, Hrothgar sent Freawaru to marry Froda's son Ingeld, in an unsuccessful attempt to end the feud.
Beowulf predicts to Hygelac that Ingeld will turn against his father-in-law Hrothgar. Earlier in the poem, the poet tells us that the hall Heorot was eventually destroyed by fire:
It is tempting to interpret the new war with Ingeld as leading to the burning of the hall of Heorot, but the poem separates the two events. According to Widsith, Hrothgar and Hroðulf defeat Ingeld, and if Scandinavian tradition is to be trusted Hrothgar himself is killed by a relative, or by the king of Sweden, but he is avenged by his younger brother Halga. Halga dies in a Viking expedition; Hroðulf succeeds him and rises in fame, and according to Hroðulf's own saga and other sources, Hroðulf's cousin and/or brother-in-law Heoroweard slays Hroðulf. Heoroweard himself dies in that battle, and according to two sources, this happens only a few hours later, as an act of vengeance by a man loyal to Hroðulf, called Wigg. This is the kin-slaying end of the Scylding dynasty.
''Widsith''
Whereas Beowulf never dwells on the outcome of the battle with Ingeld, the possibly older poem Widsith refers to Hrothgar and Hroðulf defeating Ingeld at Heorot:This piece suggests that the conflict between the Scyldings Hrothgar and Hroðulf on one side, and the Heaðobards Froda and Ingeld on the other, was well known in Anglo-Saxon England. This conflict also appears in Scandinavian sources, but in the Norse tradition the Heaðobards had apparently been forgotten and the conflict is instead rendered as a family feud. The Norse sources also deal with the defeat of Ingeld and/or Froda.
Scandinavian sources
In the Scandinavian sources, consisting of Norse sagas, Icelandic poems and Danish chronicles, Hrothgar also appears as a Danish king of the Scylding dynasty. He remains the son of Healfdene and the elder brother of Halga. Moreover, he is still the uncle of Hroðulf. The Scandinavian sources also agree with Beowulf by making Hrothgar contemporary with the Swedish king Eadgils. These agreements with Beowulf are remarkable considering that these sources were composed from oral tradition 700 to 800 years after the events described, and 300 to 400 years later than Beowulf and Widsith.There are also notable differences. The Heaðobards Ingeld and Froda also appear in Scandinavian tradition, but their tribe, the Heaðobards, had long been forgotten, and instead the tribal feud was rendered as a family feud. Their relationship as father and son had also been reversed in some sources, and so either Ingeld or Froda is given as the brother of Healfdene. Ingeld or Froda murdered Healfdene, but was himself killed in revenge by Hrothgar and Halga. Moreover, in Scandinavian tradition, Hrothgar is a minor character in comparison to his nephew Hroðulf. Such differences indicate that Beowulf and Scandinavian sources represent separate traditions.
The names of Hrothgar and others appear in the form they had in Old Icelandic or Latinized Old Danish at the time the stories were put to paper, and not in their Old English or more "authentic" Proto-Norse forms.
It has been a matter of some debate whether the hero Beowulf could have the same origin as Hroðulf's berserker Bödvar Bjarki, who appears in Scandinavian sources.
Among these sources, it is the most famous one, the Hrólfr Kraki's saga, which is most different from Beowulf, and a notable difference is that Hrothgar leaves the rule of Denmark to his younger brother Halga and moves to Northumbria. The focus is consequently on the Hrólfr Kraki's saga when a scholar questions the comparison of Hrothgar and other characters from Beowulf with counterparts in Scandinavian tradition. Scandinavian sources have added some information that appear in Beowulf studies, without having any founding in the work itself, such as the information that Halga was, or probably was, Hroðulf's father. Another example is the existence of a woman named Yrsa, who, however, has been transposed to a role she never had in any source texts, that of Hrothgar's sister.