The only example of an ancient Germanic epic on a large scale is the Anglo-Saxon Poem of Beowulf.
“Anglo-Saxon” is the name given to literature in the Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) language, which arose among the Germanic tribes that moved to Britain. The resettlement of these tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes) from the continent (from the coastal regions of southern Jutland, Friesland and northern Germany) to Britain, accompanied by a fierce struggle with the Celtic population of the island, began in the middle of the 5th century. and ended after about two centuries; however, by the middle of the 6th century. The entire south, center and northeast of what is now England was occupied by the Anglo-Saxons. From the moment of the conquest, the independent development of the political and social life, culture and language of the Anglo-Saxons began, which was closely dependent on the new conditions of their historical existence and, first of all, on the general process of feudalization and Christianization of Anglo-Saxon society.
At the end of the 6th century, the Anglo-Saxons did not yet have written literature. The greater the value in early centuries Anglo-Saxon history had oral literature. We have much evidence of the existence of a rich song tradition among the Anglo-Saxons. Among various tribes, songs associated with the pagan religious cult, magical spell formulas and spells, originally of a metrical nature, as well as wedding songs, drinking songs, work songs, military songs, funeral laments, etc., were common. With all such works, firmly entered into the life of the Anglo-Saxons, the Christian Church waged a long and unsuccessful struggle.
Particularly popular, apparently, was oral epic poetry, traces of which are preserved in geographical names and in later literary monuments.
The art of composing songs and performing them accompanied by musical instruments was held in high esteem by the Anglo-Saxons. The skillful singer, apparently, early received a professional appearance from the Anglo-Saxons. Along with singer-musicians of the folk type (“gleomaniacs”), at the early stage of Anglo-Saxon culture there is also a professional druzhina singer (“skop”), who separated from the ranks of the vigilantes. He was the keeper of the historical tradition of the family, tribe, princely squad, stood close to the royal or generally noble family and received generous gifts. Such a singer is depicted in a number of works of Anglo-Saxon poetry.
One of the earliest monuments of this kind - “Vidsid” (i.e. “Wandered a lot”) talks about such a wandering singer, “who traveled around many squads and peoples,” and mentions his song repertoire, which revolved around the circle of continental Germanic legends epic cycles.
The most significant work of Anglo-Saxon poetry is The Poem of Beowulf. This work, which is probably based on ancient epic songs, has come to us in more or less complete form in a single manuscript written at the beginning of the 10th century. The poem (volume of about 3000 verses) falls into two parts, connected only by the personality of the main character Beowulf. The development of the main theme is interrupted by a number of inserted episodes in both parts; these episodes, however, are important for clarifying the origin of the poem, the time of its origin, etc.
Instead of an introduction, it tells about the legendary ancestor of the Danish kings, Skild Skefing, who in infancy miraculously sailed to the shores of Denmark in a boat full of treasures, grew up, became a king and ruled the country for a long time and happily; His descendants also reigned happily. Scyld's great-grandson, King Hrothgar, was successful in wars and accumulated great wealth. He erected a vast and richly decorated chamber for feasts with his retinue, calling it “Heorot,” i.e., the chamber of the deer (since it was probably decorated with deer antlers). The fun in this room did not last long. Soon, Grendel, a terrible monster who lived in the neighboring seaside “swamp”, began to appear in Heorot every night; he carried away and devoured dozens of Hrothgar's best warriors; no one could avert this disaster; the chamber was empty, the feasts stopped, and great sorrow seized the Danes. News of this reached the land of the Geats (the Scandinavian tribe of Gauts who inhabited the southern regions of Sweden). Beowulf, the bravest of the knights of the king of the Geats, Hygelac, heard about this, ordered a ship to be equipped and went to the aid of the Danes along with fourteen of the best warriors. On the very first night of their stay with Hrothgar, a terrible battle took place between Beowulf and Grendel. Grendel appeared in Heorot at midnight, crept up to the Geats, grabbed one of them, tore him in half, crushed his bones, began to suck blood from his veins and swallow meat in huge pieces. Before he could reach for the other, Beowulf’s mighty hand grabbed him, and a struggle began between them. In vain Grendel tried to escape: the veins in his shoulder tore, the skin and meat burst, the bones jumped out of the joints, and Grendel’s entire arm remained with Beowulf; mortally wounded, the monster was drawn to die in its swamp swamps. The next day, Hrothgar arranges a rich feast in honor of the winner and generously gifts Beowulf.
The avenger for the murdered Grendel the next night is the monster’s mother, who again inflicts damage on Hrothgar’s squad while Beowulf and his comrades were resting in other chambers. The next morning, Beowulf performs his second feat: he descends into a terrible watery abyss and kills Grendel’s mother there with that miraculous sword (“the product of giants”), which hangs in her watery chambers; with the same sword he chops off Grendel’s head and wants to take the weapon to memory of the battle; on the sword, like ice, melts in his hands to the very hilt. Hrothgar arranges a new great feast and rewards Beowulf with even more generous gifts, escorting him to his homeland. Covered in glory, Beowulf returns to King Hygelac.
In the second part of the poem, Beowulf is presented as an old man. After the death of Hygelac and his son, who died in battle against the Franks, he reigns peacefully over the Geats for fifty winters, but when a terrible fire-breathing dragon appears in his lands, Beowulf decides to kill him in single combat. Beowulf defeats the dragon, but he himself dies from poisonous wounds, saying goodbye to his squad and establishing the order of his funeral. His body is solemnly burned at the stake, a high burial mound is erected over the ashes, around which twelve mighty knights sing the glory of the fallen leader.
“The Poem of Beowulf” is distinguished by its extremely complex composition. In the form in which it has come down to us in a single manuscript, it is undoubtedly a monument of late origin. However, the basis of the surviving written edition is probably based on more ancient editions of one or more legends, apparently dating back to folk song legends. Hence all the difficulties in analyzing and dating the poem and serious disagreements among its researchers. Old-school scholars viewed Beowulf as a one-of-a-kind Anglo-Saxon monument testifying to a rich epic tradition of pagan poems destroyed by intolerant attitudes towards it christian church. Early researchers believed that the poem, in its most essential features, was created even before the Anglo-Saxons adopted Christianity or even before their migration to Britain, and that it was based on shorter works that were subsequently processed heroic songs. Currently, the composition of the poem is usually attributed no earlier than the beginning of the 8th century, and it is considered as a book epic written by a Christian cleric; this, however, does not exclude assumptions about various primary sources of the poem, among which, most likely, there were also oral heroic songs.
The central episodes of the first part of the poem - about the battles of Beowulf with Grendel and his mother - have a number of parallels in folk tales, as well as in Icelandic sagas; the story of the second part about the battle between Beowulf and fire-breathing dragon also presents analogies with other Germanic legends. It is also significant that Beowulf is not an Anglo-Saxon hero; The action of the poem is also not confined to England and takes place in the first part in Denmark or Zealand, in the second - in southern Sweden. Beowulf is not a historical person, but in the poem one can find echoes of actual historical events - strife and wars of the North Germanic peoples among themselves or with their West German neighbors, however, in the form short episodes or even just random hints. Thus, in the king of the Geats, Hygelac, they see similarities with the Danish king Hochilaik, whose campaign against the Franks (515) is mentioned in the chronicle of Gregory of Tours. The historical and geographical nomenclature in Beowulf most likely indicates that the tales processed in the poem could have developed in the first half of the 6th century. in the region lying north of the continental homeland of the Angles.
However, in the form that has come down to us, the poem about Beowulf has already deviated significantly from this supposed basis and, according to all data, indicates not one, but several stages of its literary processing. In the version that has reached us, the poem bears traces of quite significant changes by the Christian scribe, who threw out the names pagan gods and too obvious allusions to German mythology, and also made a number of inserts that are easily distinguishable in a work that is generally pre-Christian in nature. This editor of the poem calls Grendel a descendant of Cain, sea monsters a fiend of hell, and regrets the paganism of the Danish king; in various places in the poem the names of Abel, Noah, the biblical legend of the flood, etc. are mentioned. Even Beowulf himself is turned into a kind of Christian saint, a serpent fighter who sacrifices his life in order to rid the country of a fire-breathing dragon, and delivers purely Christian instructions. The intervention of the same scribe should explain some of the similarities between Beowulf and ancient literature (for example, Virgil’s Aeneid). The poem is distinguished by a very refined literary technique. Like all works of Anglo-Saxon poetry, it is written in ancient Germanic alliterative verse, which is distinguished, however, by its special sophistication and abundance of bookish and poetic techniques (stringing synonyms, metaphors, indirect speech instead of direct speech, etc.).
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Beowulf (Old English “bee wolf”, i.e. bear), a mytho-epic hero, the main character of the Anglo-Saxon epic work of the same name (written in the late 7th century or 8th century, the manuscript dates back to approximately 1000). The action of the poem takes place in Scandinavia (Denmark and Sweden), and the characters appearing in it belong to the Scandinavian tribes. Beowulf, a young Gauth warrior, goes overseas to rescue the Danish king. Hrothgar from the disaster that befell him: for 12 years, a monster attacks the royal palace of Heorot Grendel
, exterminating Hrothgar's warriors.
In night combat, Beowulf defeats Grendel, who, having lost his arm, crawls into his lair, where he finds death. Grendel's mother (an even more terrible monster) tries to take revenge on Beowulf for killing her son, but the hero defeats her too, penetrating into her lair at the bottom of the sea. Peace and joy are restored in Heorot, and Beowulf, generously rewarded by Hrothgar, returns to his homeland. He becomes the king of the Gauts and rules over them for 50 years. His life ends with the most glorious of all his exploits - the victory over the dragon, who was devastating the country, angry at the encroachment on the ancient treasure he guarded. In this duel, Beowulf kills the dragon, but is himself mortally wounded. His faithful warrior Wiglav, who helped Beowulf defeat the dragon, arranges a funeral pyre; Beowulf's body is burned along with the treasure he conquered.
A number of kings and warriors mentioned in the epic lived during the era of the Great Migration (4th-6th centuries), but Beowulf himself does not have historical prototype. The old school of mythology interpreted Beowulf and his exploits as symbols natural phenomena: Beowulf is a good deity who curbs the elements, which are personified by monsters, his peaceful reign is a blessed summer, his death is the arrival of winter weather. However, the epic contains many folklore and mythological elements and motifs, the analysis of which inclines modern researchers to a different interpretation. In his youth, Beowulf was lazy and not distinguished by his valor, and when he grew up, he acquired the strength of “thirty men” (a motif found
V 
epics of a number of peoples). The hero’s coming on his own initiative to help those in distress; a test of his valor (a story about a competition in swimming across the sea); handing him a magical weapon (nevertheless, Beowulf wins his victories over Grendel and the dragon with his bare hands, either by not using the weapon, or by becoming convinced of its uselessness); his violation of the ban (the treasure, due to the possession of which Beowulf fights the dragon, is cursed); the three battles that the hero gives (and each subsequent one turns out to be more difficult), not to mention the very theme of dragon fighting, so characteristic of the German-Scandinavian mythological epic - all this indicates that Beowulf belongs to folklore, fairy tale and myth. (This is also evidenced by the legend given in the poem about the foundling Skild Skeving, the founder of the Danish royal dynasty - a boat with the baby Skild washed up on the shores of Denmark, whose people at that time were deprived of a ruler and defenseless; Skild became king; after his death he was again put on a ship along with treasures and set adrift on the waves, setting off for that unknown country from which he arrived). The scenes of Beowulf's struggle with Grendel and his mother echo the corresponding scenes of combat with monsters from the Icelandic sagas (in particular, the Saga of Grettir); Some scientists tend to identify Beowulf himself with the hero Bjarka (from the Saga of Hrolf Zherdinka) - the “bear man”, also the winner of the monster. It has been suggested that the ancient basis of the Anglo-Saxon epic, which had Scandinavian origins, was formed by the plot of a fabulous hero - a cultural hero, descended from a bear and clearing the earth - the abode of people - from monsters (like the Scandinavian Thor, Greek Hercules, Sumerian-Akkadian Gilgamesh), In the written edition, the epic bears the stamp of Christian influence, and the original images of mythology and fairy tales in it have already been partly reworked: thus, Grendel and his mother are given devilish features, Beowulf himself is endowed with features of Christian messianism.
(Beowulf), Old English poem unknown author, the only surviving monument of the Anglo-Saxon epic. Most scientists agree that Beowulf was created in the 8th century. an English monk who knew both Old English and Latin literature. The poem survived in a single manuscript at the end of the 10th century. in Old English. Studying Beowulf began in 1815, after the publication of the first edition. The poem contains 3182 lines and is written in alliterative verse. Named after the main character.
Beowulf, on his maternal side, belongs to the royal house of the Gauts, a tribe that lived in the southern part of what is now Sweden. The action takes place in Denmark, where the troll Grendel has been attacking the abode of King Hrothgar Heorot (the Deer Chamber) for twelve years, killing everyone he manages to capture every night. Hearing about this misfortune, Beowulf and fourteen warriors set sail on a ship to Denmark. Hrothgar welcomes the Gauth party and leaves them in Heorot for the night. Grendel appears and meets a worthy opponent: the hero grabs his hand with a death grip. The mortally wounded troll manages to escape to his lair at the bottom of the sea, leaving his hand in the iron palm of the hero. The next night, Grendel's mother kidnaps a high-ranking Dane in revenge, but Beowulf, having penetrated the underwater habitat, kills her. Returning to the country of the Gauts, he tells his king-uncle Hygelac about everything, and he rewards him with a vast allotment of land. After Hygelac and then his son Hardred are killed in battle, Beowulf becomes king and reigns for fifty years until a dragon appears to avenge the theft from his treasury. Together with his relative Wiglaf, he kills the dragon, but in the process receives a mortal wound. The poem ends with the scene of the hero's funeral and praises in his honor.
Hygelac, the hero's favorite uncle, historical figure: around 520 he made a pirate raid on the territory of the Netherlands, was defeated and died in a battle with the Frankish king Theodoric. In several places in the poem there is information about this raid that is consistent with historical chronicles. The stories about the Danes and their enemies are not so informative, but not because the poet is less truthful here: he could rely on the knowledge of the listeners - they knew Denmark well.
Beowulf differs very significantly from ordinary heroic poems in both volume and complexity. In the English tradition, heroic ballads rarely contained more than five hundred lines and described a single event (for example, a battle) or a series of closely related events. For the plot Beowulf two contrasting series of events were required, and the poet described both series in great detail, paying great attention to the cultural environment (for example, court life in Denmark). Often he leaves aside both the hero and the monsters, turning to episodes, information or allusions concerning other characters in traditional narratives. Such retreats were supposed to somehow harmonize the battles with monsters with the world Northern Europe 6th century The poem states that Beowulf's remarkable strength, equal to the strength of thirty ordinary people, was given to him by God, and from a remarkable fragment (lines 21772189) it is clear that the hero would not use this gift in an unworthy manner, but would save it for high achievements.
BEOWULF(Beowulf), an Old English poem by an unknown author, is the only surviving monument of the Anglo-Saxon epic. Most scientists agree that Beowulf was created in the 8th century. an English monk who knew both Old English and Latin literature. The poem survived in a single manuscript at the end of the 10th century. in Old English. Studying Beowulf began in 1815, after the publication of the first edition. The poem contains 3182 lines and is written in alliterative verse. Named after the main character.
Beowulf, on his mother's side, belongs to the royal house of the Gauts, a tribe living in the southern part of what is now Sweden. The action takes place in Denmark, where the troll Grendel has been attacking the abode of King Hrothgar Heorot (the Deer Chamber) for twelve years, killing everyone he manages to capture every night. Hearing about this misfortune, Beowulf and fourteen warriors set sail on a ship to Denmark. Hrothgar welcomes the Gauth party and leaves them in Heorot for the night. Grendel appears and meets a worthy opponent: the hero grabs his hand with a death grip. The mortally wounded troll manages to escape to his lair at the bottom of the sea, leaving his hand in the iron palm of the hero. The next night, Grendel's mother kidnaps a high-ranking Dane in revenge, but Beowulf, having penetrated the underwater habitat, kills her. Returning to the country of the Gauts, he tells his king-uncle Hygelac about everything, and he rewards him with a vast allotment of land. After Hygelac and then his son Hardred are killed in battle, Beowulf becomes king and reigns for fifty years until a dragon appears to avenge the theft from his treasury. Together with his relative Wiglaf, he kills the dragon, but in the process receives a mortal wound. The poem ends with the funeral scene of the hero and praises in his honor.
Hygelac, the hero's favorite uncle, is a historical figure: around 520, he made a pirate raid on the territory of the Netherlands, was defeated and died in a battle with the Frankish king Theodoric. In several places in the poem there is information about this raid that is consistent with historical chronicles. The stories about the Danes and their enemies are not so informative, but not because the poet is less truthful here: he could rely on the knowledge of the listeners - they knew Denmark well.
Beowulf differs very significantly from ordinary heroic poems in both volume and complexity. In the English tradition, heroic ballads rarely contained more than five hundred lines and described a single event (for example, a battle) or a series of closely related events. For the plot Beowulf two contrasting series of events were required, and the poet described both series in great detail, paying great attention to the cultural environment (for example, court life in Denmark). Often he leaves aside both the hero and the monsters, turning to episodes, information or allusions concerning other characters in traditional narratives. Such retreats were supposed to somehow harmonize the battles with monsters with the world of Northern Europe in the 6th century. The poem says that Beowulf's extraordinary strength, equal to that of thirty ordinary men, was given to him by God, and from a remarkable passage (lines 2177-2189) it is clear that the hero would not use this gift in an unworthy manner, but saved it for high achievements.
PERSONAL NAMES IN THE EPIC "BEOWULF" : Characters, geography, swords
ABEL- Abel, killed by his brother Cain
AELPHERE- relative of Wiglaf
AESCHERE- Irmenlaf's older brother; Hrothgar's favorite advisor;
killed by Grendel's mother BEANSTAN
- Breka's father BEOW
- Danish king, son of Scyld; Halfden's father BEOWULF
- Beowulf, Gauth, nephew of the historical king Hygelac; later the king of the Gauts himself; hero of the poem
BRECA- son of Beanstan and leader of the Brondings; in his youth he competed in swimming with Beowulf
BRONDINGAS- unknown tribe
BROSINGAS- dwarves (brisings) who made a magic necklace for the goddess Freya
CAIN- Abel's brother who killed him
DAEGHREFN- Frankish warrior killed by Beowulf in the unsuccessful campaign of Hygelac
DENE- Danes. They were often called Scyldings, after the ruling royal dynasty at that time.
EADGILS- Swedish prince, brother of Eanmund. He and his brother were expelled from Sweden by their uncle Onela for rebellion; The exiles were sheltered by the Gautian king Heardred, the son and heir of Hygelac. Onela attacked Gautland for sheltering his nephews. King Heardred is killed and Beowulf ascends to the throne, who helps Eadgil defeat Onela and become king of Sweden.
EANMUND- Swedish prince, brother of Eadgil
EARNA-NAES- a place in Gautland where the battle with the dragon took place (modern Jornas in Sweden)
ECGLAF- father of Beowulf and ancestor of the Wegmundings; husband of the only daughter of the Gautian king Hrethel
ECGWELA- unknown king of the Danes
EOFOR- Gautian warrior who killed the Swedish king Ongentheow; son of Vonred and brother of Wulf. King Hygelac rewards him and his brother with rich gifts.
EOMER- son of Off Angla, kinsman of Hemming
EORLE- a particularly wild and powerful Germanic tribe in the 4th-6th centuries; lived in Denmark and eventually merged with the Danes
EORMENRIC- historical king of the Ostrogoths, who lived at the end of the 4th century; became the hero of many German heroic legends
EOTE- Jutes, followers of Finn, king of the Frisians
FINN- King of the East Frisians and Jutes; son of Volkwald; husband of Hildebur, daughter of Hok and sister of Hnefa.
FINNA LAND- modern Finnheden in the south-west Sweden
FITELA- nephew (and son) of Sigmund
FOLCWALDA- Finn's father
FRANCAN- francs; Hygelac is killed in his campaign against the Frisians and Franks
FREAWARU- daughter of Hrothgar; she is married to Ingeld
FRESAN- tribe of Frisians (western and eastern)
FRES-CYNING- King of the (Western) Frisians
FRES-LOND- country of (Western) Frisians
FRES-WAEL- the valley in which the battle between the Frisians and Halfdans took place
FRODA- king of the Heathobards tribe and father of Ingeld"; killed in battle with the Danes
GARMUND- Offa Angla's father
GEATAS- Gauts, who lived in the south of Sweden; Beowulf belonged to the Gautian royal family
GIFTHAS- an East Germanic tribe related to the Goths. They first lived in the Vistula delta; in the 3rd century settled in Hungary, where their independent state was conquered by pawnshops in the 6th century.
GRENDEL- a monster from the race of Cain, visiting the palace of Hrothgar and killing people; killed by Beowulf
GUTHLAF- Danish warrior
HAERETH- father of Hygda, Hygelac's wife
HAETHCYN- the second son of Hretel, king of the Gauts (the first son is Herebeald, the youngest is Hygelac); accidentally killed his older brother with an arrow; killed in battle with Ongentheow
HAETHNAS- the name of the warriors serving with the Gauts of Hygelac
HALGA- Danish prince, younger brother of Hrothgar; Hrothulf's father
HAMA- steals the Brosings' necklace from Eormenrik
HEALDFENE- king of the Danes, son of Beowulf, son of Scyld; reigned happily and left four children: Heorogar, Hrodagar and Halga and a daughter whose name has not come down to us
HEALTH-DENE- Halfdan tribe ruled by Khnef
HEARDRED- King of Gaut, son of Hygelac and Hygd; became king in his youth; killed by the Swedes for supporting Onela's nephews; Beowulf avenges his death by killing Onela
HEATHOBEARDAN- unknown Germanic tribe; the worst enemy of the Danes
HEATHOLAF- a Wylfing man killed by Beowulf's father
HEATHO-RAEMAS- Norwegian tribe
HELMINGS- the family to which Hrothgar's wife belonged, Wealhtheow
HEMMING- kinsman of Offa Angla and Eomer
HENGEST- leader of the Halfdans after the murder of Khnef; takes revenge on Finn for this murder
HEOROGAR- Danish king, older brother of Hrothgar.
HEOROT- the magnificent palace of Hrothgar; it will subsequently be destroyed by fire. It is most likely located on the northern coast of Zealand, in the southwest. from Roskilde, the ancient residence of the Danish kings. The name Heorot - "deer" - is associated with the symbol of royal power, the stag.
HEOROWEARD- son of Heorogar, Danish king
HEREBEALD- Prince of Gaut, eldest son of Hrethel, King of Gautland;
accidentally killed by his younger brother, Haethcyn HEREMOD
- Danish king, after whose death in exile, Scyld Skeving mysteriously arrives on a ship to become the head of the Danish kingdom HERERICK
- Heardred's uncle, king of the Gauts; possibly brother of Queen Hygda HETWARE
- Frankish tribe on the lower Rhine HILDEBURH
- wife of Finn, king of the Frisians; Hawk's daughter; returns to Denmark after killing Finn HNAEF
- son of Hawk and brother Hildebur; killed by Finn's men HOC
- father of Khnef and Hildebur; HONDSCIOH
- Gautian warrior, Beowulf's comrade; killed by Grendel HREFNA-WUDU
- a forest in Sweden where the Swedish king Ongentheow killed the Gautian king Haethcyn in battle HREOSNA-BEORH
- a hill in Gautland, near which, after the death of Hretel, Ohthere and Onela frivolously attacked the Gauts, which led to a war in which Haedcyn was killed HRETHEL
- king of the Gauts, father of Hygelac and grandfather of Beowwulf on his mother's side; died of grief when his eldest son Herebeald was killed by his second son Haedcyn HRETHRIC
- son of Hrothgar and older brother of Hrothmund HRETHLINGAS
- Gauts (on behalf of King Hrethel) HRONES-NAES
- cape on the Gout coast where Beowulf's burial mound is located HROTHGAR
- King of the Danes; son of Halfdan, in whose kingdom Beowulf's battle with Grendel takes place HROTHMUND
- son of Hrothgar; Hredrik's younger brother HROTHULF - nephew of Hrothgar, son of Halga. This famous hero
Hrolf of Norse legends HRUNTING
- Unferth's sword HUGAS
- name given to the Franks when describing the war between the Franks and Gauts HUNLAFING
- possibly the name of the sword HYGD
- wife of King Hygelac; possibly Beowulf's wife after the death of her first husband; mother of Heardred; offers Beowulf the throne of Gauth HYGELAC
- King of the Gauts and Beowulf's uncle; the only character in the poem mentioned by other sources INGELD
- Prince of the Heathobards, son of Frod INGWINE
- name of the Danes Hrothgar- Merovingians; Merovingian king
MODTHRYTH- Offa's wife
NAEGLING- Beowulf's sword, which he used to fight the dragon
OFFA- king of the continental Angles and ancestor of the historical Offa of Mercia; lived in the 4th century
OHTHERE- son of the Swedish king Ongentheow; father of Eanmund and Eadgil;
Onela's older brother ONELA
- Swedish king, Ohthere's younger brother ONGENTHEOW
- Swedish king, father of Ohthere and Onela; rescues his wife, kidnapped by the Gautian king (Haedcyn), whom he kills; killed by Wulf OSLAF
- Danish warrior; on Hengest's side against Finn SCEDE-LAND
- southern part of Sweden, formerly part of Denmark SCYLDINGAS
- descendants of Skild; Danish royal dynasty SCYLD SCEFING
- founder of the royal house of Hrothgar SCYLFINGAS
- Swedish royal dynasty SIGEMUND
- Sigmund, dragon slayer. His exploits are attributed to his more famous son Sigurd (Siegfried) SWEON
- Swedes who lived in the east center. Sweden, north of Gaut SWERTING
- Higelac's maternal uncle SWIO-RICE
- Sweden (modern Swedish. Sverige - Sweden) UNFERTH
- temporarily gives his magic sword Hrunting to Beowulf, who is going to
battle with Grendel's mother WAEGMUNDINGA
S - family related to the Gautian royal house, to which Wiglaf, Wistan and Beowulf belonged WAELS
- Sigmund's father WALING
- son of Wels, i.e. Sigmund WEALHTHEOW
-Hrothgar's wife; mother of Hredrik and Hrothmund WEDERAS
- "loving wind, storm." Refers to the Gauts who lived on the coast WEDER-MEARC
- country of Gauts WELAND
- Wölund, famous blacksmith and wizard of Germanic heroic legends; like the Greek Hephaestus (Vulcan) WENDLAS
- vandals. It is possible that some Vandals lived in Vendel (Sweden) and Vendille (modern Vendsyssel) WEOHSTAN - Wiglaf's father; fought with Onela against the Gauts; participated in the Swedish civil war
, killed Eanmund and received his weapon from Onela as a gift WIGLAF
- relative of Beowulf; Prince of Skilfings; son of Veostan; stayed to help Beowulf in the battle with the dragon; receives from Beowulf treasures guarded by a dragon; arranges Beowulf's funeral WITHERGYLD
- warrior from the Heathobards tribe WONRED
- father of the Gautian warriors Eofor and Wulf WULF
- brother of Gaut Eofor and son of Vonred; fought against Ongentheow WULFGAR
- Prince of the Vandals (Wendlas); important assistant to Hrothgar WYLFINGAS
- a Germanic tribe that lived on the Pomeranian coast YRMENLAF
