Hygelac

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Anachronistic portrait depicting a battle between Franks and Danes in 515, from Jean Fouquet's illumination in the Grandes Chroniques de France, Tours, c 1455-60
Hettergouw at the lower Rhine, inhabited by the Attoarii or Hetware, who killed Hygelac, according to Beowulf, line 2916

Hygelac (

hill fort but were assaulted by the Geats. In the battle, the Swedish king was slain by Eofor. After the death of his brother Herebeald, Hygelac ascended the Geatish throne. After he was killed during a raid on Frisia (by a grandson of Clovis I), Hygelac was succeeded by Heardred
, according to Beowulf.

The raid to Frisia enabled

Liber historiae Francorum.[6] After cutting the Geatish danger, the rest of the survivors took to sea in such disordered haste that they left their dead on the field, including their king. The Franks must have taken back whatever had been taken in pillage as well as spoils of the battlefield; and it is reported by Gregory that they found the Scandinavian monarch (Hygelac)'s corpse so awe-inspiring due his extraordinary height—which is implied by his name[how?][citation needed], perhaps a sobriquet like Longshanks (Edward I
) and not his real one—that as a pagan barbarian not entitled to burial, his remains were exposed for a long time in the nearest Merovingian Court as a curiosity, following the usual triumphal trophy exhibition customary after battle or pirate captures.

There are two theories on how the account of Chlochilaicus' raid came to be preserved in the epic Beowulf, and they have a bearing upon the date assigned to the poem. It may date to the early 8th century, but some have suggested that it was composed as late as the 10th century, the date of the sole surviving manuscript.[7] One view considers the account to have kept alive by the oral tradition of heroic poetry until it was included in the epos.[7] It has also been suggested that the poem is dependent on Liber historiae Francorum (727), because it mentions the Attoarii, which in Beowulf become Hetware. One scholar considers it to be inconceivable that independent oral tradition would have faithfully transmitted such a detail.[8] Walter Goffart estimated that Beowulf could not have been written with these historical details before 923.[9]

Hrethlings
Swerting[i]
daughter
Hreðel
HerebealdHæþcynHygelacdaughterEcgþeow
HygdBeowulf
HeardreddaughterEofor

Notes

  1. ^ The relationship between Swerting and Hreðel is not clear from the poem. He may also have been his father, or his brother-in-law.

See also

Sources and notes

  1. -lac
    .
  2. .
  3. .
  4. ^ Grundtvig produced the first translation of Beowulf into a modern language, Bjovulfs Drape (1820).
  5. ^ Gregory of Tours, Decem Libri Historiarum III 3 at The Latin Library
  6. ^ All three sources in Latin and in English translation; Hygelac is represented in the Liber Monstrorum, or Book of Monsters, because of his reputed large size, and it is there reported that no horse could carry him from the age of twelve.
  7. ^ .

Further reading

Legendary titles
Preceded by
Hæthcyn
(legendary)

King of the Geats

Succeeded by