Hygelac
Hygelac (
The raid to Frisia enabled
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]
See also
Sources and notes
- -lac.
- ISBN 978-3-11-016316-2.
- ISBN 978-0-85991-472-7.
- ^ Grundtvig produced the first translation of Beowulf into a modern language, Bjovulfs Drape (1820).
- ^ Gregory of Tours, Decem Libri Historiarum III 3 at The Latin Library
- ^ 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.
- ^ ISBN 0-393-95472-2.
- ISBN 9185252026
- ISBN 031333224X
Further reading
- .