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 that it contains at least some points of historical fact. ''Beowulf'' gives Hygelac's genealogy: according to the poem, he was the son of Hrethel and had two brothers Herebeald and Hæþcyn, as well as an unnamed sister who was married to Ecgtheow and was the mother of the hero Beowulf. Hygelac was married to Hygd, and they had a son Heardred and an unnamed daughter who married Eofor. When Hygelac's brother Hæþcyn was fighting with the Swedes, Hygelac arrived at Hrefnesholt one day too late to save his brother Hæþcyn, but he managed to rescue the surviving Geatish warriors, who were besieged by the Swedish king Ongentheow and his three sons. The Swedes found refuge at a 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, Hygelac was succeeded by Heardred, according to ''Beowulf''.

Historical identification

The raid to Frisia enabled N. F. S. Grundtvig to approximate the date of Hygelac's death to c. 516, because a raid to France under a Danish King Chlochilaicus is mentioned by Gregory of Tours. In that source he is recorded as invading the Frankish Kingdoms during the reign of Theodericus I (died 534), the son of Clovis ("Chlodovechus"), the king of the Franks in the early sixth century, and was killed in the ensuing chaos after the Scandinavian raiders were caught by the sudden appearance of a military response force led by Theodericus I’s son, Theodebertus. After the defeat 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 corpse of Chlochilaicus so awe-inspiring due his extraordinary height, 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.

While Gregory calls him a king of the Danes, the much younger '' Liber historiae Francorum'' instead calls him a king of the Goths (''rege Gotorum''), agreeing with ''Beowulf''.

Transmission to England

There are two theories on how the account of the Frankish raid came to be preserved in the English epic ''Beowulf'', and they have a bearing upon the date assigned to the poem.

Oral transmission

One view considers the account to have been kept alive by the oral tradition of heroic poetry until it was included in the ''epos''.The Norton Anthology of English Literature (1986). W. W. Norton and Co., Ltd, 1986:19. . That Hygelac was known in England already in the early eighth century is seen by the '' Liber Monstrorum'' ("Book of Monsters"), where he is referred to as ''Higlacus'':

Leonard Neidorf argues that the authors of ''Beowulf'' and the ''Liber Monstrorum'' must have been relying on a shared oral legendary tradition ultimately stemming from Scandinavia, since they could not have reconstructed the etymologically accurate forms ''Higlac'' and ''Hygelac'' based on the garbled Frankish ''Chlochilaicus.''

Literary transmission

Other scholars have instead suggested that the episode shows that Beowulf was composed as late as the 10th century, the date of the sole surviving manuscript. It has been suggested that the poem is in fact dependent on the ''Liber historiae Francorum'', 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. German historian Walter Goffart estimated that ''Beowulf'' could not have been written with these historical details before 923.

See also

* Hugleik
* Chlochilaicus

Sources and notes

Further reading

*

{{Beowulf

Characters in Beowulf
English heroic legends
Legendary kings of the Geats
Early Germanic warriors
6th-century monarchs in Europe
6th-century Germanic people