Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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" (the ruling clan), 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 ...
King Hrothgar describes Æschere as 'min runwita ond min rædbora', [3] which implies that he knows mysteries or enigmas and also has a duty to explain those mysteries aloud to a community. But by killing and decapitating Æschere, Grendel's mother highlights an anxiety within the poem about things that defy human interpretation. [ 4 ]
Beowulf answers the challenge by boasting that he is the strongest swimmer in the world, and entertains the company with a tale about how, in that contest, he swam the North Sea in full armor while carrying a sword, killed nine huge sea-monsters who dragged him to the ocean floor, and was carried by the currents to the shore of the land of the ...
The name Wealhtheow is unique to Beowulf.Like most Old English names, the name Wealhtheow is transparently recognisable as a compound of two nouns drawn from everyday vocabulary, in this case wealh (which in early Old English meant "Roman, Celtic-speaker" but whose meaning changed during the Old English period to mean "Briton", then "enslaved Briton", and then "slave") and þēow (whose ...
He may be a composite character, a chimera of several historical kings and Vikings. Sigurd Snake-in-the-Eye (da: Sigurd Orm-i-øje or Snogeøje). Mentioned by late Chronicon Roskildense and Ragnarssona þáttr. Said to be king of Zealand and Scania, and son of Ragnar Lodbrok. He may be inspired by late 9th century King Sigfred (above).
Beowulf is an epic poem in Old English, telling the story of its eponymous pagan hero.He becomes King of the Geats after ridding Heorot, the hall of the Danish king Hrothgar, of the monster Grendel, [a] who was ravaging the land; he dies saving his people from a dragon.
Wealtheow – queen of the Danes and wife to Hrothgar. Hrothulf – Hrothgar's orphaned nephew. Freawaru – Hrothgar's teenage daughter. Hygmod – King of the Helmings and Wealtheow's brother. The dragon – an ancient, omniscient beast guarding a vast hoard of treasure to whom Grendel goes for advice. It possibly is a figment of Grendel's ...
In addition, Beowulf's defeat of Grendel prompts the Danish king Hrothgar to bestow upon him many gifts consisting of weapons; this further emphasizes the importance of weaponry to such a society. Beowulf then passes on his rewards to his king Hygelac , thereby establishing his obligation to his king. [ 5 ]