Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki: Encyclopedia II - Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki - Character alignments

Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki - Character alignments

There are several characters in Beowulf that match to a large extent characters known from other ancient northern tales and sagas.

• A common identification is that Hrólf Kraki is the same as the character Hroðulf (Hroðgar's nephew) in Beowulf. There seems to be some foreshadowing in Beowulf that Hroðulf will attempt to usurp the throne from Hroðgar's sons Hreðric and Hroðmund, a deed that also seems to be referred to in Saxo Grammaticus's Gesta Danorum (Book 2), where we find: "... our king, who laid low Rorik, the son of Bok the covetous, and wrapped the coward in death." Rorik is the form we would expect Hreðric to take in Danish and we find personages named Rorik or Hrok or similar in most version of the Hrólf Kraki tradition but differently accounted for, seemingly indicating that Scandinavian tradition had forgotten who exactly Hreðric/Rorik/Hrok was and various story tellers subsequently invented details to explain references to this personage in older poems. The future slaying of Hreðric may be the occasion of the future burning of the hall of Heorot in the beginning of the poem – though some take it instead to refer to the legendary death of Hrólf Kraki, who in Icelandic souces is said to have died in the burning of his hall by his brother-in-law Hjörvard.
• The standard view is that, if Beowulf himself has a 'cognate' character in Rolf Kraki's story, it is Bödvar Bjarki (Bodvar Biarke), who also has a younger companion, Hjalti (Hialte) – perhaps matching the Beowulf character Wiglaf.
• Beowulf comes from Geatland (= Götaland) and one of Bödvar Bjarki's elder brothers, Thorir, becomes a king of Götaland. Moreover, like Beowulf, Bödvar Bjarki arrives to Denmark from Götaland (Geatland), and upon arriving to Denmark he kills a beast that has been ravaging the Danish court for two years. The monster in Hrólf Kraki's saga, however, is quite unlike the Grendel of Beowulf; but it does have characteristics of a more typical dragon, a creature which appears later in Beowulf.
• Just as Beowulf and Wiglaf slay a dragon at the end of Beowulf, Bödvar Bjarki and Hjalti help each other slay the creature in Denmark.
• According to this theory, the name of Beowulf originates from:

  beo (bee) + wulf (wolf), i.e. Bee-Wolf, i.e. a kenning for Bear (the wolf/hunter of bees).

  So Bjarki can be interpreted as cognate to Beowulf. Bodvar Bjarki is constantly associated with bears, his father actually being one.
• As for the king of the Danes, Hroðgar, he is identical to Hróar or Ro, the uncle of Hrólf Kraki who in other sources outside of Beowulf rules as a co-king with his brother Helgi. But in those sources it is Hróar/Hroðgar who dies before his brother or who departs to Northumberland to rule his wife's kingdom leaving Helgi/Halga the sole rule of Denmark. In Beowulf Halga/Helgi has died and Hroðgar is the primary ruler with Hroðulf son of Halga as a junior co-ruler.
• Furthermore, the Swedish kings referenced in Beowulf are adequately matched with the 5th and 6th century Swedish kings in Uppsala (see also Swedish semi-legendary kings):

In some of the Hrólf Kraki material, Bödvar Bjarki aids Adils in defeating Adils' uncle Áli, in the Battle on the Ice. In Beowulf, the hero Beowulf aids Eadgils in Eagils' war against Onela. As far as this Swedish adventure is concerned, Beowulf and Bödvar Bjarki are one and the same. This match supports the hypothesis that the adventure with the dragon is also originally derived the same story.

It is thus likely that Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki's story are two versions of the same original Germanic heroic epic. Like the Volsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied, there are similar patterns and corresponding personalities in the tales. It is also possible that Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki's tale are based on historical events, as is the case with the Volsunga saga and Nibelungenlied.

However, even though Scandinavian sources often give contradictory information, some critics stress that Bödvar Bjarki and Beowulf have different genealogies. They also suggest that it may be a significant difference that Beowulf is not said in to change his skin or project his fetch (in the shape of a bear) as Bjarki did. They maintain that, in spite of a host of similarities between the traditions, some of the similarities could perhaps be dismissed as common literary traditions and devices. For instance, both accounts could be based on a type of legend called a Bear Son Tale. However, it is not at all clear in what way such an origin would be more likely than the one suggested by the alignment, since both are based on the assumption of common traditions.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Character alignments", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki