Hygelac
Hygelac(Old English:Hygelāc;Old Norse:Hugleikr;Proto-Germanic:*Hugilaikaz;[1]Latin:Ch(l)ochilaicusorHugilaicus;[2]diedc.516 or 521) was a king of theGeatsaccording to the poemBeowulf.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.[3]Beowulfgives Hygelac's genealogy: according to the poem, he was the son ofHretheland had two brothersHerebealdandHæþcyn,as well as an unnamed sister who was married toEcgtheowand was the mother of the hero Beowulf. Hygelac was married to Hygd, and they had a sonHeardredand an unnamed daughter who marriedEofor.When Hygelac's brother Hæþcyn was fighting with theSwedes,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 kingOngentheowand his three sons. The Swedes found refuge at ahill fortbut 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 onFrisia(by a grandson ofClovis I), Hygelac was succeeded byHeardred,according toBeowulf.
The raid to Frisia enabledN. F. S. Grundtvig[4]to approximate the date of Hygelac's death to c. 516, because a raid to France under a KingChlochilaicus,king of the Danes, is mentioned byGregory of Tours.In that source he is recorded as invading theFrankish Kingdomsduring the reign ofTheodericus I(died 534), the son ofClovis ( "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 byTheodebertus,the son ofTheodericus.Gregory of Tours calls this kingChlochilaicusDanish.[5]He is called the king of Getae (rex Getarum) in theLiber Monstrorumand king of the Goths (rege Gotorum) inLiber 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 likeLongshanks(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 epicBeowulf,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 theepos.[7]It has also been suggested that the poem is dependent onLiber historiae Francorum(727), because it mentions theAttoarii,which inBeowulfbecomeHetware.One scholar considers it to be inconceivable that independent oral tradition would have faithfully transmitted such a detail.[8]Walter Goffartestimated thatBeowulfcould not have been written with these historical details before 923.[9]
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Sources and notes[edit]
- ^Peterson, Lena (2007)."Lexikon över urnordiska personnamn"(PDF).Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore.p. 39. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2007-09-27.(Lexicon of Nordic Personal Names Before the 8th Century); fromhyg"courage" and-lac.
- ^Haubrichs, Wolfgang (2000)."Ein Held für viele Zwecke. Dietrich von Bern und sein Widerpart in den Heldensagenzeugnissen des frühen Mittelalters".In Haubrichs, Wolfgang (ed.).Theodisca. Beiträge zur althochdeutschen und altniederdeutschen Sprache und Literatur in der Kultur des frühen Mittelalters. Eine internationale Fachtagung in Schönmühl bei Penzberg vom 13. bis zum 16. März 1997(in German). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 332.ISBN978-3-11-016316-2.
- ^Sam Newton (2004).The Origins of Beowulf and the Pre-Viking Kingdom of East Anglia.DS Brewer. p. 27.ISBN978-0-85991-472-7.
- ^Grundtvig produced the first translation ofBeowulfinto a modern language,Bjovulfs Drape(1820).
- ^Gregory of Tours,Decem Libri Historiarum III 3atThe Latin Library
- ^All three sources in Latin and in English translation;Hygelac is represented in theLiber Monstrorum,orBook of Monsters,because of his reputed large size, and it is there reported that no horse could carry him from the age of twelve.
- ^abThe Norton Anthology of English Literature (1986). W. W. Norton and Co., Ltd, 1986:19.ISBN0-393-95472-2.
- ^Weibull, C. H. J.(1974),Die Geaten des Beowulfepos,Kungl. Vetenskaps- och vitterhets-samhället, p. 24,ISBN9185252026
- ^Johnston Staver, Ruth (2005),"Placing Beowulf on a Timeline.",A Companion To Beowulf,Greenwood Publishing, pp.135,ISBN031333224X
Further reading[edit]
- Storms, Godfrid(1 September 1970). "The Significance of Hygelac's Raid".Nottingham Medieval Studies.XIV.University of Nottingham: 3–26.doi:10.1484/J.NMS.3.44.
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