Heoroweard
Encyclopedia
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
and also in Norse legends
Norse mythology
Norse mythology, a subset of Germanic mythology, is the overall term for the myths, legends and beliefs about supernatural beings of Norse pagans. It flourished prior to the Christianization of Scandinavia, during the Early Middle Ages, and passed into Nordic folklore, with some aspects surviving...
, where he is named Hjörvarðr or Hiartuar. If he existed in real life, his name would have been Proto-Norse *Heruwarduzhttp://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/lup/urnord.pdf.
In the Norse sources, Hereoweard rebelled against Hroðulf/Hrólf Kraki and killed him, but otherwise the sources vary greatly. This is an account of the differences:
In the paraphrase of Bjarkamál
Bjarkamál
Bjarkamál is an Old Norse poem from around the year 1000. Only a few lines have survived in the Icelandic version, the rest is known from Saxo's version in Latin...
in the Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum
Gesta Danorum is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th century author Saxo Grammaticus . It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark and is an essential source for the nation's early history...
of Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus
Saxo Grammaticus also known as Saxo cognomine Longus was a Danish historian, thought to have been a secular clerk or secretary to Absalon, Archbishop of Lund, foremost advisor to Valdemar I of Denmark. He is the author of the first full history of Denmark.- Life :The Jutland Chronicle gives...
, his army consisted of Swedes
Suiones
The Swedes e, "one's own [tribesmen/kinsmen]"; Old English: Sweonas; , Suehans or Sueones) were an ancient North Germanic tribe in Scandinavia...
in one line and of Geats in another line. This information does not appear in any other sources.
Several sources mention that he was married to Skuld
Skuld (princess)
Skuld was a princess of Scandinavian legend who married Heoroweard and encouraged him to kill Hroðulf . The accounts of her vary greatly from source to source.-Hrólfr Kraki's saga:...
, who according to Angrim's summary of the lost Skjöldunga saga
Skjöldunga saga
The Skjöldunga saga was a Norse saga on the legendary Danish dynasty of the Skjöldungs, the same dynasty featured in the Old English poem Beowulf...
was the daughter of Aðils the Swedish king (called Eadgils in Beowulf). However, according to the Chronicon Lethrense
Chronicon Lethrense
Chronicon Lethrense is a small Danish medieval work from the 12th century, written in Latin.-Themes:...
and Hrólf Kraki's saga
Hrolf Kraki's Saga
Hrolf Kraki's Saga is a fantasy novel by Poul Anderson. It was first published by Ballantine Books as the sixty-second volume of the celebrated Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in October, 1973, and has been reprinted a number of times since...
, she was the daughter of Helgi
Halga
Halga, Helgi, Helghe or Helgo was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century. His name would in his own language have been *Hailaga ....
(Halga), whereas Saxo is vague whether it was Adils or Helgi who was her father.
Hrólf Kraki's saga does not mention where he came from, but according to Arngrímur Jónsson
Arngrímur Jónsson
Arngrímur Jónsson the Learned was an Icelandic scholar and an apologist. His father was Jón Jónsson, who died in 1591...
, Heoroweard was the king of Öland
Öland
' is the second largest Swedish island and the smallest of the traditional provinces of Sweden. Öland has an area of 1,342 km² and is located in the Baltic Sea just off the coast of Småland. The island has 25,000 inhabitants, but during Swedish Midsummer it is visited by up to 500,000 people...
and according to Saxo, he became Hrólf's jarl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
in Sweden, whereas in the Chronicon Lethrense, he was German and the jarl of Skåne.
In Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
, he is the son of Heorogar
Heorogar
Heorogar was a Danish king who appears in the Old English poem Beowulf as the eldest son of Healfdene , and the brother of Hroðgar , and Halga...
, the elder brother of Halga
Halga
Halga, Helgi, Helghe or Helgo was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century. His name would in his own language have been *Hailaga ....
(Helgi) and Hroðgar
Hroðgar
Hroðgar, King Hroþgar, "Hrothgar", Hróarr, Hroar, Roar, Roas or Ro was a legendary Danish king, living in the early 6th century....
(Hróar). (Consequently, he had greater right to the Danish throne than Hrólf Kraki (Hroðulf), and it is not surprising that he was the one who slew Hrólf.) He is mentioned only once, at lines 2160-2161. Beowulf, in the act of giving to his lord Hygelac
Hygelac
Hygelac was a king of the Geats according to the poem Beowulf. He was the son of Hrethel and had brothers Herebeald and Hæthcyn. His sister was married to Ecgtheow and had the son Beowulf. Hygelac was married to Hygd and they had the son Heardred, and an unnamed daughter who married Eofor...
the armor of Heorogar (which Hrothgar had given to Beowulf as a reward), repeats what Hrothgar told him: "No sooner would Heorogar give it to his son, valiant Heoroweard, though he was true to him..."
He did not survive long after Hrólfs death. According to Arngrímur Jónsson's epitome of Skjöldunga saga
Skjöldunga saga
The Skjöldunga saga was a Norse saga on the legendary Danish dynasty of the Skjöldungs, the same dynasty featured in the Old English poem Beowulf...
, Hrólf Kraki's saga and the Chronicon Lethrense, he was killed shortly after. According to Hrólf Kraki's saga, he was killed during the battle, and according to the other sources, he became king but was killed the same day.
Succession
According to Arngrímur, Hereoweard was succeeded by Rörek (called Hreðric in Beowulf), the cousin of Hrólf's father, but he was attacked by ValdarValdar
Valdar was the name of one or several legendary Danish kings.-Hervarar saga:The Hervarar saga tells that Ivar Vidfamne made Valdar the viceroy of Denmark and gave him his daughter Alfhild. When Valdar died, his son Randver became the king of Denmark, while his son Harald Wartooth became the king of...
. They shared the kingdom so that Rörek kept Zealand, whereas Valdar took Skåne. This version does not fit Bjarkimal as it relates that Rörik had been killed by Hrólf.
According to Hrólf Kraki's saga, Skuld inherited the kingdom but was killed by the Geatish king Thorir Houndsfoot and by Yrsa
Yrsa
Yrsa, Yrse, Yrs or Urse was a tragic heroine of Scandinavian legend.She appears in several versions relating to her husband, the Swedish king Eadgils, and/or to her father and rapist/lover/husband Halga and their son Hroðulf...
's men. The kingdom then passed into the hands of Hrólf's daughters.
According to Saxo, it is Höðr
Höðr
Höðr is the brother of Baldr in Norse mythology. Guided by Loki he shot the mistletoe missile which was to slay the otherwise invulnerable Baldr....
, Aðils' brother who became the king of both Denmark and Sweden.
In the Chronicon Lethrense, it is Haki
Haki
Hake, Haki or Haco, the brother of Hagbard, was a famous Scandinavian sea-king, in Norse mythology. He is mentioned in the 12th century Gesta Danorum, and in 13th-century sources including Ynglinga saga, Nafnaþulur, Völsunga saga...
, son of Hamund, who became the king of Denmark, but the other sources who mention him place him centuries earlier.
Comments
The Danish scholar Axel OlrikAxel Olrik
Axel Olrik was a Danish folklorist, and a pioneer in the methodical study of oral narrative.His Principles for Oral Narrative Research, recently translated by K. Wolf and J. Jensen, Bloomington, Ind., 1992, was first published in 1921, after Olrik's early death...
(1903) has proposed a solution to why the sources vary. According to Beowulf, Adils gains the Swedish throne aided by the Geats. In Heoroweard's case, he is a pretender who gains the Danish throne aided by the Swedes. This is why Heoroweard is easily made jarl of Swedes, as in Saxo's patriotic tradition Swedish rulers are frequently appointed and dethroned. In order to make this possible, Saxo, or his tradition, had to make Adils defeated by the Danes and losing his kingdom. In Arngrímur's Icelandic tradition, which had a more clear conception of the Swedish line of kings, Heoroweard could not be made ruler of Sweden, and so he was named as the ruler of a kingdom on the fringe of Sweden, Öland, a kingdom which was known to be independent, but whose line of kings was no longer known.
In Arngrímur and the Chronicon Lethrense, Heoroweard is the son-in-law of Adils, married to his daughter Skuld, whereas Hrólf Kraki's saga makes him the son-in-law of Helgi (according to Olrik, he could not be married to his own cousin). The account shows that Heoroweard had close connection with Adils and Olrik suggests that the real reason behind Hrólfs voyage to Uppsala
Gamla Uppsala
Gamla Uppsala is a parish and a village outside Uppsala in Sweden. It had 16,231 inhabitants in 1991.As early as the 3rd century AD and the 4th century AD and onwards, it was an important religious, economic and political centre...
was Adils' support of Heoroweard.
However, according to Snorri, Hrólf died during the Swedish king Östen
Östen
Eysteinn was the son of Eadgils and Yrsa of Saxony. He was the father of Ingvar. The Eysteinn tumulus in Västerås near Östanbro has been linked to King Eysteinn by some popular historians...
's reign. If both Snorri and Olrik are right, the Swedish king who supported Hereoweard when attacking and killing Hrólf may not have been Adils, but Östen
Östen
Eysteinn was the son of Eadgils and Yrsa of Saxony. He was the father of Ingvar. The Eysteinn tumulus in Västerås near Östanbro has been linked to King Eysteinn by some popular historians...
.
See also Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki
Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki
Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki are two well-known characters in the myths and sagas of ancient England and Scandinavia respectively.Both are supposed to have lived sometime around 450–550 AD, and much has been discussed over the years regarding their origins....
for more on the historical background of these characters.