Legendary ancestors of Cerdic of Wessex
Encyclopedia
The ancestry
of the Kings of Wessex has long attracted historians' interest because the monarchs of England
trace their lineage from them. Yet scholarly analysis suggests the early part of it is largely an invention of the 8th and 9th centuries.
, preserved royal genealogies. Bede
, in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
, completed in 731, includes pedigrees for the kings of Kent and of the East Angles, tracing the former back to the 5th century warlord Hengist and both back to the Germanic god Woden
. An Anglian collection
of royal genealogies also survives, the earliest version (sometimes called Vespasian or simply V) containing a list of bishops that ends in the year 812. This collection provides pedigrees for Deira
, Bernicia
, Mercia
, Lindsey
and, again, Kent and East Anglia, once more tracing all from Woden, now made the son of an otherwise unknown Frealaf.
The same pedigrees, in both text and tablular form, are included in some copies of the Historia Brittonum, an older body of tradition compiled or significantly retouched by Nennius
in the early 9th century. These apparently share a common late-8th century source with the Anglian collection. Two other manuscripts from the 10th century (called CCCC and Tiberius, or simply C and T) also preserve the Anglian collection but include an addition: a pedigree for King Ine
of Wessex that traces his ancestry from Cerdic, the semi-legendary founder of the Wessex state, and hence from Woden. This addition probably reflects the growing influence of Wessex under Ecgbert
, whose family claimed descent from a brother of Ine. Pedigrees are also preserved in several regnal lists dating from the reign of Æthelwulf and later but seemingly based on a late-8th or early 9th century source or sources. Finally, later interpolations (which were added by 892) to both Asser
's Vita Ælfredi regis Angul Saxonum and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
preserve Wessex pedigrees extended beyond Cerdic and Woden to Adam
.
Further, when comparing the Chronicles' pedigrees of Cerdic and of Ida of Bernicia
several anomalies are evident. The two share their earliest generations but the two peoples had no tradition of common origin. One might expect Cerdic to be given descent from a different son of Woden, if not from a different god entirely such as the Saxon patron, Seaxnēat
, who heads the pedigree of the Essex kings
. Furthermore, while the chronicle places Ida's reign after Cerdic's death, the pedigrees do not reflect this difference in age.
The name Cerdic, moreover, may actually be an Anglicized form of the Brythonic name Ceredic and several of his successors also have names of possible Brythonic origin, indicating that the Wessex founders may not have been Germanic at all, again suggesting that the pedigree may not be authentic.
and Wig
, into the existing pedigree, creating a second alliterative pair (after Brand/Bældæg, Giwis/Wig, where the stress of "Giwis" is on the second sylable) and inviting further alliteration, the addition of Esla to complete an Elesa/Esla pair, and of Friðgar to make a Freawine/Friðgar alliteration. Of these alliterative names (in a culture whose poetry depended upon alliteration rather than rhyme) only Esla is perhaps known elsewhere: British historians working before Sisam suggested that his name is that of Ansila, a legendary Goth ancestor or that he is Osla 'Bigknife' of Arthurian legend
, an equivalency still followed by some Arthurian writers, although Osla is elsewhere identified with Octa of Kent
Elesa has also been linked to the Romano-Briton Elasius, the "chief of the region" met by Germanus of Auxerre
.
Having concluded that the shorter form of the royal genealogy was the original, Sisam compared the names found in different versions of the Wessex and Northumbrian royal pedigrees, revealing a similarity between the Bernician pedigree found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and those given for Cerdic: rather than diverging several generations earlier they are seen to correspond until the generation immediately before Cerdic, with the exception of one substitution. "Giwis", seemingly a supposed eponymous ancestor of the Gewisse (a name given to the early West Saxons) appears instead of a similarly eponym
ous ancestor of the Bernicians, Benoc in the Chronicle and (slightly rearranged in order) Beornic or Beornuc in other versions. This suggests that the Bernician pedigree was co-opted in a truncated form by Wessex historians, replacing one "founding father" with another.
Sisam concluded that at one time the Wessex royal pedigree went no earlier than Cerdic and that it was subsequently elaborated by borrowing the Bernician royal pedigree that went back to Woden, introducing the heroes Freawine and Wig and inserting additional names to provide alliterative couplets.
and perhaps once a god. The earliest manuscript that extends prior to Woden, the Vespasian version of the Anglian collection, adds one earlier name for most of the pedigrees, an otherwise unknown Frealeaf, but in the case of the genealogy of the kings of Lindsey makes Frealeaf son of Friothulf, son of Finn, son of Godulf, son of Geat. This appears to be a more recent addition, added after the Historia Brittonum tabular genealogies were derived from the Anglian collection's precursor, and subsequently added to other lineages. In the prose pedigree of Hengist in the Historia Brittonum Godulf, father of Finn was replaced by a variant of Folcwald the father of legendary Frisia
n hero Finn
. Later versions do not follow this change: some add an additional name, making Friothwald the father of Woden, while others omit Friothulf. None of the individuals between Woden and Geat, except possibly Finn, is known elsewhere. Sisam concludes; "Few will dissent from the general opinion that the ancestors of Woden were a fanciful development of Christian times."
Several sources extend the pedigree prior to Geat. These fall into three classes, the shortest being found in the Latin
translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle prepared by Æthelweard, himself a descendant of the royal family. His version makes Geat the son of Tetuua, son of Beo, son of Scyld, son of Scef. The last three generations also appear in Beowulf
in the pedigree of Hroðgar
. The surviving manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle make Scyld a distant descendant of Sceaf instead. Asser gives a similar pedigree with some different name forms and one version of the Chronicle has an obvious error removing the early part of the pedigree, but all these clearly represent a second pedigree tradition. William of Malmesbury
presented a third variant, having Scef as both father of Scyld and, in modified form, as founder of the longer line given in the Chronicle. The Chronicle version appears to have additional names interpolated into the older tradition reported by Æthelweard, one of them, Heremod
, reflecting the legendary ruler of the Danish Scylding
s. The Malmesbury version was, then, an attempt to harmonize Æthelweard's pedigree with the longer one of the Chronicle.
The earliest names in the supposed pedigree were probably the last to be added, the Biblical genealogy placing Noah
as father of Scef and tracing back to Adam, an extension not followed by Æthelweard who apparently used a copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle containing that extension but also had family material independent of the Chronicle. In this way, by repeated steps of extension, interpolation and modification, the accepted pedigree of the kings of Wessex was extended from the earliest known ancestor, Cerdic, by as many as 34 fantastical generations.
Family tree
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms.-Family tree representations:...
of the Kings of Wessex has long attracted historians' interest because the monarchs of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
trace their lineage from them. Yet scholarly analysis suggests the early part of it is largely an invention of the 8th and 9th centuries.
Anglo-Saxon genealogies
The Anglo-Saxons, uniquely among the early Germanic peoplesGermanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
, preserved royal genealogies. Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
, in his Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
, completed in 731, includes pedigrees for the kings of Kent and of the East Angles, tracing the former back to the 5th century warlord Hengist and both back to the Germanic god Woden
Woden
Woden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse counterpart Odin, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz....
. An Anglian collection
Anglian collection
The Anglian collection is a collection of Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies and regnal lists. These survive in four manuscripts; two of which now reside in the British Library...
of royal genealogies also survives, the earliest version (sometimes called Vespasian or simply V) containing a list of bishops that ends in the year 812. This collection provides pedigrees for Deira
Deira
Deira was a kingdom in Northern England during the 6th century AD. Itextended from the Humber to the Tees, and from the sea to the western edge of the Vale of York...
, Bernicia
Bernicia
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
, Mercia
Mercia
Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...
, Lindsey
Kingdom of Lindsey
Lindsey or Linnuis is the name of a petty Anglo-Saxon kingdom, absorbed into Northumbria in the 7th century.It lay between the Humber and the Wash, forming its inland boundaries from the course of the Witham and Trent rivers , and the Foss Dyke between...
and, again, Kent and East Anglia, once more tracing all from Woden, now made the son of an otherwise unknown Frealaf.
The same pedigrees, in both text and tablular form, are included in some copies of the Historia Brittonum, an older body of tradition compiled or significantly retouched by Nennius
Nennius
Nennius was a Welsh monk of the 9th century.He has traditionally been attributed with the authorship of the Historia Brittonum, based on the prologue affixed to that work, This attribution is widely considered a secondary tradition....
in the early 9th century. These apparently share a common late-8th century source with the Anglian collection. Two other manuscripts from the 10th century (called CCCC and Tiberius, or simply C and T) also preserve the Anglian collection but include an addition: a pedigree for King Ine
Ine of Wessex
Ine was King of Wessex from 688 to 726. He was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla, who had brought much of southern England under his control and expanded West Saxon territory substantially...
of Wessex that traces his ancestry from Cerdic, the semi-legendary founder of the Wessex state, and hence from Woden. This addition probably reflects the growing influence of Wessex under Ecgbert
Egbert of Wessex
Egbert was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent...
, whose family claimed descent from a brother of Ine. Pedigrees are also preserved in several regnal lists dating from the reign of Æthelwulf and later but seemingly based on a late-8th or early 9th century source or sources. Finally, later interpolations (which were added by 892) to both Asser
Asser
Asser was a Welsh monk from St David's, Dyfed, who became Bishop of Sherborne in the 890s. About 885 he was asked by Alfred the Great to leave St David's and join the circle of learned men whom Alfred was recruiting for his court...
's Vita Ælfredi regis Angul Saxonum and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...
preserve Wessex pedigrees extended beyond Cerdic and Woden to Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
.
Critical analysis
Scholars have long noted discrepancies in the Wessex pedigree tradition. The pedigree as it appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is at odds with the earlier Anglian collection in that it contains four additional generations and consists of doublets which when expressed with patronymics would have resulted in the uniform triple alliteration that is common in Anglo-Saxon poetry but that would have been difficult for a family to maintain over a number of generations and is unlike known Anglo-Saxon naming practices.| Anglo Saxon Chronicle | Anglian Collection C&T |
| Woden | Woden |
| Bældæg | Bældæg |
| Brond | Brand |
| Friðgar | |
| Freawine | |
| Wig | |
| Giwis | Giwis |
| Esla | |
| Elesa | Aluca |
| Cerdic | Cerdic |
Further, when comparing the Chronicles' pedigrees of Cerdic and of Ida of Bernicia
Ida of Bernicia
Ida is the first known king of the Anglian kingdom of Bernicia, which he ruled from around 547 until his death in 559. Little is known of his life or reign, but he was regarded as the founder of a line from which later Anglo-Saxon kings in this part of northern England and southern Scotland...
several anomalies are evident. The two share their earliest generations but the two peoples had no tradition of common origin. One might expect Cerdic to be given descent from a different son of Woden, if not from a different god entirely such as the Saxon patron, Seaxnēat
Seaxneat
In Germanic mythology, Seaxnēat or Saxnōt is a god connected with the Saxons and, as recorded in Anglo-Saxons sources, their founder and ancestor. Seaxnēat appears in the genealogies of the kings of Essex. His name does not survive in any English placenames, although the element nēat in isolation...
, who heads the pedigree of the Essex kings
Kingdom of Essex
The Kingdom of Essex or Kingdom of the East Saxons was one of the seven traditional kingdoms of the so-called Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was founded in the 6th century and covered the territory later occupied by the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Kent. Kings of Essex were...
. Furthermore, while the chronicle places Ida's reign after Cerdic's death, the pedigrees do not reflect this difference in age.
| Cerdic | Ida |
| Woden | |
| Bældæg | |
| Brond/Brand | |
| Friðgar | Benoc |
| Freawine | Aloc |
| Wig | Angenwit |
| Giwis | Ingui |
| Esla | Esa |
| Elesa | Eoppa |
| Cerdic | Ida |
The name Cerdic, moreover, may actually be an Anglicized form of the Brythonic name Ceredic and several of his successors also have names of possible Brythonic origin, indicating that the Wessex founders may not have been Germanic at all, again suggesting that the pedigree may not be authentic.
Sisam hypothesis
The Wessex royal pedigree continued to puzzle historians until, in 1953, Anglo-Saxon scholar Kenneth Sisam presented an analysis that has since been almost universally accepted by historians. He noted similarities between the earlier versions of the Wessex pedigree and that of Ida. Those appearing in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and in the published transcript of Asser (the original having been lost in an 18th century fire) are in agreement but several earlier manuscript transcripts of Asser' work give, instead, the shorter pedigree of the later Anglian collection manuscripts, probably representing the original text of Asser and the earliest form of the Cerdic pedigree. Sisam speculated that the additional names arose through the insertion of a pair of Saxon heroes, FreawineFreawine
Freawine, Frowin or Frowinus figures as a governor of Schleswig in Gesta Danorum and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as an ancestor of the kings of Wessex, but the latter source only tells that he was the son of Frithugar and the father of Wig....
and Wig
Ket and Wig
Ket and Wig appear in the Gesta Danorum as the sons of Frowin, the governor of Schleswig. Wig also appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as the son of Freawine and father of Gewis, eponymous ancestor of the kingdom of Wessex and their kings, but this is thought to be a late manipulation, inserting...
, into the existing pedigree, creating a second alliterative pair (after Brand/Bældæg, Giwis/Wig, where the stress of "Giwis" is on the second sylable) and inviting further alliteration, the addition of Esla to complete an Elesa/Esla pair, and of Friðgar to make a Freawine/Friðgar alliteration. Of these alliterative names (in a culture whose poetry depended upon alliteration rather than rhyme) only Esla is perhaps known elsewhere: British historians working before Sisam suggested that his name is that of Ansila, a legendary Goth ancestor or that he is Osla 'Bigknife' of Arthurian legend
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
, an equivalency still followed by some Arthurian writers, although Osla is elsewhere identified with Octa of Kent
Octa of Kent
Octa was an Anglo-Saxon King of Kent during the 6th century. Sources disagree on his relationship to the other kings in his line; he may have been the son of Hengist or Oisc, and may have been the father of Oisc or Eormenric. The dates of his reign are unclear, but he may have ruled from 512 to...
Elesa has also been linked to the Romano-Briton Elasius, the "chief of the region" met by Germanus of Auxerre
Germanus of Auxerre
Germanus of Auxerre was a bishop of Auxerre in Gaul. He is a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, commemorated on July 31. He visited Britain in around 429 and the records of this visit provide valuable information on the state of post-Roman British society...
.
| Asser (original) |
Sisam hypothetical intermediate |
Anglo Saxon Chronicle |
| UUoden | Woden | Woden |
| Belde(g) | Bældæg | Bældæg |
| Brond | Brond | Brond |
| Friðgar | ||
| Freawine | Freawine | |
| Wig | Wig | |
| Geuuis | Giwis | Giwis |
| Esla | ||
| Elesa | Elesa | Elesa |
| Cerdic | Cerdic | Cerdic |
Having concluded that the shorter form of the royal genealogy was the original, Sisam compared the names found in different versions of the Wessex and Northumbrian royal pedigrees, revealing a similarity between the Bernician pedigree found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and those given for Cerdic: rather than diverging several generations earlier they are seen to correspond until the generation immediately before Cerdic, with the exception of one substitution. "Giwis", seemingly a supposed eponymous ancestor of the Gewisse (a name given to the early West Saxons) appears instead of a similarly eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
ous ancestor of the Bernicians, Benoc in the Chronicle and (slightly rearranged in order) Beornic or Beornuc in other versions. This suggests that the Bernician pedigree was co-opted in a truncated form by Wessex historians, replacing one "founding father" with another.
| Ida of Bernicia | Cerdic of Wessex | ||||
| Anglian Collection V | Historia Brittonum | Anglo Saxon Chronicle | Anglian Collection C&T | Asser (original text) | Anglo Saxon Chronicle (without additions) |
| Uoden | Woden | Woden | Woden | UUoden | Woden |
| Beldæg | Beldeg | Bældæg | Bældæg | Belde(g) | Bældæg |
| Beornic | Beornuc | Brand | Brand | Brond | Brond |
| Wegbrand | Gechbrond | ||||
| Ingibrand | Benoc | Giwis | Geuuis | Giwis | |
| Alusa | Aluson | Aloc | Aluca | Elesa | Elesa |
| Angengeot | Inguec | Angenwit | Cerdic | Cerdic | Cerdic |
| : : |
: : |
: : |
|||
| Ida | Ida | Ida |
Sisam concluded that at one time the Wessex royal pedigree went no earlier than Cerdic and that it was subsequently elaborated by borrowing the Bernician royal pedigree that went back to Woden, introducing the heroes Freawine and Wig and inserting additional names to provide alliterative couplets.
Royal pedigree prior to Woden
The next step in the creation of the full pedigree would seem to have been its extension to another legendary Scandinavian, Geat, apparently the eponymous ancestor of the Geats and GothsGoths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
and perhaps once a god. The earliest manuscript that extends prior to Woden, the Vespasian version of the Anglian collection, adds one earlier name for most of the pedigrees, an otherwise unknown Frealeaf, but in the case of the genealogy of the kings of Lindsey makes Frealeaf son of Friothulf, son of Finn, son of Godulf, son of Geat. This appears to be a more recent addition, added after the Historia Brittonum tabular genealogies were derived from the Anglian collection's precursor, and subsequently added to other lineages. In the prose pedigree of Hengist in the Historia Brittonum Godulf, father of Finn was replaced by a variant of Folcwald the father of legendary Frisia
Frisia
Frisia is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. the German Bight. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language...
n hero Finn
Finn (Frisian)
Finn, son of Folcwald, was a legendary Frisian lord. He is mentioned in Widsith, in Beowulf, and in the Finnsburg Fragment. There is also a Finn mentioned in Historia Brittonum....
. Later versions do not follow this change: some add an additional name, making Friothwald the father of Woden, while others omit Friothulf. None of the individuals between Woden and Geat, except possibly Finn, is known elsewhere. Sisam concludes; "Few will dissent from the general opinion that the ancestors of Woden were a fanciful development of Christian times."
| Bede | Anglian Collection V all but Lindsey |
Anglian Collection V Lindsey |
Historia Brittonum Hengist Pedigree |
Anglo Saxon Chronicle Abington 547 annal |
Anglo Saxon Chronicle Otho B 547 annal |
Anglo Saxon Chronicle Parker 855 annal, Asser, Æthelweard |
Anglo Saxon Chronicle Abington & others 855 annal Anglian Collection T |
| Geat | Guta | Geat | Geat | Geat | Geat | ||
| Godwulf | Folcpald | Godwulf | Godwulf | Godwulf | Godwulf | ||
| Finn | Fran | Finn | Finn | Finn | Finn | ||
| Frioþulf | Freudulf | Friþulf | Friþuwulf | Friþuwulf | |||
| Frealeaf | Frealeaf | Frelaf | Freoþelaf | Frealeaf | Frealeaf | ||
| Friþuwald | |||||||
| Woden | Woden | Woden | Uuoden | Woden | Woden | Woden | Woden |
Several sources extend the pedigree prior to Geat. These fall into three classes, the shortest being found in the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle prepared by Æthelweard, himself a descendant of the royal family. His version makes Geat the son of Tetuua, son of Beo, son of Scyld, son of Scef. The last three generations also appear 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...
in the pedigree of Hroðgar
Hroðgar
Hroðgar, King Hroþgar, "Hrothgar", Hróarr, Hroar, Roar, Roas or Ro was a legendary Danish king, living in the early 6th century....
. The surviving manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle make Scyld a distant descendant of Sceaf instead. Asser gives a similar pedigree with some different name forms and one version of the Chronicle has an obvious error removing the early part of the pedigree, but all these clearly represent a second pedigree tradition. William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
presented a third variant, having Scef as both father of Scyld and, in modified form, as founder of the longer line given in the Chronicle. The Chronicle version appears to have additional names interpolated into the older tradition reported by Æthelweard, one of them, Heremod
Heremod
Heremod is a legendary Danish king and a legendary king of the Angles who would have lived in the 2nd century and known through a short account of his exile in the Old English poem Beowulf and from appearances in some genealogies as the father of Scyld...
, reflecting the legendary ruler of the Danish Scylding
Scylding
Old English Scylding and Old Norse Skjöldung , meaning in both languages "People of Scyld/Skjöld" refers to members of a legendary royal family of Danes and sometimes to their people. The name is explained in many text by the descent of this family from an eponymous king Scyld/Skjöld...
s. The Malmesbury version was, then, an attempt to harmonize Æthelweard's pedigree with the longer one of the Chronicle.
| Beowulf | Æthelweard | Chronicle | William of Malmesbury |
| Scēf | Scef | Sceaf | Strephius |
| Bedwig | Bedwegius | ||
| Hwala | Gwala | ||
| Haðra | Hadra | ||
| Itermon | Stermonius | ||
| Heremod | Heremodius | ||
| Sceaf | |||
| Scyld | Scyld | Scyldwa | Sceldius |
| Bēowulf | Beo | Beaw | Beowius |
| Healfdene | Tetuua | Tætwa | Tetius |
| Hrōðgār | Geat | Geat(a) | Getius |
The earliest names in the supposed pedigree were probably the last to be added, the Biblical genealogy placing Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
as father of Scef and tracing back to Adam, an extension not followed by Æthelweard who apparently used a copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle containing that extension but also had family material independent of the Chronicle. In this way, by repeated steps of extension, interpolation and modification, the accepted pedigree of the kings of Wessex was extended from the earliest known ancestor, Cerdic, by as many as 34 fantastical generations.
Sources
- Kenneth Sisam, "Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies", Proceedings of the British Academy, 39 (1953), pp. 287–348
- Alexander Callander Murray, "Beowulf, the danish invasion, and royal genealogy", The Dating of Beowulf, Colin Chase, ed. University of Toronto Center for Medieval Studies, 1997, pp. 101–111.
- David Dumville, "Kingship, Genealogies and Regnal Lists", Early Medieval Kingship, in P.W. Sawyer and Ian N. Wood, eds., Leeds University, 1997, pp. 72–104
- R. W. Chambers, Beowulf, an Introduction, Cambridge: University Press, 1921
- Richard North, Heathen Gods in Old English Literature, Cambridge: University Press, 1997
- The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- Public domain copy.