Hroðgar Halfdansson the Skjolding (526 – 620) King of Denmark, Principal “Beowulf” Character

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date November 17, 2021
126 Comments on Hroðgar Halfdansson the Skjolding (526 – 620) King of Denmark, Principal “Beowulf” Character

Old Scandinavian Church reminiscent of Heorot, Hroðgar’s mead-hall

Tribes mentioned in Beowulf, showing Beowulf’s voyage to Heorot and the likely site of the poem’s composition in Rendlesham, Suffolk, settled by Angles.

Finds from Gamla Uppsala‘s western mound, left, excavated in 1874, support Beowulf and the sagas.

Hrothgar was lethal in battle,

His glory bound kinsmen to him,

Swelling the ranks of his warband.

Yet his mind dwelt on a prominence,

And he founded a great mead-hall,

That those here after would sing of,

Where he must deal out rings,

And protect the common wealth

And the lives of men.

And so the command flew

To the reaches of this middle-earth,

And to this house of men,

Rich adornment came.

Swiftly, by the hand of men,

It came to be build.

He, whose word is power,

Named it Heorot.

Nor did he break his word,

But dealt out rings,

And the treasure of his table.

This gabled and high towered hall,

Waited the flame and sword-hate,

Born of the malice that dwelt in the blood.

Beowulf Translation

As one of the principal characters of Beowulf, Hroðgar is immortalized in English literature. The epic poem ranks as the most important work of Middle-Age Anglo-Saxon literature.

Elfhere Scylding “Beowulf”, King of Geatland (526 – 620) was his Skjolding agnatic cousin.

Hroðgar was an agnatic descendant of Sigge “Odin” Fridulfsson of Asgard (50 BC – 30 AD) 1st King of Scandinavia. Odin and his tribe emerged, probably in exile, from Gobustan, Azerbaijan to conquer all of Scandanavia before or during the first century BC.

Beowulf is alive and well in contemporary media. Dozens of adaptations of the story have been created for movies, books, and television programs–even computer games.

Sigge “Odin” Fridulfsson of Asgard (50 BC – 30 AD) 1st King of Scandinavia was his agnatic forebear..

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

View Archive

126 replies on “Hroðgar Halfdansson the Skjolding (526 – 620) King of Denmark, Principal “Beowulf” Character”

[…] Hroðgar Halfdansson (526 – 620) King of Denmark 3GGF […]

Share this:

Related

By Steven Wood Collins

126 replies on “Hroðgar Halfdansson the Skjolding (526 – 620) King of Denmark, Principal “Beowulf” Character”

Leave a comment