The Woman who Killed Beowulf?

追加: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]The three human women who feature most prominently in Beaowolf occupy a similar role in each of their respective worlds.

[00:00:07]Often described as the Frooue Webbe, the peace weaver. That is, most scholars today generally understand the role of these women to be stopping wars, settling feuds, and keeping court politics in check. For Hildaborg, the objective is to sustain the alliance between Denmark and Frieia. For Fryawaru, the objective is to settle the blood feud between Denmark and the Halibards. For Wo, the objective is to protect the status quo in the court and safeguard the succession of her sons.

[00:00:37]From this, we get the impression that women in this collection of Germanic legends are the keepers of the peace, working tirelessly to prevent bloodshed and end wars. This has led to discussions pointing out that the non-human female character, Grenle's mother, is by contrast very vengeful and violent. But are all of these human women as virtuous and peaceful as they seem? Recent scholarship suggests quite plausibly that our most prominent female figure, the Queen W though, might actually be the assassin of the aonomous hero himself, Beolf. I was shocked when I heard that this was even on the table.

[00:01:11]But after hearing the argument, I was tentatively convinced, and I think that you will be too. In today's video, we're going to cover Wo as a character, what scholarship has generally considered to be true about her motivations and the role of the Danish queens in Beaolf, and the new allegations recently leveled against her of Beowolf's murder. Stay tuned.

[00:01:45]Number one, Wo's name. The tides of scholarly opinion have shifted all over the place when it comes to Wo. She is seen by some academics as an example of a strong female figure in Germanic mythology and others as a sort of antithesis to Gindle's mother, a weak, docel, and survile character who doesn't start any trouble. This latter opinion is thankfully now quite outdated, but it was strong in the 20th century and had its roots in a still prevalent misconception about her name. That is, you might have heard that the name Wo means foreign slave. After all, the word w means Welshman and also Britain and also Roman. And from there, it gets the sense of both foreigner and also slave from the unfortunate position that many Britons had under Anglo-Saxon rule. The word theo means someone in a serving position equivalent to modern English servant. Scholars used to assume that these were the words making up her name.

[00:02:38]And because of all these connotations, the assumption was generally that maybe Hodgar had taken her in war or maybe she was some sort of yeel. That is like a political hostage. There isn't a great word for yeel in modern English, but a popular example many people might know is that in Game of Thrones, Theon is a yeel at the court of Winterfell. That is somewhere in between hostage and adoptee. If this were true about Wal though, and her name did mean foreign slave, that would be a pretty damning indictment on her constitution as ostensibly a woman of power. But there are two problems with this. One, it's really important that we remember that the human characters in Germanic legends are not named for their character or their role in the story. The homicidal villain Heruard, who kills his cousin Holf and ends the shielding dynasty, has a name meaning sword guardian. The good wise king Rohgar, who gives sage counsel, but Hasba will fight all his battles for him, has a name meaning glory spear. His older brother's name means sword spear. His trusty palace guard is named wolf spear. His adviser, Unfurk, probably has a name meaning like bear cub spirit, even though he has nothing to do with bears. And Beaywolf, who has everything to do with bears, has a name meaning barley wolf. The reason why their names don't have any sort of special meaning to the story is that once upon a time, these people probably all actually existed and as they got mixed around into myth and legend, their names stuck. A perfect example of this is Theodoric, a famous character in many legends. He is a great king and his name means people ruler. So, if you just read the stories he was in, you might think, "Wow, the poet decided to name his great king people ruler. How creative." But he was a real person and that was actually his name. The reason he's named people ruler is because his parents decided to name him that. Now you can say his parents knew he was going to be king and that's why they called him people ruler.

[00:04:28]And that's a valid argument. But can you extend that logic to like wo her parents knew that she was going to be a foreign slave and so they named her such. On a linguistic and anamastic level though the name sticks out like a sore thumb.

[00:04:42]Foreign slave would be totally one of a kind among old English names. It makes so much more sense when we realize that the first element isn't w foreigner.

[00:04:51]It's an archaic word walla meaning chosen. Tolken's friend Eevee Gordon was actually the first person to propose this in 1935. But his arguments have been largely ignored up until recent decades. Now we have more scholarship to support his suggestions most notably in 2017 by Leonard Najdorf and we can be reasonably confident that he was right.

[00:05:11]So while Cleo doesn't mean foreign slave, it means chosen servant that is of some sort of god that is a very normal unassuming name that fits in with all the other normal unassuming meaningless names in Beayolf. Number two, Wo's motivations. Wo's name doesn't tell us anything about who she is, but luckily she is one of the most active characters in the poem. And not only does the poet tell us a lot about her, but she also hints at her own motivations in her speeches. This is an area that Tom Shippy has published very convincingly about specifically in his book Beaywolf and the North Before the Vikings. And using a few clues, we can get a very vivid image of Wo's mental landscape during the Danish storyline.

[00:05:53]She is from the Wolfings tribe, also known as the Helmings in southern Sweden, not far from where Beowolf is from. She has had two sons with Rothgar.

[00:06:01]The older one is named Rethri and the younger one. They are both boys at the time of the poem and neither are old enough to fight or rule or participate in politics in any meaningful way. She has a daughter with Rohitgar, their eldest child named Frau, who is of age and engaged to be married to the famous hero Inelald. We'll talk more about her later. We can't be totally sure, but we can gather from this that while herself is probably somewhere in between 35 and 40 years old. Her husband Rogar is probably around 75 years old. So, their age gap is pretty significant. As a result of her husband's old age, he is growing increasingly less effective as a ruler, notably helpless in the face of Grenle's oppression. He is coming to the end of his days and is on the way out.

[00:06:45]His nephew Rolof, the hero of Prof Saga Kraka, and one of the most important figures in Danish mythology, is orphaned effectively and is now staying at the court. He is much older than Walo's sons and has a pretty good claim to the throne. With her husband being old and helpless and her sons being young and helpless, she now finds herself caught in the middle responsible for holding the court together and making sure that her son Reich ascends to the throne once her husband Rothgar dies. No pressure, right? And not only do you have your violent nephew staying with you, who is of age and has a great claim to the throne, but when your husband fails to protect Hayat and has to enlist foreign help in order to defeat Grenle, he rewards Beaolf by adopting him as a son.

[00:07:30]While immediately jumps into damage control mode when she hears this and gives this speech to the court.

[00:07:40]for each world of flatest.

[00:08:12]This is a very careful political speech from W though, attempting to alleviate her concerns without raising any alarms.

[00:08:20]She warmly and tactfully reminds her husband that his obligation is to their sons, not to Beowolf, and when he dies, the kingdom has to pass to them. In the same breath, she reminds everyone that their nephew is obligated to let this process happen without quarrel and to fight loyally for their sons should anything happen. If we were to imagine this as a sort of modern dinner party, while Cleo's speech might go something like this. Progar, my wonderful husband, that was such a funny joke you made about adopting Beaolf as a son. By the way, on a completely unrelated note, please don't forget that you are about to die and leave the kingdom to our prepubescent sons. Also, when that happens, I sure hope Wolf remembers all the good things we did for him. Sadly, try though she may, we do know from other sources that Wo is ultimately unsuccessful aftergar dies. Proolf kills and takes the throne for himself. We're not really sure what happens to Wo after that. Maybe she's killed in the fighting or maybe she goes into exile and lives the rest of her days alone. I'll add here at the end that whether or not was actually killed by is debated. Mary Jane Osborne is a really wellrespected old English scholar who argues that actually escaped and outlived Roof. I personally think the assassination idea has more explanatory power, but I'll have links to both sides of the argument in the description if you'd like to read for yourself. Number three, the fate of the peace weaver. This motif of the queen trying and failing to prevent disaster is a common one in Germanic mythology.

[00:09:52]And all three of the Danish queens that we see in Beayolf experience this futile struggle. About a hundred years before the events of Beayolf, the Danish princess Hildaborg marries the Frigian king Finn and they have a son. On paper, this is a great diplomatic achievement and it forges an alliance between two strong regional powers. But there is a problem. As far as we can tell from reading in between the lines, the Danes have recently conquered their neighboring tribe, the Judes, and the Judes have split into factions as a result. One of these factions, led by Henist, better known for other work, has been assumed into the Danish court, and they now fight for their former conquerors. The other faction seems to have gone into exile and joined the Frigian court as mercenaries. Now one day the young king Naf of the Danes decides to pay a visit to his sister and nephew in the friian court and he brings his whole retinue with him. Once they get there in the middle of the night this band of heroes which includes Henjist and also maybe Sigfrieded from the Neolongan lead is attacked by the Judes who are staying with Finn. The battle is a complete disaster and both the Danish king Naf and his nephew Hildabore son and the heir to the throne in Friia are killed. Then, as if this weren't bad enough, Henjis takes revenge by massacring the entire Friian court, killing Finn, and taking Hildiborg back to Denmark. So, her brother HNF is dead.

[00:11:11]He had no wife and no children, and now the Danish throne is up in the air. Her husband Finn is dead, and their son is also dead, leaving the Fian throne up in the air. And now, with all her family dead, the Alliance and Tatters, and both kingdoms thrown into darkness and chaos, she gets to go home and live the rest of her days alone. She doesn't even get to hang out with Henist. He's going to leave in a couple years with his brother to conquer Kent. So, not so fun to be Hild Debor, but not much better to be Fraawaru Wo's daughter who has the enviable task of fixing the blood feud between the Danes and their rival tribe, the Halobart. That is, there is clearly a long-standing enmity between these two tribes. And at the time Beayolf visits the court in Denmark, we know that at least one battle has been fought in recent memory in which members of both courts were killed. In order to end the fighting or maybe even as part of a peace treaty, Krogar and Wo decide to send their eldest daughter to marry the king of the Halibars, the young hero Inel. And her new job in life becomes forging a new alliance with the bitter enemies of her people who she has probably been raised her whole life to think are a bunch of murderous villains.

[00:12:16]This plan works sometimes in history, but here it quite literally bursts into flames. On the day of the wedding, during the festivities, one of the young Halobar realizes that his dead father's sword is being carried around on the belt of one of the Danes and a violent fight erupts between the two tribes.

[00:12:34]Provgar and Wolf kill intel and the Halabar tribe is wiped out, but the whole Hera is burned to the ground. We don't know what happens to Fraawu, but we don't hear from her after this. If she doesn't die in the fighting, maybe she dies later on when her cousin Rodolf kills her brother and takes the throne.

[00:12:50]Or maybe she follows her mother wherever she goes. There is a theory that Herodgar's younger sonund goes to England and actually founds the dynasty of the East Angles. For all we know, the two failed Danish queens go with him. So not only have you lost most of your family, wealth, and power, now you have to live in Suffulk. Is this the legacy of women in Germanic legend, then? Are they all doomed to endless, futile efforts to prevent men from slaughtering each other and destroying the world?

[00:13:17]Well, maybe. But sometimes they also liked to play their own part in destroying the world. Let's talk about a murder case. Number four, Wo the assassin.

[00:13:27]When Wo gives her speeches in the hall after Grenle's defeat, she publicly thanks Beaolf and rewards him for his service by giving him an extremely decadent necklace. Gift giving like this was very important in Germanic heroic age politics, especially in a post Roman society where high-value artifacts with good craftsmanship were genuinely very rare and precious. Think about Gimley's reaction in the Fellowship of the Ring when he hears about Bilbo's Mithril coat. He calls it a kingly gift. That's the level of awe that the Beaywolf poet wants us to have when hearing of W Cleo's necklace. It's a big deal. And at face value, she is appropriately being very generous to the man who just saved her family from oppression and death.

[00:14:11]But let's look at the necklace after she gives it to Beaywolf. Beaywolf comes home and gives it to Hud, his aunt, and the wife of Hilo, his uncle, the king of the Yats. A couple years later, around 530 AD, Beaywolf and Hiloc lead the Yats on an expedition to Friia. And before leaving, Hed gives the necklace to Heliloc to wear in battle. This expedition to Frieia, one of the few events in Beaywolf that we know actually happened, is a complete disaster, and Huok is killed on the battlefield by a Frankish warrior named Dhra, who takes the necklace. Beowolf does his duty as a thing and avenges his slain lord. He wrestles with Draf and crushes him to death, reclaiming the necklace and swimming home with it. He keeps it for himself and is still wearing it when he is mortally wounded fighting the dragon.

[00:14:58]Right before his death, he gives it to his young relative, Welof. And Welof has it at the end of the poem as he contemplates his own doomed future in a kingless tribe, preparing for war against the much stronger and quite aggravated Swedes. We don't really know what happens next, but let's just say there's a reason the country is called Sweden and not Yetland. So this necklace meant to be given as a token of goodwill is present at Helok's death, present at Beaywolf's death, and present for the general fall of the Yats from the great power of central Sweden to utter disaster and the end of the royal dynasty. Most scholars until now, including myself, have considered the necklace to be an artistic device, as it becomes a sort of silent subject and witness to the story, similar to Excalibur in the King Arthur narratives or even Echelberg's eyes in the Great Gatsby. Recently, however, Dutch scholar Ty Pork has pointed out that this is Germanic legend we're talking about, and we know that the Beaolf poet is giving a Christian remaster of pagan material. If the necklace is the common theme in all these disasters, is it possible that the necklace is the problem? Could Wo have cursed the necklace and intentionally given it to Beayolf out of malice?

[00:16:11]Initially, this might seem like useless conjecture. Sure, cursed treasure is a very common theme in Germanic mythology, and Hrothgar did name Beaolf as his son, so he is technically a threat to the throne. But really, what motivation would wo have to sabotage the savior of the Danes? Well, that's actually the pesta resistance. She has all the motivation in the world. Let's recall one of the first things that we are told about WoW. She is a wolfing, a member of a Swedish tribe, also known as the Ulfing tribe in the Norse tradition. We hear a lot about the wolfings in the poem Beowolf, but not in any context that relates to Walo. When Beowolf arrives in Herodat, Hrothgar recalls that he actually knew his late father, Edgeo. Decades prior, Edge Theo actually came to Denmark and sought protection with Hoggar after killing a man named Havalof of the Wolfing tribe in what is described as a very violent feud. In exchange for promises of loyalty from Edge Theo, Prothgar managed to throw some of his wealth and political power around to negotiate a peace. But as his daughter knows well, Prothgar's peace treaties don't last very long. And one of the most consistent themes in Germanic mythology is that people are generally not very good at forgetting old grudges and getting over the desire for revenge. This applies to men and women alike. And the most famous example is that of the queen Klehild in the Nebulongan lead who avenges the death of her husband Zfrieded decades after his murder by inviting the Burgundians for a feast and then massacring them all leading to the death and destruction of basically everyone involved. Beolf's father who seems to have died by the time of the poem was a famous lord and hero and Beaywolf brags about it to the Danish coast guard when he arrives in Denmark. He says, "Every well-informed person around the world remembers who he was." If everyone around the world knows about Beayolf's father, and Beowolf's father is wellknown in the Danish court for having killed a high-profile member of the Wolfing tribe, what must have been going on in Wo's head when his son showed up at her house? Especially if we consider the timeline. This seems to have happened toward the beginning of Hoggar's rule. So Beaywolf might not have even been born yet and W was probably still too young to be married.

[00:18:27]That is she was at home. We don't know anything about this Haval character that Beaywolf's father supposedly killed. But given the fallout, he was probably very important. Was he Wo's uncle? Her brother, her father. Either way, as a member of the court, she would have known this man well. And Edge Theo and the tribe he was connected to were probably the chief villains of her childhood. The Beaolf poet doesn't tell us any of this, which shows us that he either knew it already or he didn't like it. If the necklace was originally cursed in an older version of the story, that is exactly the kind of thing that the Beowolf poet would omit as he is very clearly hostile to pagan supernatural things like elves and idols. He obviously takes pains to establish the good Christian values of his main characters and beolf, w they all make frequent reference to God. They are virtuous monotheists, albeit unbaptized. The poet would never allow his perfect queen to use a satanic talisman to murder the main character.

[00:19:27]But if that were her intent in an original version of the story, it would be hard to say that she failed at it. In giving the necklace, Wo ensured not only the death of Etcho's son, but also of his brother-in-law, Hilo. Etch Theo was technically a member of the Wimmunding tribe, which seems to have been split somehow between the Swedes and the Yats.

[00:19:46]When Beayolf takes the throne, there really ceases to be any difference between the Wundings and the Yats. But as Beayolf dies without an heir, both tribes die with him. So in killing Beayolf, Wo completely destroys Edge Theo's family and legacy, finally avenging her own tribe. These points and more are elucidated in Typork's article, which you'll find linked in the description. Like I said at the beginning of the video, I went into the article a skeptic because it's an exciting conclusion, and exciting conclusions can often blind us to logic.

[00:20:19]However, it does have some explanatory power. The necklace gets mentioned more than any other material object in Beaywolf, and this would explain why it has such a significant part in the narrative. The necklace also explains why the poet makes no mention of Wo's connection to Beaywolf's father, which the audience would definitely have known about. Moreover, connecting Wo to the tradition of vengeful woman that includes Klehild from the Neolongan lead and Ursa from the saga Kraka would make her a much more typical character in the body of Germanic legendary material that she belongs to. Granting that she once had her own storyline would also explain why W is so active and vocal in Beayolf as opposed to the other queens in the poem. What do you think? Is this excited conjecture or has pork discovered a connection that has been under our noses this whole time? Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thank you for watching the video. If you enjoy content like this, be sure to check out the rest of the channel. Kindly consider subscribing or becoming a supporter on Patreon. And until next time, is Sunday.