BEOWULF discussion with Philip Chase | Author's Shelf | Legendarium Podcast 417 

Even as someone who has not read Beaowulf I got so much out of this talk, both of you are a joy to listen to

This was such a delightful discussion! Thank you both.💛

Interesting discussion. Nice focus on the "side narratives" involved in the Beowulf story. Peace.

There is a theory tying Grendel to Ingeld, the enemy of the Scylding Kings Hrothgar and Hrolf: In Beowulf, Ingeld is the son of King Froda of the Heaðobard tribe warring with the Danes rule by the Scyling Dynasty. He becomes the Son in Law of King Hrothgar/Hroar, but the poet tells us (spoilers! 😆 I jest, just some dramatic irony from the poet) that this will not stop him from burning down Hrothgar’s Hall Heorot sometime in the future (In the Commentary, Tolkien compares the Doom of Heorot, with the Doom of Camelot in Arthurian Myth and mentions a theory that the origin of the conflict between the Heathobards and the Scyldings, was the control & royal legitimacy tied to a Temple dedicated to the Vanir Fertility Gods of the Norse: Njord and his children Frey and Freya). In Hrolf Kraki’s Saga, Froda is the son of Ingjald (reversed in the Skjoldung Saga and the Bjarkarimur), slays his brother Halfdan/Healfdene, but is in return killed by Halfdan’s sons Hroar and Helge/Helgi. Hroar (Here the King of Northumbria) is killed by his nephew Hroki (the son of Hroar and Helge’s sister) when he refused to give Hroki a ring that was Hroar’s part of the inheritance of Halfdan. Hroki is in turn then killed by Hroar’s son Agnar. Later the Berserker Bodvar Bjarki defeats a monster haunting Hrolf Kraki’s Hall at Yule Times, and slays a boar-shaped troll sent by King Adhils of the Swedes. In Gesto Danorum, there are multiple mentions of Ingjald/Ingild 1. Father of Agnar, who is engaged to Hrolfs sister, but gets cut in half by the Berserker Bodvar Bjarki 2. Son of Frode/Frodi, lives the life of wastrel, angering the old warrior Starkad when he marry the daughter of Swerting (king of the Saxons, who killed Frodi). Starkad leaves to serve the King of the Swedes, but returns and convinces Ingjald to kill the sons of Swerting and divorce his wife. 3. A family feud as Hrolf Kraki’s Saga, here Ingjald is father of Frodi and Halfdan. Sonya R. Jensen identifies Grendel with Agnar, son of Ingeld in Gesta Danorum, and suggests that the tale of the first two monsters is actually the tale of Ingeld, that the Scholar Alcuin of York mentions in the 790s (“the most learned man in the world” and according to Einhard, the biographer of Charlemagne, whose court Alcuin joined to spearhead the Carolingian Renaissance, from which we among other things have the origin of lower case letters). Agnar gets cut in half by Bodvar Bjarki (“the warlike bear”) and died a "with his lips separated into a smile"; Meanwhile Grendel "died laughing", and was gren-dael[ed] or "grin-divid[ed]", when his arm gets torn off by Beowulf (bee-wolf or bear). Possibly the reason for burning down Heorot/a Parent seeking revenge for their son? Using different stories, I have been so bold as to try to imagine the outlines the lost tale of Ingeld/Ingjald that Alcuin mentions, as a quasi-Wagnerian Opera/Shakespearean Tragedy: “The Heathbards”/ “The Ingildiad” Part 1: Ingjald the Elder, king of the Heathbards and protector of a Temple of Njord, Frey & Freya, witness his father slayed by the Saxon King Swerting. As a youth he is wastrel that gets called to action by his father’s old champion Starkad: Slaying his brothers in law and divorcing Swerting’s Daughter. He fathers Frodi and foster Halfdan (later Danish king). After his father’s death, Frodi (son of Ingjald and the Saxon Princess), kills his foster brother Halfdan (the favorite of his father, inheriting the Temple and the Ring symbolizing sovereignty) and takes his kingdom, his wife, the temple and the ring, but gets killed by Hroar and Helge, the sons of Halfdan. Part 2: Ingjald the Younger, son of Frodi, son in law of Hroar, slays Hroar & burns Heorot, but gets killed by Hrolf, son of Helge. Agnar, son of Ingjald the Younger (grandson of Hroar?): Is gonna marry Hrolf’s sister Rute/Skuld, but gets killed by Bodvar Bjarki after harrassing the youth Hott, the future hero and companion of Bodvar, Hjalti. (This scene can both be before or after Ingjald the Younger burns down Heorot and dying) Similar to the Norse Norns/Witches in Macbeth, the play ends with Ursa/Yrse (mother of Hrolf) marring King Athils of Sweden and Rute/Skuld (sister of Hrolf) marring Heoroweard/Hjorvard, (Petty King of Oland and Scania/Jarl of Sweden for Hrolf), and retell how now the stage is set for the events of the Saga of Hrolf Kraki.