Page:Tale of Beowulf - 1898.djvu/202

 *Hrethel, a former king of the Geats; son of Swerting (70), father of Hygelac and grandfather of Beowulf (22), to whom he left his coat of mail (26). He died of grief at the loss of his eldest son Herebeald (139–41), who was accidentally slain by his brother Hæthcyn.
 * Hrethlings (167), the people of Hrethel, the Geats.
 * Hrethmen (26), Triumph-men, the Danes.
 * Hrethric (69, 106), elder son of Hrothgar and Wealhtheow.
 * Hrothgar. See the Argument.
 * Hrothulf (59, 68), probably the son of Hrothgar's younger brother Halga (5). He lives at the Danish court. Wealhtheow hopes that, if he survives Hrothgar, he will be good to their children in return for their kindness to him. It would seem that this hope was not to be fulfilled ("yet of kindred unsunder'd," 67).
 * Hygd, daughter of Hæreth, wife of Hygelac, the king of the Geats, and mother of Heardred. She may well be "the wife of aforetime" (177).
 * Hygelac, third son of Hrethel (139) and uncle to Beowulf, is the reigning king of the Geats during the greater part of the action of the poem. When his brother Hæthcyn was defeated and slain by Ongentheow at Ravenwood (165), Hygelac quickly went in pursuit and put Ongentheow to flight; but although, as leader of the attack, he is called "the banesman of Ongentheow" (114), the actual slayer was Eofor (142, 167), whom Hygelac rewarded with the hand of his only daughter (169). Hygelac came by his death between 512 and 520, in his historical invasion of the Netherlands, which is referred to in the poem four times (70, 135, 143, 165).


 * (147). See Ingwines.
 * Ingeld (119). See Freawaru.