[gothic-l] Re: Beowolf--the Goth?

[Troels Brandt]

I am not able to participate in this discussion now as I am leaving 
for a week, but I need to comment Albareik's quotation of my
homepage http://www.geocities.com/troels_brandt/heruls.html
 which could be misunderstood.

--- In gothic-l at egroups.com, "sunburst" <sunburst at j...> wrote:
...
> Also it might be noted that Hrothgar's nephew Hrothwulf (Hrolf 
Krake) has
> been identified as King Roduulf of the Heruli.  The reference, is, I
> believe, to be found in the Troels Brandt's article "Hypothesis of 
the
> Heruls."  If this is true, what does that say about the origin of 
the
> Scyldings?  If the line of descent could be considered accurate, 
(which may
> be doubtful), that might place the origin of Scyld Scefing in the 
Tanais
> region.  Could the story of Beowulf be of east Germanic origin?  
All of the
> main east Germanic heroes are at least mentioned in Beowulf.  If 
so, it
> could have been brought to Scandinavia in the remigration of the 
Heruls.

Actually the first sentence is only a reference to Niels Lukman, who 
claimed the Danish king Rolf Krake never existed. He claimed the 
legends of Rolf Krake to be copies of the legends of the Herulian 
king Roduulf living in Pannonia around 500 AD. This is not my opinion 
if you read my homepage "The Heruls" – although a few
legends 
following the Heruls of Procopios might be mixed up by later 
chroniclers. Rolf  was very early mentioned in Widsith as a Danish 
king together with his uncle Hrodgar (Roar), and the "Style
II" and the boar crests of helmets found in boat graves both in
the 
Uppsala-region of Sweden and Mercia/East Anglia indicate together 
with the Beowulf poem a connection between this English region and 
Scandinavia in the 6th and 7th century – maybe because of kinship 
between the dynasties.

I regard the poem of Beowulf to be independent fragments of 
Scandinavian history and certain events from the Channel Region 
framing the fairytale of the hero Beowulf. He is not mentioned 
anywhere else and the only role of this mythical hero is to kill 
dragoons. Does this connecting link sound historical?

Chochillaicus was obviously a historical person who got his history 
incorporated in Beowulf as Hugleik, but this does not necessarily 
mean he is connected to the other historical persons in the poem. In 
poems like Widsith the key figure is also meeting historical persons 
never connected at all and living in different times. 

Please notice that the necklace of Hugleik (probably a symbol of 
royalty) in Beowolf was connected to the Ostrogothic king Ermanaric 
living in the Black Sea region in the 4th century, where he defeated 
the Herulian king Alaric.

Chocillaicus might as example be a Western Herul, a Visigothic 
chieftain migrating after the defeat in Southern France in 507 or a 
chieftain from one of the "Danish" tribes joining the invasion of 
England - and we do not know if he lived in England, Frisia or 
Denmark. Often later chroniclers had difficulties separating the 
origin of the attacking Germanic people of Northern Europe.

Could the name Beowulf - the mythical hero - be a combination of bear 
and wulf?

My "Hypotheses of the Heruls" - including the line from Pannonia to 
Scandinavia - is not dependent of connections between England and 
Scandinavia.  

Troels Brandt     



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