Hrodulf - Beowulf | <i>Beowulf<>

Beowulf

Hrólf Kraki Tradition

Hrólf Kraki's saga

Ynglinga saga

Lejre Chronicle

Gesta Danorum

Beowulf

People

Hrólfr Kraki

Halfdan

Helgi

Yrsa

Adils

Áli

Bödvar Bjarki

Hjörvard

Roar

Locations

Lejre

Uppsala

Fyrisvellir

The poem Beowulf introduces Hroðulf as Hroðgar's supporter and right-hand man. Later, the text explains that Hroðulf is Hroðgar's nephew and that "each was true to the other". Hroðgar is given three siblings, brothers Heorogar and Halga and an unnamed sister, all the children of Healfdene and belonging to the royal clan known as the Scyldings. The poem does not indicate which of Hroðgar's siblings is Hroðulf's parent, but later Scandinavian tradition establishes this as Halga.

Hroðgar and queen Wealhþeow had two young sons, Hreðric and Hroðmund, and Hroðulf would be their guardian in case Hroðgar dies. In a deliberately ironic passage it appears that the queen trusts Hroðulf, not suspecting that he will murder her sons to claim the throne for himself:

--Ic minne can

glædne Hroðulf, þæt he þa geogoðe wile

arum healdan, gyf þu ?r þonne he,

wine Scildinga, worold ofl?test;

wene ic, þæt he mid gode gyldan wille

uncran eaferan, gif he þæt eal gemon,

hwæt wit to willan and to worð-myndum

umbor wesendum ?r arna gefremedon.

--For gracious I deem

my Hrothulf, willing to hold and rule

nobly our youths, if thou yield up first,

prince of Scyldings, thy part in the world.

I ween with good he will well requite

offspring of ours, when all he minds

that for him we did in his helpless days

of gift and grace to gain him honor!

No existence of any Hreðric or Hroðmund, sons of Hroðgar, has survived in Scandinavian sources (although Hreðric has been suggested to be the same person as Hroerekr/Roricus, a Danish king generally described as a son or successor of Ingjald.) This Hroerekr is sometimes said to have been killed by Hrólfr, vindicating the foreshadowing in Beowulf.

The Scyldings were in conflict with another clan or tribe named the Heaðobards led by their king Froda and his son Ingeld. It is in relation to this war that Hroðulf is mentioned in the other Anglo-Saxon poem where he appears, Widsith.