Chapter 21 - Beowulf and Guta saga

Summary

IT IS HINTED in the poem that Beowulf also has another name; that, in his capacity as a kinsman of Wiglaf, he is called Ælfhere: Wīġlāf wæs hāten, Wēoxstānes sunu, lēofliċ lindwiga, lēod Scylfinga, mǣġ Ælfheres,1 “He was called Wiglaf, Weohstan's son, a worthy shield-warrior, a prince of the Scylfings, kinsman of Ælfhere.” Although the connection is not unambiguous, several scholars regard Ælfhere as Beowulf's real name, especially as it shows vocalic alliteration with Ecgþēo(w), the name of his father (Malone 1923, 236–37; Woolf 1937, 7–9; Woolf 1939, 153–57; Collinder 1954, x–xi). The fact that the name Ælfhere is only mentioned in connection with Wiglaf, Beowulf's Swedish relative, points in the same direction.

With this in mind, it is not unreasonable to assume that Ælfhere (Swedish Alvar) was Beowulf's original name as a child born of Swedish royal descent, and that he only received the rather unusual name of Beowulf when he was adopted by King Hrethel at the age of seven. Why this happened we are not told, but as Hrethel was his maternal grandfather it is possible that he had been orphaned.

Certain similarities between the names Ælfhere/Alvar, Avair, and Þieluar thus need to be considered. According to Guta saga, the last two of these figures were the first unifying leaders of the Gutes. Both names bear a striking resemblance to the form Ælfhere found in the poem, which could be Beowulf's original name.

But the similarities could go beyond that. Avair's byname Strabain may perhaps have referred to him being thin- or stiff-legged, but has also been regarded as a possible allusion to straw leggings similar to those of the Norwegian Birkibeinar of the twelfth century (cf. Guta saga, ed. Peel 1999, 30). If that is the case, then the first element stra- can be compared with one of the possible meanings of beow-, the first element of Beowulf, i.e., “straw, grain, barley.” If the boy's original name was Alvar/Aivar, he may have been given the name Beowulf when he was adopted by Hrethel, either as a nickname or because he had called himself “Barley Wolf” (Beowulf) or “Straw Legs” (Strabain) on some occasion when he had kitted himself out in boyish fashion in leggings of barley straw, like a shaggy wolf.