English heroic legends

legendary king of Denmark and Sweden

right|250px|thumb|The orange area signifies the Chernyakhov Culture, identified with Ermanaric's kingdom, in the early fourth century. right|250px|thumb|Ermanaric's kingdom at the end of the fourth century (a map from 1899). Ermanaric (died 376) was a Greuthungian king who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled a sizable portion of Oium, the part of Scythia inhabited by the Goths at the time. He is mentioned in two Roman sources: the contemporary writings of Ammianus Marcellinus, and in Getica by the sixth-century historian Jordanes. He also appears in a fictionalized form in later Germani

1st King of Wessex from 519 to 534

Cynric () was King of Wessex from 534 to 560. Everything known about him comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. There, he is stated to have been the son of Cerdic, who is considered the founder of the kingdom of Wessex. However, the Anglian King-list and parts of the West Saxon Genealogical Regnal List (which may partly derive from the Anglian King-list and was a source for the Chronicle), instead says that Cynric was the son of Cerdic's son Creoda. Similarly, the paternal genealogy of Alfred the Great given in Asser's The Life of King Alfred, includes the name Creoda, while the account of the

thumb|First lines of "Widsith"

11th-century leader of local resistance to the Norman conquest of England

Hrothgar ( ; ) was a semi-legendary Danish king living around the early sixth century AD.

legendary character from the Robin Hood legend

legendary brothers said to have led the invasion of Britain in 5th century

Semi-legendary Danish king

early king of Kent

thumb|Anachronistic portrait depicting a battle between Franks and Danes in 515, from Jean Fouquet's illumination in the [[Grandes Chroniques de France, Tours, c 1455-60]] thumb|Chattuarii|Hettergouw at the lower [[Rhine, inhabited by the Attoarii or Hetware, who killed Hygelac, according to Beowulf, line 2916]]

right|250px|thumb|Eadgils pursuing Hrólfr Kraki on the [[Fyrisvellir, etching by (1830)]] thumb|right|250px|West royal tumulus at Gamla Uppsala|Old Uppsala, suggested grave of King EadgilsEadgils, Adils, Aðils, Adillus, Aðísl at Uppsölum, Athisl, Athislus or Adhel was a semi-legendary king of Sweden, who is estimated to have lived during the 6th century. Beowulf and Old Norse sources present him as the son of Ohthere and as belonging to the ruling Yngling (Scylfing) dynasty. These sources also deal with his war against Onela, which he won with foreign assistance: in Beowulf he gained the thron

portion of an Old English heroic poem, transcribed by George Hickes from a now lost medieval manuscript.

thumb|"Odin takes the corpse of Sinfjötli" (1883) by Johannes Gehrts. thumb|right|Odin taking the dead Sinfjǫtli to [[Valhalla]] Sinfjötli ( ) or Fitela (in Old English) in Norse mythology was born out of the incestuous relationship between Sigmund and his sister Signy. He had the half-brothers Sigurd, Helgi Hundingsbane and Hamund.

thumb|A mention of Scyldings in the Beowulf in the genitive [[plural]] The Scyldings (OE Scyldingas) or Skjǫldungs (ON Skjǫldungar), both meaning "descendants of Scyld/Skjǫldr", were, according to legends, a clan or dynasty of Danish kings, that in its time conquered and ruled Denmark and Sweden together with part of England, Ireland and North Germany. The name is explained in many texts, such as Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann's 'Research on the Field of History' (), by the descent of this family from an eponymous king Scyld, but the title is sometimes applied to rulers who purportedly reigned b

250px|right|thumb|Illustration by Gerhard Munthe (1899)

fictional character

legendary king of the Angels

Onela was, according to Beowulf, a Swedish king, the son of Ongentheow and the brother of Ohthere. He usurped the Swedish throne, but was killed by his nephew Eadgils, who won by hiring foreign assistance.

200px|thumb|right|Queen Wealtheow as the hostess of the banquet Wealhtheow (also rendered Wealhþēow or Wealthow; ) is a queen of the Danes in the Old English poem Beowulf, first introduced in line 612. thumb|Queen Wealhtheaow Pledges Beowulf (George T. Tobin, 1909)

"Waldere" or "Waldhere" is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments, of around 32 and 31 lines, from a lost epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E. C. Werlauff, Librarian, in the Danish Royal Library at Copenhagen, where it is still preserved. The parchment pages had been reused as stiffening in the binding of an Elizabethan prayer book, which had presumably come to Europe following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England in the 16th century.

legendary character, protagonist of the homonymous poem

Halfdan (, , Medieval : "half Dane") was a late 5th and early 6th century legendary Danish king of the Scylding (Skjöldung) lineage, the son of king named Fróði in many accounts, noted mainly as the father to the two kings who succeeded him in the rule of Denmark, kings named Hroðgar and Halga in the Old English poem Beowulf and named Hróar and Helgi in Old Norse accounts.

right|200px|thumb|Halga seducing his own daughter Yrsa, by Jenny Nyström (1895). Halga, Helgi, Helghe or Helgo was a legendary Danish king living in the early 6th century. His name would in his own language (Proto-Norse) have been *Hailaga (dedicated to the gods).

English folklore concerning the rise of Richard Whittington in 14th-century London

11th-century Anglo-Saxon magnate

Hnæf son of Hoc is a prince mentioned in the Old English poems Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. According to the listing of tribes in the poem Widsith (10th century), Hnæf ruled the Hocings. Hoc is called Hoc Healfdene, suggesting a partly Danish ancestry.

dragon from the Beowulf poem

Wiglaf (Proto-Norse: *Wīgalaibaz, meaning "battle remainder"; ) is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf. He is the son of Weohstan, a Swede of the Wægmunding clan who had entered the service of Beowulf, king of the Geats. Wiglaf is called Scylfing as a metonym for Swede, as the Scylfings were the ruling Swedish clan. While in the service of the Scylfing Onela, king of the Swedes, Weohstan killed the rebel prince Eanmund and took his sword as a trophy; Wiglaf later inherited it. Weohstan belonged to the clan of the Wægmundings, the same clan Beowulf's father Ecgþeow belonged to; so

legendary hero

thumb|Statue of Byrhtnoth in Maldon, Essex created by John Doubleday Byrhtnoth (), Ealdorman of Essex ( 931 – 11 August 991), died at the Battle of Maldon. His name is composed of the Old English beorht (bright) and nōþ (courage). He is the subject of The Battle of Maldon, an Old English poem; J.R.R. Tolkien's short play in verse, ''The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's Son''; and a modern statue at Maldon.

Hrethel (; ) is a king of the Geats.

Middle English romance

essay by J. R. R. Tolkien

right|thumb|300px|The Wulfing navy on the move, an illustration from the poems on the Wulfing Helgi HundingsbaneThe Wulfings, Wylfings or Ylfings (the name means the "wolf clan") was a powerful clan in Beowulf, Widsith and in the Norse sagas. While the poet of Beowulf does not locate the Wulfings geographically, Scandinavian sources define the Ylfings (the Old Norse form of the name) as the ruling clan of the Eastern Geats.

Fróði (; ; Middle High German: Vruote) is the name of a number of legendary Danish kings in various texts including Beowulf, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda and his Ynglinga saga, Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum, and the Grottasǫngr. A Danish king by this name also appears as a minor character in the Middle High German epic Rabenschlacht. The name is possibly an eponym for the god Freyr.

English marcher lord seated of Whittington Castle in Shropshire

Eanmund was a Swedish prince of the Scylfing dynasty, whose existence is alleged in Beowulf.

semi-legendary 6th-century battles

thumb|250px|A mention of Heaðobards in the Beowulf The Heaðobards (Old English: Heaðubeardan, Old Saxon: Headubarden, "war-beards") were possibly a branch of the Langobards, and their name may be preserved in toponym Bardengau, in Lower Saxony, Germany.