Beow in Scandinavia

Abstract

This article offers a new appraisal of the Scandinavian evidence relating to Beow – a figure who surfaces in a range of Anglo-Saxon sources as a member of the famous Scylding dynasty. The well-known appearances of Beow in Old Norse genealogical material and in the composition known as Kálfsvísa are first reviewed, along with their evolving status in the critical history of Beowulf. New evidence is then adduced from the text known as Bjarkarímur, which attests to a more extensive Scandinavian tradition surrounding Beow than has previously been acknowledged. The expanded dossier of Old Norse evidence pertaining to Beow allows, in turn, for reflections on the development of traditions surrounding this figure in Anglo-Saxon England, and the manner of their transmission to Scandinavia.

It might be said that the figure known as Beow occupies a more prominent position in Beowulf studies than is warranted by his fleeting appearances in Anglo-Saxon sources. Most scholars now agree that the mysterious ‘Beowulf’, who makes two early appearances in the sole extant manuscript witness to the Old English epic as the prospering son of Scyld and grandson of Sceaf, is to be identified as Beow – a figure who surfaces with one or both of the same ancestors in a range of West Saxon genealogical material. ¹ Beow appears as Beaw in the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (entry for 855) and Asser’s Vita Ælfredi regis Angul Saxonum; as Beo in Æthelweard’s tenth-century Chronicon and as Beowius in William of Malmesbury’s twelfth-century Gesta regum Anglorum. ² This name also appears, in various forms, in the corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters. ³

Beow was evidently a known figure for some centuries in Anglo-Saxon England, but little information besides his name and ancestry have been preserved – and these in variable forms. His enigmatic career in the prologue of Beowulf is overshadowed by the advent and death of his more famous father. ⁴ Beow is introduced as the heir of Scyld in lines 12–19:

Ðǣm eafera wæs   æfter cenned

geong in geardum,   þone God sende

folce tō frōfre;   fyrenðearfe ongeat –

þæt hīe ǣr   drugon aldor(l)ēase

lange hwile.   Him þæs līffrēa,

wuldres wealdend   woroldāre forgeaf:

Bēow wæs brēme   – blǣd wīde sprang –

Scyldes eafera   Scedelandum in. ⁵

His accession and fathering of Healfdene, Hroðgar’s father, are then related hurriedly between lines 53–7, punctuated by further commentary on Scyld’s death:

Ðā wæs on burgum   Bēow Scyldinga,

lēof lēodcyning   longe þrāge

folcum gefrǣge   – fæder ellor hwearf,

aldor of eard –   oþ þæt him eft onwōc

hēah Healfdene. ⁶

Despite (or perhaps owing to) the dearth of extant material relating to Beow, there exists a great range of hypotheses concerning the origins, role and significance of this figure. There is neither the space nor the need to outline these in any detail, but a brief summary will serve to orientate the reader. Beow, whose name is identical to OE bēow (‘barley’), has been identified as a Germanic fertility god sharing links with the Scandinavian deity Byggvir and the Finnish Pekko, whose names are both related to a cognate word for barley in Old Norse, bygg. ⁷ This role was also likely shared by his grandfather, Sceaf (‘sheaf’). Beow has been seen as a figure of English provenance and, like Sceaf, as an interloper in the Scandinavian Scylding dynasty. ⁸ A now unpopular school of thought regarded Beow as a divine hero who, in earlier Germanic tradition, performed all of the feats now ascribed to Beowulf in the Old English epic, including the slaying of Grendel. ⁹ The evidence traditionally adduced for this hypothesis is the famous co-occurrence of beowan hamm and grendles mere in a Wiltshire charter of 931. ¹⁰ A related theory, which has seen a recent resurgence in support, suggests that the name Beowulf, or ‘Beow-wulf’, is theophoric in character, and contains the name of the god Beow. ¹¹

The current scholarly consensus holds that Beow likely began his life as a deity, but in extant sources exists only as a euhemerized human king with an illustrious Scandinavian pedigree. This two-century old debate concerning the development and identity of Beow has been overwhelmingly based upon this figure’s appearances in Beowulf and in Anglo-Saxon charters and genealogies. A fourth category of evidence which has been less thoroughly considered is Old Norse material, in which Beow makes several brief but, in the author’s view, important appearances. This article aims to rectify this by reviewing the extant evidence for the tradition of Beow in Scandinavia, and by contributing to it overlooked material from the Icelandic text Bjarkarímur. This effort will add to the corpus of evidence relating to Beow and will allow for useful reflections on the identity and development of this figure in Anglo-Saxon England.

BEOW-BJÁRR

That Beow was known in Scandinavia is plainly evidenced by his appearance in versions of an Icelandic genealogy known as langfeðgatal (‘long count of ancestors’). The earliest version of this genealogy to contain a reflex of Beow is found in Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar AM 1 e β II fol., a copy of a mid-thirteenth-century vellum manuscript which itself probably had an earlier exemplar. ¹² In this manuscript a certain ‘Beaf’ is given as the son of ‘Sceldva’, who is himself preceded several stages earlier by ‘Sescef’. ¹³ The reliance of this part of the genealogy on an Old English text is made plain by the scribe’s linguistic and orthographic errors: ‘Beaf’ derives from ‘Beaw’, where an OE wynn (‘ƿ’) was misinterpreted by an Icelandic scribe as an ‘f’, and ‘Sescef’ is a corruption of an original se Scef (i.e. ‘that Sceaf’). The source is likely to be closely related to a list dating from c. 990–4 contained within the English manuscript London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. v. ¹⁴ At a later stage, these figures were equated with characters apparently known from Scandinavian tradition. Perhaps the earliest extant genealogy to contain this additional explanatory material is the so-called Ættartala Sturlunga (‘genealogy of the Sturlungar’), which is preserved in the Codex Upsaliensis manuscript of Snorri Sturluson’s Edda (DG 11 4to). ¹⁵ Here one finds ‘Skjaldun, en vér kǫllum Skjǫldr, hans son Bíaf, þann kǫllum vér Bjár’. ¹⁶ Sceaf reappears as ‘Sesef’ here with the troublesome ‘c’ removed, and apparently lacks a known Scandinavian parallel. This same genealogy is also repeated, with minor variations, in the Prologue to Snorri’s Edda, and in the text known as Hversu Noregr byggðist (‘how Norway was settled’), which appears in the Flateyjarbók manuscript. ¹⁷

The genealogist is of course right to connect the ‘Skjaldun’ of his English source with Skjǫldr, who is well-known in Scandinavian tradition as the progenitor of the Skjǫldungar or Scyldings. The equation between ‘Beaf/Bíaf’ and a figure apparently known as ‘Bjárr’ is more controversial. As Richard C. Boer suggested over a century ago, it seems likely that a figure known as Bjárr was in existence prior to the insertion of Beaf into the Icelandic langfeðgatal, as the Old Norse form is substantially different from the Old English one provided. ¹⁸ Icelandic genealogists were no strangers to devising fictional ancestors, but one might expect a form such as ‘*Bjáf(r)’ if based purely on the erroneous reading ‘Beaf/Bíaf’. Bjárr in all likelihood represents an earlier loan from ‘Bēaw’, where OE ēa is rendered as ON já. ¹⁹

Confirmation that Bjárr existed outside of genealogical contexts is furnished by a group of verses preserved in Snorri Sturluson’s Skáldskaparmál. These stanzas constitute a þula or versified list of horses and their riders which is variously entitled Kálfsvísa (‘Kálfr’s poem’), Alsvinnsmál (‘The Speech of Alsvinnr’) and Frá hestum (‘concerning horses’). ²⁰ Assuming that this material was not composed by Snorri himself, it must predate his work. This dates this poetry realistically to the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, though it could conceivably have been composed earlier. The verses run as follows:

Dagr reið Drǫsli   en Dvalinn Móðni,

Hǫð Hjálmþér   en Haki Fáki.

Reið bani Belja   Blóðughófa

en Skævaði   skati Haddingja. (st. 1)

Vésteinn Vali   en Vifill Stúfi,

Meinþjófr Mói   en Morginn Vakri. (st. 2)

Áli Hrafni,   — til íss riðu —

en annarr austr   und Aðilsi

grár hvarfaði   geiri undaðr (st. 3)

Bjǫrn reið Blakki   en Bíarr ²¹ Kerti,

Atli Glaumi   en Aðils Slungni,

Hǫgni Hǫlkvi   en Haraldr Fǫlkvi,

Gunnarr Gota   en Grana Sigurðr. (st. 4) ²²

How much, or how little, these inconspicuous verses can tell us about the status of Beow in Scandinavia has long been the subject of debate. The form Bjárr which appears towards the end of this þula was once thought to bear a connection with ‘Bjarki’. This is a sobriquet borne by Bǫðvarr, a protagonist of Hrólfs saga kraka (‘the saga of Hrólfr kraki’). ²³ As the slayer of a monster pillaging the hall of the Scylding king in Denmark, Bǫðvarr has long been regarded as one of the closest Scandinavian analogues to Beowulf. ²⁴ The possibility of a connection between this figure and Bjárr was most famously promoted by Barend Symons in 1900. Symons, apparently taking a cue from Sophus Bugge, suggested that Bjárr formed a bridge between Beow and Bjarki. ²⁵ This suggestion was rejected soon after by Axel Olrik. ²⁶ In the same year Boer also dismissed Symons’ idea, but nevertheless maintained that Bjarki and Bjárr were identical. ²⁷ Andreas Heusler, followed by Alois Brandl, noted the phonetic similarity between the two names, but both were otherwise unconvinced of any etymological or functional link. ²⁸ It seems that putative connections between Bjárr and Bjarki were thoroughly unfashionable by the time that William W. Lawrence published his influential contribution to Beowulf criticism in 1909. ²⁹ By 1918, Erik Björkman could suggest ‘auch der mehrfach angenommene Zusammenhang zwischen Biárr und Biarki (‘barchen’) ist endgültig aufzugeben’. ³⁰

Since the conclusion of this debate, Kálfsvísa has only been stretched so far as to suggest that Bjárr, a reflex of Beaw, was known in Scandinavia – a view which has a long pedigree. ³¹ Henrik Schück treated the verse as evidence that ‘denna Beaw eller Beo har äfven varit känd i norden’, and Chambers suggested that Kálfsvísa serves as proof that ‘something was known in the north of this Bjar’. ³² Jan de Vries also regards Bjárr as a ‘name aus der heldensage’. ³³ This has not been accepted universally, however. Lawrence suggested ‘Bēowa has no place in any northern version of the saga of the Scyldings, nor is there any evidence of his early presence there as a mythico-heroic figure’. ³⁴ Joseph Harris in a recent treatment voiced more reserved doubt: ‘one is certainly entitled to be skeptical about whether thula information really reflects lost stories’. ³⁵

BJARKARÍMUR

With only two instances of Bjárr available to the debate – one present in a genealogy clearly derived from Anglo-Saxon material, the other in a versified list of uncertain date and provenance – it is unsurprising that Beow’s existence or otherwise in Scandinavia, and his significance there, have come down to a question of belief. The Old Norse work known as Bjarkarímur (‘Bjarki’s rímur’) furnishes additional evidence which contributes to this well-worn debate. This text is a cycle of eight rímur or poetic sub-sections (sg. ríma) dating from around 1400. ³⁶ It centres around Bǫðvarr bjarki and is set against the wider dynastic history of the Skjǫldungar. Bjarkarímur has long been of interest to scholars of Beowulf, as it independently preserves much of the same material as Hrólfs saga kraka – one of the most well-known witnesses to the heroic tradition drawn on in the Old English epic. ³⁷ Both texts are based to a great extent on a lost early-thirteenth-century text known as Skjǫldunga saga (‘the saga of the Skjǫldungar’). However, Bjarkarímur is extant significantly earlier than Hrólfs saga and may represent its source more closely. ³⁸

The material relevant to this discussion is found in the first two rímur where the poet relates events surrounding a chieftain named Bjórr. The plot of this section of Bjarkarímur will be summarized to facilitate discussion. The poet begins his narrative in the court of Hrólfr kraki, Beowulf’s Hroðulf, and then introduces Bjórr in stanza 20:

Bjór var nefndur burðugr jall

bygði Álands síðu,

sá var sagður kaskur kall

í kylfings éli stríðu. (I, st. 20) ³⁹

Bjórr is said to be the father of three sons, Bǫðvarr, Fróði and Þórir, in the following two stanzas:

Blíða átti bauga Ná

sá brodda þing réð stefna,

og við henni arfa þrjá,

allvel má eg þá nefna. (I, st. 21)

Buðlungs arfi Bǫðvar hét,

býsna eru þeir stórir,

frækna drengi falla lét,

Fróði og svó Þórir. (I, st. 22) ⁴⁰

The death of Bjórr’s wife is narrated in stanza 23, and his counsellor, Bjǫrn, advises him to remarry in the following verse:

Ræðismaðrinn Bjórs hét Bjǫrn,

biðr þá jallinn giptast,

‘þá mun harmr í hrygðartjǫrn

helzt í sundur skiptast.’ (I, st. 24) ⁴¹

Bjǫrn proposes that Bjórr marry Ása hin fríða (‘the beautiful’), daughter of a certain Þrándr. Bjórr approves this plan:

‘Farðu Bjǫrn og bið þú nú

brúðar mér til handa,

ef hún er fǫgr og einka trú,

en eg mun geyma landa.’ (I, st. 27) ⁴²

He stipulates that his counsellor may also choose an alternative should Ása refuse. The first ríma proceeds with Bjǫrn setting out on a lengthy bridal quest on Bjórr’s behalf. He is blown off course and comes across a man, Surtr, and his daughter, Hvít. She agrees to marry Bjórr, and they are wed. At the end of the first ríma the poet mentions Hvít’s wretched nature and her negative influence on Bjórr. The second ríma begins with Hvít’s ill relations with Bjórr’s sons. They accept bewitched cloaks from her, which turn Fróði into an elk, Þórir into a dog and Bǫðvarr into a bear. Fróði and Þórir tear each other apart, and Bǫðvarr escapes. He encounters a woman called Hildr and they produce three heirs who are, like Bjórr’s sons, called Fróði, Þórir and Bǫðvarr. This younger Bǫðvarr, who is protagonist of the rímur, later accrues the epithet bjarki (‘little bear’). The elder Bǫðvarr is captured and slain in bear form by men loyal to Hvít. He is then cooked. His sons unwittingly eat morsels of his flesh and take on animalistic features. Shortly after this Bjórr dies of sickness:

Þanninn endast yssu mǫk,

ekki varð þar fleira um sǫk,

þó fekk jallinn þunglig tǫk,

þetta urðu hans endarǫk. (II, st. 42) ⁴³

The younger Fróði holds a funeral for his grandfather Bjórr. The following six rímur concern the exploits of Fróði, Þórir and Bǫðvarr, the last of whom assumes his famous role as Hrólfr kraki’s champion.

The mysterious figure known as Bjórr has gone almost unmentioned in the history of Beowulf criticism despite the clear resonance between his unusual name and that of Bjárr. ⁴⁴ As a proper noun Bjórr is unique in the Old Norse corpus, appearing only in Bjarkarímur. It might be reasonably traced to the common noun bjórr (‘beaver’), especially considering the frequency of theriophoric names in Old Norse. However, no such name or name element is attested. ⁴⁵ It seems likely that Bjórr is instead a loan from OE ‘Bēo(w)’, where jó represents an approximation of ēo. ⁴⁶ This makes it a variant form of Bjárr, which derives from OE ‘Bēaw’. That Bjórr consists of a root, Bjór, with a later nominative -r, is suggested by stanza 24 in the first ríma, where the genitive form ‘Bjórs’ is given. ⁴⁷ The existence of this form may settle the question of whether or not the related form ‘Bjárr’ also features a nominative -r. ⁴⁸

Readers familiar with Hrólfs saga will notice several marked departures between the narrative related there and the one preserved in Bjarkarímur. Two are of relevance to this discussion. The first difference concerns the identity of Bǫðvarr bjarki’s forebear. In Hrólfs saga, the grandfather of Bǫðvarr is named Hringr and is the chieftain of Uppdalir (modern-day Oppdal) in Norway. ⁴⁹ Outside of Hrólfs saga no king of this name is connected to Scylding tradition, and Hringr is often used as a stock name for rulers in the Old Norse fornaldarsögur (‘legendary sagas’). ⁵⁰ Bjórr, the only other appearance of Bǫðvarr’s grandfather in the Old Norse corpus, instead lives on the coast of Áland (modern-day Åland), located east of Sweden. In terms of narrative stemmatics, the name Bjórr certainly represents a lectio difficilior and may more reliably preserve the earlier name borne by Bǫðvarr’s grandfather. In situating Boðvarr’s family in eastern Scandinavia Bjarkarímur also departs from the Latin excerpt of Skjǫldunga saga, which, like Hrólfs saga, identifies Bodvarus (Bǫðvarr bjarki) as Norwegian. In this Bjarkarímur more closely approximates the Scylding tradition preserved in Beowulf, where the action is restricted almost exclusively to south-eastern Scandinavia.

The second departure is that Bjórr is attended by a counsellor named Bjǫrn. His bridal quest on behalf of the jarl occupies the majority of the first ríma, running from stanza 24 to stanza 50, and he therefore constitutes a significant character in the cycle as a whole. His conversation with Bjórr also represents the jarl’s only direct speech in Bjarkarímur. While Bjǫrn’s quest to find a wife for Bjórr in Bjarkarímur is a cast as a lengthy adventure, the corresponding marriage between Hringr and Hvít in Hrólfs saga is instead arranged by an unnamed delegation of Hringr’s men in chapter 17 of the saga. Bjǫrn is absent in this text, and the jarl’s marriage is only treated briefly. The relevance of this will be considered shortly.

It is of clear importance to the debate surrounding Beow that a figure bearing a form of this name appears in one of the chief Scandinavian witnesses to Scylding tradition. It seems apparent that the forms ‘Bēaw’ and ‘Bēo(w)’ both entered the Old Norse corpus from Old English and circulated there as variants. The evidence adduced from Bjarkarímur would contradict Lawrence’s comment that ‘Bēowa has no place in any northern version of the saga of the Scyldings’. ⁵¹ One author, at least, considered Bjórr, or Beow, to be the forebear of the most renowned champion of the Skjǫldungr king Hrólfr kraki.

BEOW AND SCANDINAVIAN HEROIC TRADITION

The full significance of the evidence adduced from Bjarkarímur to the aged debate surrounding Beow is only revealed by returning to Kálfsvísa. While often considered a simple list of horses and their riders, there appears to be an organizing principle at work in these verses which is relevant to the present investigation: namely, the riders are grouped primarily according to the cycle to which they belong. The first eight half-lines, which contain the most miscellaneous mix of heroes, appears to have an affinity with the tradition of the hero Helgi Hundingsbani. Dagr, mentioned in the first half-line, is the name of Helgi’s slayer, as related in the eddic poem Helgakviða Hundingsbana II (‘the second poem of Helgi Hundingsbani’). The figure allusively referred to in the eighth half-line as skati Haddingja (‘champion of the Haddingjar’) is known from the epilogue of this same poem as Helgi Haddingjaskaði (‘slayer of the Haddingjar’), who is said to be the reincarnation of Helgi Hundingsbani. These two figures envelop a range of other names. Dvalinn in the third half-line is not a known hero, but is a name commonly employed in þulur. Haki is mentioned in Ynglinga saga (‘the saga of the Ynglingar’) and Saxo Grammaticus’ Gesta Danorum as the brother of Hagbarðr and an enemy of Hugleikr, Beowulf’s Hygelac. Hjalmþér may be identical to one of the eponymous protagonists of the fornaldarsaga Hjálmþés saga ok Ǫlvis (‘the saga of Hjálmþér and Ǫlvir’), and bani Belja (‘the slayer of Beli’) is the god Freyr. ⁵²

The final four half-lines in Kálfsvísa concern figures connected to the Vǫlsungar – a dynasty also referred to in Beowulf. ⁵³ Hǫgni, Gunnarr and Sigurðr are mentioned in turn, interspersed by a Haraldr, who may be identical with the legendary Danish king Haraldr hilditǫnn (‘war-tooth’). The Hun prince Atli is also mentioned in the third half-line of stanza 4 in proximity to his victims Hǫgni and Gunnarr.

The largest division of Kalfsvísa is situated between these two groups, and concerns figures which chiefly appear in sources relating to the Scyldings. At the core of this section is the only narrative material to be found in the collection of verses. It describes Áli, Beowulf’s Onela, riding a horse known as Hrafn on the ice. Aðils, or Eadgils, rides another horse to the east which has been wounded by a spear. This pertains allusively to a famous battle between the two kings which is narrated between lines 2391–6 and 2611–22 of Beowulf and in a range of Scandinavian sources including Bjarkarímur, Snorra Edda, Ynglinga saga, Gesta Danorum and Arngrímur’s abstract of Skjǫldunga saga. In the Old English epic, Beowulf assists Eadgils in slaying Onela. The Scandinavian sources have Hrólfr’s champion Bǫðvarr similarly assist Aðils in slaying Áli, but the northern versions locate this battle on a frozen lake in Sweden named Vænir (modern-day Vänern).

Judging by the plural verb riðu in the second half-line of the third stanza, the names mentioned prior to this allusive reference also rode to the battle. Meinþjófr and Morginn are otherwise unknown, but Vésteinn and Vífill survive in other material relating to the Scyldings. Vésteinn only otherwise exists in Beowulf as Weohstan, father of Wiglaf and slayer of Onela’s son Eanmund. ⁵⁴ Vífill is known from Hrólfs saga, where he protects the sons of Hálfdan, Beowulf’s Healfdene. Neither Vésteinn nor Vífill are mentioned elsewhere in Scandinavian sources as participants in the battle on Vænir. Both are nevertheless firmly entrenched in related legendary material, and the poet of Kálfsvísa may have been drawing on traditions regarding the battle which have not survived in other Scandinavian sources. The mention of Vésteinn, who is only otherwise connected to the earliest layer of Scylding tradition, would support such a hypothesis.

The portion of Kálfsvísa associated with Scylding legendary tradition ends with the mention of Aðils and his horse, Slungnir, in the fourth half-line of stanza 4. Towards the end of this section, directly after the reference to the battle on Vænir, Bjárr and Bjǫrn are mentioned in tandem. These figures are seemingly identical to Bjórr and his companion, Bjǫrn, who appear together in Bjarkarímur.

Considering the material discussed in Bjarkarímur, the grouping of Bjárr and Bjǫrn together in a section of the late-twelfth or early-thirteenth-century Kálfsvísa with concrete links to Scylding legend has clear implications for this discussion. It suggests that Bjárr was not simply a name fished from genealogical material and used to fill out a versified list of heroes. That the pairing of Bjárr/Bjórr and Bjǫrn spans from Kálfsvísa until the early fifteenth-century Bjarkarímur suggests that a consistent tradition surrounding Beow developed and remained current in Scandinavia for centuries after it faded in England. With this being the case, it now seems untenable to claim, as Lawrence did, that Bjárr can be understood as merely a ‘bookish explanation of material derived from Anglo-Saxon sources’. ⁵⁵ Nor was Beow simply known of in the north, as has been suggested on the basis of his appearance in Kálfsvísa and the Icelandic langfeðgatal. ⁵⁶ He seems instead to have accrued a distinctive identity and character. In Bjárkarímur his Scandinavian reflex has an important narrative function and emotional life beyond his role as a Scandinavian patriarch.

CONCLUSION

How much the character and function of Bjárr/Bjórr reflects English traditions surrounding Beow is impossible to ascertain. Bjórr’s position in Bjarkarímur as a famous progenitor is perhaps connected to Beow’s own role in Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon genealogical material as an ancestor of kings. Bjárr/Bjórr’s Scylding connections across Kálfsvísa and Bjarkarímur also seem unlikely to be a coincidence, and conceivably reflect Beow’s important position in the Scylding dynasty as preserved in Anglo-Saxon sources.

That these functions travelled to Scandinavia with Beow is relatively secure. At some point before Beow’s insertion into Kálfsvísa in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, this figure had also accrued other associations which are of interest. In Kálfsvísa he appears not in his usual guise as a distant forebear, but as a mounted warrior associated with Scylding legend. He is given alongside figures long established in this heroic cycle, such as Aðils, Áli and Vésteinn. One glimpses here the euhemerized fertility deity named in lofty genealogies now fully absorbed in Germanic legendary tradition, grouped with Swedish warriors and named following a battle in which Beowulf himself took part. By the time that Bjarkarímur was composed, Bjórr had become a battle-hardened ruler in eastern Scandinavia who was associated with the Scyldings.

It is entirely possible that the apparent fleshing out of Beow’s heroic identity and his pairing with figures of Beowulfian fame in Kálfsvísa and Bjarkarímur are Scandinavian innovations. It is also a possibility, I would argue, that this process had its roots in Anglo-Saxon England, where complex traditions surrounding Beow had already been evolving for some centuries. It is by no means necessary to lend any credence to the old theory that Beow was originally a divine monster-slayer standing behind the protagonist of the Old English epic. However, it seems reasonable to suppose that behind the portrait of Bjárr/Bjórr as a warrior-ruler associated with Scylding legend lies a kernel of Anglo-Saxon heroic tradition that developed around Beow and entered Scandinavia with him. Beow’s role in traditions surrounding the Scyldings could have grown in Anglo-Saxon England by slow degrees, in much the same way as the career of Beowulf is thought to have developed. ⁵⁷

Assuming with good reason that Bjárr and Bjórr are identical, the above evidence also demonstrates that the idea of a connection between this figure and Bǫðvarr bjarki is not as outlandish as Lawrence and Björkman supposed a century ago. ⁵⁸ Such a connection is plainly evidenced in Bjarkarímur and may also be implicit in Bjárr’s connection with the battle on Vænir, where Bǫðvarr is a participant. Precisely how Beow moved from being one of the chief ancestors of the Scylding kings to becoming the grandfather of Bǫðvarr bjarki remains a mystery. This change may have been encouraged by the clear similarities between the careers of Beowulf and Bǫðvarr, and by the links between the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian versions of Scylding legend. Bjárr/Bjórr’s links with Bǫðvarr bjarki may in any case provide a clue as to the means by which Beow entered Scandinavian tradition in the first place. A twelfth-century entry in the Durham Liber Vitae preserves the name ‘Boduwar Berki’, which represents clear evidence that this figure was known in England. ⁵⁹ It is conceivable that in such contexts of transmission Beow, as an illustrious Scylding ancestor possibly with his own heroic reputation, became associated with Bǫðvarr and was borrowed into Scandinavian tradition, surfacing in time in the Old Norse literary corpus.

Taking into account the findings regarding Bjárr/Bjórr in Scandinavia, a rough chronology for the development of the figure of Beow is proposed below. It should be stressed that this model aims only to rationalize the evidence adduced in this article. Since so little concrete information is known about Beow, both in England and Scandinavia, the chronology provided here must remain hypothetical.

1. 1. Beow, originally a fertility deity, is grafted onto the line of Scylding kings along with Sceaf. This occurred at some point prior to the appearance of this figure in Anglo-Saxon genealogical material.

2. 2. Now regarded as a famous ancestor of the Scyldings, Beow appears in Beowulf and in different iterations of the West Saxon genealogical regnal list. The terminus ante quem of this development is the mention of Beaw in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which dates to the late ninth century.

3. 3. As Beow continues appearing in genealogical material until the twelfth century, he becomes more thoroughly embedded in Scylding tradition. Beow accrues a heroic identity of his own.

4. 4. In the twelfth century or earlier, traditions surrounding Bǫðvarr bjarki arrive in England, at which point they may have come into contact with local stories about Beow. Beow is borrowed into Scandinavian Scylding legend as Bjárr/Bjórr.

5. 5. Bjárr/Bjórr continues to develop in Scandinavian tradition and is linked with a figure known as Bjǫrn. They appear together in Kálfsvísa around the turn of the twelfth century in association with the participants of the battle on Vænir.

6. 6. Traditions surrounding Bjárr/Bjórr and Bjǫrn resurface in the fifteenth century Bjarkarímur, where the former is also closely associated with Bǫðvarr bjarki.

The foregoing discussion has cautiously raised three possibilities: first, that Beow continued to occupy a place in Scandinavian legend centuries after popular knowledge of this figure faded in England; second, that Beow may have enjoyed a heroic reputation in England beyond that which survives in Beowulf, genealogical material, and charters; and third that, contrary to the scholarly consensus, Beow did eventually make the leap from Beowulf to Bǫðvarr bjarki. The approach taken here demonstrates the value, and perhaps also the need, of consulting Scandinavian evidence for the elucidation of issues in Anglo-Saxon studies. This is especially the case in Beowulf criticism, which has benefited much – and stands to benefit further – from comparative studies in Old Norse material.