Untitled - California State University, Long Beach

on þa freolic wif ful gesealde
ærest East-Dena eþelwearde . . . (612-615)
[Wealhþeo went forth, /queen of Hroþgar, mindful of courtesy
/ gold-adorned, greeted the men in the hall / and the noble wife
offered the cup / first to the guardian of the East-Danes . . .]
As Wealhþeo travels through the hall with the cup, she restores order by
purposefully reinstating the hierarchy amongst the men: first Hroþgar,
then the Danes, and finally Beowulf. Her role here may seem ornamental
with the textual focus on “cynna” [courtesy] and “goldhroden” [goldadorned],
but she is performing a deeply necessary peace-keeping ritual
in order to save her kingdom. Wealhþeo’s actions indicate she knows that
if Beowulf is too angered by Unferth’s remarks and leaves, no one will
be left to defend her people from Grendel; likewise, if Unferth leads a
retaliation against Beowulf no one will be left defend her people from
Grendel.
Along the same lines, Wealhþeo and Hygd locate authority in their
positions as maternal figures in the act of “king-making” (Jamison, 22).
After the battle between Beowulf and Grendel, Hroþgar intercedes at the
mead-hall feast and offers his kingdom to Beowulf as a reward. Wealhþeo,
however, senses that her own bloodline will be disturbed and graciously
deflects this pronouncement by Hroþgar with a speech that attempts to
ensure her sons’ succession to the throne, rather than the usurpation by
Beowulf. Hygd makes a similar, if not more forward, political gesture
in her own role as mother and queen. When Hygelac dies, she is left
with a son too young to rule in an increasingly threatened, hostile
state. In an effort to maintain community and to maintain the viability
of her husband’s kingdom, Hygd offers the vacant throne to Beowulf
(more experienced in leadership than her young son, Heardred) thereby
extending Beowulf’s maternal line:
Þær Hygd gebead hord ond rice,
66 | Sevi
beagas ond bregostol; bearne ne truwode
þætne wið ælfylcum eþelstolas
healdan cuðe, ða wæs Hygelac dead.
no ðy ær feasceafte findan meahton
æt ðam æðelinge ænige ðinga
þæt he Heardrede hlaford wære,
oððe þone cynedom ciosan wolde. (2369-2376)
[There Hygd offered him (Beowulf) treasure and kingdom /
rings and throne; Trusted not the son / to hold the ancestral
thrones from foreign people / that Hygelac was dead. / Not
sooner that the destitute may prevail / upon that hero (Beowulf)
/ then he (said he) would not be in any way the lord of Heardred
/ or wished to accept the royal power.]
The fact that Hygd has power enough to determine the line of succession
is an interesting subversion of typical patrilineal structure and hints at
the remnants of the matrilineal culture remaining amongst the Geat tribe
during this time period. More alarming, though, is that Beowulf refuses
the throne offered to him by Hygd. I feel this decision is a reflection
of Beowulf’s continual rejection of his own matrilineal line. A look at
Beowulf’s family tree indicates that Hygd is his maternal aunt-in-law,
married to King Hreðel’s son, Hygelac. Hygelac is Beowulf’s mother’s
brother (thus forming the crucial avunculate relationship between the
two) and King Hreðel is his grandfather, thereby easily securing his place
in the succession to the Geatish throne. Though in a more patrilineal
society, Beowulf should feel more of a kinship with his father Ecgþoew’s
own line, the text indicates that Beowulf was brought up, and brought up
well, by his mother’s family, not by his paternal relatives:
Ic wæs syfanwintre þa me sin(c)a baldor,
freawine folca æt minum fæder genam;
heold mec ond hæfde Hreðel cyning.
Sevi | 67