Family and Marital Relationships in BeowulfTwo Works Cited For the reader of Beowulf in Old English, family and marital relationships are not so obvious, especially when one concentrates all one's mental energies on translating the thousand-year-old vocabulary of the poem. The following essay aims to clarify these relationships by proceeding sequentially through the poem. First of all, Scyld Scefing, historical king of the Danes (Scyldings), had a son Beow(ulf) to occupy the throne: “Then in the strongholds [Beow] the Scylding was king of all Denmark, beloved of his people” (53 -55). Then [Beow] "had a son in his turn, Healfdene the great, who, while he lived, aged, fierce in war, ruled the lordly Scyldings" (56-58). Healfdene's progeny were numerous: “From Healfdene there are four children in all; from the leader of the armies there awoke to the world, Heorogar, Hrothgar and Halga the good; it is said that [Yrse was Onela's queen]” (59-62). Heorogar begat Heoroweard; Halga fathered Hrothulf who lived with Hrothgar ("the mighty-minded, Hrothgar and Hrothulf" (1016-17). Implicit in this and the following lines is the suggestion that Hrothulf will kill Hrothgar's eldest son, Hrethic, and take the throne: “Wealhtheow came forth, glittering with gold, to greet the good pair, uncle and nephew[Hrothulf]; their peace was still fast, each true to the other” (1162-5) (Hrothgar's other two sons they were Hrothmund). states his genealogy: “ My father was well known abroad... middle of the paper... raised in the house of King Hrethel along with the king's sons: "No way was I, a man of his stronghold, more hateful to him than to his own sons, Herebeald, Haethcyn, O Hygelac my lord” (2432-34 Haethcyn accidentally killed “his brother [Herebeald]… with an arrow from his bow” (2437-38), causing the death of his father . pain. Perhaps this essay will clarify some vague family and marital relationships for the new student of Beowulf, who is grappling with so many problems of translation from Old English that he may have difficulty discerning all the intricate relationships. BIBLIOGRAPHY Chickering, Howell D.. Beowulf A bilingual edition. New York: Anchor Books, 1977. Wilbur, Richard. "Beowulf." In The Beowulf Poet, edited by Donald K. Fry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968.