Hygd

Hygd, daughter of Hæreth, queen of the Geats as wife of King Hygelac and mother of Heardred. In Beowulf she is the exemplary young queen — wise, gracious and generous with treasure — set against the cautionary tale of the proud queen Modthryth. After Hygelac's death in the Frisian raid she offers the kingdom and hoard to Beowulf, judging her own son Heardred too young to defend the Geats against the Swedes; Beowulf declines and supports Heardred's kingship. Her father Hæreth is named only patronymically ('Hæreþes dohtor') and is not separately entered. She materialises the maternal node of Heardred, who previously recorded only his father Hygelac.

Children

• Heardred

Domains

• queenship and the mead hall
• counsel and succession

Powers

• Weave peace and dispense the hall's treasure as queen
• Weaves peace and dispenses treasure as queen of the Geats
• Offers Beowulf the throne over her own son

Relations

• spouse: HygelacBeowulf, ll. 1925-1931 — Hygd, queen of Hygelac (primary)
• mother of: HeardredMother of Heardred (existing corpus figure anglosaxon_heardred, whose prose already names 'the queen Hygd' as his mother and whose parentIds presently list only anglosaxon_hygelac; add anglosaxon_hygd as maternal parent).Beowulf, ll. 2369-2376 — Hygd and her son Heardred (primary)

Sources

• existence: Beowulf, ll. 1925-1962, 2369-2376 (ed. Klaeber's Beowulf, 4th ed., Toronto 2008) (primary)
• marriage-and-motherhood: Beowulf, ll. 1925-1931 (wife of Hygelac), 2369-2376 (mother of Heardred) (primary)