Hygelac’s Raid in Historiography and Poetry: The King’s Necklace and Beowulf as ‘Epic

This article studies historical narratives about Hygelac’s failed raid in Frisia as analogues for the representation of the king’s treasure in Beowulf . Though the poet alters the raid’s sequence of events, he preserves the chief circumstances and major themes present in accounts of the attack, which strongly suggests that he knew a narrative about it not unlike what we find in historiography, and focuses on the treasure to illustrate a past rife with quarreling, as conflict revolves around Hygelac’s necklace. Furthermore, the author of Beowulf elaborated on the mobility of this treasure to compose a poem, which, if it cannot be called epic, has epic pretensions.