Beowulf (hero)

Beowulf
Beowulf battles the dragon
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Monarch
Family	Ecgtheow (father) Hygelac (uncle, fl. 515)
Nationality	Geatish

Beowulf (/ˈbeɪəˌwʊlf/;Old English: Bēoƿulf [ˈbeːo̯wʊlf]) is a legendary Geatish hero in the epic poem named after him, one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English language.

A number of origins have been proposed for the name Beowulf.

Henry Sweet, a philologist and early linguist specializing in Germanic languages, proposed that the name Bēowulf literally means in Old English "bee-wolf" or "bee-hunter" and that it is a kenning for "bear". This etymology is mirrored in recorded instances of similar names. Biuuuwulf is recorded as a name in the AD 1031 Liber Vitae. The name is attested to a monk from Durham and literally means bee wolf in Northumbrian. The 11th century English Domesday Book contains a recorded instance of the name Beulf. A scholar named Sarrazin also suggested that the name Beowulf was derived from a mistranslation of Böðvarr where -varr was interpreted as vargr meaning "wolf". However, this etymology was questioned by Sophus Bugge, who instead suggested that the personage Böðvarr Bjarki was derived from Beowulf.

In 2005, Andy Orchard theorized an etymology on the basis of the common Old Norse name Þórólfr (which literally translates to "Thor Wolf"), stating in parallel that a "more likely" meaning for the name would be the "wolf" of the Germanic god Beow.