Wealhþeow

Wealhþēow (pronounced [ˈwæɑ̯lxθeːo̯w]; also rendered Wealhtheow or Wealthow) is a queen of the Danes in the Old English poem, Beowulf, first introduced in line 612.

Wealhþēow is of the Wulfing clan, Queen of the Danes. She is married to Hrōðgār, the Danish king and is the mother of sons, Hreðric and Hroðmund, and a daughter Freawaru. The meaning of her name is disputed. One possible translation is "foreign slave" (Hill, 1990).

In her marriage to Hrōðgār she is described as friðusibb folca (l. 2017), 'the kindred pledge of peace between peoples', signifying interdynastic allegiance between Wulfing and Scylding achieved with her marriage to Hrōðgār. She is both 'Lady of the Helmings' (l. 620) (by descent, of the Wulfing clan of Helm) and 'Lady of the Scyldings' (l. 1168), by marriage and maternity.

Two northern sources associate the wife of Hrōðgār with England. The Skjöldunga saga, in Arngrímur Jónsson's abstract, chapter 3, tells that Hrōðgār (Roas) married the daughter of an English king. The Hrolfs saga kraka, chapter 5, tells that Hrōðgār (Hróarr) married Ögn who was the daughter of a king of Northumbria (Norðhymbraland) called Norðri.

The argument was advanced in 1897 that the Wulfing name may have been synonymous with the East Anglian Wuffing dynasty, and the family name Helmingas with the place-names 'Helmingham' in Norfolk and Suffolk, both of which lie in areas of 5th-6th century migrant occupation. Although the theory was not favoured by some, it has more recently resurfaced in a discussion of the identity of Hroðmund.

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