View source for Hrethel

'''Hrethel''' ({{langx|ang|Hrēðel}}; {{langx|gem-x-proto|Hrōþilaz|italic=no}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/lup/urnord.pdf |title=Archived copy |website=www.sofi.se |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040612224336/http://www.sofi.se/SOFIU/lup/urnord.pdf |archive-date=12 June 2004 |url-status=dead}}</ref>) is a [[king of the Geats]].

== Name ==
Hrethel's name appears with both the root vowel {{IPAalink|e}} and {{IPAalink|æ}} and with both the consonant {{angbr IPA|[[Thorn (letter)|þ]]}} (i.e. the [[phoneme]] {{IPAslink|θ}}, pronounced {{IPAblink|ð}} in Old English) and {{angbr|d}} (which would ordinarily represent the phoneme {{IPAslink|d}}).<ref>''Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg'', 4th rev. edn by R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), pp. liii, 469.</ref> This is thought to be due to an early manuscript of ''Beowulf'' writing the root vowel using the early graphs {{IPAalink|œ}} (for the vowel resulting from the i-mutation of Common Germanic {{IPA|/o:/}}) and {{angbr|d}} (for the phoneme {{IPAslink|θ}}, pronounced {{IPAblink|ð}}). Later scribes misread the former as {{angbr|æ}} and failed to recognise that the latter represented the sound {{IPAblink|ð}} rather than {{IPAblink|d}}.<ref>R. D. Fulk, ''A History of Old English Meter'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), p. 317 (§353.17).</ref>

The name also appears as a [[Genitive case|genitive]] [[weak noun]], in the half-line "þæt is Hrǣdlan lāf" ('that is Hrǣdla's bequest'). Rendered in ordinary Late West Saxon spelling and in nominative form, this form of the name would presumably have been *''Hrēðla''.<ref>Cf. R. D. Fulk, ''A History of Old English Meter'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992), p. 317 (§353.17); ''Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg'', 4th rev. edn by R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), pp. liii, 469.</ref>

== Role in ''Beowulf'' ==
Hrethel is married to a sister or daughter of [[Swerting]] ([[Hygelac]] is the nefa{{Definition needed|date=January 2025}} of [[Swerting]]) and he has three sons: [[Hæþcyn]], [[Herebeald]] and [[Hygelac]]. He also has a daughter who marries [[Ecgþeow]] and has the son [[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]].<ref>''Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg'', 4th rev. edn by R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), pp. lix, 472.</ref>

Hrethel fosters Beowulf (his grandson) by taking him into his royal household aged seven.<ref>''Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg'', 4th rev. edn by R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. 83 (lines 2428-2434).</ref> Fostering was a common Germanic practice and does not indicate Beowulf's father, [[Ecgþeow]] did not want to raise him; indeed, the practice was intended to further improve relations between families and family members, and create close ties of obligation, affection and shared responsibility. As an adult, Beowulf expresses his gratitude to his foster-father explicitly:
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|ang|Iċ wæs syfanwintre     þā meċ sinca baldọr,
frēawine folca     æt mīnum fæder ġenam;
hēold meċ ond hæfde     Hrēðel cyning,
ġēaf me sinċ ond symbẹl,     sibbe ġemunde;
næs iċ him tō līfe     lāðra ōwihte,
beorn in beorgum,     þonne his bearna hwylċ,
Herebeald ond Hæðcyn    oððe Hyġelāc mīn.<ref>''Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg'', 4th rev. edn by R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. 83 (lines 2428-2434).</ref>}}
|
I was seven winters old when the lord of treasures,
friend of the people, received me from my father;
King Hrethel nurtured me and kept me,
gave me treasure and feasting, he remembered our kinship;
I was in no respect more hateful to him in his life,
a child in the cities, than any of his children,
Herebeald and Hæthcyn, or my lord Hygelac.
}}

Hreðel dies of grief when his oldest son [[Herebeald]] is killed by his own brother Hæþcyn in a hunting accident, a death that could not be avenged. He is succeeded by Hæþcyn.<ref>''Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg'', 4th rev. edn by R. D. Fulk, Robert E. Bjork, and John D. Niles (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), p. lix.</ref>

==References==
<references />

{{s-start}}
{{s-reg | leg }}
{{succession box 
  | title = [[King of the Geats]]
  | years = 
  | before = [[Swerting]]
  | after = [[Hæþcyn]]
}}
{{end box}}

{{Hrethling}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hredel}}
[[Category:Characters in Beowulf]]
[[Category:English heroic legends]]
[[Category:Legendary kings of the Geats]]