[18] Olrik (Heltedigtning, I, 22 etc.). The Danish house—Healfdene, Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga, Heoroweard, Hrethric, Hrothmund, Hrothulf: the Swedish—Ongentheow, Onela, Ohthere, Eanmund, Eadgils: the Geatic—Hrethel, Herebeald, Hætheyn, Hygelac, Heardred. The same principle is strongly marked in the Old English pedigrees.
[19] ll. 3018 etc.
[20] As is done, e.g., by Schück (Studier i Beowulf-sagan, 27).
[21] "Dragon fights are more frequent, not less frequent, the nearer we come to historic times": Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 313. The dragon survived much later in Europe than has been generally recognized. He was flying from Mount Pilatus in 1649. (See J. J. Scheuchzer, Itinera per Helvetiae Alpinas regiones, 1723, III, p. 385.) The same authority quotes accounts of dragons authenticated by priests, his own contemporaries, and supplies many bloodcurdling engravings of the same.
[22] Cf. on this point Klaeber in Anglia, XXXVI (1912) p. 190.
[23] l. 2382.
[24] l. 2393.
[25] Of course, even if Beowulf's reign over the Geatas is not historic, this does not exclude the possibility of his having some historic foundation.
[26] Attempts at working out the chronology of Beowulf have been made by Gering (in his translation) and by Heusler (Archiv, CXXIV, 9-14). On the whole the chronology of Beowulf is self-consistent, but there are one or two discrepancies which do not admit of solution.
[27] l. 468.