Bödvar Bjarki:The Real Beowulf

Beowulf, it is one of the most important and most often translated, published and realized works of Old Anglo-Saxon literature . But did he really live or were all his deeds only the fantasies of an anglo-saxon poet or is it based on real events?

It is now a fact that the story didn` t actually take place in England but in
the original homeland of the Anglo-Saxons, i.e. in Northern Germany and modern Denmark.

But what do the Northern European and Scandinavian sources say about this “Beowulf”, such a famous hero like him must have left his mark on the continental homeland of the Anglo-Saxons.

It is astonishing that in the Scandinavian sources you can find almost all of the secondary characters from the poem Beowulf such as King Hrothgar his nephew Hrolf etc, but Beowulf himself is missing. But there is an another saga hero named Bödvar Bjarki, the champion of the danish king Hrolf Kraki (nephew of king Hrothgar), whose deeds and adventures are so similar to Beowulf’s, that is why many scholars now say that these two
characters must be identical. even the hero’s names are almost identical:

Beowulf: Bee-wolf, a kenning for Bear.
Bödvar Bjarki: Warlike Little-Bear

The scandinavian sources portray a more realistic version of the story of Beowulf (alias Bödvar Bjarki) and is untouched by christian point of view and its moral concepts.

My story is a historical fiction based on Old Norse Poem “Bjarkamál”, Icelandic rhyme “Bjarkarimur” and Hrólfr Kraki’s Saga, not a fantasy story like the well-known Beowulf. This old sagas relate to the adventures of the great warrior Bödvar Bjarki and the clan wars between the Migration Period Danes, Swedes and the Geats.

This is the story of Bödvar Bjarki, with the greatest probability the real Beowulf!