From: ikpeylough
Message: 11870
Date: 2001-12-18
--- In cybalist@..., "malmqvist52" <malmqvist52@...> wrote:
> I found at least one author who think the Beowulf Geats should be
> equated with the Getae: Jane Acomb Leake 'The geats of Beowulf' Un.
> of Wisc. press 1967.
>
> In it I find the quote from Monstrorum:
> The translation:
> And there are [monsters] of marvelous size: for instance, King
> Hygelac (Huiglaucus my ins.) who ruled the Getae (Getis, my ins.)
> and was killed by the franks . His horse could not carry him for
> the time he was twelve years old. His bones are preserved on an
> island in the Rhinewhere it rushes into the ocean and are exhibited
> as a miracle to those who come from afar.
>
> As Leake also writes this description of Hygelac as a huge strong
> man (monster)makes it probable that the Monstrorum writer
> deliberately want to associate the people of Hycelac with the
> Getae, since they also are associated with the featurs big and
> strong. He also uses the sources Virgil Augustine and Isidore, all
> of whom make reference to the Getae.
> "Since he wrote at least a few generation after Hygelac's death it
> might well have seemed to him that Hygelac ruled when the Danes
> could yet be called Getes, the ancient and powerful people from
> whom they were descended." Leake also writes.
>
> Best wishes
> Anders