Even though the histories of the early Danish monarchs are extremely confusing and of little historical value, it is essential to mention them. It will be helpful to remember how Denmark became the land of the Danes in order to comprehend their affairs. This was due to the migration of some Swedes, who called themselves Danes, from the Mälar region of Svitjod to South Jutland and their conquest of the Heruls, the indigenous inhabitants of South Jutland and Fyen.
Quickly after this, the Danish conquests continued to expand, and eventually the invaders controlled not just all of Denmark’s islands but also Scania in southern Sweden and maybe even Halland.
It is unclear when exactly this Danish invasion occurred. The incident may have occurred as early as the third century, coinciding with the earliest known presence of the Heruls on the Continent. However, Jordanes’s style of mentioning the event implies that it occurred quite recently before his own writing. Dates about 450–500 AD, after the migrations of the Jutes from Jutland and the Angles from Sleswig, seem to be the most likely options.
The Danes were certainly settled into their new homeland by the middle of the sixth century, so it stands to reason that Beowulf would represent their monarchs as powerful and steadfast descendants of an old line. They are described in this way, but Hrothgar didn’t have the same long line of mythological ancestors as modern-day Yngling’s family tree. It’s safe to assume that the Danes and their kings were relatively new to Denmark in the early sixth century.
Scyld Scefing is a legendary figure who is named among the Danish kings in Beowulf. He is the first of the Scylding dynasty and completely fictional. However, Halfdan (Healfdene), his grandson, is named in the poem, and it is with Halfdan that the true history of the Scylding dynasty starts. After Halfdan died, his two sons, Hroar or Ro (Hrothgar) and Helgi 95—whom we now know from Danish accounts of their story—ruled the realm concurrently, each assuming a piece of it.
Legend has it that Helgi fought Adils in Sweden, and that he had an incestuous marriage with his own daughter Yrsa, the great hero-king of the Scyldings, Hrolf Kraki (c. A.D. 650-700), was born of this horrible union. Hrolf’s court was located at Leire, which is today a little town close to Roskilde in Zealand. Heorot, the hall of Hrothgar, where Beowulf and Grendel faced off, was also located there. Among the kings of ancient, Hrolf Kraki had the most peaceful temperament, the most courageous spirit, and was the most beloved of all, according to Snorri (97). Saxo Grammaticus also spoke highly of him, saying,
“All the ages after him have honored his great name and the lustre of his deeds.”
His life is intertwined with a legend about the Swedes and their Yngling monarch, Adils. What follows is the account of Hrolf’s stay at Uppsala. According to Snorri’s Edda, the reason behind this was because Adils had neglected to repay Hrolf for the berserks he had borrowed from him and had also neglected to send appropriate gifts as a token of appreciation for their assistance in his battle against King Ali (Onela).
In his journey to Uppsala, Hrolf accompanied himself by twelve berserks. He and his companions were shown to their accommodations and entertained upon their arrival. Hrolf and his comrades lost their clothing when the men of King Adils piled so much wood on top of the fire. “Is it true that Hrolf Kraki and his berserks are not afraid of iron and fire?” they cried out as they mocked the Danes.
In response, Hrolf and his men sprang to their feet, threw their shields over the fire to make it burn even hotter, and then, one by one, they jumped over the fire to capture Adils’s men, who they then whipped into the fire. Afterwards, Yrsa, who is claimed to have been Adils’ wife, presented Hrolf with a horn brimming with gold and a renowned ring known as Svíagrís, and then she ordered him to leave on his horseback.
Hrolf and his men were now fleeing over the Fyris plain, but Adils and a group of Swedes pursued them. So, Hrolf threw the gold down the road, and the Swedes halted their chase to get it back. Hrolf started to run away, but Adils told them to keep riding and started to get closer to him. With the intention of giving it to Adils as a present, Hrolf snatched the ring and flung it at him. Using his spear, Adils rode up to the ring and retrieved it. Seeing Adils’s bending over, Hrolf Kraki turned around and said, “Now I have made him who is mightiest of the Swedes bent as a swine!”
The narrative is similar in the prose Edda and is recounted in the Hrólfssaga and Saxo Grammaticus, although with some expansion and changes. Each version concludes with Hrolf Kraki and his men fleeing Uppsala, so it’s possible that the stories preserve the memory of a major battle between the Swedes and the Danes near the end of the seventh century. The Danes were the aggressors in this war, but they were driven out in the end.
Even before Hrolf came to power, the Danes may have been oppressed by the Swedes. According to a strange legend, King Adils of Sweden took advantage of Denmark’s weakness following the deaths of Hroar and Helgi, imposed a dog-king on the Danes, and was effectively the political master of Denmark. This ridiculous story may have something to do with the assaults that Adils supposedly launched on the Danish shore close to Sleswig, as detailed by Saxo Grammaticus, and the battles that the sagas tell between Helgi, the Danish monarch, and this very Adils.
Traditional Danish oral history also includes accounts of monarchs from Jutland, in addition to those from Leire. Ambloth, well known across the globe as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, resided at the court of one of these kings Feng by name. After the main Jutish population migrated, it is unclear whether a long line of Jutish kings continued to rule Jutland as a separate kingdom from the eastern Danes in Scania, Zealand, and the islands. This is because the Jutish chieftains who held the thrones in Jutland may have gained temporary independence from the Leire king through rebellion or as a gift.
It was supposedly Rorik Slenganboge, king of Leire after Hrolf Kraki, who appointed Hamlet’s father and uncle leaders of Jutland. Two further kings, Vermund and Offa, are mentioned as governing Jutland in the chronicles as well. There are accounts of two invasions on the Danish coast near Sleswig by the Swedes during Vermund’s reign, and legend has it that he was a contemporary of King Adils of Sweden. Although their names imply otherwise, it is quite likely that he and his son Offa were Angles who governed Sleswig prior to the migration of the Anglian people.
In their epic tale, the Danes recount how Offa’s personal bravery thwarted Saxon aggression by vanquishing two enemy champions on his own. However, the Danes likely thought Offa was Danish because this legendary feat was supposedly enacted on the banks of the Eider in what is now Denmark, while the earlier poem by Widsith identifies him as a prince from Anglia.