Bodvar Bjarki: The Forgotten Source of Beowulf? | Old Norse

There is a bear hiding in the oldest English poem. Not a metaphor, not a symbol. A literal shape-shifting bloodrinking bear warrior whose story predates Beaolf by centuries and whose shadow falls across every line of that manuscript. His name was Bother Biaki, warlike little bear. And if you want to understand where Bearwolf came from, you need to meet him first. So, this is going to be a new format for these kinds of videos. So, it's going to be all voice, no face. So, let's just get on with it, shall we? So, Beaywolf

scholars have argued about the name for 200 years. If you can call anything in Anglo-Saxon studies a consensus, is that it's a canning, a poetic riddle. Bale wolf, beewolf. What hunts bees? What raids hives and doesn't give a damn about the stings? Yep, a bear. Now, let's sail north across the gray waters to Iceland, where monks and farmers wrote down the old stories before they could rot away. There you'll find the saga of King Ralph Kraki, the 14th century text built on the oral traditions stretching back to the migration period, that bloody half-remembered era when the Roman Empire was a corpse and the Germanic warlords carved it to pieces. And in that saga, you'll meet Bother Baki. Bother from bo battle barky little bear no riddle no kenning the north didn't really bother with subtlety his name means battle little bear the curse so

bother's father was a prince named bern which means bear his mother was bearer which means she bear subtle as an ax in the skull I guess stepmother was a lapis sorceress named fit when the king went raiding she made her move on the prince he slapped her and threw her out. She struck him with a wolfkinned glove and spoke the curse. You will become a cave bear, grim and savage. You will eat no food other than your own father's livestock. The cruelty wasn't the transformation. It was the awareness. Beyond would remember being human while he tore through the herds like a gray nightmare. But curses have loopholes. At night, Bejorn would regain his form. Bearer found him by his eyes. They were human eyes in a beast's skull. She followed him to this cave. They stole what time they could. When the hunters came, Bejon told her about the ring under his shoulder, about the children she carried, and the one thing she must never do. Don't eat the bear's flesh.

Now the sons. Vit forced bearer to eat. Just a few mouthfuls, but it was enough. And she had three sons. The first elk throd, human above the navl, elk below. Then for a hounds foot, handsome but with dog's feet. And then bother Byaki, no visible blemish, the one Bearer loved most. When Bother learned the truth, he didn't negotiate. He didn't accept the king's offers of gold and titles. He dragged Vit through every street in the kingdom until she stopped breathing. The saga notes, "Most who watched thought it was only half of what she deserved. " The

Hall of Bones. Bother headed for Denmark, for King Rav's court at Elder. the most splendid hall in the north. He found a wretch called Hot cowering in a pile of bones. The king's retainers threw scraps at him during the mills. Sometimes the bones broke skin. Hot had built himself a shield wall from the refu. Bother yanked him out. You and your shield wall are pathetic. He washed hot in the lake, seated him at the benches. When the retainers through knucklebone, bother caught it and hurled it back with such force it killed them. King Rudolph didn't punish him. He recognized what he was looking at. The

monster. A creature had terrorized Helderard for two winters. Wings, fire. No weapon could bite it. Champions went out. None returned. On your leave, Bob dragged the terrified heart into the dark. Found the beast. His sword stuck in the scabbard, resisting, perhaps knowing this would count, but he drove it home under the creature's shoulder. It was in the sword's nature that it could never be drawn without causing the death of a man. Only three times in its owner's life could the weapon be urged to action. Then he made Hot drink the monster's blood and eat the heart. For a while, Hot was unwilling, although certainly he dared do nothing else. They wrestled. Hop discovered he'd become strong. Bother propped up the dead monster. And when the king called for a champion, Hop volunteered. He killed the already dead beast in front of everyone. Ralph saw through it, honored the transformation. Anyway, it seems to me that your finest achievement is that you have made hot into another champion. He renamed the wretchi and gave him his seats among the warriors.

The bear returns. Bother became Though's greatest champion. Married the king's daughter. Drove out the berserkers. urged Rolf to reclaim his inheritance from the treacherous king Adil. But doom was already written. Ral's half sister, Scold, daughter of the elfwoman, steeped in sorcery, raise an army of the living and the dead, attacking at Yol. During the battle, something impossible happened. A great bear advanced in front of King Hov's troop. It killed more men with its paw than any five champions. Blows and missiles glanced off the animal. father wasn't on the field. He sat motionless in the king's chamber while his fiolia, his fetch, his spirit bear, fought in his place. Then Hiy went looking for his friend, found him sitting idle, accused him of cowardice. Both arose. The bear vanished. You have not been as helpful to your king as you think. It was nearly decided which side had gained the victory. Without the bear, skilled unleashed everything. The Walking Dead, a monstrous boar, magic that turned the tide. Both fought anyway, hued with both hands until his shoulders ran red. His last words were a curse to Odin, that fickle bastard who gives victory and takes it away. If someone would only point him out to me, I would squeeze him like a detestable puny mouse. He fell beside his king. It's important to understand at this point that Ardil and Aless from the Beaolf poem are kind of the same person. If you look at the poem, the Beaywolf poem between lines 2379 to 2396, you will see this passage which effectively talks about a battle on a lake of ice which takes place also in the saga of King Ralph Kraki. So there's yeah just more similarities between the beaywolf and bothery. Speaking of

similarities, so let's just throw out a couple of similarities between the two. So bother warlike little bear and beaolf means bear in a canning. The origin land of the gs land of the gorts. Uh the journey bother went across to Denmark and so did beaolf. The monster bother kills creature no weapon can harm. And of course, Beaolf kills Grindle. No sword can bite. And um the dynasty serves the scolding king Rolf. And um Beaywolf serves the shielding king Hofgar. And when we look at the names of both andgar is also referred to as in um in other texts and is also referred to as um in other texts. And of course, Thor is in the saga of King Raf Kraki. And Kof is Kofgar's nephew in Beaowolf. He appears, I think, for a tiny little bit of time in the feast after Beowolf kills Grundle's mother. Yeah, there are too many parallels for this to be just a coincidence. Uh, the stories share a common ancestor, something older than both, carried across the North Sea to the Germanic tribes who became the English and of course settled in Iceland. Folklorists call it the bear's son tale, a hero born of a woman and a bear. Extraordinary strength, monster in the hall, visions appear across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. And of course, there is a betrayal involved in the old bear stun stories as well. But the Anglo-Saxons who composed Bale stripped away the explicit bare magic, the transformations, the fetch, the curses. Christianity had made shape-shifting suspect. They kept the bones and changed the flesh. What remains is a hero whose name means bear, fighting a monster in a hall, serving a Danish king, dying against a creature of fire. The bear is still there. You just have to know where to look. If you're enjoying this new look for these videos, please don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave a comment. I want you to comment on how these videos are doing compared to where they used to be. I'm asking for validation. So, please go validate me. So, why does all

this matter? Beaywolf survives in a single manuscript nearly destroyed in the fire in 1731. The saga of King Rolf Kraki was written down centuries later, drawing on traditions that stretch back to the same dark age. Between them, they preserve fragments of a story that was old when Rome fell. Boaki and Beaywolf aren't the same character, but they are brothers. Sons of the same narrative tradition, shaped by different cultures, preserved by a different accident of history. The Bayer Hero crossed the North Sea with the tribes who became the English and of course the Icelandic. Survived the conversions, survived the conquests, nearly burned in a fire at Ashurnham House and was saved by a librarian's quick hands. He's still here, still fighting monsters in the dark. You just have to know his other names.