EFL - Enciclopedia delle Famiglie Lombarde

Yrsa, Yrse, Yrs or Urse (6th century) was a tragic heroine of Scandina vian legend. She appears in several versions relating to her husband , the Swedish king Eadgils, and/or to her father and rapist/lover/husb and Halga (the younger brother of king Hroðgar who received Beowulf ) and their son Hroðulf. The consensus view is that the people surrou nding Yrsa are the same people as those found in Beowulf, and the comm on claim in Beowulf studies that Hroðulf probably was the son of Halg a is taken from the Yrsa tradition. Several translators (e.g. Burton R affel) and scholars have emended her name from a corrupt line (62) i n the manuscript of Beowulf, although this is guesswork. In the Ynglin ga saga, Snorri Sturluson describes her personality as follows (Samue l Laing's translation): “ Yrsa was not one of the slave girls, an d it was soon observed that she was intelligent, spoke well, and in al l respects was well behaved. All people thought well of her, and parti cularly the king; and at last it came to this that the king celebrate d his wedding with her, and Yrsa became queen of Sweden, and was consi dered an excellent woman. The Chronicon Lethrense (and the included A nnales Lundenses) tells that one day, the Danish king Helghe arrived i n Halland/Lolland[3] and slept with Thore, the daughter of one of Ro' s farmers. This resulted in Yrse. Much later, he met Yrse, and withou t knowing that she was his daughter, he made her pregnant with Rolf Kr age. Lastly, he found out that Yrse was his own daughter, went east an d killed himself. Ro is the same personage as Hroðgar, who receive d Beowulf at Heorot. His co-king Helghe is the same as Hroðgar's brot her Halga, and Rolf Krage is the same personage as Hroðgar's nephew H roðulf. However, in Beowulf, it is never explained in what way they w ere uncle and nephew. The Gesta Danorum (book 2) reports that Helgo w as the brother of the Danish king Ro, but whereas Ro was king of the D anish lands, Helgo had inherited the sea. One day during his sea rovin g, arrived at Thurø, where he found and raped the young girl Thora, w ho became pregnant with Urse. When Helgo after many years returned t o Thurø, Thora avenged her lost virginity by sending Urse to Helgo wh o, unknowingly raped his own daughter. This resulted in Roluo Kraki . During a Swedish invasion, Ro was killed by Hothbrodd, the king o f Sweden. Helgo avenged his brother's death and made the Swedes pay tr ibute. However, he then chose to commit suicide due to his shame for h is incestuous relationship with Urse, and their son Roluo Kraki succee ded him. Athislus, the new king of Sweden thought that the tribute t o the Daner might be smaller if he married the Danish king's mother an d so took Urse for a queen. However, after some time, Urse was so upse t with the Swedish king's greediness that she thought out a ruse to ru n away from the king and at the same time liberate him of his wealth . She encited Athislus to rebell against Roluo, and arranged so that R oluo would be invited and promised a wealth in gifts. When the banque t had lasted for three days, Urse and Roluo escaped from Uppsala, earl y in the morning in carriages where they had put all the Swedish king' s treasure. In order to lessen their burden, and to occupy any pursuin g warriors they spread gold in their path, although there was a rumou r that she only spread gilded copper. When Athislus, who was pursuin g the escapers saw that a precious ring was lying on the ground, he be nt down to pick it up. Roluo was pleased to see the king of Sweden ben t down, and escaped in the ships with his mother. This account is mor e elaborate than that of Chronicon Lethrense and Annales Lundenses. He lgo is the same personage as Helghe/Halga. His brother the Danish kin g Ro is the same as Hroðgar, Roluo is the same as Hroðulf/Rolf Krage , and the Swedish king Athislus is the same as Eadgils, the Swedish ki ng of Beowulf. Yrse is here called Urse, and the story of her son flee ing the Swedish king with all his treasure is also found in the follow ing accounts. It is noteworthy that all the Danish sources, Chronico n Lethrense, Annales Lundenses and Gesta Danorum differ on where Halg a found Yrsa, but make her Danish. The Icelandic sources that follow m ake her a Saxon, on the other hand, and not Danish. http://en.wikiped ia.org/wiki/Yrsa