  hygelac (; ; ; (lexicon of nordic personal names before the 8th century); from hyg "courage" and -lac. ; died  521) was a king of the geats according to the poem beowulf, which gives his genealogy: according to beowulf, he was the son of hrethel and had two brothers herebeald and hÃ¦pcyn and an unnamed sister who was married to ecgtheow and mother of the hero beowulf. hygelac was married to hygd and they had their son heardred, and an unnamed daughter who married eofor. when hygelac's brother hÃ¦thcyn was fighting with the swedes, hygelac arrived one day too late at hrefnesholt to save his brother herebeald, but managed to rescue the surviving geatish warriors, who were besieged by the swedish king ongentheow and his three sons. the swedes found refuge at a hill-fort but were assaulted by the geats. in the battle, the swedish king was slain by eofor. after the death of his brother herebeald, hygelac ascended the geatish throne. hygelac then went on a viking raid to frisia and was killed. hygelac was succeeded by heardred, according to beowulf. the raid to frisia enabled n. f. s. grundtviggrundtvig produced the first translation of beowulf into a modern language, bjovulfs drape (1820). to approximate the date of hygelac's death to ca 516, because a raid to france under a king chlochilaicus, king of the danes is mentioned by gregory of tours. in that source he appears as invading the frankish kingdoms during the reign of theodericus i (died 534), the son of clovis ("chlodovechius"), the king of the franks in the early sixth century, and was killed by a military force led by theodebertus, the son of theodocius. gregory of tours calls this king chlochilaicus danish. at the latin library he is called the king of getae (rex getarum) in the liber monstrorum and king of the goths (rege gotorum) in liber historiae francorum.all three sources in latin and in english translation there are two 
6th-century_monarchs_in_Europe Characters_in_Beowulf English_heroic_legends Kings_of_the_Geats