6. Ing, Ingvi-Freyr and Hroðgar

Chapter 6 investigates the potential significance of two of Hroðgar’s grand titles. They indicate that his people were devotees of a pagan divinity named Ing, equatable to the Freyr of Norse mythology. Pettit tentatively suggests that Hroðgar was Ing’s human representative, or possibly even his incarnation. Pettit examines the Old English evidence for illumination on the god Ing, before considering evidence suggesting that Hroðgar may have given an ancestral sword of Ing to Beowulf, who subsequently wielded it as king of the Geats.