Fr. Klaeber, Commentary on Beowulf
Fr. Klaeber, Ed.

[1197-1201] The allusion to Hāma and Eormenrīc, though very much discussed, is only imperfectly understood.¹

Ermanaric, the great and powerful king of the East Goths, who, on the disastrous inroad of the Huns, died by his own hands (cir. 375 A.D.), became in heroic poetry the type of a ferocious, covetous, and treacherous tyrant. (Thus Deor 23: grim cyning, 22 : wylfenne geþōht, Wids. 9: wrāþes wǣlogan.) He causes the fair Swanhild to be trodden to death by horses and his son (cp. Wids. 124: Freoerīc ?) to be hanged at the instigation of his evil counselor, (ON.) Bikki (Wids. 115: Becca); he slays his nephews, the (Ger.) Harlunge (Wids. 112: Herelingas); and -- in the singularly unhistorical fashion of the later tradition -- wars upon and oppresses Theodoric, king of the East Goths, the celebrated Dietrich von Bern of German legend. Great is the fame of his immense treasure (see, e.g., Saxo viii 278), which in a MHG. epic² is stated to include the Harlungs' gold.

Hāma (MHG. Heime), usually met with in the company of Widia (or Wudga, MHG. Witege), plays a somewhat dubious part in the MHG. epics of the Theodoric cycle as a follower now of Theodoric (Dietrich) and then again of the latter's enemy Ermanaric (Ermenrich). Whether his character was originally conceived as that of a traitor or rather that of an exile, adventurer, and outlaw,³ is a mooted question.

A more or less complete knowledge of these legends among the Anglo-Saxons is to be inferred from allusions and mention of names (Dcor 21 ff., Wids. 7 ff., 18, 88 ff., 111 ff.).⁴

As to the wonderfully precious Brōsinga mene,⁵ we should naturally believe it to be the same as the ON. Brisinga men, which figures as the necklace of Freyja in the Eldei Edda (þymskviþa) and elsewhere. Reading between the lines of the Beowulf passage, we judge that Hāma had robbed Eormemīc of the famous collar. As Ermenrich had come into possession of the Harlungs' gold (see above), it has been concluded that the Brīsinga mene originally belonged to the Harlung brothers, whom (late) tradition localized in Breisach on the Rhine ('castellum vocabulo Brisahc,'⁶ not far fiom Freiburg). (In other words, the Harlungs, OE. Herelingas = Brīsingas.) Upon this unsafe basis Mullenhoff reaied an elaborate structure of a primitive sun myth about Frīja's necklace and the heavenly twins (Harlungs), which, however, compels admiration rather than acceptance.⁷

The nearest parallel to the Beowulf allusion has been found in the þidrekssaga,⁸ which relates that Heimir was forced to flee from the enmity of Eiminríkr (ch. 288), and that later he entered a monastery, bringing with him his armor and weapons as well as ten pounds in gold, silver, and costly things (ch. 429). The latter feature looks like a further step in the Christianization of the legend which is seen in its initial stage in Beowulf, l. 1201. Piobably the expression gecēas ēcne rǣd implies that Hāma became a good Christian and that he died as such.⁹ The 'bright city' to which he carried the treasure (= the monastery of the þidrekssaga), is possibly hinted at in Wids., l. 129 (see above),¹⁰ but the details of the original story are lost beyond recovery.