Beowulf's place of death and his lost tomb
I may have found the place of Beowulfs demise and his lost tomb.
Erik Fors 2025-11-05
I may have found the place of Beowulfs demise and his lost tomb.
Beowulf, king of the Götar, ancestors of the Goths. The Anglo-Saxon epic about his life probably
dates, experts guess, from around the 6th century AD, and it was maybe written down in England two
hundred years later.
Beowulf is min nama.“Beowulf is my name”.
In my opinion, but who am I, Beowulf does not mean “bee-wolf”. No, the prefix “beo-” appears about 122 times
in the Beowulf text if I remember correctly, and it means a bit of everything, but in one place it means “Light
Danes”, or “Beorht-Dena” in Old English.
Line 426:
“Thus, my question, oh king of the Light-Danes, …”
“Brego Beorht-Dena biddan wille, …”
Beo thus originates from the Proto-Germanic word *Beorth, corresponding to Bjärt in modern
Swedish. The attentive will note a small asterisk * by the word Beorth and this means that
linguists assess that the word should have looked like this. By Beorht-Dena one refers either to Danes
with shiny helmets or to light-blond Danish men. Beorth-Wulfaz would have been Beowulf’s name
in his lifetime, in the era when people spoke proto germanic. But all these troublesome syllables fell out
when people started speaking Old Norse and Old English.
Beowulf. A bit like Ulfberth. I guess both terms mean “Light Wolf”.
The place names.
I have not located the exact burial mound, but I read texts and observe the terrain and I do not poke in the
ground, that is the domain of archaeologists. But I believe that I have located the area where the final battle
in the Beowulf epic took place.
A little context: What else is there in Järna that is interesting? Lingaheden.
Järna is situated 44 kilometers south of Stockholm. In addition to numerous Iron Age graves, there were
also three royal mounds on Lingaheden until 1910 when the material was used for the railway. They may
have belonged to King Granmar's three sons. The Ene area and Lingaheden have a total of over 200 graves,
so Järna was once, however difficult it may be to imagine, an important place. An independent kingdom
between the Östgötar and the Sveons, or Svearna. Here lived King Granmar, the last free Uppland king,
one of whose sons married a daughter of a Göta king. We find a connection here to the royal house of the
Götar, which was possibly the Wulfings, i.e. Beowulf's family, or clan. The Wolf family. There are many
stories about the kings Granmar, Ingjald Illråde and Helge Hundingsbane, including in the Edda and
Heimskringla.
Earna Naes: Järna Näs.
Linguists believe that the name Järna comes from the word Garn, which meant cove. So be it. G has
always been pronounced in different ways, sometimes like a J as in Götar, Sverige, and Gärna. Järna has
been inhabited since the Stone Age and has always been a collection of näs or shallow coves or isthmuses
that slowly rise from the sea. Today there are place names such as Farstanäs, Näs, Näslandet, Näsbacken,
Näset, Stavsnäs, Nästäppan, Näsfjärden and Håknäs.
Line 3032:
Weorod eall aras.
Eodon unbliðe
under earna næs,
wollenteare, wundur sceawian.
The men stood up,
tearful,
and then went
to the frightening place at Järna Näs.
The Dragon Cave may provide more clues.
Line 3135:
Þæt wæs wundengold
on wæn hladen,
æghwæs unrim,
æþelinge boren,
harum hilde,
to hrones næsse.
Rolled gold thread,
on a cart was laid
In great quantity,
the nobleman was carried,
the grey-haired chief,
to Hrone's Näs (Hrones isthmus).
Mörkö
The island of Mörkö was formerly called Myrkva, or rather perhaps Myrkua, U was written with a Roman V
in ancient times. In Snorre Sturlasson's work Heimskringla, Myrkvafjordr is mentioned, the Norwegians
probably did not understand that here among us slightly more refined Götar and Svear they actually said
Fjärd. Mörkö's northern tip was called Hyrn, i.e. Horn in Old Norse, and the cape is today called Hörningsnäs.
Hörningsnäs is also found as an old farm name in Näs, or Näslandet, a few hundred meters away but on the
other side of Näsfjärden. This other Hörningsnäs is not, however, marked on maps older than the 18th century.
We put an uncertainty mark there.
According to the Beowulf text, the king wished to be laid to rest at Hronnaes, which has been interpreted as
“val-näs.” or whale-näs. I express my reservations about that interpretation. Why?
Metathesis is a phenomenon where syllables in words are shuffled and change places. You can say “permute”
and everyone thinks you understand what you are talking about.
Hross in Old Norse and Modern Icelandic means horse.
Horse in English. Hross. Horse.
We have Drit, which meant feces in Proto-Germanic and Old Norse. Dirt in English. Perhaps the word permuted
from the place name Hyrn or Horn, i.e. Hörn, to Hron in the fingers of the English writer. Because other words,
such as horse, suffered the same fate at exactly that time. Hross. Horse. Horn. Hron.
Premise 1: Words had syllables reversed during this era.
Premise 2: Hron is a word that had to be reversed to reach the modern form.
Conclusion: Hrones Naesse could be Hörnesnäs
Hrone's cape is then called Hörningsnäs today, and it is a spear throw from Järna Näs,
Ulvsundet and Ulvåsa. Where Beowulf was killed by a dragon, and where he is laid to rest. Mörkö, King
Granmar's residence with seven bronze age forts, where sailors passed by and saw Beowulf's burial mound.
A region worthy of the last resting place of the King of Göta.
What does Beowulf's gravestone look like according to the text?
Line 2806:
Hatað heaðomære
hlæw gewyrcean
beorhtne æfter bæle,
æt brimes nosan.
Se scel to gemyndum
minum leodum
heah hlifian
on hrones næsse,
þæt hit sæliðend
syððan hatan
Biowulfes Biorh,
ða ðe brentingas
ofer | floda genipu
feorran drifað.”
Ask the warriors to build me a mound,
on a hilltop by the coast, when the bonfire has burned down.
That mound shall stand on the horizon at Hörnesnäs,
a memorial for my people -
so that in times to come people under sail
will call it Beowulf's (Hill/Mountain/Tomb),
when those ships steer
over wide, foaming waters.
Line 3158:
The Götars then began to build
A burial mound on a hill, an imposing mound,
a landmark that sailors could see from afar,
and in ten days the work was finished.
It was the memorial place of their hero; what was left after the pyre
they laid there, behind a wall
as dignifiedly as they could arrange.
And they buried necklaces in the mound, and precious stones,
and a collection of things that men passing by
had formerly taken from the treasure.
Was Beowulf's king's mound at Ulvåsa?
Beowulf's Mountain might be “Beowulfas biærgh” in Old Norse. A ridge is an elongated elevation or
mountain ridge. Ulvåsa. A bow shot from Mörkö. The strait that a hypothetical arrow would fly over is
called Ulvsundet, and people rowed and sailed there if they were going to or from Lögrinn, or Lake Mälaren
as it is called today, with Birka, Helgö, Uppsala and the rest of the Swedish megacities.
The Dragon's Cave
We know that the dragon's cave must be on solid ground, because the dead Beowulf was placed on a
cart together with the treasure.
We know that the cave must be on top of a mountain.
We know that there must be water below the cave, because Beowulf's men threw the dead dragon into the
water.
We know that it was near Järna Näs.
We know that today's postal address for Grottberget is "Ernasidan 5" i.e. the side of a lake that is near Järna.
We know that Grottberget (“the countain with caves”) has a large cave system all the way up to the top of the
mountain.
We know that there has been an ancient fort, older than Beowulf, up on the top, which at some point in history
has been overturned. So there has been something to defend at the mountain.
Conclusion: Grottberget is a possible place for Beowulf's fight against the dragon and his death.
The body of the dead Beowulf and all the treasures in the dragon's cave were placed on a cart. The dragon was
tipped into the lake. The cave was located on a mountain. Everything fits on the cave mountain. From the top
you can see Hörningsnäs on Mörkö, or Hronnaes on Myrkua.
In a time when kings needed to travel for a month to visit the nearest city, then perhaps a place six hours' walk
away counted as Järna. The address indicates that you are close to Järna.
Erik Fors 2025-11-05
More photos of places to come.
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