Béowulf Ecgþéowing

Béowulf Ecgþéowing (born summer 496) was a Géatish æþeling, the son of Ecgþéow Wǽgmundinga and Hild Hréþling. In the summer of 515 Béowulf's uncle sent him to Denmark to die at the hands of the creature Grendel. By a stroke of luck, Béowulf not only survived, he slew the creature, and defeated Grendel's mother as well, making him a hero.

Etymology
Béowulf is derived from Old English béo "bee" + wulf "wolf". "Béowulf" is a kenning for "bear".

Lineage
Béowulf is an æþeling from the Hréþling family by way of his mother, the daughter of a king, and a member of the Wǽgmunding family by way of his father.

Early Life
Béowulf was born in the Scylding King Hróðgár's house in Denmark to Ecgþéow Wǽgmundinga and Hild Hréþling in the summer of 496. He was raised by his mother and father in Denmark until he was seven years old.

When he was seven years old, Béowulf attended the Yule feast of 503 at Heorot with his parents, until Grendel attacked, and he was forced to evacuate with the other survivors of the attack. The following day Béowulf's father died taking Heorot back from Grendel, and his mother thereafter took him to live with his uncle in Geatland.

Growing up in Geatland
The attack in 503 and his father's death gave Béowulf constant nightmares, which inspired him to learn the art of sídsa in order to banish them. He continued to practice sídsa in secret for the sake of personal recreation.

In the year 504 Béowulf witnessed his mother be attacked with sídsa. She was mostly unharmed, but very shaken by the attack.

Béowulf showed effeminate tendencies from a young age, which his mother tolerated less and less as he grew older. After the sídsa attack his mother became hypervigilant and suspected Béowulf of performing sídsa, and distrusted him. She forced him to act like a "man", and abused him emotionally and eventually physically. Béowulf was also emotionally abused by his uncle for the same reasons, so he spent most of his time alone and was more or less ignored by everyone around him, except for his cousin and best friend Halga, who sympathized with his problems with gender.

At the age of 15, Béowulf started dating Breca Béanstáning in secret, and Béowulf's mother suspected him of earg as well as sídsa. In the middle of the night, she tried to strangle him in his sleep, and was stopped by her sister-in-law. Thereafter, his mother was separated from Béowulf.

Breakup with Breca
In the summer of the year 515, Breca took Béowulf on a stolen ship ride to the island of the Brondingas, his family. Béowulf thought it was just another prank, but Breca eventually told him that he was actually planning on taking Béowulf to a new home he bought, where they could live together. Béowulf was upset by this because he didn't agree to it, and because the money for the land was probably plundered on a raid Breca went on with his father. They argued about this when a storm came, and for the next seven days they found themselves lost at sea. The creatures of the sea threatened them, and Béowulf had no choice but to protect Breca and himself with sídsa until they were finally able to reach the shore.

Breca didn't take well to the discovery that Béowulf used sídsa. He accused Béowulf of earg, and Béowulf accused Breca of becoming hardened and turned cruel by the wícing campaign he had gone on. The two covered up what happened with the story that they stole a ship to have a contest on the sea, and they never talked to each other again.

Outburst at the Þing
Béowulf was deeply heartbroken after he broke up with Breca. He sought comfort from Halga, and would often travel to Halga's home to talk to him. On one of these visits, Beowulf's cousin and Halga's brother Heardréd rode all the way to retrieve Béowulf, and when he arrived, lost his breath, as he had an illness that took his breath away when he exercised. Béowulf saved his life by immediately having him put in a steam bath, since the steam helped him breathe, and in return Heardréd gave Béowulf his place in the upcoming Þing, since he himself would be too ill to go.

At the Þing, Béowulf was expected to just stay quiet and agree with Hygelác, but when they started talking about a wícing raid on Frisia and the Frankish coast he couldn't, especially because they were planning on having him go on the raid in the place of Heardréd. He protested, saying that the idea was barbaric, and he won't be a part of it, upsetting the other lawmakers. Hygelác removed him from the Þing at once, and lectured him in private about making a fool of the family. Halga volunteered to go on the raid in Béowulf's place, and Hygelác decided he had a better use for Béowulf.

The Denmark Incident
Hygelác sent Béowulf to Denmark to face the monster Grendel, and die. He expected he would get to collect Béowulf's wergild from Hróðgár, the king of the Danes, who would feel obligated to pay it.

Béowulf certainly would have died if not for Hróðgár's daughter Hrút, who involved him and his sídsa in an elaborate plan to kill Grendel.

Unferð Ecgláfing, whose younger brother was the same age as Béowulf when Grendel killed him, also tried to help--by taunting Béowulf at the feast to make him look like a fool and have the Danes reconsider letting him challenge Grendel. The taunt backfired horribly when Béowulf accused Unferð of killing his brother, and he faced Grendel anyway.

Against Grendel, Hrút's plan succeeded: Béowulf used sídsa to channel the spirits of thirty slain by Grendel, and used their strength to tear the arm from Grendel's shoulder, killing him and making him a hero.

Because of the sídsa, Unferð thought he saw his little brother in Béowulf that night, which astonished him so he told Béowulf about how his brother's body disappeared, and he agreed to help him figure out what happened to him.

No one discovered Béowulf's sídsa until the night after Béowulf killed Grendel. Béowulf was outside talking alone with Æschere, Hróðgár's closest companion, when Grendel's mother appeared, killed the man with sídsa, and disappeared, leaving Béowulf alone with his body and framing him for the murder.

The Scyldingas sentenced Béowulf to death by hanging, and his body to be sacrificed in the bog as in the days of old. Béowulf miraculously survived the hanging, he merely went unconscious, and Hrút rescued him from the bog just in time.

As Hrút was starting to take Béowulf to the inlet where he would be put on a ship and borne away, Ides, Grendel's mother intercepted her and captured Béowulf.

Ides took Béowulf to her home, and allowed him to take a bath and eat his fill of dinner, and sleep in a bed.

Ides treated Béowulf relatively civilly until the next day, when Ides tested his skills in sídsa, and he questioned Ides's involvement in the disappearance of the body of Anir, Unferð's brother. Ides lost her temper and abused Béowulf.

The next several days were torturous for Béowulf. He wouldn't speak of what actually happened during those days, except that he'd withdrawn from reality to revisit his own memories with the spirit of Anir.

Finally, one day he raised spindle and distaff against Ides, and challenged her to a duel to the death with sídsa. This fantastic battle lasted for hours, until finally he smashed open her head with the pommel of a stolen blade.

Béowulf lost his arm in that battle--Ides had broken it and Unferð had to amputate it. After he was healed, Béowulf became blood brothers with Hrút and Unferð under the turf arch, and at last returned home.

Physical Description
Béowulf was designated male at birth. He was smaller than most people his age, short and thin, with no muscle definition, and a small soft face. He was blond, light-skinned, blue-eyed and freckled, and wore his hair very long, which he normally kept in a braid, and he normally kept his face clean-shaven. He'd grown his hair for twelve years, ever since his father died. He was left-handed, although he lost his left arm below the elbow to Ides.

Personality
Béowulf had always been a quiet and introverted individual, and good-natured. He was never interested in valor or glory, only peace and quiet, and self-care. He morally opposed raids and slavery, and bumped heads a lot with his society's views on gender. All of this made most people not like him, but that's okay because he didn't like them back.

His history with his mother and uncle made him very distrusting of others, and he only came to be more distrusting after the incident in Denmark. It took a lot for him to trust anybody, so if someone did something to break his trust, he was utterly heartbroken, like with Breca.

He struggled with anxiety and depression and had a history of suicidal ideation.

Béowulf was male, but his gender was also fluid, meaning that it changed from time to time. Often he didn't really feel male, he felt "stuck between male and female", and sometimes his gender bordered on being female, or being a mix. When he faced Ides, he felt truly female for the first time in his life.

Abilities
Béowulf started learning to sing and play the lyre when he was a small child in Denmark, and he developed that ability ever since. If strange things hadn't happened in his life, he probably would have gone on to become a scop.

Like most æþeling boys, Béowulf was taught to use the sword and spear and to ride, but the only skill he ever enjoyed and retained was riding. His teachers gave up on teaching him other skills.

At the age of seven, Béowulf had nightmares from Grendel's attack, and they did not go away until, inspired by his aunt's spinning, he took up sídsa in secret, and used it to banish the nightmares. Spinning sídsa was good for his mental health overall, and he kept on with it for the rest of his life. He didn't become a master of it, though, until during his fight against Ides, when he spun without fiber for the first time.