Yrsa, Yrse, Yrs or Urse (fl. 6th century) was a tragic heroine of early Scandinavian legend.
She appears in several versions relating to her husband, the Swedish king Eadgils, and/or to her father and rapist/lover/husband Halga (the younger brother of King Hrothgar who received aid from Beowulf) and their son Hrólfr Kraki. The common claim in Beowulf studies that Hrólfr Kraki probably was the son of Halga is taken from the Yrsa tradition. Several translators (e.g. Burton Raffel) and scholars have emended her name from a corrupt line (62) in the manuscript of Beowulf, although this is guesswork.
Scholarly analysis
The name Yrsa is not known from other Norse sources and may be derived from Latin Ursus ("bear"). It has been suggested that if she had any historic antecedent, she may have been Frankish and captured by Helgi in one of his raids. Scholars have noted chronological inconsistencies, in the traditions on Yrsa, in studies on whether there is a historical background. When Aðils was old enough to marry, Yrsa would already have been rather old, and they would have married for political reasons. According to a theory, she would have been the sister of Helgi, and before marrying Aðils, she would have been the wife of his brother Áli. In this way an emended line in Beowulf (1. 62) would be explained.
In the Icelandic sagas
Hrólfr Kraki's saga
In Hrólfr Kraki's saga, Helgi (i.e. Halga) went to the Saxons wanting to woo their warlike Queen Oluf. She was, however, not interested and humiliated Helgi by shaving his head and covering him with tar, while he was asleep, and sending him back to his ship. Some time later, Helgi returned and through a ruse, he kidnapped the queen for a while during which time he made her pregnant.
Having returned to her kingdom, the queen bore a child, a girl which she named Yrsa after her dog. Yrsa was sent to live as a shepherd, until she was 12 years old, when she met her father Helgi who fell in love with her, not knowing it was his daughter. Oluf kept quiet about the parentage and saw it as her revenge that Helgi would wed his own daughter. Helgi and Yrsa had the son Hrólfr Kraki (Hroðulf).
Learning that Helgi and Yrsa lived happily together, Queen Oluf travelled to Denmark to tell her daughter the truth. Yrsa was shocked and although Helgi wanted their relationship to remain as it was, Yrsa insisted on leaving him to live alone. She was later taken by the Swedish king Aðils (Eadgils) as his queen, which made Helgi even unhappier.
Missing Yrsa, Helgi went to Uppsala to fetch her, but was killed by Aðils in battle. Yrsa was naturally upset that the man who was closest to her was killed by her husband, and promised Aðils that his berserkers would all be slain if she could help it. She was no happier in the king's company and she was not interested in making up with him either. Later, when a young Swedish warrior named Svipdag arrived to test his skills, she greatly supported him in his fights with the berserkers who eventually were all slain. Svipdag chose not to remain with King Eadils and instead he sought service with Yrsa's son Hrólfr who had succeeded Helgi as the king of Denmark.
After some time, when Aðils owed Hrólfr not only the gold he had taken from Helgi during the battle, but also tribute for his help fighting king Áli (i.e. Onela of Beowulf) in the Battle on the Ice of Lake Vänern, Hrólfr arrived at Uppsala to gather his tribute. Aðils did his best to stop Hrólfr through different ruses, but had to go away to gather reinforcements. While the Swedish king was gone, Yrsa provided her son with more gold than was due to him. Then she gave Hrólfr and his men twelve of the Swedish king's best horses (Aðils was famous for his well-bred horses), and all the armour and provisions they needed.
Hrólfr took a fond farewell of his mother and departed over the Fyrisvellir. When they saw Aðils and his warriors in pursuit, they spread the gold behind themselves. Aðils saw his precious Svíagris on the ground and stooped to pick it up with his spear, whereupon Hrólfr cut his back with his sword and screamed in triumph that he had bent the back of the most powerful man in Sweden.
Later, Hrólfr was killed by his brother-in-law Hjörvarðr (i.e. the Heoroweard of Beowulf) through treason and when the battle was over Hrólfr's sister the half-elven Skuld ruled Denmark. Yrsa exacted revenge by sending a large Swedish army led by Vogg who captured Skuld before she could summon her army. Skuld was tortured to death and Hrólfr's daughters took over the rule of Denmark.