A graphic description of the burial of Scyld in his ships by his gesiths is a fitting introduction to the poem. Let us mark in passing that the word mægd evidently may mean a much wider kindred than the near family of a great-grandfather’s descendants (the Welsh gwely). One mægd conquers another and makes it pay tribute.
Again the word gesith evidently includes, with members of the near kin, such others, not necessarily blood relations, as may have joined the warrior band of the hero. They may or may not have been adopted into his kindred in becoming his men, but this extension of comradeship or kinship, as the case may be, to these gesiths adds to the greatness and power of his mægd.
SCYLD | BEOWULF | HEALFDENE | HEOROGAR { HEOROWEARD The great- | (not of | The father | (61 and { (2162) grandfather | the story) | | 467) { | The great- | | | grandfather | +-HROTHGAR { HRETHRIC | The { (1190, | Scylding { 1837) | m. { | Wealtheow { HROTHMUND | (61 and { | 613) { FREAWARE | { (2023) +-HALGA | (youngest { HRODULF | son) (61) { (1018, 1165, | { 1182) | +-ELAN { ONELA | daughter { | presumably { | married to { | Ongentheow { OTHERE | the { ‘sister’s { EANMUND | Scylfing { sons’ to { 2929 | (62-63) { Hrothgar { | { 2929 { EADGIL | { { 239
[Sidenote: Hrothgar the great-grandson of Scyld.]
The opening episode of the burial of Scyld is followed by a few lines which reveal something of the pedigree of his descendant Hrothgar the Scylding. The pedigree of Hrothgar, in true tribal fashion, makes Scyld his great-grandfather. He is ‘Hrothgar the Scylding,’ may we not say, _because_ Scyld was his great-grandfather, just as Hengist and Horsa were _Oiscings_ according to Bede, who in stating their pedigree makes _Oisc_ their great-grandfather, and just as in the Welsh surveys the gwelys still bear the great-grandfather’s name though he be long dead, because the gwely hangs together till the fourth generation.
So far as it goes here is at least an indication that the nearer kindred (or gwely) might be much the same thing both in Celtic and Teutonic tribes.
But Hrothgar is not described only as chieftain of his nearer kindred. Success in arms had made him head of many _winemâgas_ (blood friends) and he was surrounded by a mighty _mago-dright_ (band of kin). He had built himself a famous _folk-stede_, or hall, called ‘Heort,’ and all had gone well with him till the monster Grendel came upon the scene.