In Beowulf, who is Hrethric?

Question

In Beowulf, who is Hrethric?

Answer 1

Hrethric -  Hrothgar’s elder son, Hrethric stands to inherit the Danish throne, but Hrethric’s older cousin Hrothulf will prevent him from doing so. Beowulf offers to support the youngster’s prospect  

Answer 2

Hrethric was Hrothmund's son, and heir to half the Danish kingdom, presumably to be co-king with Hrothgar's nephew Hrothwulf.

But the story seems to look toward a civil war between Hrothwulf and Hrethric and which Heort is burned and Hrothwulf wins.

In surviving stories elsewhere, Hrothwulf, under the name Hrolf or Rolf is the greatest of the ancient Danish kings, and Hrethric is almost forgotten.

A translation giving the most complete version of Hrolf’s story is available from Penguin. See http://www.viking.ucla.edu/hrolf/ and http://books.google.ca/books?id=zx_O_WNH... . A short version of the story appears in the second half of chapter 2 of Saxo Grammaticus’ “Gesta Danorum”. The account of the youth of Rolf’s father and uncle as here ascribed to a certain Harald and Halfdan whose story is told at the beginning of book VII, see http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Danish... and http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Danish... .

Hrethric appears in the Icelandic account as Hrok, one of King Helgi’s (Halga's) foes. In Saxo Grammticus he is Rorik, a king who reigns some time after Rolf. Apparently the story of the war between Hothwulf and Hrethric has been forgotten, Halga not Hrothgar is now the king who reigns longest, and Hrethric exists as only fragmentary traditions.

Many scholars think that Beowulf who fought Grendel during the early years of Hrothwulf’’s reign according to the Old English Beowulf is identical in origin to Boðvar Bjarki of the later stories of Hrolf.