Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Wealhþeow or Wælþeow, which should it be? We know Beowulf and Unferth have names not denoting their character, but what about Wealtheow the queen? She is a woman of nobility and freedom but yet many scholars say her name means "foreign slave" or even "slave slave." Let's clear some of this up.

Sources: Tom Shippey's Beowulf and the North Before the Vikings
Leonard Neidorf's "Wealhtheow and her Name," Neophilologus 102 (2018), 75-89.

Thumbnail art by J. R. Skelton, 1908.

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