The welcome feast goes on, with Hrothgar reassured that his champion can’t be knocked down by a simple insult. “The Bright-Danes’ chief/had faith in his helper; that shepherd of his folk/recognized Beowulf’s firm resolution.” (lines 608-10, Liuzza)
The Queen enters. She is the “lady of the Helmings,” who circulates among the men with a mead cup. She is playing a ceremonial role here, honoring first her husband, then other men in order of rank. She’s a political player; in a later feast we will see her making speeches with likely political goals.
Her name puzzles everyone. It means Wealh-theow, that is, “foreign slave.” That’s how the Welsh were named; they were the foreigners, from the Anglo-Saxon point of view. “Wealh” suggests a conquered foreigner, and adding “slave” or “servant” to it makes that impression stronger. What kind of name is that for a queen?
In Hrolfr Kraki’s Saga, Hrothgar is married to a princess of Northumbria with an entirely different name. What if that’s historically true and the queen was a foreigner from early Anglo-Saxon England? East Anglia had a ruling family named Wuffing, and the “Helmings” were a subset of the Wulfing tribe. There are places in East Anglia with the name “Helm,” such as “Helmingham.” Wealhtheow’s possible roots in England suggest to some scholars that the poem may have originated in the East Anglian or Northumbrian kingdoms.
Both her name and a later reference to her suggest that she is certainly a foreigner who was married to Hrothgar to settle a feud or make an alliance. Germanic princesses were raised knowing that they could be sent to live with mortal enemies. It would be their responsibility to represent their father’s power among those enemies. Naturally, the children would share both lineages, so this seemed to be the most realistic way to make peace. In the stories of Sigurd/Siegfried, this kind of marriage could work out very badly.
But the queen we see here is well-integrated with her adopted tribe. She has borne three children: a daughter, Freawaru, and two sons named Hrethric and Hrothmund. She is intent on keeping peace in her husband’s hall. She is probably much younger than he is, since he seems to be close in age to Beowulf’s father. She would have been sent to him without knowing him first; it was a job assignment. She married the position, and it was up to her to make it work. Here, she seems to be handling it well.