ABSTRACT
The story of the great Geat warrior Beowulf opens by tracing the ancestry of Hrothgar, king of the Danes. Hrothgar’s great-grandfather, Scyld Scefing, survives as an infant castaway on the shores of Denmark. Healfdene’s son, Hrothgar, the fourth generation, becomes established and builds the large hall, Heorot, as a secure center for his kingdom. Hrothgar values the security of Heorot and finds within it a new sense of freedom, the freedom of this swift and free animal. Only with this great security and a new sense of freedom is Hrothgar prepared to face the painful trauma of his dissociated infancy, an infancy wrought with nearby danger and emotional pain. The patterns of response to trauma are carried into adult life, becoming the currency of our tribute. A child’s lack of vocabulary to describe feelings or what is happening aids the child in the denial of or dissociation from trauma.
