Wermund

Wermund runs to embrace his victorious son Offa. Illustration by the Danish Lorenz Frølich in a 19th-century book.

Wermund, Vermund^[1] or Garmund is an ancestor of the Mercian royal family, a son of Wihtlaeg and father of Offa. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle makes him a grandson of Woden, but the Danish histories written by Saxo Grammaticus disagree with this concept.

According to the Gesta Danorum, his reign was long and happy, though its prosperity was eventually marred by the raids of a warlike king named Athislus, who slew Frowinus, the governor of Schleswig, in battle. Frowinus's death was avenged by his two sons, Keto and Wigo, but their conduct in fighting together against a single man was thought to constitute a national disgrace, which was only reconciled by the subsequent single combat of Offa.

It has been suggested that Athislus, though called king of the Swedes by Saxo, was really identical with the Eadgils, king of the Myrgings, mentioned in Widsith, and Frowinus and Wigo are identified with the Freawine and Wig who figure among the ancestors of the kings of Wessex.

He is mentioned in lines 1958-1963 of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf as Garmund the father of Offa of Angel and grandfather of Eomer.

References

1. ↑ Tom A Shippey; Andreas Haarder (1998). Beowulf: The Critical Heritage. Routledge. pp. 301–. ISBN 978-0-415-02970-4. Retrieved 6 December 2012. 

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Transcript of Saxo's Danish History. - See Chapter 4 for description of Wermund.