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{{Short description|Character from Anglo-Saxon religion}}
[[File:BarleyFields.jpg|thumb|A field of [[barley]] in [[England]]]]
'''Beowa''', '''Beaw''', '''Bēow''' {{IPA|ang|beːow|}}, '''Beo''' or '''Bedwig''' is a figure in [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|Anglo-Saxon traditional religion]] associated with [[barley]] and [[agriculture]]. The figure is attested in the [[Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies]] as they were extended in the [[Alfred the Great|age of Alfred]], where Beowa is inserted as the son of [[Scyld]] and the grandson of [[Sceafa]], in lineages carried back to [[Adam]].<ref>Kathleen  Herbert, ''Looking for the Lost Gods of England'', 1994:15, noted by John Grigsby, ''Beowulf & Grendel''2005:64.</ref> Connections have been proposed between the figure of Beowa and the hero [[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]] of the poem of the [[Beowulf|same name]] and English folk song figure [[John Barleycorn]].

==Etymology==
''Beoƿ'' is an [[Old English language|Old English word]] for barley. In the Anglo-Saxon genealogies, Beoƿa is the son or grandson of [[Sceafa]], the Old English word for [[wikt:sheaf|sheaf]]. The noun ''beoƿ'' has an [[Old Norse]] parallel in ''Bygg'', the word for "grain." Related comparisons  have been made between the figure of Beoƿ and [[Byggvir]], attested in the ''[[Prose Edda]]'' as a servant of the god [[Freyr]].<ref name=ALEXANDER28>Alexander (2002:28).</ref>

==Theories==
Some scholars posit a connection between the mythical figure of Beowa and the legendary Beowulf. As the two characters possess many of the same attributes, it has been suggested that "a god Beowa, whose existence in myth is certain, became confused or blended with Beowulf."<ref name=LAWRENCE249>Lawrence (1909:249).</ref>

Another possibility is that the (first) scribe responsible for the Beowulf text conflated two names. At the beginning of the poem, there is a character called Beowulf, the son of [[Scyld Scefing]], but this character is '''not''' the Beowulf who is the protagonist of the poem. Rather than accepting that there are two different characters with this unusual name, many modern editions of the poem replace this name with "Beow".<ref>"Ðā wæs on burgum&nbsp;&nbsp;Bēowulf Scyldinga", translated "Then it fell to Beow to keep the forts". (Heaney, ''Beowulf: a new verse translation'', 2000:4/5).</ref> [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], one of the proponents of reading "Beow" here, suggested that the use of "Beowulf" as Scyld Schefing's son was a scribal error for the original "Beow", noting that the two scribes who produced the Beowulf manuscript were "both extremely ignorant of and careless with proper names", and called the occurrence of "Beowulf" in this place in the manuscript "one of the oddest facts in Old English literature" and "one of the reddest and highest red herrings that were ever dragged across a literary trail".<ref>{{cite book|last=Tolkien|first=J.R.R.|title=Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HTgpAwAAQBAJ|year=2014|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=9780544442795|page=148}}</ref>

Kathleen Herbert draws a link between Beowa and the figure of [[John Barleycorn]] of traditional English folksong. Herbert says that Beowa and Barleycorn are one and the same, noting that the folksong details the suffering, death, and resurrection of Barleycorn, yet also celebrates the "reviving effects of drinking his blood."<ref name=HERBERT16>Herbert (2007:16).</ref>

Beowa has also been connected to the figure of Bjárr or Bjórr, who appears in the ''[[Kálfsvísa]]'' (in which he rides a horse called Blakkr, or Black) and the ''[[Bjarkarímur]]'' (in which he is the grandfather of [[Bödvar Bjarki]], who has been separately connected with the hero [[Beowulf (hero)|Beowulf]]).<ref>Grant, Tom (October 2022). "[https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263675122000023 Beow in Scandinavia]". ''Anglo-Saxon England'' 48 (2019): 105–20.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Byggvir]]
* [[Beyla]]
* [[Corn dolly]]
* [[Sif]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
{{refbegin}}
*Bruce, Alexander (2002). ''Scyld and Scef: Expanding the Analogies''. [[Routledge]].
*Herbert, Kathleen (1994, 2007). ''Looking for the Lost Gods of England''. Anglo-Saxon Books. {{ISBN|1-898281-04-1}}
*[[William Witherle Lawrence|Lawrence, William Witherle]] (1909). "Some Disputed Questions in Beowulf-Criticism" PMLA, Vol. 24, No. 2
{{refend}}
{{Clear}}
{{Anglo-SaxonPaganism}}

[[Category:Anglo-Saxon paganism]]
[[Category:Germanic mythology]]