Hygelac
E498909
Hygelac is the legendary king of the Geats and uncle to the hero Beowulf in the Old English epic poem.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hygelac canonical | 10 |
| Hygelāc | 1 |
| king of the Geats | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5094180 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hygelac Context triple: [Geats, heroAssociated, Hygelac]
-
A.
Hrothmund
Hrothmund is a legendary Danish prince from the Old English epic Beowulf, known as one of King Hrothgar’s sons and a member of the Scylding royal line.
-
B.
Sigfrid of Sweden
Sigfrid of Sweden was an English missionary bishop and saint traditionally credited with helping to introduce and spread Christianity in early medieval Sweden.
-
C.
Hrothgar
Hrothgar is the aging Danish king in the Old English epic poem "Beowulf," renowned for his once-great warrior past and his troubled rule over Heorot, the hall plagued by the monster Grendel.
-
D.
Alfrid
Alfrid is a masculine given name of Germanic origin, commonly associated with medieval and fantasy settings.
-
E.
Ulf
Ulf is a masculine given name of Germanic origin, commonly used in German and Scandinavian countries.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hygelac Target entity description: Hygelac is the legendary king of the Geats and uncle to the hero Beowulf in the Old English epic poem.
-
A.
Hrothmund
Hrothmund is a legendary Danish prince from the Old English epic Beowulf, known as one of King Hrothgar’s sons and a member of the Scylding royal line.
-
B.
Sigfrid of Sweden
Sigfrid of Sweden was an English missionary bishop and saint traditionally credited with helping to introduce and spread Christianity in early medieval Sweden.
-
C.
Hrothgar
Hrothgar is the aging Danish king in the Old English epic poem "Beowulf," renowned for his once-great warrior past and his troubled rule over Heorot, the hall plagued by the monster Grendel.
-
D.
Alfrid
Alfrid is a masculine given name of Germanic origin, commonly associated with medieval and fantasy settings.
-
E.
Ulf
Ulf is a masculine given name of Germanic origin, commonly used in German and Scandinavian countries.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Geatish king
ⓘ
legendary king ⓘ literary character ⓘ mythological figure ⓘ |
| appearsIn | Beowulf ⓘ |
| associatedPlace | southern Scandinavia ⓘ |
| associatedWith | Beowulf’s youth and early exploits ⓘ |
| characterTrait |
brave
ⓘ
generous ⓘ |
| characterType | ring-giver ⓘ |
| conflictWith | Frisians ⓘ |
| culture | Geats ⓘ |
| deathContext | slain during a raid in Frisia ⓘ |
| deathInBeowulf | killed in battle ⓘ |
| ethnicity | Geat ⓘ |
| family | House of Hrethel ⓘ |
| father | Hrethel ⓘ |
| fatherOf | Heardred ⓘ |
| giftsType | treasure and land ⓘ |
| givesTo | Beowulf ⓘ |
| historicalAssociation | identified by some scholars with the historical Chlochilaicus ⓘ |
| historicalMention | possibly referenced by Gregory of Tours ⓘ |
| kingdom | Geatland ⓘ |
| languageOfSource | Old English ⓘ |
| literaryFunction | lord and patron of Beowulf ⓘ |
| literaryStatus | central supporting character in Beowulf ⓘ |
| medium | oral tradition (originally) ⓘ |
| mentionedAs | lord of the Geats ⓘ |
| nameInOldEnglish |
Hygelāc
ⓘ
linked to:
Hygelac
|
| nationalityInText | Geatish ⓘ |
| portrayedAs | good and loyal king ⓘ |
| predecessor | Hrethel ⓘ |
| preservedIn |
Nowell Codex (Beowulf manuscript)
ⓘ
linked to:
Beowulf Manuscript (Nowell Codex)
|
| reignsOver | Geatland ⓘ |
| relatedBy | maternal uncle of Beowulf ⓘ |
| relative | Beowulf ⓘ |
| roleInBeowulf | king of the Geats ⓘ |
| sibling | Beowulf’s mother ⓘ |
| sourceLanguageRegion | Anglo-Saxon England ⓘ |
| sourceTradition | Anglo-Saxon literature ⓘ |
| sourceWorkGenre | epic poem ⓘ |
| spouse | Hygd ⓘ |
| succession | predecessor of Heardred as king of the Geats ⓘ |
| successor | Heardred ⓘ |
| timePeriod | early 6th century (traditional scholarly dating) ⓘ |
| uncleOf | Beowulf ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Hygelac Description of subject: Hygelac is the legendary king of the Geats and uncle to the hero Beowulf in the Old English epic poem.
Referenced by (12)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.