<P> The majority view appears to be that people such as King Hroðgar and the Scyldings in Beowulf are based on historical people from 6th - century Scandinavia . Like the Finnesburg Fragment and several shorter surviving poems, Beowulf has consequently been used as a source of information about Scandinavian figures such as Eadgils and Hygelac, and about continental Germanic figures such as Offa, king of the continental Angles . </P> <P> 19th - century archaeological evidence may confirm elements of the Beowulf story . Eadgils was buried at Uppsala according to Snorri Sturluson . When the western mound (to the left in the photo) was excavated in 1874, the finds showed that a powerful man was buried in a large barrow, c. 575, on a bear skin with two dogs and rich grave offerings . The eastern mound was excavated in 1854, and contained the remains of a woman, or a woman and a young man . The middle barrow has not been excavated . </P> <P> The protagonist Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel . Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands and Grendel's mother with a giant's sword that he found in her lair . </P> <P> Later in his life, Beowulf becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound . He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed . Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose name means "remnant of valour", dares to join him . Beowulf finally slays the dragon, but is mortally wounded in the struggle . He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour . </P>

Who was the first king of the danes in beowulf