Yrsa
The general nucleus of her character arc is that incestual sexual relations occur between her and her father, Halga, both of them at first ignorant of their kinship.
[2] In Hrólfr Kraki's saga, Helgi (i.e. Halga) went to the Saxons wanting to woo their warlike Queen Oluf.
She was, however, not interested and humiliated Helgi by shaving his head and covering him with tar, while he was asleep, and sending him back to his ship.
Yrsa was sent to live as a shepherd, until she was 12 years old, when she met her father Helgi who fell in love with her, not knowing it was his daughter.
Learning that Helgi and Yrsa lived happily together, Queen Oluf travelled to Denmark to tell her daughter the truth.
Yrsa was naturally upset that the man who was closest to her was killed by her husband, and promised Aðils that his berserkers would all be slain if she could help it.
Later, when a young Swedish warrior named Svipdag arrived to test his skills, she greatly supported him in his fights with the berserkers who eventually were all slain.
In Sweden, Yrsa and Adillus married their Scullda to the king of Öland, Hiørvardus (also called Hiorvardus and Hevardus, and who corresponds to Heoroweard in Beowulf).
As her half-brother Rolfo was not consulted about this marriage, he was infuriated and he attacked Öland and made Hiørvardus and his kingdom tributary to Denmark.
Rolfo came to Uppsala and after some adventures he could flee with Adillus' gold, helped by his mother Yrsa, and he "sowed" it on the Fyrisvellir.
This account differs from Hrólf Kraki's saga in the respect that Yrsa was first peacefully married to Eadgils, and later captured by Halga, who raped her and made her pregnant with Hroðulf.
Snorri relates that Aðils betook himself to pillage the Saxons, whose king was Geirþjófr and queen Alof the Great.
The king and consort were not at home, and so Aðils and his men plundered their residence at ease driving cattle and captives down to the ships.
When the boy was three years of age, Yrsa's mother, Queen Alof of Saxony, came to visit her and told her that her husband Helgi was her own father.
Horrified, Yrsa returned to Aðils, leaving her son behind, and stayed in Sweden for the rest of her life.
They brought the ships to the river Fyris and rode directly to the Swedish king's hall at Uppsala with his twelve berserkers.
Yrsa arrived and gave them a horn full of gold, the ring Svíagris and asked them to flee.
The Chronicon Lethrense (and the included Annales Lundenses) tells that one day, the Danish king Helghe arrived in Halland/Lolland[note 2] and slept with Thore, the daughter of one of Ro's farmers.
One day during his sea roving, arrived at Thurø, where he found and raped the young girl Thora, who became pregnant with Urse.
However, he then chose to commit suicide due to his shame for his incestuous relationship with Urse, and their son Roluo Kraki succeeded him.
When the banquet had lasted for three days, Urse and Roluo escaped from Uppsala, early in the morning in carriages where they had put all the Swedish king's treasure.
Yrse is here called Urse, and the story of her son fleeing the Swedish king with all his treasure is also found in the following accounts.
Name spellings are derived from Oliver Elton's 1905 translation, The First Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus, via Wikisource.
The poem Beowulf reads (lines 59–63): 59 Ðæm feower bearn forðgerimed 60 in worold wocun weoroda ræswa 61 heorogar.
7 hroðgar 7 halga til 62 hyrde ic ꝥ elan cwen 63 heaðo-Scilfingas healsgebeddaThis appears in Gummere's translation as: 59 Then, one after one, there woke to him, 60 to the chieftain of clansmen, children four: 61 Heorogar, then Hrothgar, then Halga brave; 62 and I heard that – ela's queen, 63 the Heathoscylfing's helpmate dear.There is obviously something wrong with line 62.
It is likely enough that at some time in copying the poem a scribe was unable to make out the exact spelling of these names and so left the text blank at that point to be fixed up later.
The choice is usually the name Yrs or Yrse, since Scandinavian tradition speaks much of Yrsa the granddaughter of Healfdene and wife of King Eadgils of Sweden.
