The Historical Worth of Anglo-Saxon Royal Genealogies

Now of this list of seven sons only three hold water as it were.  From what the Northmen say we know that Wōden or Óðin has two sons who are his true ervewards namely Víðarr and Váli (see Vafþrúðnismál 51) and whose names alliterate with his own.  Myth would etch Þunor/Þórr, Týr/Tīw/Tīȝ, 'Balder' (thus Æthelweard spells it)/Baldr and his slayer Höðr.  Into the tale of Balder and Höðr, Hermóðr has crept who is an old Danish king, the Heremod of Bēowulf, who became such a tyrant that his own folk betrayed him to his own death.  That Hermóðr/Heremod is a son of Wōden I would gainsay, although Snorri upholds it.  He is at best one of his óskasynir "adopted sons" (see Gylfaginning 20).  Now for Víðarr,  Æthelweard writes 'Vuithar'/'Wither' ( "Hengest & Horsa filij Vuyrhtelsi, auus eorum Vuicta, & proauus eoru Vuithar, atauus quidem eorum Vuothhen, qui & rex multitudinis Barbarorum" and "Hengest, qui primus Consul & dux de Germania fuerat gentis Anglorum; cuius pater fuit Wihtgels, auus Wicta, proauus Wither, atauus Wothen, qui & rex multarum gentium, quem pagani nunc ut Deum colunt aliqui.") and puts right or rearranges Bede's order ( "duo fratres Hengist et Horsa ... Erant autem filii Uictgilsi, cuius pater Uitta, cuius pater Uecta, cuius pater Uoden, ").  Either way,  the "Anglian genealogies" make the kings of Kent and of the Dere  one and the same.  Sigegar of the Dere being the brother of Bede's Uitta or Uictgilsus on the Kentish genealogy (Æthelweard's "Vuyrhtels-" and "Vuicta").  'Wegdeg' I think is a mistake for  'Vuithar' through muddling with 'Beldag', and 'Beldag' itself is only another way of writing Balder (muddled with Swebdæȝ, whose name alone truly does end in -dæȝ) and which again Æthelweard puts right. 'Beldag' and 'Belday' are the same, and both for Balder. The kings of Wessex and Beornice also both had kings of the same stock, but it would seem that as the kings of Wessex are British in origin (Cerdic, Cynric and Ceawlin are all British names) that the kings of Beornice must have adopted them at some time and it may well be when Oswald stood sponsor for the baptism of Cynegils.  But fret not all you offspring of king Ælfred through whom you claim this descent, as he was not likely to be of this line, though it is true he himself did claim to be such.  His line clearly goes back to Ealhmund a king in Kent and would thus go to the Kentish kings if to any kings at all.   'Kaser', that is "Cæsar", is, to say the least, a desparate attempt to trace the kingly line to a "son" of Wōden.  'Saxnad' is Seaxneat and seemingly another name for Týr/Tīw/Tīȝ found only among the Saxons.  And 'Frehegeath' is for Weoðolgeot of the "Anglian genealogies" which only looks like an attempt at Geat with a prefix "Weoðol-" "wandering/hunting", the genealogies in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle rightly miss it out.  The truth is that beyond Wihtlæg ("Wiglecus" of Saxo, see Gesta Danorum 4.2.1) the father of Wermund the genealogy wasn't known, but surely went back to  the Scyld Scēfing  of Bēowulf, as the Danes later understood to do.  Angeln being a part of Denmark after all.  Not marked here is the 'Winta' from whom the kings of Lindsey were sprung and whose genealogy is in the so-called "Anglian genealogies".

And so we can see why, in a letter  dating to 797, Alcuin bemoans the want of kings of the old stock in his day:

“Et illi ipsi populi Anglorum et regna et reges dissentiunt inter se.  Et vix aliquis modo, quod sine lacrimis non dicam, ex antiqua regum prosapia invenitur, et tanto incertioris sunt originis, quanto minoris sunt fortitudinis.”

“And the folks of the Angles, their kingdoms and their kings, disagree among themselves. And hardly  anyone at present is found of the kings of the old stock, that I cannot speak without tears,   and by so much they are of uncertain origin, by that much less  are they of manliness.”

"son of a god"

The Lebor Gabála Érenn (ed. and tr. by R. A. S. Macalister. Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 1941) throws some light on the old understanding here of what it might mean to be a "son of a god".  In §62 we are told: 

 "The three sons of Cermad son of The Dagda were Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht, Mac Griene: Sethor and Tethor and Cethor were their names. Fotla and Banba and Eriu were their three wives. ".

And a bit later:

"The three sons of Cermait, moreover, ut diximus; Mac Cuill - Sethor, the hazel his god; Mac Cecht - Tethor, the ploughshare his god; Mac Greine - Cethor, the sun his god. Fotla was wife of Mac Cecht, Banba of Mac Cuill, Eriu of Mac Greine."

So that we can see that it was understood that a man, notwithstanding his true father being known (here Cermad/Cermait),  might still be called the son of a god (here mac so and so) for no better reason than that  he was a worshipper of that god. 

Another way was that someone's deeds were such that some might superstitiously believe they did not have any human father but rather a god, even though their mortal father was still known.  Thus Saxo Grammaticus Gesta Danorum Book 7, ch.2.3 (awend. Elton) of "Haldanus ... Biargrammi cognomen":

  " Igitur apud Sueones tantus haberi coepit, ut magni Thor filius existimatus divinis a populo honoribus donaretur ac publico dignus libamine censeretur."

 " He soon gained so much esteem for this among the Swedes that he was thought to be the son of the great Thor, and the people bestowed divine honours upon him, and judged him worthy of public libation."

And we read in Jordanes:

“XIII.  78 ... magnaque potiti per loca victoria  iam proceres suos, quorum quasi fortuna vincebant, non puros homines, sed semideos id est Ansis vocaverunt. ...”

“XIII (78) ... And because of the great victory they had won in this region, they thereafter called their leaders, by whose good fortune they seemed to have conquered, not mere men, but demigods, that is Ansis. ...”

But we are truly here in the realm of avatārāḥ, whole or partial.   

Wīdsīð begins its list of kings, after Hwala, with:

ond Alexandreas      ealra ricost
monna cynnes,      ond he mæst geþah
þara þe ic ofer foldan      gefrægen hæbbe.

and of Alexander the richest of all
mankind, and he most throve
wherever that I over the earth have asked about it.

The Anabasis of Alexander (Αλεξάνδρου Ανάβασις), awent by E. J. Chinnock | Book III, ch. 3:

Πτολεμαῖος μὲν δὴ ὁ Λάγου λέγει δράκοντας δύο ἰέναι πρὸ τοῦ στρατεύματος φωνὴν ἱέντας, καὶ τούτοις Ἀλέξανδρον κελεῦσαι ἕπεσθαι τοὺς ἡγεμόνας πιστεύσαντας τῷ θείῳ, τοὺς δὲ ἡγήσασθαι τὴν ὁδὸν τήν τε ἐς τὸ μαντεῖον καὶ ὀπίσω αὖθις. Ἀριστόβουλος δέ, καὶ ὁ πλείων λόγος ταύτῃ κατέχει, κόρακας δύο προπετομένους πρὸ τῆς στρατιᾶς, τούτους γενέσθαι Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τοὺς ἡγεμόνας. καὶ ὅτι μὲν θεῖόν τι ξυνεπέλαβεν αὐτῷ ἔχω ἰσχυρίσασθαι, ὅτι καὶ τὸ εἰκὸς ταύτῃ ἔχει, τὸ δὲ ἀτρεκὲς τοῦ λόγου ἀφείλοντο οἱ ἄλλῃ καὶ ἄλλῃ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ ἐξηγησάμενοι.

Ptolemy, son of Lagus, says that two serpents went in front of the army, uttering a voice, and Alexander ordered the guides to follow them, trusting in the divine portent. He says too that they showed the way to the oracle and back again. But Aristobulus, whose account is generally admitted as correct, says that two ravens (κόρακας δύο) flew in front of the army, and that these acted as Alexander's guides.

Strabo, Geography xvii. 1, section 43 (awend. H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A.):

ὁ γοῦν Καλλισθένης φησὶ τὸν Ἀλέξανδρον φιλοδοξῆσαι μάλιστα ἀνελθεῖν ἐπὶ τὸ χρηστήριον, ἐπειδὴ καὶ Περσέα ἤκουσε πρότερον ἀναβῆναι καὶ Ἡρακλέα: ὁρμήσαντα δ᾽ ἐκ Παραιτονίου καίπερ νότων ἐπιπεσόντων βιάσασθαι, πλανώμενον δ᾽ ὑπὸ τοῦ κονιορτοῦ σωθῆναι γενομένων ὄμβρων καὶ δυεῖν κοράκων ἡγησαμένων τὴν ὁδόν, …

Callisthenes, for instance, says that Alexander was ambitious of the glory of visiting the oracle, because he knew that Perseus and Hercules had before performed the journey thither. He set out from Parætonium, although the south winds were blowing, and succeeded in his undertaking by vigour and perseverance. When out of his way on the road, he escaped being overwhelmed in a sand-storm by a fall of rain, and by the guidance of two crows (δυεῖν κοράκων), which directed his course.

Needless to say the word Hamilton/Falconer have awent as "crows" is "ravens" - ὁ κόρᾰξ (stem κόρᾰκ-, corak-), corax, is rightly a raven, and not, ἡ κορώνη (stem κορών-, coron-), corone, a crow (see above).

And we may read in Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. II, Theophilus of Antioch to Autolycus Book 2, ch. 7 "Fabulous Heathen Genealogies":

"But Satyrus, also giving a history of the Alexandrine families, beginning from Philopator, who was also named Ptolemy, gives out that Bacchus was his progenitor; wherefore also Ptolemy was the founder of this family. Satyrus then speaks thus: That Dejanira was born of Bacchus and Althea, the daughter of Thestius; and from her and Hercules the son of Jupiter there sprang, as I suppose, Hyllus; and from him Cleodemus, and from him Aristomachus, and from him Temenus, and from him Ceisus, and from him Maron, and from him Thestrus, and from him Acous, and from him Aristomidas, and from him Caranus, and from him Cœnus, and from him Tyrimmas, and from him Perdiccas, and from him Philip, and from him Æropus, and from him Alcetas, and from him Amyntas, and from him Bocrus, and from him Meleager, and from him Arsinoë and from her and Lagus Ptolemy Soter, and from him and Arsinoe Ptolemy Euergetes, and from him and Berenicé, daughter of Maga, king of Cyrene, Ptolemy Philopator. Thus, then, stands the relationship of the Alexandrine kings to Bacchus. And therefore in the Dionysian tribe there are distinct families: the Althean from Althea, who was the wife of Dionysus and daughter of Thestius; the family of Dejanira also, from her who was the daughter of Dionysus and Althea, and wife of Hercules;—whence, too, the families have their names: the family of Ariadne, from Ariadne, daughter of Minos and wife of Dionysus, a dutiful daughter, who had intercourse with Dionysus in another form; the Thestian, from Thestius, the father of Althea; the Thoantian, from Thoas, son of Dionysus; the Staphylian, from Staphylus, son of Dionysus; the Euænian, from Eunous, son of Dionysus; the Maronian, from Maron, son of Ariadne and Dionysus;—for all these are sons of Dionysus. And, indeed, many other names were thus originated, and exist to this day; as the Heraclidæ from Hercules, and the Apollonidæ from Apollo, and the Poseidonii from Poseidon, and from Zeus the Dii and Diogenæ."