text: The argument was advanced in 1897 that the Wulfing name may have been synonymous with the East Anglian Wuffing dynasty, and the family name Helmingas with the place-names 'Helmingham' in Norfolk and Suffolk, both of which lie in areas of 5th–6th century migrant occupation. Although the theory was not favoured by some, it has more recently resurfaced in a discussion of the identity of Hroðmund.
  Role in the poem
  Wealhtheow (like Hygd) fulfills the important role of hostess in the poem. The importance of this cup carrying practice is emphasized in lines 1161–1231. Here Wealhtheow, anxious that Hrothgar secures the succession for her own offspring, gives a speech and recompenses Beowulf for slaying Grendel with three horses and a necklace.
  The necklace is called Brosinga mene, and the name is held to be either a corruption or a misspelling of OE Breosinga mene, ON Brisingamen, Freyja's necklace. Richard North compares the gift of the necklace to Brosing, Freyja's Brisingamen and he comments that,
  The wider Old Norse-Icelandic tradition attributes the Brisinga men or giroli Brisings (Brisinger's girdle c.900) to Freya who is at once the sister of Ingvi-freyr of the Vanir, the leading Norse goddess of love, and a witch with the power to revive the dead. Freya's acquisition of this necklace and its theft by Loki are the central incidents in Sorlaþattr.