Considering Hrothgar

In the original Beowulf, Hrothgar is both a good king and a king beset by woe from outside. I like that situation, that model, better than the newer versions in which King Hrothgar is complicit in the woes afflicting him and his people. Understanding how someone can be good, excellent to his people, and blameless . . . and yet also understanding how that someone can suffer, and how his people can suffer, through no specific fault of his or their own is powerful and compelling to me.

Such riddles matter.