'hæfde aglæca elne gegongen' - 'by his valour the combatant had bought it about'. The aglæca is surely Sigemund, despite the outside possibility it is Siegfried, to whom the dragon-slaying is usually assigned. Some critics have objected that aglæca, 'combatant, belligerent', is an inappropriate word to use of a hero, since it is used three times of Grendel (732, 739, 816). However, both Beowulf and the dragon are aglæcean in 2592a, and the eleventh century polymath Byrhtferth described Bede as se aglæca lareow.