This article focuses on the issue of the degree of coherence between the Denmark plot and the dragon episode in Beowulf through a close-reading analysis of the transitional text – Beowulf’s speech to Hygelac – between these two parts. Here, in a so-called digression, Beowulf tells the story of Ingeld and the Danish princess Freawaru, which can be understood as being of importance to Beowulf’s own story. Although he saved King Hrothgar and his people, Beowulf was not given a bride, which would have been the highest honor and the traditional way of establishing political bonds. The resulting tension is reflected in the topic of stolen treasures that dominates Beowulf’s narrative of Ingeld’s and Freawaru’s feast. Beowulf’s description of the gold-adorned, cup-passing bride is linked to both the unrightfully possessed treasure at the feast and the later motif of the dragon’s stolen cup. Beowulf’s lost chance to secure a dynasty is symbolically identified with the dragon’s missing cup as the catalyst of Beowulf’s end and the subsequent decline of the Geats.