Brecca

Brecca is the childhood friend of Beowulf's. Brecca and Beowulf engage in strange swimming contest where they take on the open sea while wearing full armor and carrying swords, supposedly to defend themselves from sea monsters. It's not entirely clear who wins the contest, although Unferth suggest that Brecca actually beat Beowulf. Beowulf claims that he and Brecca were shoulder-to-shoulder, equally matched when it came to the swimming part - but that he himself also killed nine sea monsters.