Hi Janice,
This is a strange quest you are on. "Frea" is used to mean lord in Old English, not only in Beowulf. In Dream of the Rood, which is even less likely to be based on pagan materials, you find it in these lines: "Geseah ic þā frean mancynnes / efstan elne micle, þæt hē mē wolde on gestīgan." ("I saw men’s Sovereign strive to scale me...") Of course, that is not an obstacle to the word ultimately coming from Frea the God, or Frea the God being named so because he is a/the lord.
What you may be finding is the various tendrils and threads that made Christianity welcome to Scandinavians, at least not wholly foreign. Check out the Heliand, the 9th century Saxon poem that converts Jesus into a northern chieftain. In Njal's Saga, a pagan is appointed to arbitrate the religious controversy in Iceland ca. 1000, and he decides in favor of Christianity. Snorri's Saint Olaf's Saga in Heimskringla is subtle and inquiring with respect to forcible conversions.
You'll find Hrothgar and other Danes from Beowulf in both the Hrolf Kraki Saga and Saxo Grammaticus' History of the Danes, both written long after Beowulf. "Bjovulf" figures in Poul Andersen's novel based on the former, Hrolf Kraki's Saga. There is zero chance of Beowulf being based on a lost Scandinavian manuscript, but an Angle writing in the 8th or 9th century must have learned 6th century Danish and Swedish stories from somewhere.
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