Blog #4: Queen Modthryth and the Role of Women in Beowulf

With this reading assignment I felt blindsided and confused with the abrupt upbringing of Queen Modthryth in the middle of the description of Queen Hygd, who is Hygelac’s wife, so I decided to research some background information on her. Modthryth is the queen of King Offa in Beowulf. Before Modthryth was married to Offa she was a wicked princess who killed any man who looked her in the eye. It does not go into detail of why she is such a wicked princess, but once she is married to King Offa she immediately changes her ways and actually becomes famous for her good contributions. It is suggested that she changed her ways because of King Offa’s kind and generous nature and because she truly loved him. Queen Hygd is presented, as the epitome of what a Queen should be like back then as well as women. She was positive, polite, thoughtful, and everyone liked her. On the other hand, Queen Modthryth is the exact opposite of Queen Hygd before she became Queen. It was interesting though that Queen Modthryth was famous for being a murderous princess and a queen who did good deeds.

            In Beowulf there are six women: Queen Modthryth, Queen Hildeburgh, Grendel’s mother, Queen Hygd, Wealhtheow, and Freawaru. Wealhtheow and Hygd are described as hostesses. Their main function is to carry the cup of mead and pass it around when the king and his men have meetings in the hall. The queen will first give the cup to the king, which represents he has all power and is ranked at the top. Then the queen will slowly go around the hall giving the cup of mead to the other men in certain order based on rank.

Hildeburgh’s and Freawaru’s function was to settle peace between feuding parties by taking the opposing king or prince in marriage; however, both fail to bring peace among the men. Finally, Modthryth and Grendel’s mother act as foils against all the other women in the story. These two women were termed as monsters. They both use violence to settler their disputes. Modthryth killed any man who entered her hall or looked her in the eye and most of the time these were innocent men. Grendel’s mother similarly killed anyone who entered her hall. In the end both women were brought under control by either death or marriage. Modthryth, however, was able to be influenced by society and changed her ways. While the women in Beowulf do not serve big roles the book would not be complete without them. They serve as hostesses, peace-weavers, and monsters. The women are not powerless, the queens do hold some political power but are ultimately directed by men. (464 words)

http://www.mun.ca/mst/heroicage/issues/5/porter1.html#anchor750551

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modthryth

Blog #3: Finn and Hengest

Finn and Hengest

When I read the passage about the saga of Finn it was very brief and did not give much information about how the whole battle started and how these characters were linked. So, I researched some information on Finn and Hengest. It turns out the Finn is actually the brother-in-law of Beowulf. The battle is described in Old English as Fres-wael, which means Frisian slaughter. The battle is between Finn, the ruler of the Frisians and Hnaef, the Danish prince. It mentions a person named Hildeburgh who is the sister of Hnaef and is married to Finn. The battle was a surprise attack instigated by Finn due to a long feud between the two opposing parties. Hengest comes into the picture after Hnaef is killed in battle and settles a peace treaty with Finn; however, Hengest was overcome by outrage and murdered Finn and his people. Hengest then takes Hildeburgh back to her real home.

It is said that Hildeburgh only married Finn to help settle the feud between Finn and Hnaef but her attempt failed. Hildeburgh’s life is considered a romantic tragedy because she tried to bring peace among her people but failed and in the process she lost both her brother and son in the same battle. Other than this little information that could be gathered from this short story, famous author J.R.R. Tolkien decided to do a study on this short story and wrote a book on his views of the story.

Tolkien thinks that Hengest is actually a historical figure and not a legendary figure. He thinks he is actually the Hengest mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which is the history of the Anglo-Saxons written down in the 9^th century probably during the reign of Alexander the Great. It is said that Finn’s son lived with Hnaef and that Hnaef was going to bring the now grown up son to Finn for the winter, however, many of Finn’s thanes were also Jutes. Many of the Jutes who live under Finn were exiled by Hnaef from their native land and Finn was kind enough to bring them into his land. One of the Jutes who lived under Finn was a man named Garulf who was supposed to be the next heir to the kingdom he was banished from. So, Garulf and the other Frisian-Jutes ,brought on by revenge, attack the Danes. In Beowulf it made it seem like Finn started the attack when really he was trying to stop the fighting. Then Finn separated the two parties, but the next morning Garulf constructed a surprise attack hoping to catch Hengest off guard, all the while Finn was unaware of this. After the feud, Finn was ashamed that his own people had killed his welcomed guests; so, he offered a peace-treaty. However, Hengest believed he had a stronger duty to the fallen Hnaef and de not oblige to the peace treaty and killed Finn and many Frisian-Jutes. Much like Hildeburgh, Finn’s life seems like a romantic tragedy. (507 words)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finn_and_Hengest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnesburg_Fragment