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 9th 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/Finnesburg_Fragment
Ashley--good job finding this information and sharing it with the class.
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