Further details of the story we get in the _Episode_ of _Finnsburg_, as
recorded in _Beowulf_ (ll. 1068-1159).
Beowulf is being entertained in the court of the king of the Danes, and the
king's harper tells the tale of Hengest and Finn. Only the main events are
enumerated. There are none of the dramatic speeches which we find in the
_Fragment_. It is evident that the tale has been reduced in scope, in order
that it may be fitted into its place as an episode in the longer epic.
The tone, too, is quite different. Whereas the _Fragment_ is inspired by
the lust and joy of battle, the theme of the _Episode_, as told in
_Beowulf_, is rather the pity of it all; the legacy of mourning and
vengeance which is left to the survivors:
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have struck so deep.
It is on this note that the _Episode_ in _Beowulf_ begins: with the tragic
figure of Hildeburh. Hildeburh is closely related to both contending
parties. She is sister to Hnaef, prince of the "Half-Danes," and she is
wedded to Finn, king of the Frisians. Whatever may be obscure in the story,
it is clear that a fight has taken place between the men of Hnaef and those
of Finn, and that Hnaef has been slain: probably by Finn directly, though
perhaps by his followers[430]. A son of Finn has also fallen.
With regard to the peoples concerned there are difficulties. Finn's
Frisians are presumably the main Frisian race, dwelling in and around the
district still known as Friesland; for in the Catalogue of Kings in
_Widsith_ it is said that "Finn Folcwalding {249} ruled the kin of the
Frisians[431]." Hnaef and his people are called Half-Danes, Danes and
Scyldings; Hnaef is therefore presumably related to the Danish royal house.
But, in no account which has come down to us of that house, are Hnaef or
his father Hoc ever mentioned as kings or princes of Denmark, and their
connection with the family of Hrothgar, the great house of Scyldings who
ruled Denmark from the capital of Leire, remains obscure. In _Widsith_, the
people ruled over by Hnaef are called "children of Hoc" (_H[=o]cingum_),
and are mentioned immediately after the "Sea-Danes[432]."
Then there is a mysterious people called the _Eotens_, upon whom is placed
the blame of the struggle: "Verily Hildeburh had little reason to praise
the good faith of the Eotens." This is the typical understatement of Old
English rhetoric: it can only point to deliberate treachery on the part of
the Eotens. Our interpretation of the poem will therefore hinge largely
upon our interpretation of this name. There have been two views as to the
Eotens. The one view holds them to be Hnaef's Danes, and consequently
places on Hnaef the responsibility for the aggression. This theory is, I
think, quite wrong, and has been the cause of much confusion: but it has
been held by scholars of great weight[433]. The other view regards the
Eotens as subjects {250} of Finn and foes of Hnaef. This view has been more
generally held, and it is, as I shall try to show, only along these lines
that a satisfactory solution can be found.
The poet continues of the woes of Hildeburh. "Guiltless, she lost at the
war those whom she loved, child and brother. They fell as was fated,
wounded by the spear, and a sad lady was she. Not for naught did the
daughter of Hoc [i.e. Hildeburh] bewail her fate when morning came, when
under the sky she could behold the murderous bale of her kinsfolk...."
Then the poet turns to the figure of Finn, king of the Frisians. His cause
for grief is as deep as that of Hildeburh. For he has lost that body of
retainers which to a Germanic chief, even as to King Arthur, was dearer
than a wife[434]. "War swept away all the retainers of Finn, except some
few."
What follows is obscure, but as to the general drift there is no doubt.
After the death of their king Hnaef, the besieged Danes are led by Hengest.
Hengest must be Hnaef's retainer, for he is expressly so called
(_th[=e]odnes thegn_) "the king's thegn." So able is the defence of
Hengest, and so heavy the loss among Finn's men, that Finn has to come to
terms. Peace is made between Finn and Hengest, and the terms are given
fully in the _Episode_. Unfortunately, owing to the confusion of pronouns,
we soon lose our way amidst the clauses of this treaty, and it becomes
exceedingly difficult to say who are the people who are alluded to as
"they." This is peculiarly unlucky because here again the critical word
_Eotena_ occurs, but amid such a tangle of "thems" and "theys" that it is
not easy to tell from this passage to which side the Eotens belong[435].
But one thing in the treaty is indisputable. In the midst of these
complicated clauses, it is said of the Danes, the retainers {251} of Hnaef,
that they are not to be taunted with a certain fact: or perhaps it may be
that they are not, when speaking amongst themselves, to remind each other
of a certain fact. However that may be, what _is_ clear is the _fact_, the
mention of which is barred. Nothing is to be said of it, even though "_they
were following the slayer (bana) of their lord, being without a prince,
since they were compelled so to do_." Here, at least, are two lines about
the interpretation of which we can be certain: and I shall therefore return
to them. We must be careful, however, to remember that the word _bana_,
"slayer," conveys no idea of fault or criminality. It is a quite neutral
word, although it has frequently been mistranslated "murderer," and has
thus helped to encourage the belief that Finn slew Hnaef by treachery. Of
course it conveys no such implication: _bana_ can be applied to one who
slays another in self-defence: it implies neither the one thing nor the
other.
Then the poet turns to the funeral of the dead champions, who are burned on
one pyre by the now reconciled foes. The bodies of Hnaef and of the son (or
sons)[436] of Hildeburh are placed together, uncle and nephew side by side,
whilst Hildeburh stands by lamenting.
Then, we are told, the warriors, deprived of their friends, departed to
Friesland, to their homes and to their high-city.
Hengest still continued to dwell for the whole of that winter with Finn,
and could not return home because of the winter storms. But when spring
came and the bosom of the earth became fair, there came also the question
of Hengest's departure: but he thought more of vengeance than of his
sea-journey: "If he might bring about that hostile meeting which he kept in
his mind concerning the child (or children) of the Eotens." Here again the
word _Eotena_ is used ambiguously, but, I think, this time not without some
indication of its meaning. It has indeed been urged that the child or
children of the Eotens are Hnaef, and any other Danes who may have fallen
with him, and that when it is said that Hengest keeps them in mind, it is
meant that he is remembering his fallen comrades with a view to taking
{252} vengeance for them. But this would be a queer way of speaking, as
Hengest and his living comrades would on this theory be also themselves
children of the Eotens[437]. We should therefore need the term to be
further defined: "children of the Eotens _who fell at Finnsburg_." It seems
far more likely, from the way in which the expression is used here, that
the children of the Eotens are the people _upon_ whom Hengest intends to
take vengeance.
Then, we are further told, Hunlafing places in the bosom of Hengest a sword
of which the edges were well known amongst the Eotens. Here again there has
been ambiguity, dispute and doubt. Hunlafing has been even bisected into a
chief "Hun," and a sword "Lafing" which "Hun" is supposed to have placed in
the bosom of Hengest (or of someone else). Upon this act of "Hun" many an
interpretation has been placed, and many a theory built. Fortunately it has
become possible, by a series of rather extraordinary discoveries, such as
we had little reason to hope for at this time of day, to put Hunlafing
together again. We now know (and this I think should be regarded as outside
the region of controversy) that the warrior who put the sword into
Hengest's bosom _was_ Hunlafing. And about Hunlafing we gather, though very
little, yet enough to help us. He is apparently a Dane, the son of Hunlaf,
and Hunlaf is the brother of the two champions Guthlaf and Ordlaf[438]. Now
Guthlaf and Ordlaf, as we know from the _Fragment_, were in the hall
together {253} with Hengest: it was "Guthlaf, Ordlaf and Hengest himself"
who undertook the defence of one of the doors against the assailants.
Guthlaf and Ordlaf were apparently sons of the king of Denmark. As
Scyldings they would be Hnaef's kinsmen, and accompanied him to his meeting
with Finn. Hunlafing, then, is a nephew of two champions who were attacked
in the hall, and it is possible, though we cannot prove this, that his
father Hunlaf was himself also in the hall, and was slain in the
struggle[439]. At any rate, when Hunlaf's son places a sword in the bosom
of Hengest, this can only mean one thing. It means mischief. The placing of
the sword, by a prince, in the bosom of another, is a symbol of
war-service. It means that Hengest has accepted obligations to a Danish
lord, a Scylding, a kinsman of the dead Hnaef, and consequently that he
means to break the troth which he has sworn to Finn.
Further, we are told concerning the sword, that its edges were well known
amongst the Eotens. At first sight this might seem, and to many has seemed,
an ambiguous phrase, for a sword may be well known amongst either friends
or foes. The old poets loved nothing better than to dwell upon the
adornments of a sword, to say how a man, by reason of a fine sword which
had been given to him, was honoured amongst his associates at table[440].
But if this had been the poet's meaning here, he would surely have dwelt,
not upon the edges of the sword, but upon its gold-adorned hilt, or its
jewelled pommel. When he says the _edges_ of the sword were well known
amongst the Eotens, this seems to convey a hostile meaning. We know that
the ill-faith of the Eotens was the cause of the trouble. The phrase about
the sword seems therefore to mean that Hengest used this sword in order to
take vengeance on the Eotens, presumably for their treachery.
The _Eotenas_, therefore, far from being the men of Hnaef and Hengest, must
have been their foes.
Then the poet goes on to tell how "Dire sword-bale came upon the valiant
Finn likewise." The Danes fell upon Finn at {254} his own home, reddened
the floor of his hall with the life-blood of his men, slew him, plundered
his town, and led his wife back to her own people.
Here the _Episode_ ends.
* * * * *