At the feast, a scop sings the sad story of Hildeburh. It is not easy to discern what is really happening in this passage. As background, let us consider the proposal of J. R. R. Tolkien, who thoroughly studied this passage in conjunction with a fragment of poetry on the same topic. Tolkien compared this fragment and the story of Finn in our text, and created a summary of what may have happened, his best guess and perhaps very close to the truth.
Hoc, king of the Scyldings, married his daughter Hildeburh to Finn, king of the Frisians. Frisia is south of the Danish lands, and it lies along the coast just to the north of the Rhine River. In modern times, it is part of the Netherlands. Tolkien speculated that the Jutes were being pushed out of their lands in Denmark by the Scyldings, and that Finn of the Frisians allowed some disaffected Jutes to stay in Frisia, and be represented in his royal hall. Although the Danes and Jutes at this time were rivals for the same lands, Finn hoped that he could maintain peace for himself among these quarreling neighbors. Finn and Hildeburh had a son, who is not named. This son was probably, in Tolkien’s view, sent to live with Hildeburh’s brother Hnaef, now the Scylding king. Boys were usually sent around the age of 7 or 8 to live with their mother’s brothers, who took over their education. The event that precipitates the fight is probably the official return home of the young prince of Frisia, now perhaps 15 years old and educated as a warrior and future king. Hnaef and his retinue arrive at Finn’s hall to make a fairly long visit, apparently coming after autumn harvest, knowing that over the winter they will not find it easy to return to Denmark.
With Hnaef is a warrior named Hengest. Hengest is the name of one of the Jutish chiefs in early English histories, who first came to the island of Britain and began its conquest. Tolkien considered them to be the same person, as the timeline and setting are about correct. The presence of Hengest is perhaps the key to the fight, for as a Jute who is loyal to the Scyldings, he is at odds with the Jutes who are rivals of the Danes. These Jutes, at Finn’s hall, see Hengest and his Jutish followers, and immediately the scene is right for a feud.
There are two stages to the feud. First, there is an attack on Finn’s hall, where Finn’s role seems to be the hopeless bystander who is caught in a tragic situation. Finn allows Hnaef and his men to defend the hall, and the fight, according to the fragment, lasts five days. Hnaef falls, as does the young Frisian prince. The fight ends in a stalemate as the defenders and attackers set out terms for peace. Some of Hnaef’s followers head home, but some of them stay; Finn gives them a hall to live in, in return for vows of loyalty to him. They are now temporary residents of Finnsburg.
Hengest, however, has not only survived the fight but is now de facto leader of the Danish remnant. It is very hard for him to stay on at Finnsburg, seeing them come and go who had killed Hnaef. As winter draws to a close, one of his warriors lays in his lap a sword, perhaps Hnaef’s sword, as a reminder of his duty to avenge. Hengest re-opens the feud, in conjunction with a fresh attack by Danes, and this time Finn is killed, his hall is burnt, and Hildeburh is taken back to her Danish homeland. This story of disaster and tragedy is called in the Beowulf manuscript the “Freswael,” the Frisian tragedy. It may have been a well-known event, as many people today still talk about the major battles and attacks of the world wars, especially the ones with loss of civilian life, or involving betrayal.
With Tolkien’s scholarly help, the song of the scop at Heorot becomes clearer. The story here, though, does not focus as much on the brave fighting men, as the fragment does. The fragment tells its story from the viewpoint of the men inside the hall, who see the gables burning and call to each other to stand firm. The scop at Heorot opens with the name of Hildeburh, the thrice-bereaved queen. In an ironic understatement, he forecasts that the tragedy of the tale hangs on the bad faith of the Jutes. The burden of his next fifty lines is that Finn did his best to make peace. Not only did he stop the fighting, he offered a home to the survivors. He promised them material support, food and shelter. Not only that, but he promised them payment of treasures to close the feud, rings of gold and ancient treasures. He swore oaths to support Hengest and the survivors, and to promote nothing but peace. Hengest swore oaths of loyalty to Finn, and all appeared well.
The sorrow of Hildeburh, as a human being and woman, is the focus of the funeral scene. This scene is foreign and grisly to a modern reader, as we cannot conceive of burning our dead in the first place. It is made worse by the graphic detail the poet supplies, since most of us have never given much thought to what a burning body looks like. But the focus of the passage is on Hildeburh’s loss. Her brother, Hnaef, is dead, and is laid on a pyre with gold around him. At the last minute, she decides that her son will be burnt next to his uncle, who was probably his foster-father and closer to him than his own father. Hildeburh must look on to see her son and brother burned together, and perhaps the graphic detail is intended to evoke the same emotions that she must have felt, as she watched those two dear faces melt in the heat. Women lamented as pyres burnt, weeping and screaming as the flames finally died out. Hildeburh was perhaps the only mourner for the Danes, who may not have included any women in their party. We read that Hildeburh sang a sad lament, and here we must join the historians in wishing that the poet had told us what she sang.
The final thirty lines of the scop’s song tell about Hengest’s reopening of the feud, and do not focus on Hildeburh’s role in the same way. Hildeburh becomes a passive victim, as the remains of her family are swept away in fire and battle. Her home is burnt, her husband, and perhaps younger children, killed. The final lines tell us that the queen is taken back to “her people,” but we wonder if she could ever feel at home there again.