The Foreign Beowulf and the "Fight at Finnsburg"

THE FOREIGN BEOWULF AND THE "FIGHT AT FINNSBURG" By SCOTT GWARA For George Hardin Brown More or less covering lines 107Ia-1 159a (not counting the introductory verses),1 the Finnsburg digression comprises the longest and most intensively studied episode in Beowulf. Its context in the poem may be summarized briefly. Beowulf has mortally wounded Grendel. War-leaders from surrounding territories follow Grendel's tracks to the mere, now boiling with gore. On the way back a warrior sings of Sigemund and Heremod. Horse races are held, and the Danes and their guests gawk at Grendel's arm, which has been hung from a beam in Heorot. Hro5gar acknowledges Beowulf as an adoptive "son," and a lavish celebration honors the hero, who secures five dynastic treasures not only in recognition of his valor and but also as confirmation 1 Few agree on where the digression begins: "The Episode is generally printed within marks of quotation. Holthausen, Wyatt, Sedgefield begin this quotation with 1068 Finnes eaferum (or eaferan); Schücking with 1071 Ne hüru Hildeburg; the old Heyne-Socin text (1903) with 1069, Heeled Healfdena, so also Trautmann, loe. cit., p. 30. Gering. Child, Tinker, and Clark Hall begin with 1068; Lesslie Hall with 1069" (W. W. Lawrence, "Beowulf and the Tragedy of Finnsburg," Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 30 [1915]: 372-431. at 399-400). Alexander Green later elaborated: "Marks of quotation are placed before [line] 1068, 'Finnes ... by Ettmüller, Grein, Wiilcker, Bugge, Wyatt, Holder, Arnold, Holthausen, Sedgefield, and Chambers; before [line] 1069, 'Hxleâ . . . by Heyne, Socin and Trautmann; before [line] 1071, 'Nt hüru Hildeburh ... by Schücking and Holthausen; whilst Kemble, Thorpe, and Grundtvig — the latter assumes a considerable gap after Scyldinga — print no signs of division or of quotation. Among the translators, [line] 1068 forms the commencement of the quotation in Ettmüller, Grein, Garnett , Clark Hall, Child, Tinker (based on Wyatt's text), Wyatt-Morris, and Gering; [line] 1069 in Lesslie Hall, Earle, and Trautmann, and [line] 1071 in Gering. As against all of these, Gummere has no marks of quotation, but a simple indentation in [line] 1069" ("The Opening of the Episode of Finn in Beowulf," Publications of the. Modern Language Association of America 31 [1916]: 759-97, at 777-78). Beowulf is throughout cited from Klaeber's Beowulf, ed. R. D. FuIk et al. (Toronto, 2008). Other Old English poems are cited from The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, ed. George Philip Krapp and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, 6 vols. (New York, 1931—). The abbreviation "DOF"' stands for Dictionary of Old English, ed. Angus Cameron et al. (Toronto, 2003-). All translations are my own. I am grateful to R. D. FuIk, Indiana University, John M. Hill, United States Naval Academy, Tom Shippey, St. Louis University, and my South Carolina colleague Trevor Howard-Hill for generously commenting on this article, a draft of which was presented at the 2004 Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, in a session honoring George Hardin Brown of Stanford University. 186TRADITIO of retainership and possibly of Hro5gar's adoption.2 Immediately following the bestowal of these gifts, a poet recites Finnsburg "fore Healfdenes / hildewisan " ("before Healfdene's warriors," 1064). The tale commemorates a Danish victory over Frisians, a triumph which all agree should compliment Danish resolve. In fact, just before the episode opens, the Scylding Hnaef is called a "hœleo Healf-Dena" ("hero of the Half-Danes," 1069a), an epithet explicitly linking audience and characters.3 Even if the Anglo-Saxons did not all share details of the Finnsburg episode as narrated, the audience plausibly knew of some events rehearsed in the digression, since the story was popular. Its main figure Hengest arguably inaugurated the Anglo-Saxon migration.4 The earliest versions of Hengest's Some (Klaeber included) have questioned whether Beowulf actually gets Healf-Dene's sword, as he does Healf-Dene's saddle. Klaeber emended MS brand Healfdenes "Half-Dane's sword" of 1020b to beam Healfdenes "Healfdene's son." Opposed to this emendation are Sherman M. Kuhn, "The Sword of Healfdene," Journal of English and Germanic Philology 42 (1943): 82-95 and "Further Thoughts on Brand Healfdenes," Journal of English and Germanic Philology 76 (1977...