Chapter XXIV
.), and in the Edda.
In Jornandes the story is as follows.
Characters
1. Ermanaric. 2. A Chief of the Roxolani tribe who was a traitor. 3. Sanielh (= Swanhild) wife of the chief. 4. Sarus, } 5. Ammius, } brothers of Sanielh.
Ermanaric puts Sanielh to death by causing her to be torn to pieces by wild horses, because of the treachery of her husband, the chief of the Roxolani. Her brothers, Ammius and Sarus, avenge her death by attacking Ermanaric, but they only succeed in wounding him and disabling him for the rest of his life.
In the Edda the story is as follows.
Characters
1. Gudrun, widow of Sigurd and Atli. 2. Swanhild, daughter of Gudrun by Sigurd. 3. Jonakur, Gudrun's third husband. 4. Sörli, } 5. Hamthir, } sons of Gudrun and Jonakur. 6. Erp, } 7. Jormunrek (Eormanric). 8. Randver, son of Jormunrek.
Jormunrek hears of the beauty of Swanhild and sends his son Randver to seek her out for him in marriage. Gudrun consents; on the way Randver is incited by the traitor Bicci to betray Swanhild, and is then accused by him to the king. For this treachery Jormunrek hangs Randver and causes Swanhild to be trampled to death by wild horses. Then the three sons of Gudrun set out to avenge their sister. On the way his two brothers kill Erp, and are consequently unable to kill Jormunrek. They only succeed in maiming him.
Saxo Grammaticus, to whom we also owe the story of Hamlet, tells a similar story.
Characters
1. Jarmeric, a Danish King. 2. Swawilda (= Swanhild), wife of Jarmeric. 3. Hellespontine brothers, brothers of Swawilda. 4. Bicco, a servant of Jarmeric.
Bicco accuses Swawilda to Jarmeric of unfaithfulness. He causes her to be torn to pieces by wild horses. Then her brothers kill Jarmeric with the help of a witch, Gudrun, hewing off his hands and feet.
These three stories are evidently based on one common original.
V
MARRIAGE OF FREAWARU AND INGELD
Characters
1. Freawaru, daughter of Hrothgar the Dane. 2. Ingeld, son of Froda, King of the Heathobards. 3. Froda, King of the Heathobards. 4. A Heathobard warrior. 5. Son of the Danish warrior who had killed Froda.
The Heathobards were a people in Zealand. There had been an ancient feud between the Danes and the Heathobards in which Froda had been killed by a Danish warrior. Hrothgar hoped to appease the feud by the marriage of his daughter Freawaru to Ingeld. Unluckily, the son of the Danish warrior who had killed Froda accompanied Freawaru to Ingeld's Court. Then an old Heathobard warrior notices this and stirs up strife. The marriage fails in its object, and war breaks out again between the Danes and the Heathobards. Beowulf predicts the course of events in his speech to Hygelac (Chapters XXVIII. and XXIX.).
VI
FINN
The Finn episode (Chapters XVI. and XVII.) is one of those events in Beowulf that would be quite well known to the first hearers of the song, but to us is lacking in that clearness we might desire. Fortunately, Dr. Hickes discovered a fragment entitled, 'The Fight at Finnsburgh,' on the back of a MS. of the Homilies. From Beowulf and from this fragment we are able to piece together an intelligible story. It is probably as follows:
Characters
1. Finn, King of the North Frisians and Jutes. 2. Hoc, a Danish chieftain. 3. Hildeburh, daughter of Hoc. 4. Hnaef, son of Hoc. 5. Hengest, son of Hoc. 6. Two sons of Finn and Hildeburh. 7. Hunlafing, a Finnish warrior. 8. Guthlaf and Oslaf, two Danish warriors.
Finn abducts Hildeburh, the daughter of Hoc, the Dane. Hoc pursues the two fugitives and is killed in the mêlée. Twenty years pass by--Hnaef and Hengest, sons of Hoc, take up the 'vendetta.' In the fighting Hnaef and a son of Finn and Hildeburh are slain. A peace is patched up. Hengest, son of Hoc, is persuaded to remain as a guest of Finn for the winter, and it is agreed that no reference shall be made by either side to the feud between them. Then the bodies of Hnaef, Hildeburh's brother, and of her son are burnt together on the funeral pyre, 'and great is the mourning of Hildeburh for her son.' But Hengest is ever brooding vengeance. The strife breaks out anew in the spring. Hengest is killed, but two of his warriors, Guthlaf and Oslaf, break through the enemy, return to Finn's country, and slay him and carry off Hildeburh. 'The Fight at Finnsburgh,' which is Homeric in style, is the account of the first invasion of Finn by Hnaef and Hengest, and Wyatt fits it in before the Finn episode on p. 75. Möller places it after the phrase, 'whose edge was well known to the Jutes,' on p. 79.
VII
HYGELAC
Hygelac, son of Hrethel, was king of the Geats, and uncle of Beowulf, his sister's son. He was the reigning king of Beowulf's fellow countrymen the Geats during the greater part of the action of the poem. Beowulf is often called 'Hygelac's kinsman,' and when he went forth to his battle with Grendel's mother (