One poem that gives an especially vivid and action-oriented image of Anglo-Saxon warfare, is the Finnsburg Fragment. As its name suggests, we unfortunately only know part of the poem. The end is described in the famous Beowulf though, where a scop narrates the events of the Finnsburg Fragment, although in a very compact way. This compactness suggests that the story was widely known, something corroborated by the fact that in the relatively small corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature there are two poems describing the battle, and that Beowulf describes the poem as "oft recited". Nevertheless, we know only little about the characters in the poem.
The only character that we know much more about is Hengest, who, if this identification is correct, is the same Hengest as the commander who conquered much of current England from the Romano-Britons.
The battle of Finnsburg takes place in the beginning of winter, somewhere in Frisia, where a Danish contingent of sixty men under prince Hnæf is staying as guests of the Frisian king Finn. Somehow war breaks out between the two sides, and the Danes take refuge in the, apparently unoccupied, Finnsburg fort. This is where the remaining part of the fragment starts:
[...] | Burning horns?"
The young king | proclaimed then:
"That's not the dawn-red, | nor a dragon,
nor do this hall's | horns burn.
The birds screech, | startled by soldiers:
those wolfs are marching. | The war-wood3 clashes,
shield against shaft. | The moon shines
under the clouds, | now killing will come
as is made to happen | by our mutual hate.
Awake, my heroes! | Head for your shields.
Run for your battle-gear | and be courageous
and high of spirit! | Now head for the vanguard!"
The gold-laden thegns | girded their swords,
then neared the door, | those noble champions.
Sigeferð and Éaha | drew their swords.
At the other gate | were Ordláf and Gúþláf,
behind them stood | Hengest himself.
Gárulf told Gúðere | not to give away his life4,
which he so savoured, | by storming as first
to the doors of the hall, although he was armoured,
since someone much loathed | would like to slay him.
The brave hero | boldly asked,
for all to hear, | who held the door.
"Sigeferþ's my name, | of the Sedgean5 am I.
A well-known foreigner, | I fought many wars
and have known much grief. | But now, against me,
you will attain | triumph or death."
Then resounded | the sound of slaughter
- brave heroes | bashing their bucklers,
creaking floorboards | and cracking skulls -
till in battle fell | the brave Gárulf.
First among all | of the Frisian folk,
Gúðláf's lad | now lay amongst many
dead bodies. | The dark-brown, black
raven6 soared. Swords sparked
as if all of Finnsburg | was filled with flames.
I've never heard | of heroes braver
than those sixty | daring soldiers,
nor of men who for mead | gave more in return7
than these heroes | did to Hnæf.
None of them fell | as for five days they fought.
They held the doors, | those dauntless Danes!
Then the warrior was wounded. | As he went from this life
he told that his byrnie | had broken in two;
his helmet was weak, his war-garb as well.
The people's protector | bade him to tell
if the warriors survived | their wounds well
or which of the lads [...]
Sadly, the Finnsburg Fragment breaks off here. The ending of the story is described in the famous Beowulf epic. Hnæf was eventually killed, but Finn's armies were too weakened to defeat the Danes, or force them out of the hall. Thus, the two sides were forced to make peace. Meanwhile, winter had properly begun:
The ship couldn't | sail the seas:
the wavy sea | was stirred by a storm.
It fought the wind | while the winter locked the waves
in bonds of frost | till finally another
year started | as it still does now.
With Hnæf dead, Hengest took over command as the Frisians welcomed them to their halls to spend the winter. However, the peace turned out to be only temporary. As soon as the weather cleared enough for the Danes to return to their homeland, Hengest and his men killed Finn and all of his retainers present in the hall.
Source Athelread website.
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