A Song

• The scop sings of kingship, good and bad

The Finnsburg Episode

• The poet follows Beowulf’s act of social cohesion with a tale of social dissolution
• This elliptical episode, taken together with a fragmentary manuscript known as the Finnsburg Fragment, tells the following:  Hildeburh is the daughter of Hoc, former king of the Half-Danes, and sister of the current king, Hnaef.  She is married to Finn, king of the Frisians, who lives at Finnsburg.  Hnaef and his men visit his sister and brother-in-law, and a fight breaks out.  Many die, most notably Hnaef and the son of Finn and Hildeburh.  Hengest becomes leader of the Half-Danes.  One side (probably the Frisians) offers a truce, but the resulting friction is intolerable and fighting breaks out once again.