Beowulf

The heroic epic poem, Beowulf, tells the story of a young warrior of a Germanic tribe called the Geats who travels to Denmark to help defeat two monsters and a dragon. It is during Beowulf’s adventures that the reader is able to understand the importance of belonging to a community where honor, courage and courtly behaviors and duties prevail. This heroic code and the idea of fate become a vital aspect in warrior societies as a means of understanding their relationship to the world and the evil that is present around them. Therefore, a soldier’s individual actions can be perceived as either obeying or violating these codes of ethics. The unknown author uses songs, like the Finnsburg episode, as warnings to emphasize the code’s points of conflict by recounting past situations that depict these internal contradictions of loyalty, Christianity, fate, and honor. These contradictions can be seen as a symbol of individuality in a unilateral society.

The Finnsburg episode begins by exploring the concerns about divided loyalties, which the warrior code offers no practical guidance on how to conduct oneself. The code demands undivided loyalty to their lord and only in this way can the society survive due to the ruthless and dangerous world depicted in Beowulf. Since Hildeburh is married to the Frisian king and is the daughter of the Danes, she develops a divided loyalty that is tested after the Danish Frisian War. Like many women depicted in Beowulf, Hildeburh functions as a “peace weaver.” The “peace weaver’s” duty is to help “heal old wounds and grievous feuds” (Lines 2028 -9). The outcome of the war proves that peace is unsustainable with the death of her Danish brother and Frisian son. Due to her indecisiveness about what group to associate herself with, the code offers only one answer for the remaining warriors; “revenge” (line 1385).