The Finnesburg Fragment is a fragment of an Old English poem of the type called a leoð, or "lay. A lai was a song form composed in northern Europe, mainly France and Germany, from the 13th to the late 14th century. " The existing text is a transcript of a loose manuscript folio that was once kept at Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury; the manuscript was almost certainly Lambeth Library MS 487. Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the The British scholar George Hickes made the transcript some time in the late 17th century, and published it in an anthology of Anglo-Saxon and other antiquities in 1705. George Hickes ( 20 June 1642 OS - 15 December 1715 OS) English divine and scholar was born at Newsham As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar Year 1705 ( MDCCV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a [1] Since then the original manuscript folio has been lost or stolen. One of the difficulties with the text is that other transcriptions Hickes made, which can be compared with their original manuscripts, are often inaccurate; so the text may well require substantial emendation.
Contents |
Overview
The poem describes a probably historical battle in which the Danish prince Hnæf is attacked at a place called Finnsburuh, "Finn's stronghold"; this was the hall of his brother-in-law Finn, lord of the Frisians. Hnæf (d 450 ? son of Hoc, was a Danish prince mentioned in the Old English poems Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. Finn, son of Folcwald, was a legendary Frisian lord He is mentioned in Widsith, in Beowulf, and in the Finnsburg Fragment Frisia ( West Frisian: Fryslân; North Frisian: Fraschlönj, Freesklöön, Freeskluin, Fresklun, and Apparently, Hnæf has come to spend the winter there. The fragment begins with Hnæf's observation that what he sees outside "is not the dawn in the East, nor is it the flight of a dragon, nor are the gables burning"; what he sees is the torches of approaching attackers. Hnæf and his sixty thanes hold the doors for five days, without any falling. WikipediaWikiProject Indian cities for details --> Thane ( Marathi / Konkani: ठाणे (formerly Thana) is a city in Maharashtra Then a wounded warrior turns away to talk to his chief (it is not clear on which side) and the fragment ends.
The scholar J. R. R. Tolkien argues[2] that Finnsburuh is most likely an error by either Hickes or his printer, since that construction appears nowhere else, and the word should be Finnesburh. It is not clear whether this was the actual name of the hall or only the poet's description of it. Where exactly the hall was, or even whether it was in Frisia, is not known.
Uniquely in the surviving Anglo-Saxon corpus, the fragment contains no Christian references, and the burning of Hnæf is clearly pagan; it is short and about a battle, but the two fragments of the battle-poem Waldere manage to be explicitly Christian in hardly more space. Waldere or Waldhere is the conventional title given to two Old English fragments from a lost Epic poem, discovered in 1860 by E
Beowulf reference
The fragment is only about fifty lines long; it does not mention Finn's name, or the name of either contending tribe. Fortunately, there is a passage in the epic poem Beowulf, in which Hrothgar's bard sings a lay on the aftermath of a battle called the Freswæl, the "Frisian Slaughter", which is clearly the same story. An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between Hroðgar, Hrothgar, Hróarr, Hroar, Roar, Roas or Ro was a Legendary Danish king, living in the early 6th century The Beowulf episode is some ninety lines long. The episode is allusive, even for Beowulf, and is clearly intended for an audience that already knows the story.
This Finnesburg Episode (lines 1068-1159 in Beowulf) describes the mourning of Hildeburh, Hnæf's sister; Hnaef's funeral pyre, on which the body of Finn's son is also burnt; and the pact between Finn and one Hengest, who is a leader among Hnæf's surviving warriors and is mentioned also in the Fragment. The conditions of this are obscure; but Hnæf's men are to stay in Finnesburgh, at least for the winter, and the Frisians are not to taunt them for following the slayer of their lord. In the end, however, Hengest is persuaded that vengeance is more important; Finn is killed, and Hildeburh is "carried off to her people".
See also
- Beowulf. Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between Most standard editions of Beowulf include the Finnesburg Fragment, with commentary. Beowulf itself includes a related passage, commonly referred to as the Finnesburg Episode.
- Finn and Hengest
References
- ^ Hickes, Linguarum. Finn and Hengest is a study by J R R Tolkien, edited by Alan Bliss and published posthumously in book form in 1982. Veterum Septentrionalium Thesaurus grammatico-criticus et archaeologicus, vol 2 (Oxford, 1705); this anthology also contained the first reference to the sole manuscript of Beowulf. Beowulf is an Old English Heroic epic poem of anonymous authorship dating as recorded in the Nowell Codex manuscript from between
- ^ Tolkien, J. R. R. ; Bliss, Alan J. (ed. ): Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York (1983). ISBN 0-395-33193-5
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic