Battle of Finnsburg::Widsith::The Wanderer Summary of 3 Great poem
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Battle of Finnsburg
Battle of Finnsburg is a fragment of fifty lines, and is probably of the same date as the early days of Beowulf which also contains the Finn episode. Its manuscript was discovered by Dr. George Hicks on the cover of a manuscript of Homilies in the library of Lambeth Palace. It was published by Dr. Hicks in 1705 A. D. The fragment opens with the speech of a young king (Hnaef, the king of the Danes) rousing his followers (who are sixty in number) to defend the hall where they are sleeping.
The followers take their appointed places in anticipation of an attack by the Frisians. Then follows a short battle which goes on for five days, and many of the Frisians were killed. The Danes hold the door of he hall for five days without any loss to themselves. “Then a wounded warrior, who is not named brings the news to his king-at which point the fragment breaks off.”
Widsith
Widsith is preserved in the Exeter Book. Though not an epic itself it contains some of the features of the epic. It is the autobiography of a scop, the itinerant minstrel of the Dark Ages, who moved from court to court of kings and chiefs, and sometimes served continuously one master. It consists of 143 lines and was probably written before the Anglo-Saxons migrated to England. But it was revised and re-written in the seventh or early eighth century.
Widsith, that is, ‘far traveller’ recounts the story of his long travels throughout the Germanic world, and mentions the princes he has visited and from whom he has received presents. Among the kings and rulers he has visited there are some who are wellknown to history, and they are Eormenric, the king of the Goths, Attila, the king of the Huns, and Alboin, the king of the Lombards, the husband, the insulter and the victim of Rosmunda.
The poem alludes to Hrothgar who recurs in Beowulf. The historical importance of the poem lies in the reference to so many kings and princes concerning whom great sagas were written, and whose government once made a great noise in the world. According to David Daiches “What strikes us most forcibly is its catholicity praise is meted out impartially to Huns, Goths, Burgandians, Franks, Danes, Swedes, Angles, Wends, Saxons, Langobards, and many others.”
Moreover, the passion for roving and adventure which characterizes the English makes this poem representative of the English. As S. Brooke says, “Widsith is our Ulysses. ‘I have fared through many stranger lands, through the spacious earth; good and evil have I known’. It is the true description of a common type of Englishman in every period of our history.”
The Wanderer
Waldere consists of two fragments (of 32 and 31 lines respectively). The manuscripts of these fragments are preserved in the Royal library at Copenhagen. The first of the two manuscripts deals with the speech by which Hildeguthe exhorts Waldhere to fight with Guthhere who has unjustly begun hostilities and refused the offer of a sword and treasure.
“The second manuscript is occupied by an altercation between Guthhere and Waldhere, in which the former praises his sword and the latter his coat of mail. Waldhere states that the king had tried to get Hagena to attack him first. Victory, however, comes to the faithful from above.” “The work has, as E. Albert says, “vigour and power, and it is to be greatly regretted that so little is preserved. It might well have been one of the finest of narrative pieces.”
Battle of Finnsburg
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