Finn of Friesland

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Finn , son of Folcwald, is a legendary figure who is mentioned as the Frisian king of the 6th century in the works of Widsith and Beowulf . There is also a 48-line fragment of an old English hero song, the Finnsburg fragment . In addition, a Finn appears in the Historia Britonum . However, all of these texts were not written down until 50 to 100 years after his possible work.

The Finnsburg fragment probably originated in the 7th century at the latest and was initially only passed on orally. According to Wolfgang Putsche, it is “completely unaffected by Christian influences”. It only emerges from it that "a young follower named Hnæf is fighting with his people against another followers in a hall that is apparently called Finnsburg or one of them."

The Widsith says that Finn is the son of Folcwalding. A little more information is contained in the Old English poetry Beowulf , in which the king himself reproduces the content of the Finnsburg song . Accordingly, Finn was married to Hildeburh, the sister of the Danish follower Hnæf . The brothers-in-law got into a conflict, as a result of which Hnæf died. Finn then makes peace with Hengest , the Danes' new henchman. This peace is short-lived. In the event of new battles, Finn also falls. The Danes then steal his treasures and also bring Hildeburh back to their homeland.

The Finn legends are the subject of the study Finn and Hengest by JRR Tolkien . The book was published posthumously in 1982 based on the author's notes.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Volkert F. Faltings, Alastair GH Walker and Ommo Wilts: Frisian Studies II: Contributions of the Föhrer Symposium on Frisian Philology from 7-8. April 1994 (Nowele Supplement), ISBN 8778380596 . P. 11 f. ( Available online via google books )
  2. ↑ Paul Halsall: Medieval Sourcebook: Nennius: Historia Brittonum (1998, English translation)
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Putsche (editor), Ludwig E. Schmitt (editor): Brief outline of Germanic philology up to 1500 Volume 2: History of literature . Berlin 1971. ISBN 3110064685 . P. 143 ( can be viewed online via google books )