V
MARRIAGE OF FREAWARU AND INGELD
Characters
- 1. Freawaru, daughter of Hrothgar the Dane.
- 2. Ingeld, son of Froda, King of the Heathobards.
- 3. Froda, King of the Heathobards.
- 4. A Heathobard warrior.
- 5. Son of the Danish warrior who had killed Froda.
The Heathobards were a people in Zealand. There had been an ancient feud between the Danes and the Heathobards in which Froda had been killed by a Danish warrior. Hrothgar hoped to appease the feud by the marriage of his daughter Freawaru to Ingeld. Unluckily, the son of the Danish warrior who had killed Froda accompanied Freawaru to Ingeld’s Court. Then an old Heathobard warrior notices this and stirs up strife. The marriage fails in its object, and war breaks out again between the Danes and the Heathobards. Beowulf predicts the course of events in his speech to Hygelac (Chapters [XXVIII]. and [XXIX].).