Section III. Möller's Theory
Now our first task is to find what is the relation between the events told in the Fragment and the events told in the Episode in Beowulf. It can, I think, be shown that the events of the Fragment precede the events of the Episode in Beowulf; that is to say that the fight in the hall, of which we are told in the Fragment, is the same fight which has taken place before the Episode in Beowulf begins, the fight which has resulted in the slaughter over which Hildeburh laments, and which necessitates the great funeral described in the first part of the Episode (ll. 1108-24).
How necessary it is to place the Fragment here, before the beginning of the Episode, will be best seen, I think, if we examine the theory which has tried to place it elsewhere.
This is the theory, worked out elaborately and ingeniously by Möller[[441]], a theory which has had considerable vogue, and many of the assumptions of which have been widely accepted. According to Möller and his followers, the story ran something like this:
"Finn, king of the Frisians, had carried off Hildeburh, daughter of Hoc (1076), probably with her consent. Her father Hoc seems to have pursued the fugitives, and to have been slain in the fight which ensued on his overtaking them. After the lapse of some twenty years, the brothers Hnæf and Hengest, Hoc's sons, were old enough to undertake the duty of avenging their father's death. They make an inroad into Finn's country."
Up to this, all is Möller's hypothesis, unsupported by any evidence, either in the Fragment or the Episode. It is based, so far as it has any real foundation, upon a mythical interpretation of Finn, and upon parallels with the Hild-story, the Gudrun-story, and a North Frisian folk-tale[[442]]. Some of the
parallels are striking, but they are not sufficient to justify Möller's reconstruction. The authenticity of large portions of the folk-tale is open to doubt[[443]]: and these portions are vital to any parallel with the story of Finnsburg; whilst we have no right to read into the Finn story details from the Hild or Gudrun stories, unless we can show that they are really versions of the same tale: and this cannot be shown. Möller's suppositions as to the events before the Episode in Beowulf opens, must therefore be dismissed. Möller's reconstruction then gets into relation with the real story, as narrated in Beowulf:
"A battle takes place in which many warriors, among them Hnæf and a son of Finn (1074, 1079, 1115), are killed. Peace is therefore solemnly concluded, and the slain warriors are burnt (1068-1124).
As the year is too far advanced for Hengest to return home (ll. 1130 ff.), he and those of his men who survive remain for the winter in the Frisian country with Finn. But Hengest's thoughts dwell constantly on the death of his brother Hnæf, and he would gladly welcome any excuse to break the peace which has been sworn by both parties. His ill-concealed desire for revenge is noticed by the Frisians, who anticipate it by themselves taking the initiative and attacking Hengest and his men whilst they are sleeping in the hall. This is the night attack described in the Fragment. It would seem that after a brave and desperate resistance Hengest himself falls in this fight[[444]], but two of his retainers, Guthlaf and Oslaf[[444]], succeed in cutting their way through their enemies and in escaping to their own land. They return with fresh troops, attack and slay Finn, and carry his queen Hildeburh off with them (1125-1159)[[445]]."
Now the difficulties of this theory will, I think, be found to be insuperable. Let us look at some of them.