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Hildeburh's Conflict // Jackson Riddle

Marriage, or as the priest in the movie The Princess Bride says, "Mawwiage", is a beautiful thing. The joining of two people in love (hopefully) so they can happily live the rest of their lives out together. Marriage in Beowulf is, well, interesting. I bring up marriage in reference to the bard's saga that he sings in lines 1070 to 1158 about the attack in Friesland, where Hnaef, king of the Danes, met his demise. In this tale of vengeance and despair, Hildeburh, a Danish princess, is married to the Frisian king Finn in a marriage meant to bring peace between the feuding countries. I found this tale particularly interesting because the bard explains that among the Danish and Frisian casualties were Hildeburh's Frisian son and her Danish brother Hnaef. Hildeburh had losses on both sides of the battle, both of them blood-kin, and yet she remained impartial to the battle because what else was she to do?

I bring this up because I'm unsure as to where I stand on the whole concept of marriages used as a tool of peace between countries. On the one hand, it makes sense; I give you my daughter, and you basically give me your son, it's a mutual exchange of something held dear to the rulers of each kingdom. But in such cases, are the prince and princesses' opinions on the matter simply ignored? What if the princess had a strong distaste for her newly-wed husband that was then reflected through the exchanges between countries? And in Hildeburh's situation, it must have pained her deeply to see her brother and son clash on the battlefield, a situation that I'm sure was not that uncommon in that era. After experiencing such loss, Hildeburh handled the situation with perfect execution in lines 1115 through 1118: "Then Hildeburh ordered her own son's body be burnt with Hnaef's, the flesh on his bones to sputter and blaze beside his uncle's." By ordering the two bodies be burnt alongside eachother, Hildeburh essentially gave the leaders of the Danish and the Frisian an example of how their alliance should be; side by side, not sword through side (ha that was clever).    

All that to say, such marriages that are solely officiated to bring forth union between nations cause problems like Hildeburh's that could surely be avoided were there a different method of showing peace.


PS: I commented on Kaitlyn Terry and Clabo's posts.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

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