The massacre at Finnsburh

Although the situation is not exactly the same as what seems to have occurred at Sandby Borg, we do have evidence of an episode in the poem Beowulf and another poetic fragment which pertain to the warfare of the same period and which suggest the kind of intended complete destruction which was perpetrated at Sandby Borg. The poetic fragment is the 48-lines-long The Fight at Finnsburg (more properly Freswæl) which seems to relate to an episode in Beowulf (lines 1066–1159). The background of the Freswael fragment is that the king Hnæf, son of Hoc, conquered a part of Jutland and exiled its former rulers. Finn, king in Frisia (located around modern Friesland, the Netherlands), allowed the exiled Jutes to enter his service. However, before the start of the fragment, Hnæf had also…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XVI.6

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