In the Finnsburg fragment of Beowulf we are presented with the lament of a Danish princess who is married to a Finn. Her son is a Frisian warrior and but her brother is the leader of the opposing Danes, Hnaef. Both are killed in battle and Hildeburh orders them cremated together. Her husband, Finn, leaders of the Frisians, is later slain in battler, before Hildeburh is returned to Denmark. In The WifeÆs Lament, we have a wife who is married to a man in a far off community that is hostile to her own. Her husband is hostile toward not only her community but even, perhaps, his wife. Both of these women serve the role as peace-pledges or peace-weavers, women who married across warring communities to help bring peace. However, despite their similarity in this manner, the situations and positions of the two women in their respective societies are vastly different.
The fragment embodied by Hildeburh demonstrates that she has a respected position of wealth and class in her community. She is a Danish princess who has been married to the leader of the Frisians, Hnaef. Women in the Middle Ages were often contracted in arranged marriage in order to promote peace between warring communities. We see she is the daughter of a respected king and that she has the respect and empathy of her community, ôNone doubted why the daughter of Hoc / bewailed her doom when dawning cameö (Finnsburg, 1). This is in contrast to the lowly station of the narrator in The WifeÆs Lament. She mourns because she is exiled from her relatives and husband, is doomed to poverty, and faces a lonely old age surrounded by hostile neighbors, ôThis cave is old û I am all oppressed - / the valleys dim, mountains steep û a bitter home!ö (WifeÆs, 2).
There is a distinct difference between the emotional distress of Hildeburh and the female narrator. In the case of Hildeburh, she is mournful because she has lost her
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