Hildeburh’s Mourning andThe Wife’s Lament

Abstract

Readers of Beowulf have traditionally characterized Hildeburh as a passive victim whose extraordinary suffering is foregrounded in order to critique the institution of revenge and illustrate the tragic consequences of interethnic feuding. By reconsidering her act of public mourning, the present article dissents from the prevailing interpretation and lends support to a less conventional reading of Hildeburh, which sees her emerge from the Finn Episode as ultimately vindicated and compensated. In this reading, the death of Finn is understood not as further tragedy for Hildeburh, but as a form of legal and emotional compensation, which she may have taken an active role in instigating.

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