Finn and Hengest

Professor J.R.R. Tolkien is most widely known as the author of 'The Lord of the Rings,' but he was also a distinguished scholar in the field of Mediaeval English language and literature. His most significant contribution to Anglo-Saxon studies is to be found in his lectures on Finn and Hengest, two fifth-century heroes in northern Europe. The story is told in two Old English poems, 'Beowulf' and 'The Fights at Finnesburg,' but told so obscurely and allusively that its interpretation had been a matter of controversy for over 100 years. Bringing his unique combination of philological erudition and poetic imagination to the task, however, Tolkien revealed a classic tragedy of divided loyalties, of vengeance, blood and death. The story has the added attraction that it describes the events immediately preceding the first Germanic invasion of Britain which was led by Hengest himself.