Hengest's Tale

Walsh studied English at Oxford under Tolkien andt her children's story about Hengest conveyed fairly well Tolkien's interpretation of the story of Finn and Hengest - which was clearly a great tale of the North in the 6th and 7th centuries but is known to us only partially from Beowulf and the 'Finnesburg fragment'. in terms of historical enlightenment: the meaning of Tolkien's basic idea that, at the fight at Finnesburg, "there were Jutes on both sides". Walsh does well in painting an historical picture of the North in which Danish expansion is destroying the existing Jutish nation (they are the tribe who colonized Kent, the tribe of Hengest and Horsa), and the Jutes have a choice of (essentially) collaborating with the Danes or fleeing Jutland. Many flee to Finnesburg, and the fight at Finnesburg is ultimately a fight between these two sides.


Genre: Children's Fiction