As it was, reading this book straight through felt like entering a dark forest in northern Germany in 500 a.d. I think it should have been structured with the Reconstruction at the beginning, perhaps followed by the translations. Then, a reconstruction of how the actual story might have gone, with some rather obscure appendices to top the whole thing off. This was followed by a ‘Glossary of Names’ which took up a third of the book, followed with some brief commentary, before the fragments presented in the first section were finally translated at around 95% through the book.

There was a preface, an introduction, and then the two texts which the book was to be based on, presented in their original Old English (one a stand-alone fragment, and the other a few hundred lines from Beowulf). Unfortunately, the drama of the cover was more moving than the text, such as it was. I was sold immediately (as was the book). This book will be of interest not only to students of Old English and all those interested in the history of northern Europe and Anglo-Saxon England, but also admirers of The Lord of the Rings who will be fascinated to see how Tolkien handled a story which he did not invent.Finn and Hengest had a sweet cover of two men, one seemingly crying into the wind and driving rain, and another looking cunningly askance, while behind them some Heorot sat on the throne of a hill above the raging sea.

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. Tolkien's original and persuasive solution of the many problems raised by the story ranged widely through the early history and legend of the Germanic peoples. 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 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. His most significant contribution to Anglo-Saxon studies is to be found in his lectures on Finn and Hengest (pronounced Hen-jist), two fifth-century heroes in northern Europe. Professor J.R.R.Tolkien is most widely known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, but he was also a distinguished scholar in the field of Mediaeval English language and literature. Tolkien's famous translations and lectures on the story of two fifth-century heroes in northern Europe.

Finn and hengest