Enacting Ties that Bind: Oath-Making vs. Oath-Taking in the Finnsburg “Episode”

Drawing upon the theories of Henri Lefebvre, this article examines the mead hall as social space, focusing on the spatial context of the heroic oath in Old English poetry. It demonstrates that when thanes and lords recollect oath-making ceremonies in Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon , they reflect upon the spatial situation of the oath (in the hall while drinking mead and sitting upon the mead bench), indicating that these components make the oath binding. Appearances of these “conventional” oath-making spatial components contrast with the oath-taking scene in the Finnsburg “Episode,” in which these components are absent or tempered, suggesting that Hengest will not keep the peace treaty with Finn. By implication, the poet could have intended to hint that Hengest is a traitor who will not fulfill the oath or to downplay the fact that Hengest breaks his oath to Finn to keep a prior oath to Hnaef.