124:. She experiences, unlike Wealhþeow, the destruction of her husband's people (including her own son) and her brother's people. Hildeburh, too, serves as a peace-pledge bringing the Danes and Frisians together. She returned to her home land after her husband's kingdom was destroyed. This history represents the conflict that many peace-weavers felt: with whom should the loyalty lie? Anglo-Saxon tradition says that once married, the peace-weaver's duties and loyalties lie first and foremost with her new husband.
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peace by weaving to the best of her art a tapestry of friendship and amnesty." This argument originates from the idea that the term is used to refer to angels that are sent from God as peace-weavers between God and man. Thus, peace-weaver can have a broader meaning, but when speaking of peace-weavers in literature, the most common discussions revolve around women married to rival tribes in order to establish peace between warring peoples.
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A few scholars believe that the term "peace-weavers" "does not necessarily reflect a
Germanic custom of giving a woman in marriage to a hostile tribe in order to secure peace. Rather, it is a poetic metaphor referring to the person whose function it seems to be to perform openly the action of making
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said of the
Germanic people: "They choose their kings for their noble birth, their leaders for their valour ... Many noble youths, if the land of their birth is stagnating in a protracted peace, deliberately seek out other tribes, where some war is afoot." With this cultural background, peace was
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Although the term peace-weaver is not specifically mentioned in this particular piece, it has been hypothesized that the narrator is a peace-weaver who is mourning the distance between herself and her husband, and she remains with his family.
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is a fairly able peace-weaver inasmuch as a peace-weaver can be effective. She attended to the successes of her husband and sons while providing her daughter as another peace-weaver to a different enemy tribe. The
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Anglo-Saxons thrived on battle. Politically organized into tribes with local chieftains, Anglo-Saxons were sworn to protect their leaders and had a fierce loyalty to their own tribes.
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groups. It was hoped that by relating two tribes, the animosity between them would be eased as individuals would be reluctant to kill their own flesh and blood.
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as one who creates peace politically. Wealhþeow's role as a peace-weaver is both social and political, and she is clearly effective in both dimensions.
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difficult to achieve in Anglo-Saxon communities. There were two major ways that the Anglo-Saxons tried to establish peace between tribes. One was
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women who were married to a member of an enemy tribe for the purpose of establishing peace between
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139:) to Beowulf as the price for killing Grendel. She acts as a
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The second character portrayed in the peace-weaving role is
188:"The Heroic Age: The Social Centrality of Women in Beowulf"
76:, a literary device common in Anglo-Saxon poetry.
291:, "The Wife's Lament," Utah Valley University
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127:In this text the queen of the Danes gives
247:, "Peace Weavers," Utah Valley University
64:The Anglo-Saxon word for peace-weaver is
288:Ellen Amatangelo and Dr. Rick McDonald,
244:Ellen Amatangelo and Dr. Rick McDonald,
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328:History of women in the United Kingdom
261:The Anglo-Saxon Peace Weaving Warrior,
222:"The Anglo-Saxon Fyrd c. 400–878 A.D."
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275:, "The Peace Weaver: Wealhtheow in
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318:Conflict in Anglo-Saxon England
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272:Jennifer Michelle Gardner,
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256:Anthea Rebecca Andrade,
92:stand as peace-weavers.
338:European royal families
86:Two main characters in
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185:Dorothy Carr Porter,
313:Anglo-Saxon society
232:Michael Delahoyde,
147:"The Wife's Lament"
208:: A New Context,"
343:Arranged marriage
333:Types of marriage
194:on 19 August 2006
162:Marriage of state
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136:Brísingamen
115:frithu-sibb
107:frithu-sibb
99:Old English
72:). It is a
29:Anglo-Saxon
25:freothwebbe
21:Old English
302:Categories
168:References
60:Literature
363:Diplomacy
122:Hildeburh
94:Wealhþeow
70:fríÞwebbe
277:Beowulf,
198:9 August
156:See also
50:weregild
308:Exogamy
212:Issue 5
206:Beowulf
89:Beowulf
81:Beowulf
74:kenning
45:Tacitus
39:History
33:feuding
27:) were
133:(read
323:Wives
141:Völva
279:2006
263:2006
200:2006
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176:^
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