One third of the way through the Old English poem Beowulf (lines 1063-1159), the main characters listen to a bard tell a cryptic tale of a feud between two tribes, the Danes and the Frisians.  An enigmatic figure in the story is the Danish princess Hildeburh, who marries the Frisian prince Finn to "pledge peace" between the tribes. The Beowulf version of the story focuses on the men and the battles and elides the crucial figure of Hildeburh. This novel is the story of her life. Set in fifth century northern Europe in a culture of Viking ships, named swords, and subsistence-level agriculture, Hildeburh is here the heroine of her own story.