I am mapping to a schema with the Following tables

Table Fuel
Columns
ID
Name
Fuel_Type_ID (which is an FK)

Table Fuel_Type
Columns
ID
Name

I want to have a single class

public class Fuel{
private Long id;
private String name;
private String fuelType;

.... accessors omitted
}

I have looked at using the <join/> element but the <key/> seems to refer from the Fuel_Type to the Fuel ID but we don't have that association. Is there a way to denormalise this scenario by loading the fuel.

I.e the equivalent of this

Select f.*, ft.Name as FuelType from f Fuel, ft FuelType where f.Fuel_Type_ID = ft.ID;

By the way I want to achieve this with hbm.xml not attributes.

Any help much appreciated.

You are asking, "How can I do regular SQL in Hibernate" but I'm answering, "How can I use Hibernate to do with Java objects what I used to do with SQL."

I recommend getting one of the books and reading it. There are lots of good examples, plus a certain amount of manifesto that gives you an idea what Hibernate is doing and why. I have Hibernate In Action because I'm old. It seems every page of this forum advertises Java Persistence with Hibernate at the top of the page - that's probably worth looking into.