# Beowulf (Harrison and Sharp)/Notes

Source: James A. Harrison and Robert Sharp, eds. (1883) from Project Gutenberg

## NOTES.

l. 1. hwæt: for this interjectional formula opening a poem, cf. _Andreas, Daniel, Juliana, Exodus, Fata Apost., Dream of the Rood_, and the "Listenith lordinges!" of mediaeval lays.--E. Cf. Chaucer, Prologue, ed. Morris, l. 853:
"Sin I shal beginne the game, _What_, welcome be the cut, a Goddes name!"
wē ... gefrūnon is a variant on the usual epic formulǣ ic gefrægn (l. 74) and mīne gefrǣge (l. 777). _Exodus, Daniel, Phoenix_, etc., open with the same formula.
l. 1. "Gār was the javelin, armed with two of which the warrior went into battle, and which he threw over the 'shield-wall.' It was barbed."--Br. 124. Cf. _Maldon_, l. 296; _Judith_, l. 224; _Gnom. Verses_, l. 22; etc.
l. 4. "Scild of the Sheaf, not 'Scyld the son of Scaf'; for it is too inconsistent, even in myth, to give a patronymic to a foundling. According to the original form of the story, Scēaf was the foundling; he had come ashore with a sheaf of corn, and from that was named. This form of the story is preserved in Ethelwerd and in William of Malmesbury. But here the foundling is Scyld, and we must suppose he was picked up with the sheaf, and hence his cognomen."--E., p. 105. Cf. the accounts of Romulus and Remus, of Moses, of Cyrus, etc.
l. 6. egsian is also used in an active sense (not in the Gloss.), = _to terrify_.
l. 15. S. suggests þā (_which_) for þæt, as object of drēogan; and for aldor-lēase, Gr. suggested aldor-ceare.--_Beit_. ix. 136.
S. translates: "For God had seen the dire need which the rulerless ones before endured."
l. 18. "Beowulf (that is, Beaw of the Anglo-Saxon genealogists, not our Beowulf, who was a Geat, not a Dane), 'the son of Scyld in Scedeland.' This is our ancestral myth,--the story of the first culture-hero of the North; 'the patriarch,' as Rydberg calls him, 'of the royal families of Sweden, Denmark, Angeln, Saxland, and England.'"--Br., p. 78. Cf. _A.-S. Chron._ an. 855.
H.-So. omits parenthetic marks, and reads (after S., _Beit._ ix. 135) eaferan; cf. _Fata Apost._: lof wīde sprang þēodnes þegna.
"The name _Bēowulf_ means literally 'Bee-wolf,' wolf or ravager of the bees, = bear. Cf. _beorn_, 'hero,' originally 'bear,' and _bēohata_, 'warrior,' in Cǣdmon, literally 'bee-hater' or 'persecutor,' and hence identical in meaning with _bēowulf_."--Sw.
Cf.
"Arcite and Palamon, That foughten _breme_, as it were bores two." --Chaucer, _Knightes Tale_, l. 841, ed. Morris.
Cf. M. Müller, _Science of Lang._, Sec. Series, pp. 217, 218; and Hunt's _Daniel_, 104.
l. 19. Cf. l. 1866, where Scedenig is used, = _Scania_, in Sweden(?).
l. 21. wine is pl.; cf. its apposition wil-gesīðas below. H.-So. compares _Héliand_, 1017, for language almost identical with ll. 20, 21.
l. 22. on ylde: cf.
"_In elde_ is bothe wisdom and usage." --Chaucer, _Knightes Tale_, l. 1590, ed. Morris.
l. 26. Reflexive objects often pleonastically accompany verbs of motion; cf. ll. 234, 301, 1964, etc.
l. 31. The object of āhte is probably geweald, to be supplied from wordum wēold of l. 30.--H.-So.
R., Kl., and B. all hold conflicting views of this passage: _Beit._ xii. 80, ix. 188; _Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 382, etc. Kl. suggests lǣndagas for lange.
l. 32. "hringed-stefna is sometimes translated 'with curved prow,' but it means, I think, that in the prow were fastened rings through which the cables were passed that tied it to the shore."--Br., p. 26. Cf. ll. 1132, 1898. Hring-horni was the mythic ship of the Edda. See Toller-Bosworth for three different views; and cf. wunden-stefna (l. 220), hring-naca (l. 1863).
ll. 34-52. Cf. the burial of Haki on a funeral-pyre ship, _Inglinga Saga;_ the burial of Balder, Sinfiötli, Arthur, etc.
l. 35. "And this [their joy in the sea] is all the plainer from the number of names given to the ship-names which speak their pride and affection. It is the AEtheling's vessel, the Floater, the Wave-swimmer, the Ring-sterned, the Keel, the Well-bound wood, the Sea-wood, the Sea-ganger, the Sea-broad ship, the Wide-bosomed, the Prow-curved, the Wood of the curved neck, the Foam-throated floater that flew like a bird."--Br., p. 168.
l. 49. "We know from Scandinavian graves ... that the illustrious dead were buried ... in ships, with their bows to sea-ward; that they were however not sent to sea, but were either burnt in that position, or mounded over with earth."--E. See Du Chaillu, _The Viking Age_, xix.
l. 51. (1) sele-rǣdende (K., S., C.); (2) sēle-rǣdenne (H.); (3) sele-rǣdende (H.-So.). Cf. l. 1347; and see Ha.
l. 51. E. compares with this canto Tennyson's "Passing of Arthur" and the legendary burial-journey of St. James of Campostella, an. 800.
l. 53. The poem proper begins with this, "There was once upon a time," the first 52 lines being a prelude. Eleven of the "fitts," or cantos, begin with the monosyllable þā, four with the verb gewītan, nine with the formula Hrōðgār (Bēowulf, Unferð) maðelode, twenty-four with monosyllables in general (him, swā, sē, hwæt, þā, heht, wæs, mæg, cwōm, strǣt).
l. 58. gamel. "The ... characteristics of the poetry are the use of archaic forms and words, such as mec for mé, the possessive sín, gamol, dógor, swát for eald, dǣg, blód, etc., after they had become obsolete in the prose language, and the use of special compounds and phrases, such as hildenǣdre (_war-adder_) for 'arrow,' gold-gifa (_gold-giver_) for 'king,' ... goldwine gumena (_goldfriend of men, distributor of gold to men_) for 'king,'" etc.--Sw. Other poetic words are ides, ielde (_men_), etc.
l. 60. H.-So. reads rǣswa (referring to Heorogār alone), and places a point (with the Ms.) after Heorogār instead of after rǣswa. Cf. l. 469; see B., _Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 193.
l. 62. Elan here (OHG. _Elana, Ellena, Elena, Elina, Alyan_) is thought by B. (_Tidskr._ viii. 43) to be a remnant of the masc. name Onela, and he reads: [On-]elan ewēn, Heaðoscilfingas(=es) healsgebedda.
l. 68. For hē, omitted here, cf. l. 300. Pronouns are occasionally thus omitted in subord. clauses.--Sw.
l. 70. þone, here = þonne, _than_, and micel = māre? The passage, by a slight change, might be made to read, medo-ærn micle mā gewyrcean,--þone = _by much larger than_,--in which þone (þonne) would come in naturally.
l. 73. folc-scare. Add _folk-share_ to the meanings in the Gloss.; and cf. gūð-scearu.
l. 74. ic wide gefrægn: an epic formula very frequent in poetry, = _men said._ Cf. _Judith_, ll. 7, 246; _Phoenix_, l. 1; and the parallel (noun) formula, mīne gefrǣge, ll. 777, 838, 1956, etc.
ll. 78-83. "The hall was a rectangular, high-roofed, wooden building, its long sides facing north and south. The two gables, at either end, had stag-horns on their points, curving forwards, and these, as well as the ridge of the roof, were probably covered with shining metal, and glittered bravely in the sun."--Br., p. 32.
l. 84. _Son-in-law and father-in-law;_ B., a so-called _dvanda_ compound. Cf. l. 1164, where a similar compound means _uncle and nephew;_ and Wīdsīð's suhtorfǣdran, used of the same persons.
l. 88. "The word drēam conveys the buzz and hum of social happiness, and more particularly the sound of music and singing."--E. Cf. l. 3021; and _Judith_, l. 350; _Wanderer_, l. 79, etc.
ll. 90-99. There is a suspicious similarity between this passage and the lines attributed by Bede to Cǣdmon:
Nū wē sculan herian heofonrices Weard, etc. --Sw., p. 47.
ll. 90-98 are probably the interpolation of a Christian scribe.
ll. 92-97. "The first of these Christian elements [in _Bēowulf_] is the sense of a fairer, softer world than that in which the Northern warriors lived.... Another Christian passage (ll. 107, 1262) derives all the demons, eotens, elves, and dreadful sea-beasts from the race of Cain. The folly of sacrificing to the heathen gods is spoken of (l. 175).... The other point is the belief in immortality (ll. 1202, 1761)."--Br. 71.
l. 100. Cf. l. 2211, where the third dragon of the poem is introduced in the same words. Beowulf is the forerunner of that other national dragon-slayer, St. George.
l. 100. onginnan in _Bēowulf_ is treated like verbs of motion and modal auxiliaries, and takes the object inf. without tō; cf. ll. 872, 1606, 1984, 244. Cf. _gan_ (= _did_) in Mid. Eng.: _gan_ espye (Chaucer, _Knightes Tale_, l. 254, ed. Morris).
l. 101. B. and H.-So. read, fēond on healle; cf. l. 142.--_Beit._ xii.
ll. 101-151. "Grimm connects [Grendel] with the Anglo-Saxon grindel (_a bolt_ or _bar_).... It carries with it the notion of the bolts and bars of hell, and hence _a fiend._ ... Ettmüller was the first ... to connect the name with grindan, _to grind, to crush to pieces, to utterly destroy._ Grendel is then _the tearer, the destroyer_."--Br., p. 83.
l. 102. gæst = _stranger_ (Ha.); cf. ll. 1139, 1442, 2313, etc.
l. 103. See Ha., p. 4.
l. 105 MS. and Ho. read won-sǣli.
l. 106. "The perfect and pluperfect are often expressed, as in Modern English, by hǣfð and hǣfde with the past participle."--Sw. Cf. ll. 433, 408, 940, 205 (p. p. inflected in the last two cases), etc.
l. 106. S. destroys period here, reads in Caines, etc., and puts þone ... drihten in parenthesis.
l. 108. þæs þe = _because_, especially after verbs of thanking (cf. ll. 228, 627, 1780, 2798); _according as_ (l. 1351).
l. 108. The def. article is omitted with Drihten (_Lord_) and Deofol (_devil_; cf. l. 2089), as it is, generally, sparingly employed in poetry; cf. tō sǣ (l. 318), ofer sǣ (l. 2381), on lande (l. 2311), tō ræste (l. 1238), on wicge (l. 286), etc., etc.
l. 119. weras (S., H.-So.); wera (K., Th.).--_Beit._ ix. 137.
l. 120. unfǣlo = _uncanny_ (R.).
l. 131. E. translates, _majestic rage;_ adopting Gr.'s view that swyð is = Icel. sviði, _a burn_ or _burning_. Cf. l. 737.
l. 142. B. supposes heal-þegnes to be corrupted from helþegnes; cf. l. 101.--_Beit._ xii. 80. See Gūðlāc, l. 1042.
l. 144. See Ha., p. 6, for S.'s rearrangement.
l. 146. S. destroys period after sēlest, puts wæs ... micel in parenthesis, and inserts a colon after tīd.
l. 149. B. reads sārcwidum for syððan.
l. 154. B. takes sibbe for accus. obj. of wolde, and places a comma after Deniga.--_Beit._ xii. 82.
l. 159. R. suggests ac se for atol.
l. 168. H.-So. plausibly conjectures this parenthesis to be a late insertion, as, at ll. 180-181, the Danes also are said to be heathen. Another commentator considers the throne under a "spell of enchantment," and therefore it could not be touched.
l. 169. nē ... wisse: _nor had he desire to do so_ (W.). See Ha., p. 7, for other suggestions.
l. 169. myne wisse occurs in _Wanderer_, l. 27.
l. 174. The gerundial inf. with tō expresses purpose, defines a noun or adjective, or, with the verb be, expresses duty or necessity passively; cf. ll. 257, 473, 1004, 1420, 1806, etc. Cf. tō + inf. at ll. 316, 2557.
ll. 175-188. E. regards this passage as dating the time and place of the poem relatively to the times of heathenism. Cf. the opening lines, _In days of yore_, etc., as if the story, even then, were very old.
l. 177. gāst-bona is regarded by Ettmüller and G. Stephens (_Thunor_, p. 54) as an epithet of Thor (= _giant-killer_), a kenning for Thunor or Thor, meaning both _man_ and _monster_.--E.
l. 189. Cf. l. 1993, where similar language is used. H.-So. takes both mōd-ceare and mǣl-ceare as accus., others as instr.
ll. 190, 1994. sēað: for this use of sēoðan cf. Bede, _Eccles. Hist._, ed. Miller, p. 128, where p. p. soden is thus used.
l. 194. fram hām = _in his home_ (S., H.-So.); but fram hām may be for fram him (_from them_, i.e. _his people_, or _from Hrothgar's_). Cf. Ha., p. 8.
l. 197. Cf. ll. 791, 807, for this fixed phrase.
l. 200. See _Andreas, Elene_, and _Juliana_ for swan-rād (_= sea_). "The swan is said to breed wild now no further away than the North of Sweden." --E. Cf. ganotes bæð, l. 1862.
l. 203. Concessive clauses with þēah, þēah þe, þēah ... eal, vary with subj. and ind., according as fact or contingency is dominant in the mind; cf. ll. 526, 1168, 2032, etc. (subj.), 1103, 1614 (ind.). Cf. gif, nefne.
l. 204. hǣl, an OE. word found in Wülker's Glossaries in various forms, = _augury, omen, divination_, etc. Cf. hǣlsere, _augur_; hǣl, _omen;_ hǣlsung, _augurium_, hǣlsian, etc. Cf. Tac., _Germania_, 10.
l. 207. C. adds "= _impetrare_" to the other meanings of findan given in the Gloss.
l. 217. Cf. l. 1910; and _Andreas_, l. 993.--E. E. compares Byron's
"And fast and falcon-like the vessel flew," --_Corsair_, i. 17.
and Scott's
"Merrily, merrily bounds the bark." --_Lord of the Isles_, iv. 7.
l. 218. Cf.
"The fomy stedes on the golden brydel Gnawinge." --Chaucer, _Knightes Tale_, l. 1648, ed. Morris.
l 218. MS. and Ho. read fāmi-heals.
l. 219. Does ān-tīd mean _hour_ (Th.), or _corresponding hour_ = ānd-tīd (H.-So.), or _in due time_ (E.), or _after a time_, when ōþres, etc., would be adv. gen.? See C., _Beit._ viii. 568.
l. 224. eoletes may = (1) _voyage_; (2) _toil, labor_; (3) _hurried journey;_ but _sea_ or _fjord_ appears preferable.
ll. 229-257. "The scenery ... is laid on the coast of the North Sea and the Kattegat, the first act of the poem among the Danes in Seeland, the second among the Geats in South Sweden."--Br., p. 15.
l. 239. "A shoal of simple terms express in _Bēowulf_ the earliest sea-thoughts of the English.... The simplest term is Sǣ.... To this they added Wǣter, Flod, Stream, Lagu, Mere, Holm, Grund, Heathu, Sund, Brim, Garsecg, Eagor, Geofon, Fifel, Hron-rad, Swan-rad, Segl-rad, Ganotes-bǣð."--Br., p. 163-166.
l. 239. "The infinitive is often used in poetry after a verb of motion where we should use the present participle."--Sw. Cf. ll. 711, 721, 1163 1803, 268, etc. Cf. German _spazieren fahren reiten_, etc., and similar constructions in French, etc.
l. 240, W. reads hringed-stefnan for helmas bǣron. B. inserts (?) after holmas and begins a new line at the middle of the verse. S. omits B.'s "on the wall."
l. 245. Double and triple negatives strengthen each other and do not produce an affirmative in A.-S. or M. E. The neg. is often prefixed to several emphatic words in the sentence, and readily contracts with vowels, and h or w; cf. ll. 863, 182, 2125, 1509, 575, 583, 3016, etc.
l. 249. seld-guma = _man-at-arms in another's house_ (Wood); = _low-ranking fellow_ (Ha.); stubenhocker, _stay-at-home_ (Gr.), Scott's "carpet knight," _Marmion_, i. 5.
l. 250. næfne (nefne, nemne) usually takes the subj., = _unless_; cf. ll. 1057, 3055, 1553. For ind., = _except_, see l. 1354. Cf. būtan, gif, þēah.
l. 250. For a remarkable account of armor and weapons in _Bēowulf_, see S. A. Brooke, _Hist. of Early Eng. Lit._ For general "Old Teutonic Life in Bēowulf," see J. A. Harrison, _Overland Monthly_.
l. 252. ǣr as a conj. generally has subj., as here; cf. ll. 264, 677, 2819, 732. For ind., cf. l. 2020.
l. 253. lēas = _loose_, _roving_. Ettmüller corrected to lēase.
l. 256. This proverb (ofest, etc.) occurs in _Exod._ (Hunt), l. 293.
l. 258. An "elder" may be a very young man; hence yldesta, = _eminent_, may be used of Beowulf. Cf. _Laws of AElfred_, C. 17: Nā þæt ǣlc eald sȳ, ac þæt hē eald sȳ on wīsdōme.
l. 273. Verbs of hearing and seeing are often followed by acc. with inf.; cf. ll. 229, 1024, 729, 1517, etc. Cf. German construction with _sehen, horen_, etc., French construction with _voir, entendre_, etc., and the classical constructions.
l. 275. dǣd-hata = _instigator_. Kl. reads dǣd-hwata.
l. 280. ed-wendan, n. (B.; cf. 1775), = edwenden, limited by bisigu. So ten Br. = _Tidskr._ viii. 291.
l. 287. "Each is denoted ... also by the strengthened forms ǽghwæðer (ǽgðer), éghwæðer, etc. This prefixed ǽ, óe corresponds to the Goth, _aiw_, OHG. _eo_, _io_, and is umlauted from á, ó by the i of the gi which originally followed."--Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 190.
l. 292. "All through the middle ages suits of armour are called 'weeds.'"--E.
l. 299. MS. reads gōd-fremmendra. So H.-So.
l. 303. "An English warrior went into battle with a boar-crested helmet, and a round linden shield, with a byrnie of ringmail ... with two javelins or a single ashen spear some eight or ten feet long, with a long two-edged sword naked or held in an ornamental scabbard.... In his belt was a short, heavy, one-edged sword, or rather a long knife, called the seax ... used for close quarters."--Br., p. 121.
l. 303. For other references to the boar-crest, cf. ll. 1112, 1287, 1454; Grimm, _Myth._ 195; Tacitus, _Germania_, 45. "It was the symbol of their [the Baltic AEstii's] goddess, and they had great faith in it as a preservative from hard knocks."--E. See the print in the illus. ed. of Green's _Short History_, Harper & Bros.
l. 303. "See Kemble, _Saxons in England_, chapter on heathendom, and Grimm's _Teutonic Mythology_, chapter on Freyr, for the connection these and other writers establish between the Boar-sign and the golden boar which Freyr rode, and his worship."--Br., p. 128. Cf. _Elene_, l. 50.
l. 304. Gering proposes hlēor-bergan = _cheek-protectors_; cf. _Beit._ xii. 26. "A bronze disk found at Öland in Sweden represents two warriors in helmets with boars as their crests, and cheek-guards under; these are the hlēor-bergan."--E. Cf. hauberk, with its diminutive habergeon, < A.-S. heals, _neck_ + beorgan, _to cover_ or _protect_; and harbor, < A.-S. here, _army_ + beorgan, id.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ xii. 123. Cf. cinberge, Hunt's _Exod._ l. 175.
l. 305. For ferh wearde and gūðmōde grummon, B. and ten Br. read ferh-wearde (l. 305) and gūðmōdgum men (l. 306), = _the boar-images ... guarded the lives of the warlike men_.
l. 311. lēoma: cf. Chaucer, _Nonne Preestes Tale_, l. 110, ed. Morris:
"To dremen in here dremes Of armes, and of fyr with rede _lemes_."
l. 318. On the double gender of sǣ, cf. Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 147; and note the omitted article at ll. 2381, 318, 544, with the peculiar tmesis of _between_ at ll. 859, 1298, 1686, 1957. So _Cǣdmon_, l. 163 (Thorpe), _Exod._ l. 562 (Hunt), etc.
l. 320. Cf. l. 924; and _Andreas_, l. 987, where almost the same words occur. "Here we have manifestly before our eye one of those ancient causeways, which are among the oldest visible institutions of civilization." --E.
l. 322. S. inserts comma after scīr, and makes hring-īren (= _ring-mail_) parallel with gūð-byrne.
l. 325. Cf. l. 397. "The deposit of weapons outside before entering a house was the rule at all periods.... In provincial Swedish almost everywhere a church porch is called våkenhus,... i.e. _weapon-house_, because the worshippers deposited their arms there before they entered the house."--E., after G. Stephens.
l. 333. Cf. Dryden's "mingled metal _damask'd_ o'er with gold."--E.
l. 336. "ǣl-, el-, kindred with Goth. _aljis_, other, e.g. in ǣlþéodig, elþéodig, foreign."--Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 47.
l. 336. Cf. l. 673 for the functions of an ombiht-þegn.
l. 338. Ho. marks wræc- and its group long.
l. 343. Cf. l. 1714 for the same bēod-genēatas,--"the predecessor title to that of the Knights of the Table Round."--E. Cf. _Andreas_ (K.), l. 2177.
l. 344. The future is sometimes expressed by willan + inf., generally with some idea of volition involved; cf. ll. 351, 427, etc. Cf. the use of willan as principal vb. (with omitted inf.) at ll. 318, 1372, 543, 1056; and sculan, ll. 1784, 2817.
l. 353. sīð here, and at l. 501, probably means _arrival_. E. translates the former by _visit_, the latter by _adventure_.
l. 357. unhār = _hairless, bald_ (Gr., etc.).
l. 358. ēode is only one of four or five preterits of gān (gongan, gangan, gengan), viz. gēong (gīong: ll. 926, 2410, etc.), gang (l. 1296, etc.), gengde (ll. 1402, 1413). Sievers, p. 217, apparently remarks that ēode is "probably used only in prose." (?!). Cf. geng, _Gen._ ll. 626, 834; _Exod._ (Hunt) l. 102.
l. 367. The MS. and H.-So. read with Gr. and B. glædman Hrōðgār, abandoning Thorkelin's glædnian. There is a glass. hilaris glædman.--_Beit._ xii. 84; same as glæd.
l. 369. dugan is a "preterit-present" verb, with new wk. preterit, like sculan, durran, magan, etc. For various inflections, see ll. 573, 590, 1822, 526. Cf. _do_ in "that will _do_"; _doughty_, etc.
l. 372. Cf. l. 535 for a similar use; and l. 1220. Bede, _Eccles. Hist._, ed. Miller, uses the same expression several times. "Here, and in all other places where cniht occurs in this poem, it seems to carry that technical sense which it bore in the military hierarchy [of a noble youth placed out and learning the elements of the art of war in the service of a qualified warrior, to whom he is, in a military sense, a servant], before it bloomed out in the full sense of _knight_."--E.
l. 373. E. remarks of the hyphened eald-fæder, "hyphens are risky toys to play with in fixing texts of pre-hyphenial antiquity"; eald-fæder could only = _grandfather_. eald here can only mean _honored_, and the hyphen is unnecessary. Cf. "old fellow," "my old man," etc.; and Ger. _alt-vater_.
l. 378. Th. and B. propose Gēatum, as presents from the Danish to the Geatish king.--_Beit._ xii.
l. 380. hæbbe. The subj. is used in indirect narration and question, wish and command, purpose, result, and hypothetical comparison with swelce = _as if_.
ll. 386, 387. Ten Br. emends to read: "Hurry, bid the kinsman-throng go into the hall together."
l. 387. sibbe-gedriht, for Beowulf's friends, occurs also at l. 730. It is subject-acc. to sēon. Cf. ll. 347, 365, and Hunt's _Exod._ l. 214.
l. 404. "Here, as in the later Icelandic halls, Beowulf saw Hrothgar enthroned on a high seat at the east end of the hall. The seat is sacred. It has a supernatural quality. Grendel, the fiend, cannot approach it."--Br., p. 34. Cf. l. 168.
l. 405. "At Benty Grange, in Derbyshire, an Anglo-Saxon barrow, opened in 1848, contained a coat of mail. 'The iron chain work consists of a large number of links of two kinds attached to each other by small rings half an inch in diameter; one kind flat and lozenge-shaped ... the others all of one kind, but of different lengths.'"--Br., p. 126.
l. 407. Wes ... hāl: this ancient Teutonic greeting afterwards grew into wassail. Cf. Skeat's _Luke_, i. 28; _Andreas_ (K.), 1827; Layamon, l. 14309, etc.
l. 414. "The distinction between wesan and weorðan [in passive relations] is not very clearly defined, but wesan appears to indicate a state, weorðan generally an action."--Sw. Cf. Mod. German _werden_ and _sein_ in similar relations.
l. 414. Gr. translates hādor by _receptaculum_; cf. Gering, _Zachers Zeitschr._ xii. 124. Toller-Bosw. ignores Gr.'s suggestion.
ll. 420, 421. B. reads: þǣr ic (_on_) fīfelgeban (= _ocean_) ȳðde eotena cyn. Ten Br. reads: þǣr ic fīfelgeban ȳðde, eotena hām. Ha. suggests fīfelgeband = _monster-band_, without further changes.
l. 420. R. reads þǣra = _of them_, for þǣr.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 399; _Beit._ xii. 367.
l. 420. "niht has a gen., nihtes, used for the most part only adverbially, and almost certainly to be regarded as masculine."--Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 158.
l. 425. Cf. also ll. 435, 635, 2345, for other examples of Beowulf's determination to fight single-handed.
l. 441. þe hine = _whom_, as at l. 1292, etc. The indeclinable þe is often thus combined with personal pronouns, = relative, and is sometimes separated from them by a considerable interval.--Sw.
l. 443. The MS. has Geotena. B. and Fahlbeck, says H.-So., do not consider the Gēatas, but the Jutes, as the inhabitants of Swedish West-Gothland. Alfred translates Juti by Gēatas, but _Jutland_ by _Gotland_. In the laws they are called Guti.--_Beit._ xii. 1, etc.
l. 444. B., Gr., and Ha. make unforhte an adv. = _fearlessly_, modifying etan. Kl. reads anforhte = _timid_.
l. 446. Cf. l. 2910. Th. translates: _thou wilt not need my head to hide_ (i.e. _bury_). Simrock supposes a dead-watch or lyke-wake to be meant. Wood, _thou wilt not have to bury so much as my head!_ H.-So. supposes hēafod-weard, _a guard of honor_, such as sovereigns or presumptive rulers had, to be meant by hafalan hȳdan; hence, _you need not give me any guard_, etc. Cf. Schmid, _Gesetze der A._, 370-372.
l. 447. S. places a colon after nimeð.
l. 451. H.-So., Ha., and B. (_Beit._ xii. 87) agree essentially in translating feorme, _food_. R. translates _consumption of my corpse. Maintenance, support_, seems preferable to either.
l. 452. Rönning (after Grimm) personifies Hild.--_Beovulfs Kvadet_, l. 59. Hildr is the name of one of the Scandinavian Walkyries, or battle-maidens, who transport the spirits of the slain to Walhalla. Cf. Kent's _Elene_, l. 18, etc.
l. 455. "The war-smiths, especially as forgers of the sword, were garmented with legend, and made into divine personages. Of these Weland is the type, husband of a swan maiden, and afterwards almost a god."-- Br., p. 120. Cf. A. J. C. Hare's account of "Wayland Smith's sword with which Henry II. was knighted," and which hung in Westminster Abbey to a late date.--_Walks in London_, ii. 228.
l. 455. This is the ǣlces mannes wyrd of Boethius (Sw., p. 44) and the wyrd bið swīðost of Gnomic Verses, 5. There are about a dozen references to it in _Bēowulf_.
l. 455. E. compares the fatalism of this concluding hemistich with the Christian tone of l. 685 _seq._
ll. 457, 458. B. reads wǣre-ryhtum ( = _from the obligations of clientage_).
l. 480. Cf. l. 1231, where the same sense, "flown with wine," occurs.
l. 488. "The duguð, the mature and ripe warriors, the aristocracy of the nation, are the support of the throne."--E. The M. E. form of the word, _douth_, occurs often. Associated with geogoð, ll. 160 and 622.
l. 489. Kl. omits comma after meoto and reads (with B.) sige-hrēð-secgum, = _disclose thy thought to the victor-heroes_. Others, as Körner, convert meoto into an imperative and divide on sǣl = _think upon happiness_. But cf. onband beadu-rūne, l. 501. B. supposes onsǣl meoto =_speak courteous words_. _Tidskr._ viii. 292; _Haupts Zeitschr._ xi. 411; _Eng. Stud._ ii. 251.
l. 489. Cf. the invitation at l. 1783.
l. 494. Cf. Grimm's _Andreas_, l. 1097, for deal, =_proud, elated, exulting_; _Phoenix_ (Bright), l. 266.
l. 499. MS. has Hunferð, but the alliteration requires Unferð, as at ll. 499, 1166, 1489; and cf. ll. 1542, 2095, 2930. See _List of Names_.
l. 501. sīð = _arrival_ (?); cf. l. 353.
l. 504. þon mā = _the more_ (?), may be added to the references under þon.
l. 506. E. compares the taunt of Eliab to David, I Sam. xvii. 28.
l. 509. dol-gilp = _idle boasting_. The second definition in the Gloss. is wrong.
l. 513. "Eagor-stream might possibly be translated the stream of Eagor, the awful terror-striking stormy sea in which the terrible [Scandinavian] giant dwelt, and through which he acted."--Br., p. 164. He remarks, "The English term _eagre_ still survives in provincial dialect for the tide-wave or bore on rivers. Dryden uses it in his _Threnod. Angust._ 'But like an _eagre_ rode in triumph o'er the tide.' Yet we must be cautious," etc. Cf. Fox's _Boethius_, ll. 20, 236; Thorpe's _Cǣdmon_, 69, etc.
l. 524. Krüger and B. read Bānstānes.--_Beit._ ix. 573.
l. 525. R. reads wyrsan (= wyrses: cf. Mod. Gr. _guten Muthes_) geþinges; but H.-So. shows that the MS. wyrsan ... þingea = wyrsena þinga, _can stand_; cf. gen. pl. banan, _Christ_, l. 66, etc.
l. 545 _seq._ "Five nights Beowulf and Breca kept together, not swimming, but sailing in open boats (to swim the seas is to sail the seas), then storm drove them asunder ... Breca is afterwards chief of the Brondings, a tribe mentioned in _Wīdsíth_. The story seems legendary, not mythical."--Br., pp. 60, 61.
ll. 574-578. B. suggests swā þǣr for hwæðere, = _so there it befell me_. But the word at l. 574 seems = _however_, and at l. 578 = _yet_; cf. l. 891; see S.; _Beit._ ix. 138; _Tidskr._ viii. 48; _Zacher_, iii. 387, etc.
l. 586. Gr. and Grundt. read fāgum sweordum (no ic þæs fela gylpe!), supplying fela and blending the broken half-lines into one. Ho. and Kl. supply geflites.
l. 599. E. translates nȳd-bāde by _blackmail_; adding "nēd bād, _toll_; nēd bādere, _tolltaker_."--Land Charters, Gloss, v.
l. 601. MS. has ond = _and_ in three places only (601, 1149, 2041); elsewhere it uses the symbol 7 = _and_.
l. 612. _seq._ Cf. the drinking ceremony at l. 1025. "The royal lady offers the cup to Beowulf, not in his turn where he sate among the rest, but after it has gone the round; her approach to Beowulf is an act apart."--E.
l. 620. "The [loving] cup which went the round of the company and was tasted by all," like the Oriel and other college anniversary cups.--E.
l. 622. Cf. ll. 160, 1191, for the respective places of young and old.
l. 623. Cf. the circlet of gold worn by Wealhþēow at l. 1164.
l. 631. gyddode. Cf. Chaucer, _Prol._ l. 237 (ed. Morris):
"Of _yeddynges_ he bar utterly the prys."
Cf. _giddy_.
l. 648. Kl. suggests a period after geþinged, especially as B. (_Tidskr._ viii. 57) has shown that oþþe is sometimes = ond. Th. supplies ne.
l. 650. oþþe here and at ll. 2476, 3007, probably = _and_.
l. 651. Cf. 704, where sceadu-genga (the _night-ganger_ of _Leechdoms_, ii. 344) is applied to the demon.--E.
l. 659. Cf. l. 2431 for same formula, "to have and to hold" of the Marriage Service.--E.
l. 681. B. considers þēah ... eal a precursor of Mod. Eng. _although_.
l. 682. gōdra = _advantages in battle_ (Gr.), _battle-skill_ (Ha.), _skill in war_ (H.-So.). Might not nāt be changed to nah = ne + āh (cf. l. 2253), thus justifying the translation _ability_ (?) --_he has not the ability to_, etc.
l. 695. Kl. reads hiera.--_Beit._ ix. 189. B. omits hīe as occurring in the previous hemistich.--_Beit._ xii. 89.
l. 698. "Here Destiny is a web of cloth."--E., who compares the Greek Clotho, "spinster of fate." Women are also called "weavers of peace," as l. 1943. Cf. Kent's _Elene_, l. 88; _Wīdsīð_, l. 6, etc.
l. 711. B. translates þā by _when_ and connects with the preceding sentences, thus rejecting the ordinary canto-division at l. 711. He objects to the use of cōm as principal vb. at ll. 703, 711, and 721. (_Beit_, xii.)
l. 711. "Perhaps the Gnomic verse which tells of Thyrs, the giant, is written with Grendel in the writer's mind,--þyrs sceal on fenne gewunian āna inuan lande, _the giant shall dwell in the fen, alone in the land_ (Sweet's Read., p. 187)."--Br. p. 36.
l. 717. Dietrich, in _Haupt._ xi. 419, quotes from AElfric, _Hom._ ii. 498: hē beworhte þā bigelsas mid gyldenum lǣfrum, _he covered the arches with gold-leaf_,--a Roman custom derived from Carthage. Cf. Mod. Eng. _oriel_ = _aureolum_, a gilded room.--E. (quoting Skeat). Cf. ll. 2257, 1097, 2247, 2103, 2702, 2283, 333, 1751, for various uses of gold-sheets.
l. 720. B. and ten Br. suggest _hell-thane_ (Grendel) for heal-þegnas, and make hæle refer to Beowulf. Cf. l. 142.
l. 723. Z. reads [ge]hrān.
l. 727. For this use of standan, cf. ll. 2314, 2770; and Vergil, _Ecl._ ii. 26:
"Cum placidum ventis _staret_ mare."
l. 757. gedræg. _Tumult_ is one of the meanings of this word. Here, appar. = _occupation, lair_.
l. 759. R. reads mōdega for gōda, "because the attribute cannot be separated from the word modified unless the two alliterate."
l. 762. Cf. _Andreas_, l. 1537, for a similar use of ūt = _off_.--E.
l. 769. The foreign words in _Bēowulf_ (as ceaster-here) are not numerous; others are (aside from proper names like _Cain, Abel_, etc.) dēofol (diabolus), candel (l. 1573), ancor (l. 303), scrīfan (for- ge-), segn (l. 47), gīgant (l. 113), mīl- (l. 1363), strǣt (l. 320), ombeht (l. 287), gim (l. 2073), etc.
l. 770. MS. reads cerwen, a word conceived by B. and others to be part of a fem. compd.: -scerwen like -wenden in ed-wenden, -rǣden, etc. (cf. meodu-scerpen in _Andreas_, l. 1528); emended to -scerwen, _a great scare under the figure of a mishap at a drinking-bout_; one might compare bescerwan, _to deprive_, from bescyrian (Grein, i. 93), hence ealu-seerwen would = _a sudden taking away, deprivation, of the beer_.--H.-So., p. 93. See B., _Tidskr._ viii. 292.
l. 771. Ten Br. reads rēðe, rēnhearde, = _raging, exceeding bold_.
l. 792. Instrumental adverbial phrases like ǣnige þinga, nǣnige þinga (_not at all_), hūru þinga (_especially_) are not infrequent. See Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 178; March, _A.-S. Gram._, p. 182.
l. 811. myrðe. E. translates _in wanton mood_. Toller-Bosw. does not recognize _sorrow_ as one of the meanings of this word.
ll. 850, 851. S. reads dēop for dēog and erases semicolon after wēol, = _the death-stained deep welled with sword-gore_; cf. l. 1424. B. reads dēað-fǣges dēop, etc., = _the deep welled with the doomed one's gore_.--_Beit._ xii. 89.
l. 857. The meaning of blaneum is partly explained by fealwe mēaras below, l. 866. Cf. Layamon's "and leop on his _blancke" = steed_, l. 23900; Kent's _Elene_, l. 1185.
l. 859. Körner, _Eng. Stud._ i. 482, regards the oft-recurring be sǣm twēonum as a mere formula = _on earth_; cf. ll. 1298, 1686. twēone is part of the separable prep. _between_; see be-. Cf. Baskerville's _Andreas_, l. 558.
l. 865. Cf. _Voyage of Ōhthere and Wulfstān_ for an account of funeral horse-racing, Sweet's Read., p. 22.
l. 868. See Ha., p. 31, for a variant translation.
l. 871 _seq._ R. considers this a technical description of improvised alliterative verse, suggested by and wrought out on the spur of the moment.
l. 872. R. and B. propose secg[an], = _rehearse_, for secg, which suits the verbs in the next two lines.
ll. 878-98. "It pleases me to think that it is in English literature we possess the first sketch of that mighty saga [the Volsunga Saga = Wælsinges gewin] which has for so many centuries engaged all the arts, and at last in the hands of Wagner the art of music."--Br., p. 63. Cf. _Nibelung. Lied_, l. 739.
l. 894. Intransitive verbs, as gān, weorðan, sometimes take habban, "to indicate independent action."--Sw. Cf. hafað ... geworden, l. 2027.
l. 895. "brūcan (_enjoy_) always has the genitive."--Sw.; cf. l. 895; acc., gen., instr., dat., according to March, _A.-S. Gram._, p. 151.
l. 898. Scherer proposes hāte, = _from heat_, instr. of hāt, _heat_; cf. l. 2606.
l. 901. hē þæs āron þāh = _he throve in honor_ (B.). Ten Br. inserts comma after þāh, making siððan introduce a depend. clause.--_Beit._ viii. 568. Cf. weorð-myndum þāh, l. 8; ll. 1155, 1243.--H.-So.
l. 902. Heremōdes is considered by Heinzel to be a mere epithet = _the valiant_; which would refer the whole passage to Sigmund (Sigfrid), the eotenas, l. 903, being the Nibelungen. This, says H.-So., gets rid of the contradiction between the good "Heremōd" here and the bad one, l. 1710 _seq._--B. however holds fast to Heremōd.--_Beit._ xii. 41. on fēonda geweald, l. 904,--_into the hands of devils_, says B.; cf. ll. 809, 1721, 2267; _Christ_, l. 1416; _Andreas_, l. 1621; for hine fyren onwōd, cf. _Gen._ l. 2579; Hunt's _Dan._ 17: hīe wlenco anwōd.
l. 902 _seq._ "Heremōd's shame is contrasted with the glory of Sigemund, and with the prudence, patience, generosity, and gentleness of Beowulf as a chieftain."--Br., p. 66.
l. 906. MS. has lemede. Toller-Bosw. corrects to lemedon.
l. 917. Cf. Hunt's _Exod._, l. 170, for similar language.
l. 925. hōs, G. hansa, _company_, "the word from which the mercantile association of the 'Hanseatic' towns took their designation."--E.
l. 927. on staþole = _on the floor_ (B., Rask, ten Br.).--_Beit._ xii. 90.
l. 927. May not stēapne here = _bright_, from its being immediately followed by golde fāhne? Cf. Chaucer's "his eyen _stepe_," _Prol._ l. 201 (ed. Morris); Cockayne's _Ste. Marherete_, pp. 9, 108; _St. Kath._, l. 1647.
l. 931. grynna may be for gyrnna (= _sorrows_), gen. plu. of gyrn, as suggested by one commentator.
l. 937. B. (_Beit._ xii. 90) makes gehwylcne object of wīd-scofen (hæfde). Gr. makes wēa nom. absolute.
l. 940. scuccum: cf. G. scheuche, scheusal; Prov. Eng. _old-shock_; perhaps the pop. interjection _O shucks!_ (!)
l. 959. H. explains wē as a "plur. of majesty," which Bēowulf throws off at l. 964.
l. 963. fēond þone frætgan (B. _Beit._ xii. 90).
l. 976. synnum. "Most abstract words in the poetry have a very wide range of meanings, diverging widely from the prose usage, synn, for instance, means simply _injury, mischief, hatred_, and the prose meaning _sin_ is only a secondary one; hata in poetry is not only _hater_, but _persecutor, enemy_, just as nīð is both _hatred_ and _violence, strength_; heard is _sharp_ as well as _hard_."--Sw.
l. 986. S. places wæs at end of l. 985 and reads stīðra nægla, omitting gehwylc and the commas after that and after scēawedon. _Beit._ ix. 138; stēdra (H.-So.); hand-sporu (H.-So.) at l. 987.
l. 986. Miller (_Anglia_, xii. 3) corrects to ǣghwylene, in apposition to fingras.
l. 987. hand-sporu. See _Anglia_, vii. 176, for a discussion of the intrusion of u into the nom. of n-stems.
l. 988. Cf. ll. 2121, 2414, for similar use of unhēoru = ungeheuer.
l. 992. B. suggests hēatimbred for hāten, and gefrætwon for -od; Kl., hroden (_Beit._ ix. 189).
l. 995, 996. Gold-embroidered tapestries seem to be meant by web = _aurifrisium_.
l. 997. After þāra þe = _of those that_, the depend, vb. often takes sg. for pl.; cf. ll. 844, 1462, 2384, 2736.--Sw.; Dietrich.
l. 998. "Metathesis of l takes place in seld for setl, bold for botl," etc.--Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 96. Cf. Eng. proper names, _Bootle, Battle_field, etc.--Skeat, _Principles_, i. 250.
l. 1000. heorras: cf. Chaucer, _Prol._ (ed. Morris) l. 550:
"Ther was no dore that he nolde heve of _harre_."
ll. 1005-1007. See _Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 391, and _Beit._ xii. 368, for R.'s and B.'s views of this difficult passage.
l. 1009. Cf. l. 1612 for sǣl and mǣl, surviving still in E. Anglia in "mind your _seals and meals_," = _times and occasions_, i.e. have your wits about you.--E.
ll. 1012, 1013. Cf. ll. 753, 754 for two similar comparatives used in conjunction.
l. 1014. Cf. l. 327 for similar language.
ll. 1015, 1016. H.-So. puts these two lines in parentheses (fylle ... þāra). Cf. B., _Beit._ xii. 91.
l. 1024. One of the many famous swords spoken of in the poem. See Hrunting, ll. 1458, 1660; Hūnlāfing, l. 1144, etc. Cf. Excalibur, Roland's sword, the Nibelung Balmung, etc.
l. 1034. scūr-heard. For an ingenious explanation of this disputed word see Professor Pearce's article in _Mod. Lang. Notes_, Nov. 1, 1892, and ensuing discussion.
l. 1039. eoderas is of doubtful meaning. H. and Toller-Bosw. regard the word here = _enclosure, palings of the court_. Cf. _Cǣdmon_, ll. 2439, 2481. The passage throws interesting light on horses and their trappings
l. 1043. Grundt. emends wīg to wicg, = _charger_; and E. quotes Tacitus, _Germania_, 7.
l. 1044. "Power over each and both"; cf. "all and some," "one and all."
For Ingwin, see _List of Names_.
l. 1065. Gr. contends that fore here = de, _concerning, about_ (Ebert's _Jahrb._, 1862, p. 269).
l. 1069. H.-So. supplies fram after eaferum, to govern it, = _concerning_ (?). Cf. _Fight at Finnsburg_, Appendix.
l. 1070. For the numerous names of the Danes, "bright-" "spear-" "east-" "west-" "ring-" Danes, see these words.
l. 1073. Eotenas = _Finn's people, the Frisians_; cf. ll. 1089, 1142, 1146, etc., and _Beit._ xii. 37. Why they are so called is not known.
l. 1084. R. proposes wiht Hengeste wið gefeohtan (_Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 394). Kl., wið H. wiht gefeohtan.
ll. 1085 and 1099. wēa-lāf occurs in Wulfstan, _Hom._ 133, ed. Napier.--E. Cf. daroða lāf, _Brunanb._, l. 54; ādes lāfe, _Phoenix_, 272 (Bright), etc.
l. 1098. elne unflitme = _so dass der eid (der inhalt des eides) nicht streitig war_.--B., _Beit._ iii. 30. But cf. 1130, where Hengist and Finn are again brought into juxtaposition and the expression ealles (?) unhlitme occurs.
l. 1106. The pres. part. + be, as myndgiend wǣre here, is comparatively rare in original A.-S. literature, but occurs abundantly in translations from the Latin. The periphrasis is generally meaningless. Cf. l. 3029.
l. 1108. Körner suggests ecge, = _sword_, in reference to a supposed old German custom of placing ornaments, etc., on the point of a sword or spear (_Eng. Stud._ i. 495). Singer, ince-gold = _bright gold_; B., andīege = Goth, _andaugjo, evidently_. Cf. incge lāfe, l. 2578. Possibly: and inge (= _young men_) gold āhōfon of horde. For inge, cf. Hunt's _Exod._ l. 190.
ll. 1115-1120. R. proposes (hēt þā ...) bānfatu bærnan ond on bǣl dōn, earme on eaxe = _to place the arms in the ashes_, reading gūðrēc = _battle-reek_, for -rinc (_Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 395). B., Sarrazin (_Beit._ xi. 530), Lichtenfeld (_Haupts Zeitschr._ xvi. 330), C., etc., propose various emendations. See H.-So., p. 97, and _Beit._ viii. 568. For gùðrinc āstāh, cf. Old Norse, _stiga á bál_, "ascend the bale-fire."
l. 1116. sweoloðe. "On Dartmoor the burning of the furze up the hillsides to let new grass grow, is called _zwayling_."--E. Cf. _sultry_, G. _schwül_, etc.
l. 1119. Cf. wudu-rēc āstāh, l. 3145; and _Exod._ (Hunt), l. 450: wǣlmist āstāh.
l. 1122. ætspranc = _burst forth, arose_ (omitted from the Gloss.), < æt + springan.
l. 1130. R. and Gr. read elne unflitme, = _loyally and without contest_, as at l. 1098. Cf. Ha., p. 39; H.-So., p. 97.
l. 1137. scacen = _gone_; cf. ll. 1125, 2307, 2728.
l. 1142. "The sons of the Eotenas" (B., _Beit._ xii. 31, who conjectures a gap after 1142).
l. 1144. B. separates thus: Hūn Lāfing, = _Hūn placed the sword Lāfing_, etc.--_Beit._ xii. 32; cf. R., _Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 396. Heinzel and Homburg make other conjectures (Herrig's _Archiv_, 72, 374, etc.).
l. 1143. B., H.-So., and Möller read: worod rǣdenne, þonne him Hūn Lāfing, = _military brotherhood, when Hūn laid upon his breast_ (the sword) _Lāfing_. There is a sword _Laufi, Lövi_ in the Norse sagas; but swords, armor, etc., are often called the _leaving_ (lāf) of files, hammers, etc., especially a precious heirloom; cf. ll. 454, 1033, 2830, 2037, 2629, 796, etc., etc.
l. 1152. roden = _reddened_ (B., _Tidskr._ viii. 295).
l. 1160. For ll. 1069-1160, containing the Finn episode, cf. Möller, _Alteng. Volksepos_, 69, 86, 94; Heinzel, _Anz. f. dtsch. Altert._, 10, 226; B., _Beit._ xii. 29-37. Cf. _Wīdsīð_, l. 33, etc.
ll. 1160, 1161. lēoð (lied = _song, lay_) and gyd here appear synonyms.
ll. 1162-1165. "Behind the wars and tribal wanderings, behind the contentions of the great, we watch in this poem the steady, continuous life of home, the passions and thoughts of men, the way they talked and moved and sang and drank and lived and loved among one another and for one another."--Br., p. 18.
l. 1163. Cf. _wonderwork_. So _wonder-death, wonder-bidding, wonder-treasure, -smith, -sight_, etc. at ll. 1748, 3038, 2174, 1682, 996, etc. Cf. the German use of the same intensive, = _wondrous_, in _wunder-schön_, etc.
l. 1165. þā gȳt points to some future event when "each" was not "true to other," undeveloped in this poem, suhtor-gefæderan = Hrōðgār and Hrōðulf, l. 1018. Cf. āðum-swerian, l. 84.
l. 1167 almost repeats l. 500, æt fōtum, etc., where Unferð is first introduced.
l. 1191. E. sees in this passage separate seats for youth and middle-aged men, as in English college halls, chapels, convocations, and churches still.
l. 1192. ymbutan, _round about_, is sometimes thus separated: ymb hīe ūtan; cf. _Voyage of Ōhthere_, etc. (Sw.), p. 18, l. 34, etc.; _Bēowulf_, ll. 859, 1686, etc.
l. 1194. bewægned, a ἃπαξ λεγόμενον, tr. _offered_ by Th. Probably a p. p. wægen, made into a vb. by -ian, like _own, drown_, etc. Cf. hafenian ( < hafen, < hebban), etc.
l. 1196. E. takes the expression to mean "mantle and its rings or broaches." "Rail" long survived in Mid. Eng. (_Piers Plow._, etc.).
l. 1196. This necklace was afterwards given by Beowulf to Hygd, ll. 2173, 2174.
ll. 1199-1215. From the obscure hints in the passage, a part of the poem may be approximately dated,--if Hygelāc is the _Chochi-laicus_ of Gregory of Tours, _Hist. Francorum_, iii. 3,--about A.D. 512-20.
l. 1200. The Breosinga men (Icel. _Brisinga men_) is the necklace of the goddess Freya; cf. _Elder Edda, Hamarshemt._ Hāma stole the necklace from the Gothic King Eormenrīc; cf. _Traveller's Song_, ll. 8, 18, 88, 111. The comparison of the two necklaces leads the poet to anticipate Hygelāc's history,--a suggestion of the poem's mosaic construction.
l. 1200. For Brōsinga mene, cf. B., _Beit._ xii. 72. C. suggests flēah, = _fled_, for fealh, placing semicolon after byrig, and making hē subject of flēah and gecēas.
l. 1202. B. conjectures gecēas ēcne rǣd to mean _he became a pious man and at death went to heaven_. Heime (Hāma) in the _Thidrekssaga_ goes into a cloister = to choose the better part (?). Cf. H.-So., p. 98. But cf. Hrōðgār's language to Beowulf, ll. 1760, 1761.
l. 1211. S. proposes feoh, = _property_, for feorh, which would be a parallel for brēost-gewǣdu ... bēah below.
l. 1213. E. remarks that in the _Laws of Cnut_, i. 26, the devil is called se wōdfreca werewulf, _the ravening werwolf_.
l. 1215. C. proposes heals-bēge onfēng. _Beit._ viii. 570. For hreā- Kl. suggests hrǣ-.
l. 1227. The son referred to is, according to Ettmüller, the one that reigns after Hrōðgār.
l. 1229. Kl. suggests sī, = _be_, for _is_.
l. 1232. S. gives _wine-elated_ as the meaning of druncne.--_Beit._ ix. 139; Kl. _ibid._ 189, 194. But cf. _Judith_, ll. 67, 107.
l. 1235. Cf. l. 119 for similarity of language.
l. 1235. Kl. proposes gea-sceaft; but cf. l. 1267.
l. 1246. Ring armor was common in the Middle Ages. E. points out the numerous forms of byrne in cognate languages,--Gothic, Icelandic, OHG., Slavonic, O. Irish, Romance, etc. Du Chaillu, _The Viking Age_, i. 126. Cf. Murray's _Dict._ s. v.
l. 1248. ānwīg-gearwe = _ready for single combat_ (C.); but cf. Ha. p. 43; _Beit._ ix. 210, 282.
l. 1252. Some consider this _fitt_ the beginning of Part (or Lay) II. of the original epic, if not a separate work in itself.
l. 1254. K., W., and Ho. read farode = _wasted;_ Kolbing reads furode; but cf. wēsten warode, l. 1266. MS. has warode.
ll. 1255-1258. This passage is a good illustration of the constant parallelism of word and phrase characteristic of A.-S. poetry, and is quoted by Sw. The changes are rung on ende and swylt, on gesȳne and wīdcūð, etc.
l. 1259. "That this story of Grendel's mother was originally a separate lay from the first seems to be suggested by the fact that the monsters are described over again, and many new details added, such as would be inserted by a new singer who wished to enhance and adorn the original tale."--Br., p. 41.
l. 1259. Cf. l. 107, which also points to the ancestry of murderers and monsters and their descent from "Cain."
l. 1261. The MS. has sē þe, m.; changed by some to seo þe. At ll. 1393, 1395, 1498, Grendel's mother is referred to as m.; at ll. 1293, 1505, 1541-1546, etc., as f., the uncertain pronoun designating a creature female in certain aspects, but masculine in demonic strength and savageness.--H.-So.; Sw. p. 202. Cf. the masc. epithets at ll. 1380, 2137, etc.
l. 1270. āglǣca = _Grendel_, though possibly referring to Beowulf, as at l. 1513.--Sw.
l. 1273. "It is not certain whether anwalda stands for onwealda, or whether it should be read ānwealda, = _only ruler_.--Sw.
l. 1279. The MS. has sunu þeod wrecan, which R. changes to sunu þēod-wrecan, þēod- = _monstrous_; but why not regard þēod as opposition to sunu, = _her son, the prince?_ See Sweet's Reader, and Körner's discussion, _Eng. Stud._ i. 500.
l. 1281. Ten Br. suggests (for sōna) sāra = _return of sorrows._
l. 1286. "geþuren (twice so written in MSS.) stands for geþrúen, _forged_, and is an isolated p. p."--Cook's Sievers' Gram., 209. But see Toller-Bosw. for examples; Sw., Gloss.; March, p. 100, etc.
ll. 1292. þe hine = _whom;_ cf. ll. 441, 1437, 1292; _Hēliand_, l. 1308.
l. 1298. be sǣm tweonum; cf. l. 1192; Hunt's _Exod._ l. 442; and Mod. Eng. "to _us_-ward, etc.--Earle's _Philol._, p. 449. Cf. note, l. 1192.
l. 1301. C. proposes ōðer him ærn = _another apartment was assigned him_.
l. 1303. B. conjectures under hrōf genam; but Ha., p. 45, shows this to be unnecessary, under also meaning _in_, as _in_ (or _under_) these circumstances.
l. 1319. E. and Sw. suggest nǣgde or nēgde, _accosted_, < nēgan = Mid. Ger. _nēhwian_, pr. p. _nēhwiandans, approach_. For hnǣgan, _press down, vanquish_, see ll. 1275, 1440, etc.
l. 1321. C. suggests nēad-lāðum for nēod-laðu, _after crushing hostility_; but cf. frēond-laðu, l. 1193.
l. 1334. K. and ten Br. conjecture gefægnod = _rejoicing in her fill_, a parallel to ǣse wlanc, l. 1333.
l. 1340. B. translates: "and she has executed a deed of blood-vengeance of far-reaching consequence."--_Beit._ xii. 93.
l. 1345. B. reads gēo for ēow (_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 205).
ll. 1346-1377. "This is a fine piece of folk-lore in the oldest extant form.... The authorities for the story are the rustics (ll. 1346, 1356)." --E.
l. 1347. Cf. sele-rǣdende at l. 51.
l. 1351. "The ge [of gewitan] may be merely a scribal error,--a repetition (dittography) of the preceding ge of gewislīcost."--Sw.
l. 1352. ides, like fīras, _men_, etc., is a poetic word supposed by Grimm to have been applied, like Gr. νύμφη, to superhuman or semi-divine women.
ll. 1360-1495 _seq._ E. compares this Dantesque tarn and scenery with the poetical accounts of _AEneid_, vii. 563; _Lucretius_, vi. 739, etc.
l. 1360. firgenstrēam occurs also in the _Phoenix_ (Bright, p. 168) l. 100; _Andreas_, ll. 779, 3144 (K.); _Gnomic Verses_, l. 47, etc.
l. 1363. The genitive is often thus used to denote measure = by or in miles; cf. l. 3043; and contrast with partitive gen. at l. 207.
l. 1364. The MS. reads hrinde = hrīnende (?), which Gr. adopts; K. and Th. read hrinde-bearwas; hringde, _encircling_ (Sarrazin, _Beit._ xi. 163); hrīmge = _frosty_ (Sw.); _with frost-whiting covered_ (Ha.). See Morris, _Blickling Hom._, Preface, vi., vii.
l. 1364. Cf. Ruin, hrīmige edoras behrofene, _rimy, roofless halls_.
l. 1366. nīðwundor may = nið- (as in nið-sele, _q. v._) wundor, _wonder of the deep_.
l. 1368. The personal pronoun is sometimes omitted in subordinate and even independent clauses; cf. wite here; and Hunt's _Exod._, l. 319.
l. 1370. hornum. Such "datives of manner or respect" are not infrequent with adj.
l. 1371. "seleð is not dependent on ǣr, for in that case it would be in the subjunctive, but ǣr is simply an adverb, correlative with the conjunction ǣr in the next line: 'he will (sooner) give up his life, before he will,' etc."--Sw.
l. 1372. Cf. ll. 318 and 543 for willan with similar omitted inf.
l. 1373. heafola is found only in poetry.--Sw. It occurs thirteen or fourteen times in this poem. Cf. the poetic gamol, swāt (l. 2694), etc., for eald, blōd.
l. 1391. uton: hortatory subj. of wītan, _go_, = _let us go;_ cf. French _allons_, Lat. _eamus_, Ital. _andiamo_, etc. + inf. Cf. ll. 2649, 3102.
l. 1400. H. is dat. of person indirectly affected, = advantage.
l. 1402. geatolīc probably = _in his equipments_, as B. suggests (_Beit._ xii. 83), comparing searolīc.
ll. 1402, 1413 reproduce the wk. form of the pret. of gān (Goth, _gaggida_). Cf. _Andreas_, l. 1096, etc.
l. 1405. S. (_Beit._ ix. 140) supplies [þǣr hēo] gegnum fōr; B. (_ibid._ xii. 14) suggests hwǣr hēo.
l. 1411. B., Gr., and E. take ān-paðas = paths wide enough for only one, like Norwegian _einstig_; cf. stīge nearwe, just above. _Trail_ is the meaning. Cf. enge ānpaðas, uncūð gelād, _Exod._ (Hunt), l. 58.
l. 1421. Cf. oncȳð, l. 831. The whole passage (ll. 1411-1442) is replete with suggestions of walrus-hunting, seal-fishing, harpooning of sea-animals (l. 1438), etc.
l. 1425. E. quotes from the 8th cent. Corpus Gloss., "_Falanx_ foeða."
l. 1428. For other mention of nicors, cf. ll. 422, 575, 846. E. remarks, "it survives in the phrase 'Old Nick' ... a word of high authority ... Icel. _nykr_, water-goblin, Dan. _nök, nisse_, Swed. _näcken_, G. _nix, nixe_, etc." See Skeat, _Nick._
l. 1440. Sw. reads gehnǣged, _prostrated_, and regards nīða as gen. pl. "used instrumentally," = _by force._
l. 1441. -bora = _bearer, stirrer;_ occurs in other compds., as mund-, rǣd-, wǣg-bora.
l. 1447. him = _for him_, a remoter dative of reference.--Sw.
l. 1455. Gr. reads brondne, = _flaming_.
l. 1457. lēon is the inf. of lāh; cf. onlāh (< onlēon) at l. 1468. līhan was formerly given as the inf.; cf. lǣne = lǣhne.
l. 1458. Cf. the similar dat. of possession as used in Latin.
l. 1458. H.-So. compares the Icelandic saga account of Grettir's battle with the giant in the cave. hæft-mēce may be = Icel. _heptisax_ (_Anglia_, iii. 83), "hip-knife."
l. 1459. "The sense seems to be 'pre-eminent among the old treasures.' ... But possibly foran is here a prep. with the gen.: 'one before the old treasures.'".--Sw. For other examples of foran, cf. ll. 985, 2365.
l. 1460. āter-tēarum = _poison-drops_ (C., _Beit._ viii. 571; S., _ibid._ xi. 359).
l. 1467. þæt, comp. relative, = _that which_; "we testify _that_ we do know."
l. 1480. forð-gewitenum is in appos. to me, = _mihi defuncto_.--M. Callaway, _Am. Journ. of Philol._, October, 1889.
l. 1482. nime. Conditional clauses of doubt or future contingency take gif or būton with subj.; cf. ll. 452, 594; of fact or certainty, the ind.; cf. ll. 442, 447, 527, 662, etc. For būton, cf. ll. 967, 1561.
l. 1487. "findan sometimes has a preterit funde in W. S. after the manner of the weak preterits."--Cook's Sievers' Cram., p, 210.
l. 1490. Kl. reads wæl-sweord, = _battle-sword_.
l. 1507. "This cave under the sea seems to be another of those natural phenomena of which the writer had personal knowledge (ll. 2135, 2277), and which was introduced by him into the mythical tale to give it a local color. There are many places of this kind. Their entrance is under the lowest level of the tide."--Br., p. 45.
l. 1514. B. (_Beit._ xii. 362) explains niðsele, hrōfsele as _roof-covered hall in the deep_; cf. Grettir Saga (_Anglia_, iii. 83).
l. 1538. Sw., R., and ten Br. suggest feaxe for eaxle, = _seized by the hair_.
l. 1543. and-lēan (R.); cf. l. 2095. The MS. has hand-lēan.
l. 1546. Sw. and S. read seax.--_Beit._ ix. 140.
l. 1557. H.-So. omits comma and places semicolon after ȳðelīce; Sw. and S. place comma after gescēd.
l. 1584. ōðer swylc = _another fifteen_ (Sw.); = _fully as many_ (Ha.).
ll. 1592-1613 _seq._ Cf. _Anglia_, iii; 84 (Grettir Saga).
l. 1595. blondenfeax = _grizzly-haired_ (Bright, Reader, p. 258); cf. _Brunanb._, l. 45 (Bright).
l. 1599. gewearð, impers. vb., = _agree, decide = many agreed upon this, that_, etc. (Ha., p. 55; cf. ll. 2025-2027, 1997; B., _Beit._ xii. 97).
l. 1605. C. supposes wiston = wīscton = _wished_.--_Beit._ viii. 571.
l. 1607. brōden mǣl is now regarded as a comp. noun, = _inlaid or damascened sword_.--W., Ho.
l. 1611. wæl-rāpas = _water-ropes = bands of frost_ (l. 1610) (?). Possibly the Prov. Eng. weele, _whirlpool_. Cf. wǣl, _gurges_, Wright, Voc., _Gnom. Verses_, l. 39.--E.
l. 1611. wǣgrāpas (Sw.) = _wave-bands_ (Ha.).
l. 1622. B. suggests eatna = eotena, eardas, _haunts of the giants_ (Northumbr. ea for eo).
l. 1635. cyning-holde (B., _Beit._ xii. 369); cf. l. 290.
l. 1650. H., Gr., and Ettmüller understand idese to refer to the queen.
l. 1651. Cf. _Anglia_, iii. 74, _Beit._ xi. 167, for coincidences with the Grettir Saga (13th cent.).
l. 1664. B. proposes eotenise ... èste for ēacen ... oftost, omitting brackets (_Zackers Zeitschr._ iv. 206). G. translates _mighty ... often_.
l. 1675. ondrǣdan. "In late texts the final n of the preposition on is frequently lost when it occurs in a compound word or stereotyped phrase, and the prefix then appears as a: abútan, amang, aweg, aright, adr'ǣdan."--Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 98.
ll. 1680-1682. Giants and their work are also referred to at ll. 113, 455, 1563, 1691, etc.
l. 1680. Cf. ceastra ... orðanc enta geweorc, _Gnomic Verses_, l. 2; Sweet's Reader, p. 186.
ll. 1687-1697. "In this description of the writing on the sword, we see the process of transition from heathen magic to the notions of Christian times .... The history of the flood and of the giants ... were substitutes for names of heathen gods, and magic spells for victory."--E. Cf. Mohammedan usage.
ll. 1703, 1704. þæt þē eorl nǣre geboren betera (B., _Tidskr._ 8, 52).
l. 1715. āna hwearf = _he died solitary and alone_ (B., _Beit._ xii. 38); = _lonely_ (Ha.); = _alone_ (G.).
l. 1723. lēod-bealo longsum = _eternal hell-torment_ (B., _Beit._ xii. 38, who compares _Ps. Cott._ 57, līf longsum).
l. 1729. E. translates on lufan, _towards possession_; Ha., _to possessions_.
l. 1730. mōdgeþonc, like lig, sǣ, segn, niht, etc., is of double gender (m., n. in the case of mōdgeþ.).
l. 1741. The doctrine of nemesis following close on ὓβρις, or overweening pride, is here very clearly enunciated. The only protector against the things that "assault and hurt" the soul is the "Bishop and Shepherd of our souls" (l. 1743).
l. 1745 appears dimly to fore-shadow the office of the evil archer Loki, who in the Scandinavian mythology shoots Balder with a mistletoe twig. The language closely resembles that of Psalm 64.
l. 1748. Kl. regards wom = wō(u)m; cf. wōh-bogen, l. 2828. See Gloss., p. 295, under wam. Contrast the construction of bebeorgan a few lines below (l. 1759), where the dat. and acc. are associated.
l. 1748. See Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 167, for declension of wōh, _wrong_ = gen. wōs or wōges, dat. wō(u)m, etc.; pl. gen. wōra, dat. wō(u)m, etc.; and cf. declension of hēah, hrēoh, rūh, etc.
l. 1748. wergan gāstes; cf. _Blickl. Hom._ vii.; _Andreas_, l. 1171. "_Auld Wearie_ is used in Scotland, or was used a few years ago, ... to mean the devil."--E. Bede's _Eccles. Hist._ contains (naturally) many examples of the expression = devil.
l. 1750. on gyld = _in reward_ (B. _Beit._ xii. 95); Ha. translates _boastfully_; G., _for boasting_; Gr., _to incite to boastfulness_. Cf. _Christ_, l. 818.
l. 1767. E. thinks this an allusion to the widespread superstition of the evil eye (_mal occhio, mauvais ǣil_). Cf. Vergil, _Ecl._ iii. 103. He remarks that Pius IX., Gambetta, and President Carnot were charged by their enemies with possessing this weapon.
l. 1784. wigge geweorðad (MS. wigge weorðad) is C.'s conjecture; cf. _Elene_, l. 150. So G., _honored in war_.
l. 1785. The future generally implied in the present of bēon is plainly seen in this line; cf. ll. 1826, 661, 1830, 1763, etc.
l. 1794. Some impers. vbs. take acc. (as here, Geat) of the person affected; others (as þyncan) take the dat. of the person, as at ll. 688, 1749, etc. Cf. verbs of dreaming, being ashamed, desiring, etc.--March, A.-S. Gram., p. 145.
l. 1802. E. remarks that the blaca hrefn here is a bird of good omen, as opposed to se wonna hrefn of l. 3025. The raven, wolf, and eagle are the regular epic accompaniments of battle and carnage. Cf. ll. 3025-3028; _Maldon_, 106; _Judith_, 205-210, etc.
l. 1803. S. emends to read: "then came the light, going bright after darkness: the warriors," etc. Cf. Ho., p. 41, l. 23. G. puts period before "the warriors." For ōnettan, cf. Sw.'s Gloss, and Bright's Read., Gloss.
ll. 1808-1810. Müllenh. and Grundt. refer se hearda to Beowulf, correct sunu (MS.) to suna Ecglāfes (i.e. Unferth); [_he_] (Beo.) _thanked him_ (Un.) _for the loan_. Cf. ll. 344, 581, 1915.
ll. 1823-1840. "Beowulf departing pledges his services to Hroðgar, to be what afterwards in the mature language of chivalry was called his 'true knight'"--E.
l. 1832. Kl. corrects to dryhtne, in appos. with Higelāce.
l. 1835 gār-holt more properly means _spear-shaft_; cf. æsc-holt.
l. 1855. sēl = _better_ (Grundt.; B., _Beit._ xii. 96), instead of MS. wēl.
ll. 1855-1866. "An ideal picture of international amity according to the experience and doctrine of the eighth century."--E.
l. 1858. S. and Kl. correct to gemǣne, agreeing with sib.--_Beit._ ix. 140, 190.
l. 1862. "The gannet is a great diver, plunging down into the sea from a considerable height, such as forty feet."--E.
l. 1863. Kl. suggests heafu, = _seas_.
l. 1865. B. proposes geþōhte, = _with firm thought_, for geworhte; cf. l. 611.
l. 1876. gesēon = _see again_ (Kl., _Beit._ ix. 190). S. and B. insert nā to modify gesēon and explain Hrōðgār's tears. Ha. and G. follow Heyne's text. Cf. l. 567.
l. 1881. Is beorn here = bearn (be-arn?) of l. 67? or more likely = born, barn, = _burned?_--S., Th.
l. 1887. orleahtre is a ἃπαξ λεγόμενον. E. compares Tennyson's "blameless" king. Cf. also ll. 2015, 2145; and the gōd cyning of l. 11.
l. 1896. scaðan = _warriors_ (cf. l. 1804) has been proposed by C.; but cf. l. 253.
l. 1897. The boat had been left, at ll. 294-302, in the keeping of Hrōðgār's men; at l. 1901 the bāt-weard is specially honored by Beowulf with a sword and becomes a "sworded squire."--E. This circumstance appears to weld the poem together. Cf. also the speed of the journey home with ymb ān-tīd ōþres dōgores of l. 219, and the similarity of language in both passages (fāmig-heals, clifu, næssas, sǣlde, brim, etc.).--The nautical terms in Beowulf would form an interesting study.
l. 1904. R. proposes, gewāt him on naca, = _the vessel set out_, on alliterating as at l. 2524 (_Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 402). B. reads on nacan, but inserts irrelevant matter (_Beit._ xii. 97).
l. 1913. Cf. the same use of cēol, = _ship_, in the _A.-S. Chron._, ed. Earle-Plummer; _Gnomic Verses_, etc.
l. 1914. S. inserts þæt hē before on lande.
l. 1916. B. makes lēofra manna depend on wlātode, = _looked for the dear men ready at the coast_ (_Beit._ xii. 97).
l. 1924. Gr., W., and Ho. propose wunade, = _remained;_ but cf. l. 1929. S. conceives ll. 1924, 1925 as "direct speech" (_Beit._ ix. 141).
l. 1927 _seq._ "The women of Beowulf are of the fine northern type; trusted and loved by their husbands and by the nobles and people; generous, gentle, and holding their place with dignity."--Br., p. 67. Thrytho is the exception, l. 1932 _seq._
l. 1933. C. suggests frēcnu, = _dangerous, bold_, for Thrytho could not be called "excellent." G. writes "Modthrytho" as her name. The womanly Hygd seems purposely here contrasted with the terrible Thrytho, just as, at l. 902 _seq._, Sigemund and Heremōd are contrasted. For Thrytho, etc., cf. Gr., _Jahrb. für rom. u. eng. Lit._ iv. 279; Müllenhoff, _Haupts Zeitschr._ xiv. 216; Matthew Paris; Suchier, _Beit._ iv. 500-521; R. _Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 402; B., _ibid._ iv. 206; Körner, _Eng. Stud._ i. 489-492; H.-So., p. 106.
l. 1932-1963. K. first pointed out the connection between the historical Offa, King of Mercia, and his wife Cwendrida, and the Offa and Þrȳðo (Gr.'s _Drida_ of the _Vita Offǣ Secundi_) of the present passage. The tale is told of her, not of Hygd.
l. 1936. Suchier proposes andǣges, = _eye to eye_; Leo proposes āndǣges, = _the whole day_; G., _by day_. No change is necessary if an be taken to govqern hire, = _on her_, and dæges be explained (like nihtes, etc.) as a genitive of time, = _by day_.
l. 1943. R. and Suchier propose onsēce, = _seek, require_; but cf. 2955.
l. 1966. Cf. the _heofoncandel_ of _Exod._ l. 115 (Hunt). Shak.'s 'night's candles.'
l. 1969. Cf. l. 2487 _seq._ for the actual slayer of Ongenþēow, i.e. Eofor, to whom Hygelāc gave his only daughter as a reward, l. 2998.
l. 1981. meodu-scencum = _with mead-pourers_ or _mead-cups_ (G., Ha.); _draught or cup of mead_ (Toller-Bosw.).
l. 1982. K., Th., W., H. supply [heal-]reced; Holler [hēa-].
l. 1984. B. defends the MS., reading hǣ nū (for hǣðnū), which he regards as = Heinir, the inhabitants of the Jutish "heaths" (hǣð). Cf. H.-So., p. 107; _Beit._ xii. 9.
l. 1985. sīnne. "In poetry there is a reflexive possessive of the third person, sīn (declined like mīn). It is used not only as a true reflexive, but also as a non-reflexive (= Lat. _ejus_)"--Sw.; Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 185. Cf. ll. 1508, 1961, 2284, 2790.
l. 1994. Cf. l. 190 for a similar use of sēað; cf. to "glow" with emotion, "boil" with indignation, "burn" with anger, etc. weallan is often so used; cf. ll. 2332, 2066, etc.
l. 2010. B. proposes fācne, = _in treachery_, for fenne. Cf. _Juliana_, l. 350; _Beit._ xii. 97.
l. 2022. Food of specific sorts is rarely, if at all, mentioned in the poem. Drink, on the other hand, occurs in its primitive varieties,--_ale_ (as here: ealu-wǣg), _mead, beer, wine, līð_ (cider? Goth. _leiþus_, Prov. Ger. _leit-_ in _leit-haus_, ale-house), etc.
l. 2025. Kl. proposes is for wæs.
l. 2027. Cf. l. 1599 for a similar use of weorðan, = _agree, be pleased with_ (Ha.); _appear_ (Sw., Reader, 6th ed.).
ll. 2030, 2031. Ten Br. proposes: oft seldan ( = _gave_) wǣre æfter lēod-hryre: lȳtle hwīle bongār būgeð, þēah sēo brȳd duge = _oft has a treaty been given after the fall of a prince: but little while the murder-spear resteth, however excellent the bride be._ Cf. Kl., _Beit._ ix. 190; B., _Beit._ xii. 369; R., _Zachers Zeitschr._ in. 404; Ha., p. 69; G., p. 62.
l. 2036. Cf. Kl, _Beit._ ix. 191; R., _Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 404.
l. 2042. For bēah B. reads bā, = _both_, i.e. Freaware and the Dane.
l. 2063. Thorkelin and Conybeare propose wīgende, = _fighting_, for lifigende.
l. 2068. W.'s edition begins section xxx. (not marked in the MS.) with this line. Section xxxix. (xxxviii. in copies A and B, xxxix. in Thorkelin) is not so designated in the MS., though þā (at l. 2822) is written with capitals and xl. begins at l. 2893.
l. 2095. Cf. l. 1542, and note.
l. 2115 _seq._ B. restores thus:
l. 2129. B. proposes fǣrunga, = _suddenly_, for Gr.'s reading in the text.--_Beit._ xii. 98.
l. 2132. MS. has þine life, which Leo translates _by thy leave_ (= ON. _leyfi_); B., _by thy life_.--_Beit._ xii. 369.
l. 2150. B. renders gēn, etc., by "now I serve thee alone again as my gracious king" (_Beit._ xii. 99).
l. 2151. The forms hafu [hafo], hafast, hafað, are poetic archaisms.--Sw.
l. 2153. Kl. proposes ealdor, = _prince_, for eafor. W. proposes the compd. eafor-hēafodsegn, = _helm_; cf. l. 1245.
l. 2157. The wk. form of the adj. is frequent in the vocative, especially when postponed: "Beowulf lēofa," l. 1759. So, often, in poetry in nom.: wudu selesta, etc.
l. 2158. ǣrest is possibly the verbal subs. from ārīsan, _to arise, = arising, origin_. R. suggested ǣrist, _arising, origin_. Cf. Bede, _Eccles. Hist._, ed. Miller, where the word is spelt as above, but = (as usual) _resurrection_. See Sweet, Reader, p. 211; E.-Plummer's _Chronicle_, p. 302, etc. The MS. has est. See Ha., p. 73; S., _Beit._ x. 222; and cf. l. 2166.
l. 2188. Gr., W., H. supply [wēn]don, = _weened_, instead of Th.'s [oft sæg]don.
l. 2188. The "slack" Beowulf, like the sluggish Brutus, ultimately reveals his true character, and is presented with a historic sword of honor. It is "laid on his breast" (l. 2195) as Hun laid Lāfing on Hengest's breast, l. 1145.
l. 2188. "The boy was at first slothful, and the Geats thought him an unwarlike prince, and long despised him. Then, like many a lazy third son in the folk tales, a change came, he suddenly showed wonderful daring and was passionate for adventure."--Br., p. 22.
l. 2196. "Seven of thousands, manor and lordship" (Ha.). Kl., _Beit._ ix. 191, thinks with Ettm. that þūsendo means a hide of land (see Schmid, _Ges. der Angl_, 610), Bede's familia = 1/2 sq. meter; seofan being used (like hund, l. 2995) only for the alliteration.
l. 2196. "A vast Honour of 7000 hides, a mansion, and a judgment-seat" [throne].--E.
l. 2210. MS. has the more correct wintra.
l. 2211. Cf. similar language about the dragon at l. 100. Beowulf's "jubilee" is fitly solemnized by his third and last dragon-fight.
l. 2213. B. proposes sē þe on hearge hǣðen hord beweotode; cf. Ha., p. 75.
l. 2215. "The dragon lies round the treasures in a cave, as Fafnir, like a Python, lay coiled over his hoard. So constant was this habit among the dragons that gold is called Worms' bed, Fafnir's couch, Worms' bed-fire. Even in India, the cobras ... are guardians of treasure."--Br., p. 50.
l. 2216. nēode. E. translates _deftly_; Ha., _with ardor_. H.-So. reads nēode, = _with desire, greedily_, instr. of nēod.
l. 2223. E. begins his "Part Third" at this point as he begins "Part Second" at l. 1252, each dragon-fight forming part of a trilogy.
ll. 2224, 2225. B. proposes: nealles mid gewealdum wyrmes weard gæst sylfes willum.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 211; _Beit._ xii. 100.
l. 2225. For þēow read þegn.--K. and Z.
l. 2227. For ofer-þearfe read ǣrnes þearfa.--Z.
ll. 2229-2231. B. proposes:
l. 2232. W. suggests seah or seīr for geseah, and Gr. suggests searolīc.
l. 2233. Z. surmises eorð-hūse (for -scræfe).
l. 2241. B. proposes lǣn-gestrēona, = _transitory_, etc.; Th., R. propose leng (= _longer_) gestrēona; S. accepts the text but translates "the long accumulating treasure."
l. 2246. B. proposed (1) hard-fyndne, = _hard to find_; (2) hord-wynne dǣl,--_a deal of treasure-joy_ (cf. l. 2271).--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 211; _Beit._ xii. 102.
l. 2247. fecword = _banning words_ (?) MS. has fec.
l. 2254. Others read feor-[mie], = _furbish_, for fetige: _I own not one who may_, etc.
l. 2261. The Danes themselves were sometimes called the "Ring-Danes," = clad in ringed (or a ring of) armor, or possessing rings. Cf. ll. 116, 1280.
l. 2263. Koeppel suggests nis for næs.
The editors are much indebted to E. Koeppel (in _Eng. Stud._ xiii. 3) for numerous corrections in text and glossary.
l. 2264. Note the early reference to hawking. Minstrelsy (hearpan wyn), saga-telling, racing, swimming, harpooning of sea-animals, feasting, and the bestowal of jewels, swords, and rings, are the other amusements most frequent in _Bēowulf_.
l. 2264. Cf. _Maldon_, ll. 8, 9, for a reference to hawking.
l. 2276. Z. suggests swȳðe ondrǣdað; Ho. puts gesēcean for Gr.'s gewunian.
l. 2277. Z. and K. read: hord on hrūsan. "Three hundred winters," at l. 2279, is probably conventional for "a long time," like hund missēra, l. 1499; hund þūsenda, l. 2995; þrītig (of Beowulf's strength), l. 379; þrītig (of the men slain by Grendel), l. 123; seofan þūsendo, l. 2196, etc.
l. 2285. B. objects to hord as repeated in ll. 2284, 2285; but cf. Ha., p. 77. C. prefers sum to hord. onboren = _inminutus_; cf. B., _Beit._ xii. 102.
l. 2285. onberan is found also at line 991, = _carry off_, with on- = E. _un--(un-bind, -loose, -tie_, etc.), G. _ent-_. The negro still pronounces _on-do_, etc.
l. 2299. Cf. H.-So., p. 112, for a defense of the text as it stands. B. proposes "nor was there any man in that desert who rejoiced in conflict," etc. So ten Br.
l. 2326. B. and ten Br,. propose hām, = _home_, for him.--_Beit._ xii. 103.
l. 2335. E. translates ēalond utan by _the sea-board front, the water-washed land on the (its) outside_. See B., _Beit._ xii. 1, 5.
l. 2346. Cf. l. 425, where Beowulf resolves to fight the dragon single-handed. E. compares _Guy of Warwick_, ll. 49, 376.
l. 2355. Ten Br. proposes laðan cynne as apposition to mǣgum.
l. 2360. Cf. Beowulf's other swimming-feat with Breca, ll. 506 _seq._
l. 2362. Gr. inserts āna, = _lone-going_, before xxx.: approved by B.; and Krüger, _Beit._ ix. 575. Cf. l. 379.
l. 2362. "Beowulf has the strength of thirty men in the original tale. Here, then, the new inventor makes him carry off thirty coats of mail."--Br., p. 48.
l. 2364. Hetware = Chattuarii, a nation allied against Hygelāc in his Frisian expedition; cf. ll. 1208 _seq._, 2917, etc.
l. 2368. B. proposes _quiet sea_ as trans, of sioleða bigong, and compares Goth. _anasilan_, to be still; Swed. dial, _sil_, still water between waterfalls.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 214.
l. 2380. hyne--Heardrēd; so him, l. 2358.
l. 2384. E. calls attention to Swīo-rīce as identical with the modern _Sverige_ = Sweden; cf. l. 2496.
l. 2386. Gr. reads on feorme, = _at the banquet_; cf. Möller, _Alteng. Volksepos_, 111, who reads (f)or feorme. The MS. has or.
l. 2391. Cf. l. 11.
l. 2394. B., Gr., and Mūllenh. understand ll. 2393-2397 to mean that Ēadgils, Ōhthere's son, driven from Sweden, returns later, supported by Beowulf, takes the life of his uncle Onela, and probably becomes himself O.'s successor and king of Sweden. For another view see H.-So., p. 115. MS. has freond (l. 2394), which Leo, etc., change to fēond. G. translates _friend_.--_Beit._ xii. 13; _Anzeiger f. d. Altert._ iii. 177.
l. 2395. Ēadgils is Ōhthere's son; cf. l. 2381; Onela is Ōhthere's brother; cf. ll. 2933, 2617.
l. 2402. "Twelfsome"; cf. "fifteensome" at l. 207, etc. As _Bēowulf_ is essentially _the_ Epic of Philanthropy, of the true love of man, as distinguished from the ordinary love-epic, the number twelve in this passage may be reminiscent of another Friend of Man and another Twelve. In each case all but one desert the hero.
l. 2437. R. proposes stȳred, = _ordered, decreed_, for strēd.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 409.
l. 2439. B. corrects to frēo-wine = _noble friend_, asking, "How can Herebeald be called Hæðcyn's frēa-wine [MS.], _lord?_"
l. 2442. feohlēas gefeoht, "a homicide which cannot be atoned for by money--in this case an unintentional fratricide."--Sw.
l. 2445. See Ha., pp. 82, 83, for a discussion of ll. 2445-2463. Cf. G., p. 75.
l. 2447. MS. reads wrece, justified by B. (_Tidskr._ viii. 56). W. conceives wrece as optative or hortative, and places a colon before þonne.
l. 2449. For helpan read helpe.--K., Th., S. (_Zeitschr. f. D. Phil._ xxi. 3, 357).
ll. 2454-2455. (1) Müllenh. (_Haupts Zeitschr._ xiv. 232) proposes:
(2) B. proposes:
l. 2458. Cf. scēotend, pl., ll. 704, 1155, like rīdend. Cf. _Judith_, l. 305, etc.
l. 2474. Th. considers the "wide water" here as the Mälar lake, the boundary between Swedes and Goths.
l. 2477. On oþþe = _and_, cf. B., _Tidskr._ viii. 57. See Ha., p. 83.
l. 2489. B. proposes hrēa-blāc for Gr.'s heoro-.--_Tikskr._ viii. 297.
l. 2494. S. suggests ēðel-wynne.
l. 2502. E. translates for dugeðum, _of my prowess_; so Ettmüller.
ll. 2520-2522. Gr. and S. translate, "if I knew how else I might combat the monster's boastfulness."--Ha., p. 85.
l. 2524. and-hāttres is H.'s invention. Gr. reads oreðes and attres, _blast and venom_. Cf. oruð, l. 2558, and l. 2840 (where attor- also occurs).
l. 2526. E. quotes flēon fōtes trym from _Maldon_, l. 247.
l. 2546. Gr., H.-So., and Ho. read standan stān-bogan (for stōd on stān-bogan) depending on geseah.
l. 2550. Grundt. and B. propose dēor, _brave one_, i.e. Beowulf, for dēop.
L. 2565. MS. has ungleaw (K., Th.), unglaw (Grundt.). B. proposes unslāw, = _sharp_.--_Beit._ xii. 104. So H.-So., Ha., p. 86.
ll. 2570, 2571. (1) May not gescīfe (MS. to gscipe) = German _schief_, "crooked," "bent," "aslant," and hence be a parallel to gebogen, _bent, coiled?_ cf. l. 2568, þā se wyrm gebēah snūde tōsomne, and l. 2828. Coiled serpents spring more powerfully for the coiling. (2) Or perhaps destroy comma after tō and read gescæpe, = _his fate_; cf. l. 26: him þā Scyld gewāt tō gescæp-hwīle. G. appar. adopts this reading, p. 78.
l. 2589. grund-wong = _the field_, not _the earth_ (so B.); H.-So., _cave_, as at l. 2771. So Ha., p. 87.
l. 2595. S. proposes colon after stefne.--_Beit._ ix. 141.
l. 2604. Müllenh. explains lēod Scylfinga in _Anzeiger f. d. Altert._ iii. 176-178.
l. 2607. āre = _possessions, holding_ (Kl., _Beit._ ix. 192; Ha., p. 88).
l. 2609. folcrihta. Add "folk-right" to the meanings in the Gloss.; and cf. ēðel-, land-riht, word-riht.
l. 2614. H.-So. reads with Gr. wrǣccan winelēasum Wēohstān bana, = _whom, a friendless exile, W. had slain_.
ll. 2635-61. E. quotes Tacitus, _Germania_, xiv.: "turpe comitatui virtutem principis non adaequare." Beowulf had been deserted by his _comitatus_.
l. 2643. B. proposes ūser.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 216.
l. 2649. wutun; l. 3102, uton = pres. subj. pl. 1st person of wītan, _to go_, used like Mod. Eng. _let us_ + inf., Lat. _eamus_, Ital. _andiamo_, Fr. _allons_; M. E. (_Layamon_) _uten_. Cf. Psa. ii. 3, etc. March, _A.-S. Gram._, pp. 104, 196.
l. 2650. B. suggests hāt for hyt,.--_Beit._ xii. 105.
l. 2656. fāne = fāh-ne; cf. fāra = fāh-ra, l. 578; so hēanne (MS.) = hēah-ne, etc., l. 984. See Cook's Sievers' Gram.
ll. 2660, 2661. Why not read beadu-scrūd, as at l. 453, = _battle-shirt?_ B. and R. suppose two half-verses omitted between byrdu-scrūd and bām gemǣne. B. reads bȳwdu, = _handsome_, etc. Gr. suggests unc nū, = _to us two now_, for ūrum; and K. and Grundt. read bēon gemǣne for bām, etc. This makes sense. Cf. Ha., p. 89.
l. 2666. Cf. the dat. absolute without preposition.
l. 2681. Nægling; cf. Hrunting, Lāfing, and other famous wundor-smiða geweorc of the poem.
l. 2687. B. changes þonne into þone (rel. pro.) = _which_.--_Beit._ xii. 105.
l. 2688. B. supports the MS. reading, wundum.
l. 2688. Cf. l. 2278 for similar language.
l. 2698. B. (_Beit._ xii. 105) renders: "he did not heed the head of the dragon (which Beowulf with his sword had struck without effect), but he struck the dragon somewhat further down." Cf. Saxo, vi. p. 272.
l. 2698. Cf. the language used at ll. 446 and 1373, where hafelan also occurs; and hȳdan.
l. 2700. hwēne; cf. Lowl. Sc. _wheen_, a number; Chaucer's _woon_, number.
l. 2702. S. proposes þā (for þæt) þæt fȳr, etc., = _when the fire began_, etc.
l. 2704. "The (hup)-seax has often been found in Saxon graves on the hip of the skeleton."--E.
l. 2707. Kl. proposes: feorh ealne wræc, = _drove out all the life_; cf. _Gen._ l. 1385.--_Beit._ ix. 192. S. suggests gefylde,--_he felled the foe_, etc.--_Ibid._ Parentheses seem unnecessary.
l. 2727. dæg-hwīl = _time allotted, lifetime_.
l. 2745, 2745. Ho. removes geong from the beginning of l. 2745 and places it at the end of l. 2744.
l. 2750. R. proposes sigle searogimmas, as at l. 1158.
l. 2767. (1) B. proposes doubtfully oferhīgean or oferhīgan, = Goth, _ufarhauhjan_, p. p. _ufarhauhids_ (Gr. τυφωθείς) = _exceed in value_.--_Tidskr._ viii. 60. (2) Kl. proposes oferhȳdian, = _to make arrogant, infatuate_; cf. oferhȳd.--_Beit._ ix. 192.
l. 2770. gelocen leoðocræftum = (1) _spell-bound_ (Th., Arnold, E.); (2) _wrought with hand-craft_ (G.); (3) _meshed, linked together_ (H., Ho.); cf. _Elene_, ll. 1251, 522.
l. 2778. B. considers bill ... ealdhlāfordes as Beowulf's short sword, with which he killed the dragon, l. 2704 (_Tidskr._ viii. 299). R. proposes ealdhlāforde. Müllenh. understands ealdhlāford to mean the former possessor of the hoard. W. agrees to this, but conceives ǣrgescōd as a compd. = ǣre calceatus, _sheathed in brass_. Ha. translates ǣrgescōd as vb. and adv.
l. 2791. Cf. l. 224, eoletes æt ende; landes æt ende, _Exod._ (Hunt).
l. 2792. MS. reads wæteres weorpan, which R. would change to wætere sweorfan.
l. 2806. "Men saw from its height the whales tumbling in the waves, and called it Whale's Ness (Hrones-nǣs)."--Br. p. 28. Cf. l. 3137.
l. 2815. Wīglāf was the next of kin, the last of the race, and hence the recipient of Beowulf's kingly insignia. There is a possible play on the word lāf (Wīg-_lāf_, ende-_lāf_).
l. 2818. gingeste word; cf. _novissima verba_, and Ger. _jüngst_, lately.
l. 2837. E. translates on lande, _in the world_, comparing _on līfe, on worulde_.
l. 2840. gerǣsde = pret. of gerǣsan (omitted from the Gloss.), same as rǣsan; cf. l. 2691.
l. 2859. B. proposes dēað ārǣdan, = _determine death_.--_Beit._ xii. 106.
l. 2861. Change geongum to geongan as a scribal error (?), but cf. Lichtenheld, _Haupts Zeitschr._ xvi. 353-355.
l. 2871. S. and W. propose ōwēr.--_Beit._ ix. 142.
l. 2873. S. punctuates: wrāðe forwurpe, þā, etc.
l. 2874. H.-So. begins a new sentence with nealles, ending the preceding one with beget.
l. 2879. ætgifan = _to render, to afford_; omitted in Gloss.
ll. 2885-2892. "This passage ... equals the passage in Tacitus which describes the tie of chief to companion and companion to chief among the Germans, and which recounts the shame that fell on those who survived their lord."--Br., p. 56.
l. 2886. cyn thus has the meaning of _gens_ or clan, just as in many Oriental towns all are of one blood. E. compares Tacitus, _Germania_, 7; and cf. "kith and kin."
l. 2892. Death is preferable to dishonor. Cf. Kemble, _Saxons_, i. 235.
l. 2901. The ἄγγελος begins his ἀγγελία here.
l. 2910. S. proposes higemēðe, _sad of soul;_ cf. ll. 2853 and 2864 (_Beit._ ix. 142). B. considers higemēðum a dat. or instr. pl. of an abstract in -u (_Beit._ xii. 106). H. makes it a dat. pl. = _for the dead_. For heafod-wearde, etc., cf. note on l. 446.
l. 2920-2921. B. explains "he could not this time, as usual, give jewels to his followers."--_Beit._ xii. 106.
l. 2922. The Merovingian or Frankish race.
l. 2940 _seq._ B. conjectures:
Cf. S., _Beit._ ix. 143. gētan = _cause blood to be shed._
l. 2950. B. proposes gomela for gōda; "a surprising epithet for a Geat to apply to the 'terrible' Ongentheow."--Ha. p. 99. But "good" does not necessarily mean "morally excellent," as a "good" hater, a "good" fighter.
l. 2959. See H.-So. for an explanatory quotation from Paulus Diaconus, etc. B., K., and Th. read segn Higelāces, = H.'s banner uplifted began to pursue the Swede-men.--_Beit._ xii. 108. S. suggests sǣce, = _pursuit_.
l. 2977. gewyrpton: this vb. is also used reflexively in _Exod._ (Hunt), l. 130: wyrpton hīe wērige.
l. 2989. bær is Grundt.'s reading, after the MS. "The surviving victor is the heir of the slaughtered foe."--H.-So. Cf. _Hildebrands Lied_, ll. 61, 62.
l. 2995. "A hundred of thousands in land and rings" (Ha., p. 100). Cf. ll. 2196, 3051. Cf. B., _Beit._ xii. 20, who quotes Saxo's _bis senas gentes_ and remarks: "Hrolf Kraki, who rewards his follower, for the slaying of the foreign king, with jewels, rich lands, and his only daughter's hand, answers to the Jutish king Hygelāc, who rewards his liegeman, for the slaying of Ongenthēow, with jewels, enormous estates, and _his_ only daughter's hand."
l. 3006. H.-So. suggests Scilfingas for Scyldingas, because, at l. 2397, Beowulf kills the Scylfing Ēadgils and probably acquires his lands. Thus ll. 3002, 3005, 3006, would indicate that, after Beowulf's death, the Swedes desired to shake off his hated yoke. Müllenh., however, regards l. 3006 as a thoughtless repetition of l. 2053.--_Haupts Zeitschr._ xiv. 239.
l. 3008. Cf. the same proverb at l. 256; and _Exod._ (Hunt.) l. 293.
l. 3022. E. quotes:
and from Percy, "The word _glee_, which peculiarly denoted their art (the minstrels'), continues still in our own language ... it is to this day used in a musical sense, and applied to a peculiar piece of composition."
l. 3025. "This is a finer use than usual of the common poetic attendants of a battle, the wolf, the eagle, and the raven. The three are here like three Valkyrie, talking of all that they have done."--Br., p. 57.
l. 3033. Cf. Hunt's _Dan._ l. 731, for similar language.
l. 3039. B. supplies a supposed gap here:
Cf. Ha., p. 102. W. and Ho. insert [þǣr] before gesēgan.
l. 3042. Cf. l. 2561, where gryre-giest occurs as an epithet of the dragon. B. proposes gry[re-fāh].
l. 3044. lyft-wynne, _in the pride of the air_, E.; _to rejoice in the air_, Ha.
l. 3057. (1) He (God) is men's hope; (2) he is the heroes' hope; (3) gehyld = the secret place of enchanters; cf. hēlsmanna gehyld, Gr.'s reading, after A.-S. hǣlsere, haruspex, augur.
l. 3060. B. suggests gehȳðde, = _plundered_ (i.e. by the thief), for gehȳdde.
ll. 3063-3066. (1) B. suggests wundur [dēaðe] hwār þonne eorl ellenrof ende gefēre = _let a brave man then somewhere meet his end by wondrous venture_, etc.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 241; cf. l. 3038. (2) S. supposes an indirect question introduced by hwār and dependent upon wundur, = _a mystery is it when it happens that the hero is to die, if he is no longer to linger among his people_.--_Beit._ ix. 143. (3) Müllenh. suggests: _is it to be wondered at that a man should die when he can no longer live?_--_Zachers Zeitschr._ xiv. 241. (4) Possibly thus:
in which hwæt would = þurh hwæt at l. 3069, and eorl would be subject of the conjectural vb. wundrað: "the valiant earl wondereth then through what he shall attain his life's end, when he no longer may live. ... So Bēowulf knew not (wondered how) through what _his_ end should come," etc. W. and Ho. join þonne to the next line. Or, for hwār read wǣre: Wundur wǣre þonne (= gif), etc., = "would it be any wonder if a brave man," etc., which is virtually Müllenhoff's.
l. 3053. galdre bewunden, _spell-bound_, throws light on l. 2770, gelocen leoðo-cræftum. The "accursed" gold of legend is often dragon-guarded and placed under a spell. Even human ashes (as Shakespeare's) are thus banned. ll. 3047-3058 recall the so-called "Treasury of Atreus."
l. 3070. H.-So. begins a new line with swā.
l. 3073. herh, hearh, _temple_, is conjectured by E. to survive in _Harrow. Temple, barrow_, etc., have thus been raised to proper names. Cf. Bīowulfes biorh of l. 2808.
l. 3074. H.-So. has strude, = _ravage_, and compares l. 3127. MS. has strade. S. suggests stride, = _tread_.
l. 3074. H.-So. omits strādan, = _tread, stride over_, from the Gloss., referring ll. 3174 and 3074 to strūdan, q. v.
l. 3075. S. proposes: næs hē goldhwætes gearwor hæfde, etc., = _Beowulf had not before seen the greedy possessor's favor_.--_Beit._ ix. 143. B. reads, goldhwæte gearwor hæfde, etc., making goldhwæte modify ēst, = _golden favor_; but see _Beit._ xii. 373, for B.'s later view.
l. 3086-3087. B. translates, "that which (i.e. the treasure) drew the king thither was granted indeed, but it overwhelmed us."--_Beit._ xii. 109.
l. 3097. B. and S. propose æfter wine dēadum, = _in memory of the dead friend_.--_Beit._ ix. 144.
l. 3106. The brād gold here possibly includes the iū-monna gold of l. 3053 and the wunden gold of l. 3135. E. translates brād by _bullion_.
l. 3114. B. supposes folc-āgende to be dat. sg. to gōdum, referring to Beowulf.
l. 3116. C. considers weaxan, = Lat. _vescor_, to devour, as a parallel to fretan, and discards parentheses.--_Beit._ viii. 573.
l. 3120. fūs = _furnished with_; a meaning which must be added to those in the Gloss.
ll. 3124-3125. S. proposes:
l. 3136. H.-So. corrects (after B.) to æðeling_c_, the MS. having _e_.
l. 3145. "It was their [the Icelanders'] belief that the higher the smoke rose in the air the more glorious would the burnt man be in heaven."-- _Ynglinga Saga_, 10 (quoted by E.). Cf. the funeral pyre of Herakles.
l. 3146-3147. B. conjectures:
(lēc from lācan, see Gloss.).--_Beit._ xii. 110. Why not windblonda lāc?
l. 3147. Müllenhoff rejected wind-blond gelæg because a great fire raises rather than "lays" the wind; hence B., as above, = "swoughing sported the flame wound with the howling of wind-currents."
l. 3151 _seq._ B. restores conjecturally:
Here geō-meowle = _old woman_ or _widow;_ bunden-heorde = _with bound locks;_ hēof = _lamentation;_ cf. l. 3143. on rīce wealg is less preferable than the MS. reading, heofon rēce swealg = _heaven swallowed the smoke_.--H.-So. B. thinks Beowulf's widow (geōmeowle) was probably Hygd; cf. ll. 2370, 3017-3021.
l. 3162. H.-So. reads (with MS.) bronda be lāfe, for betost, and omits colon after bēcn. So B., _Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 224.
l. 3171. E. quotes Gibbon's accounts of the burial of Attila when the "chosen squadrons of the Hun, wheeling round in measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a hero."
ll. 3173-3174. B. proposes:
l. 3183. Z., K., Th. read manna for mannum.
l. 3184. "It is the English ideal of a hero as it was conceived by an Englishman some twelve hundred years ago."--Br., p. 18.

## NOTES TO THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURG.

The original MS. of this fragment has vanished, but a copy had been made and printed by Hickes in his _Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium_, i. 192. The original was written on a single sheet attached to a codex of homilies in the Lambeth Library. Möller, _Alteng. Epos_, p. 65, places the fragment in the Finn episode, between ll. 1146 and 1147. Bugge (_Beit._ xii. 20) makes it illustrate the conflict in which Hnæf fell, _i.e._ as described in _Bēowulf_ as antecedent to the events there given. Heinzel (_Anzeiger f. d. Altert._), however, calls attention to the fact that Hengest in the fragment is called cyning, whereas in _Bēowulf_, l. 1086, he is called þegn. See H.-So., p. 125.
"The _Fight at Finnsburg_ and the lays from which our _Bēowulf_ was composed were, as it seems to me, sung among the English who dwelt in the north of Denmark and the south of Sweden, and whose tribal name was the Jutes or Goths."--Br., p. 101.
l. 1. R. supposes [hor]nas, and conjectures such an introductory conversation as follows: "Is it dawning in the east, or is a fiery dragon flying about, or are the turrets of some castle burning?" questions which the king negatives in the same order. Then comes the positive declaration, "rather they are warriors marching whose armor gleams in the moonlight." --_Alt- und Angels. Lesebuch_, 1861. Heinzel and B. conjecture, [beorhtor hor]nas byrnað nǣfre. So. G.--_Beit._ xii. 22; _Anzeiger f. d. Altert._ x. 229.
l. 5. B. conjectures fugelas to mean _arrows_, and supplies:
He compares Saxo, p. 95, _cristatis galeis hastisque sonantibus instant_, as explanatory of l. 6.--_Beit._ xii. 22. But see Brooke, _Early Eng. Literature_, who supposes fugelas = _raven_ and _eagle_, while grǣg-hama is = _wulf_ (the "grey-coated one"), the ordinary accompaniers of battle.
l. 11. hicgeað, etc.: cf. _Maldon_, l. 5; _Exod._ l. 218.
l. 15. Cf. B. (_Beit._ xii. 25), etc., and Saxo, p. 101, for l. 13.
ll. 18-21. H.-So. remarks: "If, according to Möller and Bugge, Gārulf is one of the attackers, one of Finn's men, this does not harmonize with his character as Gūðlāf's son (l. 33), who (l. 16, and _Bēowulf_, l. 1149) is a Dane, therefore one of Finn's antagonists." B. (_Beit._ xii. 25) conjectures:
in which Gūðdene is the same as Sigeferð, l. 24; hē (l. 22) refers to Gārulf; and hīe (l. 21) to hyrsta.
l. 27. swæðer = _either_ (bad or good, life or death).--H.-So.
l. 29. cēlod: meaning doubtful; cf. _Maldon_, l. 283. G. renders "curved board"; Sw. suggests "round"? "hollow"?
l. 30. B. suggests bār-helm, = _boar-helm._ Cf. Saxo, p. 96.--_Beit._ xii. 26.
l. 34. B. conjectures: (1) hwearf flacra hrǣw hræfen, wandrode; (2) hwearf flacra hrǣw hræfen fram ōðrum = _flew from one corpse to another_.--_Beit._ xii. 27.
l. 43. B. supposes wund hæleð to be a Dane, folces hyrde to be Hnæf, in opposition to Holtzmann (_Germania_, viii. 494), who supposes the wounded man to be a Frisian, and folces hyrde to be their king, Finn.--_Beit._ xii. 28.
l. 45. B. adopts Th.'s reading heresceorp unhrōr = _equipments useless_.--_Beit._ xii. 28.
l. 47. "Though wounded, they had retained their strength and activity in battle."--B., _Beit._ xii. 28.