# Beowulf (Wyatt)/Beowulf 32

XXXII.
Nealles mid gewealdum wyrm-horda cræft [sōhte], sylfes willum, sē ðe him sāre gescēod; ac for þrēa-nēdlan þ[ēow] nāt-hwylces hæleða bearna hete-swengeas flēah, 2225[ærnes] þearfa, ond ðǣr inne fealh, secg syn-bysig. Sōna getīd[d]e,
hwæðre [earm-]sceapen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Fol. 179b. 2230. . . . sceapen . . . . . . [þā hyne] se fǣr begeat sinc-fæt [geseah]. Þǣr wæs swylcra fela in ðām eorð-[hū]se ǣr-gestrēona, swā hȳ on gēar-dagum gumena nāt-hwylc, eormen-lāfe æþelan cynnes, 2235þanc-hycgende þǣr gehȳdde, dēore māðmas. Ealle hīe dēað fornam ǣrran mǣlum, ond se ān ðā gēn lēoda duguðe, sē ðǣr lengest hwearf, wearð wine-gēomor, wēnde þæs yldan, 2240þæt hē lȳtel fæc long-gestrēona brūcan mōste. Beorh eall gearo wunode on wonge wæter-ȳðum nēah, nīwe be næsse, nearo-cræftum fæst; þǣr on innan bær eorl-gestrēona 2245hringa hyrde hard-fyrne dǣl, }} ​fǣttan goldes, fēa worda cwæð: “Heald þū nū, hrūse, nū hæleð ne mōstan, eorla ǣhte. Hwæt! hyt ǣr on ðē gōde begēaton; gūð-dēað fornam, 2250feorh-bealo frēcne, fȳra gehwylcne, lēoda mīnra, þāra ðe þis [līf] ofgeaf; gesāwon sele-drēam. *Nāh hwā sweord wege,Fol. 180a. oððe fe[o]r[mie] fǣted wǣge, drync-fæt dēore; dug[uð] ellor scōc. 2255Sceal se hearda helm [hyr]sted golde fǣtum befeallen; feormend swefað, þā ðe beado-grīman bȳwan sceoldon; ge swylce sēo here-pād, sīo æt hilde gebād ofer borda gebræc bite īrena, 2260brosnað æfter beorne; ne mæg byrnan hring æfter wīg-fruman wīde fēran hæleðum be healfe. Nis hearpan wyn, ​gomen glēo-bēames, ne gōd hafoc geond sæl swingeð, ne se swifta mearh 2265burh-stede bēateð. Bealo-cwealm hafað fela feorh-cynna forð onsended.” Swā gīomor-mōd giohðo mǣnde ān æfter eallum, unblīðe hwē[op] dæges ond nihtes, oð ðæt dēaðes wylm 2270hrān æt heortan. Hord-wynne fond eald ūht-sceaða opene standan, sē ðe byrnende biorgas sēceð, nacod nīð-draca, nihtes flēogeð fȳre befangen; hyne fold-būend 2275*[swīðe ondrǣ]da[ð]. Hē gesēcean sceallFol. 180b. [ho]r[d on] hrūsan, þǣr hē hǣðen gold warað wintrum frōd; ne byð him wihte ðȳ sēl. Swā se ðēod-sceaða þrēo hund wintra hēold on hrūsan hord-ærna sum 2280ēacen-cræftig, oð ðæt hyne ān ābealh mon on mōde; man-dryhtne bær fǣted wǣge, frioðo-wǣre bæd hlāford sīnne. Ða wæs hord rāsod, onboren bēaga hord; bēne getīðad 2285fēa-sceaftum men. Frēa scēawode fīra fyrn-geweorc forman sīðe. ​Þā se wyrm onwoc, wrōht wæs genīwad; stonc ðā æfter stāne, stearc-heort onfand fēondes fōt-lāst; hē tō forð gestōp 2290dyrnan cræfte dracan hēafde nēah. Swā mæg unfǣge ēaðe gedīgan wēan ond wræc-sīð, sē ðe Waldendes hyldo gehealdeþ. Hord-weard sōhte georne æfter grunde, wolde guman findan, 2295þone þe him on sweofote sāre getēode; hāt ond hrēoh-mōd *hlǣw oft ymbehwearfFol. 181a. ealne ūtan-weardne; ne ðǣr ǣnig mon on þǣm wēstenne. Hwæðre hilde gefeh, bea[du]-weorces; hwīlum on beorh æthwearf, 2300sinc-fæt sōhte; hē þæt sōna onfand, ðæt hæfde gumena sum goldes gefandod, hēah-gestrēona. Hord-weard onbād earfoðlīce, oð ðæt ǣfen cwōm; wæs ðā gebolgen beorges hyrde, 2305wolde se lāða līge forgyldan drinc-fæt dȳre. Þā wæs dæg sceacen wyrme on willan; nō on wealle leng bīdan wolde, ac mid bǣle fōr, fȳre gefȳsed. Wæs se fruma egeslīc 2310lēodum on lande, swā hyt lungre wearð on hyra sinc-gifan sāre geendod.
* ↑ 2221. “weoldum the later hand instead of wealdum, the a being still recognisable. Nothing after horda [i.e. between it and cræft].”—Zupitza.
* ↑ 2222. Grein’s emendation. No gap in MS.
* ↑ 2223. Zupitza ‘þ[egn],’ and in a foot-note: “the traces of three letters between þ and nat justify us in reading egn (þegn K.).” So Grein. On the other hand, Thorpe, who made a careful collation of the MS. in 1830, three years before Kemble’s first edition, leaves a blank. As þegn seems from the whole context to be an impossible name for the “fēa-sceaftum men” (l. 2285), I read þēow with Wülcker and Heyne 5.
* ↑ 2224. Later hand ‘fleoh.’
* ↑ 2225. “To judge from what is left, the second word of this line was ærnes.”—Z.  AB ‘weall.’ “Now only weal left, but w stands on an original f, which is still recognisable; and what seemed to be another l in Thorkelin’s time may have been the remnant of an original h.”—Z.
* ↑ 2226. Grein ‘[Wæs] sōna in þā. tīde.’ Thorpe ‘inwlātode’ (so Heyne 5). Zupitza “mwatide, no doubt, the second hand.” What did the second hand mean? My own conjecture is given in the text.
* ↑ 2227. “The indistinct letter after gyst seems to have been e. The traces of the third word allow us to read gryre.”—Z.
* ↑ 2228. “According to the traces left, the first word [i.e. in the MS. line] may have been earm.”—Z.
* ↑ 2230. “þa hine before se?”—Z.  Wülcker ‘fǣs.’ Zupitza: “fæs freshened up, but s seems to stand on an original r.”
* ↑ 2231. After the first line of the new folio, the illegibility is confined to the edges of the next three lines. Heyne’s emendation. Wülcker ‘scīr’ or ‘seah,’ thinking there is not room for geseah. I think there is. Zupitza has six dots.
* ↑ 2237. “Si the later hand, but i seems to stand on an original e.”—Z.
* ↑ 2239. B ‘weard’ (so Wülcker and Heyne); Zupitza ‘wearð’ (almost the only instance in which he transliterates the reading of the first hand). “The last letter of the first word was originally ð, although the later hand has not freshened up the stroke through the d.”—Z.  “rihde the later hand, but wende the first.”—Z. Wülcker ‘wīscte.’
* ↑ 2244. “innon the later hand, but o stands on an original a.”—Z.
* ↑ 2245. Zupitza ‘hard-wyrðne,’ and in a foot-note: “w (or f?) and the stroke through d in wyrðne not freshened up.” Though adopting its reading, I am suspicious of the later hand. The form hard occurs nowhere else in “Beowulf.”
* ↑ 2246. “fec later hand, but originally fea.”—Z.
* ↑ 2247. “mæstan later hand, but I think I see an original o under the æ; a also seems to stand on another vowel (u or o?).”—Z.
* ↑ 2250. “reorh bealc later hand, but the first r stands on an original f, and c on an original o.”—Z. MS. ‘fyrena.’
* ↑ 2251. “þana later hand, no doubt; nor do I see any sign of the third letter having originally been r.”—Z.
* ↑ 2252. Zupitza ‘sele-dream : : ’
* ↑ 2253. MS. defective at corner and edge here and in ll. 2254, 2255, and 2268. Grein’s emendation, supported by Zupitza, who says that the remaining traces of the word in the MS. make fetige impossible. Cf. l. 2256.
* ↑ 2254. MS. ‘seoc’
* ↑ 2256. MS. ‘feor mynd.’ Cf. l. 2761.
* ↑ 2262. MS. ‘næs’ (so Heyne). Cf. ll. 1923, 2486, where I have kept the MS. reading. But here the change of tense is too harsh.
* ↑ 2266. A B ‘feorð’; Zupitza ‘forð.’ He says: “There is a dot under e, which is besides very indistinct.” Underdotting is equivalent to erasure. Heyne considers l. 808 conclusive in favour of his reading ‘feorr.’
* ↑ 2275—6. MS. defective and illegible at top and corner. Zupitza’s emendations.
* ↑ 2279. MS. ‘hrusam.’
* ↑ 2280. MS. ‘abealch.’
* ↑ 2284. Bugge suggests ‘beaga dǣl’ on the ground that the repetition of hord is a mistake of the scribe.
* ↑ 2296. MS. ‘hlæwū’; Grundtvig ‘hlǣw nū’ (so Wülcker and Heyne).
* ↑ 2298. B ‘þære’; A a blank; Grein ‘hǣðe,’ for the alliteration; “now nothing but the lower part of the perpendicular stroke of þ left” (Z.). Heyne ‘[wæs] on þǣre wēstenne.’ Grein inserts wæs after ne in the previous line.
* ↑ 2299. MS. defective at edge.
* ↑ 2305. MS. ‘fela ða’; Bugge ‘se lāða.’
* ↑ 2307. MS. ‘læg’; Thorpe ‘leng.’