Beowulf (page 3)

homo proper of Finn, and here Hengest remains during the winter, prevented by ice and storms from returning home (Grein). But in spring the feud breaks out anew. Gūðlāf and Oslāf avenge Hnæf’s fall, probably after they have brought help from home (1150). In the battle, the hall is filled with the corpses of the enemy. Finn himself is killed, and the queen is captured and carried away, along with the booty, to the land of the Danes, 1147-1160.

Finna land. Bēowulf reaches it in his swimming-race with Breca, 580.

Fitela, the son and nephew of the Wälsing, Sigemund, and his companion in arms, 876-890. (Sigemund had begotten Fitela by his sister, Signȳ. Cf. more at length Leo on Bēowulf, p. 38 ff., where an extract from the legend of the Walsungs is given.)

Folc-walda (gen. Folc-waldan, 1090), Finn’s father, 1090.

Francan (gen. Francna, 1211; dat. Froncum, 2913). King Hygelāc fell on an expedition against the allied Franks, Frisians, and Hūgas, 1211, 2917.

Frēsan, Frȳsan (gen. Frēsena, 1094, Frȳsna, 1105, Frēsna, 2916: dat. Frȳsum, 1208, 2913). To be distinguished, are: 1) North Frisians, whose king is Finn, 1069 ff.; 2) West Frisians, in alliance with the Franks and Hūgas, in the war against whom Hygelāc falls, 1208, 2916. The country of the former is called Frȳsland, 1127; that of the latter, Frēsna land, 2916.

Fr..es wæl (in Fr..es wæle, 1071), mutilated proper name.

Frēawaru, daughter of the Danish king, Hrōðgār; given in marriage to Ingeld, the son of the Heaðobeard king, Frōda, in order to end a war between the Danes and the Heaðobeardnas, 2023 ff., 2065.

Frōda (gen. Frōdan), father of Ingeld, the husband of Frēaware, 2026.

Gārmund (gen. Gārmundes, 1963) father of Offa. His grandson is Ēomǣr, 1961-63.

Gēatas (gen. Gēata, 205, etc.; dat. Gēatum, 195, etc.), a tribe in Southern Scandinavia, to which the hero of this poem belongs; also called Wedergēatas, 1493, 2552; or, Wederas, 225, 423, etc.; Gūðgēatas, 1539; Sǣgēatas, 1851, 1987. Their kings named in this poem are: Hrēðel; Hæðcyn, second son of Hrēðel; Hygelāc, the brother of Hæðcyn; Heardrēd, son of Hygelāc; then Bēowulf.

Gifðas (dat. Gifðum, 2495), Gepidǣ, mentioned in connection with Danes and Swedes, 2495.

Grendel, a fen-spirit (102-3) of Cain’s race, 107, 111, 1262, 1267. He breaks every night into Hrōðgār’s hall and carries off thirty warriors, 115 ff., 1583ff. He continues this for twelve years, till Bēowulf fights with him (147, 711 ff.), and gives him a mortal wound, in that he tears out one of his arms (817), which is hung up as a trophy in the roof of Heorot, 837. Grendel’s mother wishes to avenge her son, and the following night breaks into the hall and carries off Æschere, 1295. Bēowulf seeks for and finds her home in the fen-lake (1493 ff.), fights with her (1498 ff.), and kills her (1567); and cuts off the head of Grendel, who lay there dead (1589), and brings it to Hrōðgār, 1648.

Gūð-lāf and Oslāf, Danish warriors under Hnæf, whose death they avenge on Finn, 1149.

Hālga, with the surname, _til_, the younger brother of the Danish king, Hrōðgār, 61. His son is Hrōðulf, 1018, 1165, 1182.

Hāma wrests the _Brōsinga mene_ from Eormenrīc, 1199.

Hæreð (gen. Hæreðes, 1982), father of Hygd, the wife of Hygelāc, 1930, 1982.

Hæðcyn (dat. Hæðcynne, 2483), second son of Hrēðel, king of the Gēatas, 2435. Kills his oldest brother, Herebeald, accidentally, with an arrow, 2438 ff. After Hrēðel’s death, he obtains the kingdom, 2475, 2483. He falls at Ravenswood, in the battle against the Swedish king, Ongenþēow, 2925. His successor is his younger brother, Hygelāc, 2944 ff., 2992.

Helmingas (gen. Helminga, 621). From them comes Wealhþēow, Hrōðgār’s wife, 621.

Heming (gen. Heminges, 1945, 1962). Offa is called Heminges mÇ£g, 1945; ĒomÇ£r, 1962. According to Bachlechner (Pfeiffer’s Germania, I., p. 458), Heming is the son of the sister of Gārmund, Offa’s father.

Hengest (gen. Hengestes, 1092; dat. Hengeste, 1084): about him and his relations to Hnæf and Finn, see Finn.

Here-beald (dat. Herebealde, 2464), the oldest son of Hrēðel, king of the Gēatas (2435), accidentally killed with an arrow by his younger brother, Hæðcyn, 2440.

Here-mōd (gen. Heremōdes, 902), king of the Danes, not belonging to the Scylding dynasty, but, according to Grein, immediately preceding it; is, on account of his unprecedented cruelty, driven out, 902 ff., 1710.

Here-rīc (gen. Hererīces, 2207) Heardrēd is called Hererīces nefa, 2207. Nothing further is known of him.

Het-ware or Franks, in alliance with the Frisians and the Hūgas, conquer Hygelāc, king of the Gēatas, 2355, 2364 ff., 2917.

Healf-dene (gen. Healfdenes, 189, etc.), son of Bēowulf, the Scylding (57); rules the Danes long and gloriously (57 f.); has three sons, Heorogār, Hrōðgār, and Hālga (61), and a daughter, Elan, who, according to the renewed text of the passage, was married to the Scylfing, Ongenþēow, 62, 63.

Heard-rēd (dat. Heardrēde, 2203, 2376), son of Hygelāc, king of the Gēatas, and Hygd. After his father’s death, while still under age, he obtains the throne (2371, 2376, 2379); wherefore Bēowulf, as nephew of Heardrēd’s father, acts as guardian to the youth till he becomes older, 2378. He is slain by Ōhthere’s sons, 2386. This murder Bēowulf avenges on Ēadgils, 2396-97.

Heaðo-beardnas (gen. -beardna, 2033, 2038, 2068), the tribe of the Lombards. Their king, Frōda, has fallen in a war with the Danes, 2029, 2051. In order to end the feud, King Hrōðgār has given his daughter, Frēawaru, as wife to the young Ingeld, the son of Frōda, a marriage that does not result happily; for Ingeld, though he long defers it on account of his love for his wife, nevertheless takes revenge for his father, 2021-2070 (Wīdsīð, 45-49).

Heaðo-lāf (dat. Heaðo-lāfe, 460), a Wylfingish warrior. Ecgþēow, Bēowulf’s father, kills him, 460.

Heaðo-rǣmas reached by B. in the swimming-race with Bēowulf, 519.

Heoro-gār (nom. 61; Heregār, 467; Hiorogār, 2159), son of Healfdene, and older brother of Hrōðgār, 61. His death is mentioned, 467. He has a son, Heoroweard, 2162. His coat of mail Bēowulf has received from Hrōðgār (2156), and presents it to Hygelāc, 2158.

Heoro-weard (dat. Heorowearde, 2162), Heorogār’s son, 2161-62.

Heort, 78. Heorot, 166 (gen. Heorotes, 403; dat. Heorote, 475, Heorute, 767, Hiorte, 2100). Hrōðgār’s throne-room and banqueting hall and assembly-room for his liegemen, built by him with unusual splendor, 69, 78. In it occurs Bēowulf’s fight with Grendel, 720 ff. The hall receives its name from the stag’s antlers, of which the one-half crowns the eastern gable, the other half the western.

Hildeburh, daughter of Hōc, relative of the Danish leader, Hnæf, consort of the Frisian king, Finn. After the fall of the latter, she becomes a captive of the Danes, 1072, 1077, 1159. See also under Finn.

Hnæf (gen. Hnæfes, 1115), a Hōcing (WÄ«dsīð, 29), the Danish King Healfdene’s general, 1070 ff. For his fight with Finn, his death and burial, see under Finn.

Hond-scīo, warrior of the Gēatas: dat. 2077.

Hōc (gen. Hōces, 1077), father of Hildeburh, 1077; probably also of Hnæf (Wīdsīð, 29).

Hrēðel (gen. Hrēðles, 1486), son of Swerting, 1204. King of the Gēatas, 374. He has, besides, a daughter, who is married to Ecgþēow, and has borne him Bēowulf, (374), three sons, Herebeald, Hæðcyn, and Hygelāc, 2435. The eldest of these is accidentally killed by the second, 2440. On account of this inexpiable deed, Hrēðel becomes melancholy (2443), and dies, 2475.

Hrēðla (gen. Hrēðlan, MS. HrÇ£dlan, 454), the same as Hrēðel (cf. Müllenhoff in Haupts Zeitschrift, 12, 260), the former owner of Bēowulf’s coat of mail, 454.

Hrēðling, son of Hrēðel, Hygelāc: nom. sg. 1924; nom. pl., the subjects of Hygelāc, the Geats, 2961.

Hrēð-men (gen. Hrēð-manna, 445), the Danes are so called, 445.

Hrēð-rīc, son of Hrōðgār, 1190, 1837.

Hrefna-wudu, 2926, or Hrefnes-holt, 2936, the thicket near which the Swedish king, Ongenþēow, slew Hæðcyn, king of the Gēatas, in battle.

Hrēosna-beorh, promontory in the land of the Gēatas, near which Ongenþēow’s sons, Ōhthere and Onela, had made repeated robbing incursions into the country after Hrēðel’s death. These were the immediate cause of the war in which Hrēðel’s son, King Hæcyn, fell, 2478 ff.

Hrōð-gār (gen. Hrōðgāres, 235, etc.; dat. Hrōðgāre, 64, etc.), of the dynasty of the Scyldings; the second of the three sons of King Healfdene, 61. After the death of his elder brother, Heorogār, he assumes the government of the Danes, 465, 467 (yet it is not certain whether Heorogār was king of the Danes before Hrōðgār, or whether his death occurred while his father, Healfdene, was still alive). His consort is Wealhþēow (613), of the stock of the Helmings (621), who has borne him two sons, HrēðrÄ«c and Hrōðmund (1190), and a daughter, Frēaware (2023), who has been given in marriage to the king of the Heaðobeardnas, Ingeld. His throne-room (78 ff.), which has been built at great cost (74 ff.), is visited every night by Grendel (102, 115), who, along with his mother, is slain by Bēowulf (711 ff., 1493 ff). Hrōðgār’s rich gifts to Bēowulf, in consequence, 1021, 1818; he is praised as being generous, 71 ff., 80, 1028 ff., 1868 ff.; as being brave, 1041 ff., 1771 ff.; and wise, 1699, 1725.–Other information about Hrōðgār’s reign for the most part only suggested: his expiation of the murder which Ecgþēow, Bēowulf’s father, committed upon Heaðolāf, 460, 470; his war with the Heaðobeardnas; his adjustment of it by giving his daughter, Frēaware, in marriage to their king, Ingeld; evil results of this marriage, 2021-2070.–Treachery of his brother’s son, Hrōðulf, intimated, 1165-1166.

Hrōð-mund, Hrōðgār’s son, 1190.

Hrōð-ulf, probably a son of Hālga, the younger brother of King Hrōðgār, 1018, 1182. Wealhþēow expresses the hope (1182) that, in case of the early death of Hrōðgār, Hrōð-ulf would prove a good guardian to Hrōðgār’s young son, who would succeed to the government; a hope which seems not to have been accomplished, since it appears from 1165, 1166 that Hrōð-ulf has abused his trust towards Hrōðgār.

Hrones-næs (dat. -næsse, 2806, 3137), a promontory on the coast of the country of the Gēatas, visible from afar. Here is Bēowulf’s grave-mound, 2806, 3137.

Hrunting (dat. Hruntinge, 1660), Hunferð’s sword, is so called, 1458, 1660.

Hūgas (gen. Hūga, 2503), Hygelāc wars against them allied with the Franks and Frisians, and falls, 2195 ff. One of their heroes is called Dæghrefn, whom Bēowulf slays, 2503.

[H]Å«n-ferð, the son of Ecglāf, þyle of King Hrōðgār. As such, he has his place near the throne of the king, 499, 500, 1167. He lends his sword, Hrunting, to Bēowulf for his battle with Grendel’s mother, 1456 f. According to 588, 1168, he slew his brothers. Since his name is always alliterated with vowels, it is probable that the original form was, as Rieger (Zachers Ztschr., 3, 414) conjectures, Unferð.

Hūn-lāfing, name of a costly sword, which Finn presents to Hengest, 1144. See Note.

Hygd (dat. Hygde, 2173), daughter of Hæreð, 1930; consort of Hygelāc, king of the Gēatas, 1927; her son, Heardrēd, 2203, etc.–Her noble, womanly character is emphasized, 1927 ff.

Hyge-lāc (gen. Hige-lāces, 194, etc., Hygelāces, 2387; dat. Higelāce, 452, Hygelāce, 2170), king of the Gēatas, 1203, etc. His grandfather is Swerting, 1204; his father, Hrēðel, 1486, 1848; his older brothers, Herebeald and Hæðcyn, 2435; his sister’s son, Bēowulf, 374, 375. After his brother, Hæðcyn, is killed by Ongenþēow, he undertakes the government (2992 in connection with the preceding from 2937 on). To Eofor he gives, as reward for slaying Ongenþēow, his only daughter in marriage, 2998. But much later, at the time of the return of Bēowulf from his expedition to Hrōðgār, we see him married to the very young Hygd, the daughter of Hæreð, 1930. The latter seems, then, to have been his second wife. Their son is Heardrēd, 2203, 2376, 2387.–Hygelāc falls during an expedition against the Franks, Frisians, and HÅ«gas, 1206, 1211, 2356-59, 2916-17.

Ingeld (dat. Ingelde, 2065), son of Frōda, the Heaðobeard chief, who fell in a battle with the Danes, 2051 ff. in order to end the war, Ingeld is married to Frēawaru, daughter of the Danish king, Hrōðgār, 2025-30. Yet his love for his young wife can make him forget only for a short while his desire to avenge his father. He finally carries it out, excited thereto by the repeated admonitions of an old warrior, 2042-70 (Wīdsīð, 45-59).

Ing-wine (gen. Ingwina, 1045, 1320), friends of Ing, the first king of the East Danes. The Danes are so called, 1045, 1320.

Mere-wīoingas (gen. Mere-wīoinga, 2922), as name of the Franks, 2922.

Nægling, the name of Bēowulf’s sword, 2681.

Offa (gen. Offan, 1950), king of the Angles (Wīdsīð, 35), the son of Gārmund, 1963; married (1950) to Þrȳðo (1932), a beautiful but cruel woman, of unfeminine spirit (1932 ff.), by whom he has a son, Ēomǣr, 1961.

Ōht-here (gen. Ōhtheres, 2929, 2933; Ōhteres, 2381, 2393, 2395, 2613), son of Ongenþēow, king of the Swedes, 2929. His sons are Ēanmund (2612) and Ēadgils, 2393.

Onela (gen. Onelan, 2933), Ōhthere’s brother, 2617, 2933.

Ongen-þēow (nom. -þēow, 2487, -þīo, 2952; gen. -þēowes, 2476, -þīowes, 2388; dat. -þīo, 2987), of the dynasty of the Scylfings; king of the Swedes, 2384. His wife is, perhaps, Elan, daughter of the Danish king, Healfdene (62), and mother of two sons, Onela and Ōhthere, 2933. She is taken prisoner by Hæðcyn, king of the Gēatas, on an expedition into Sweden, which he undertakes on account of her sons’ plundering raids into his country, 2480 ff. She is set free by Ongenþēow (2931), who kills Hæðcyn, 2925, and encloses the Gēatas, now deprived of their leader, in the Ravenswood (2937 ff.), till they are freed by Hygelāc, 2944. A battle then follows, which is unfavorable to Ongenþēow’s army. Ongenþēow himself, attacked by the brothers, Wulf and Eofor, is slain by the latter, 2487 ff., 2962 ff.

Ōs-lāf, a warrior of Hnæf’s, who avenges on Finn his leader’s death, 1149 f.

Scede-land, 19. Sceden-īg (dat. Sceden-īgge, 1687), O.N., Scān-ey, the most southern portion of the Scandinavian peninsula, belonging to the Danish kingdom, and, in the above-mentioned passages of our poem, a designation of the whole Danish kingdom.

Scēf or Scēaf. See Note.

Scēfing, the son (?) of Scēf, or Scēaf, reputed father of Scyld, 4. See Note.

Scyld (gen. Scyldes, 19), a Scēfing. 4. His son is Bēowulf, 18, 53: his grandson, Healfdene, 57; his great-grandson, Hrōðgār, who had two brothers and a sister, 59 ff.–Scyld dies, 26; his body, upon a decorated ship, is given over to the sea (32 ff.), just as he, when a child, drifted alone, upon a ship, to the land of the Danes, 43 ff. After him his descendants bear his name.

Scyldingas (Scyldungas, 2053; gen. Scyldinga, 53, etc., Scyldunga, 2102, 2160; dat. Scyldingum, 274, etc.), a name which is extended also to the Danes, who are ruled by the Scyldings, 53, etc. They are also called Ār-Scyldingas, 464; Sige-Scyldingas, 598, 2005; Þēod-Scyldingas, 1020; Here-Scyldingas, 1109.

Scylfingas, a Swedish royal family, whose relationship seems to extend to the Gēatas, since WÄ«glāf, the son of WÄ«hstān, who in another place, as a kinsman of Bēowulf, is called a WÇ£gmunding (2815), is also called lēod Scylfinga, 2604. The family connections are perhaps as follows:–

Scylf.
|
————————
WÇ£gmund. …….
| |
—————— ———-
Ecgþēow. Wēohstān. Ongenþēow. | | |
——– ——– —————
Bēowulf. Wīglāf. Onela. Ōhthere. |
—————–
Ēaumund. Ēadgils.

The Scylfings are also called Heaðo-Scilfingas, 63, Gūð-Scylfingas, 2928.

Sige-mund (dat. -munde, 876, 885), the son of Wæls, 878, 898. His (son and ) nephew is Fitela, 880, 882. His fight with the drake, 887 ff.

Swerting (gen. Swertinges, 1204), Hygelāc’s grandfather, and Hrēðel’s father, 1204.

Swēon (gen. Swēona, 2473, 2947, 3002), also Swēo-þēod, 2923. The dynasty of the Scylfings rules over them, 2382, 2925. Their realm is called Swīorice, 2384, 2496.

Þrȳðo, consort of the Angle king, Offa, 1932, 1950. Mother of Ēomǣr, 1961, notorious on account of her cruel, unfeminine character, 1932 ff. She is mentioned as the opposite to the mild, dignified Hygd, the queen of the Gēatas.

Wæls (gen. Wælses, 898), father of Sigemund, 878, 898.

Wǣg-mundingas (gen. Wǣgmundinga, 2608, 2815). The Wǣgmundings are on one side, Wīhstān and his son Wīglāf; on the other side, Ecgþēow and his son Bēowulf (2608, 2815). See under Scylfingas.

Wederas (gen. Wedera, 225, 423, 498, etc.), or Weder-gēatas. See Gēatas.

Wēland (gen. Wēlandes, 455), the maker of Bēowulf’s coat of mail, 455.

Wendlas (gen. Wendla, 348): their chief is Wulfgār. See Wulfgār. The Wendlas are, according to Grundtvig and Bugge, the inhabitants of Vendill, the most northern part of Jutland, between Limfjord and the sea.

Wealh-þēow (613, Wealh-þēo, 665, 1163), the consort of King Hrōðgār, of the stock of the Helmings, 621. Her sons are Hrēðrīc and Hrōðmund, 1190; her daughter, Frēawaru, 2023.

Wēoh-stān (gen. Wēox-stānes, 2603, Wēoh-stānes, 2863, Wih-stānes, 2753, 2908, etc.), a WÇ£gmunding (2608), father of WÄ«glāf, 2603. In what relationship to him Ælfhere, mentioned 2605, stands, is not clear.–Wēohstān is the slayer of Ēanmund (2612), in that, as it seems, he takes revenge for his murdered king, Heardrēd. See Ēanmund.

WÄ«g-lāf, Wēohstān’s son, 2603, etc., a WÇ£gmunding, 2815, and so also a Scylfing, 2604; a kinsman of Ælfhere, 2605. For his relationship to Bēowulf, see the genealogical table under Scylfingas.–He supports Bēowulf in his fight with the drake, 2605 ff., 2662 ff. The hero gives him, before his death, his ring, his helm, and his coat of mail, 2810 ff.

Won-rēd (gen. Wonrēdes, 2972), father of Wulf and Eofor, 2966, 2979.

Wulf (dat. Wulfe, 2994), one of the Gēatas, Wonrēd’s son. He fights in the battle between the armies of Hygelāc and Ongenþēow with Ongenþēow himself, and gives him a wound (2966), whereupon Ongenþēow, by a stroke of his sword, disables him, 2975. Eofor avenges his brother’s fall by dealing Ongenþēow a mortal blow, 2978 ff.

Wulf-gār, chief of the Wendlas, 348, lives at Hrōðgār’s court, and is his “ār and ombiht,” 335.

Wylfingas (dat. Wylfingum, 461). Ecgþēow has slain Heoðolāf, a warrior of this tribe, 460.

Yrmen-lāf, younger brother of Æschere, 1325.

ABBREVIATIONS.

B.: Bugge.
Br.: S.A. Brooke, Hist. of Early Eng. Lit. C.: Cosijn.
E.: Earle, Deeds of Beowulf in Prose. G.: Garnett, Translation of Beowulf
Gr.: Grein.
H.: Heyne.
Ha.: Hall, Translation of Beowulf.
H.-So.: Heyne-Socin, 5th ed.
Ho.: Holder.
K.: Kemble.
Kl.: Kluge.
Müllenh.: Müllenhoff.
R.: Rieger.
S.: Sievers.
Sw.: Sweet, Anglo-Saxon Reader, 6th ed. Ten Br.: Ten Brink.
Th.: Thorpe.
Z.: Zupitza.

PERIODICALS.

Ang.: Anglia.
Beit.: Paul und Branne’s Beiträge. Eng. Stud.: Englische Studien.
Germ.: Germania.
Haupts Zeitschr.: Haupts Zeitschrift, etc. Mod. Lang. Notes: Modern Language Notes. Tidskr.: Tidskrift for Philologi.
Zachers Zeitschr.: Zachers Zeitschrift, etc.

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 … gefrÅ«non is a variant on the usual epic formulÇ£ ic gefrægn (l. 74) and mÄ«ne gefrÇ£ge (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 CÇ£dmon, 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 gewÄ«tan, nine with the formula Hrōðgār (Bēowulf, Unferð) maðelode, twenty-four with monosyllables in general (him, swā, sē, hwæt, þā, heht, wæs, mæg, cwōm, strÇ£t).

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, dÇ£g, blód, etc., after they had become obsolete in the prose language, and the use of special compounds and phrases, such as hildenÇ£dre (_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 WÄ«dsīð’s suhtorfÇ£dran, 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 CÇ£dmon:

NÅ« 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 hÇ£fð and hÇ£fde 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 tÄ«d.

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. hÇ£l, an OE. word found in Wülker’s Glossaries in various forms, = _augury, omen, divination_, etc. Cf. hÇ£lsere, _augur_; hÇ£l, _omen;_ hÇ£lsung, _augurium_, hÇ£lsian, 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 SÇ£…. To this they added WÇ£ter, 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 bÇ£ron. 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 Ç£lc eald sȳ, ac þæt hē eald sȳ on wÄ«sdōme.

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 sÇ£, 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 _CÇ£dmon_, 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 vÃ¥kenhus,… 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. “Ç£l-, el-, kindred with Goth. _aljis_, other, e.g. in Ç£lþéodig, 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 (gÄ«ong: 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 _CÇ£dmon_, 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 _WÄ«dsíth_. 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 hÄ«e 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; _WÄ«dsīð_, 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 lÇ£frum, _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 Å«t = _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, -rÇ£den, 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 Ç£nige þinga, nÇ£nige þinga (_not at all_), hÅ«ru 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-fÇ£ges 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 sÇ£m 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. “brÅ«can (_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: hÄ«e 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 sÇ£l and mÇ£l, 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; HÅ«nlāfing, l. 1144, etc. Cf. Excalibur, Roland’s sword, the Nibelung Balmung, etc.

l. 1034. scÅ«r-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. _CÇ£dmon_, 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., andÄ«ege = 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 bÇ£l 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: HÅ«n Lāfing, = _HÅ«n 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 EormenrÄ«c; 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 rÇ£d 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-gewÇ£du … 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. āglÇ£ca = _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 sÇ£m 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 gewislÄ«cost.”–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 Ç£r, for in that case it would be in the subjunctive, but Ç£r is simply an adverb, correlative with the conjunction Ç£r 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 gehnÇ£ged, _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 = wÄ«scton = _wished_.–_Beit._ viii. 571.

l. 1607. brōden mÇ£l 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. wÇ£l, _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. ondrÇ£dan. “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’Ç£dan.”–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, rÅ«h, 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 gemÇ£ne, 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-tÄ«d ōþres dōgores of l. 219, and the similarity of language in both passages (fāmig-heals, clifu, næssas, sÇ£lde, 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 OffÇ£ 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 hÇ£ nÅ« (for hǣðnÅ«), which he regards as = Heinir, the inhabitants of the Jutish “heaths” (hǣð). Cf. H.-So., p. 107; _Beit._ xii. 9.

l. 1985. sÄ«nne. “In poetry there is a reflexive possessive of the third person, sÄ«n (declined like mÄ«n). 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-wÇ£g), _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:

Þǣr on innan gīong
niðða nāthwylc, nēode tō gefēng hǣðnum horde; hond ætgenam
seleful since fāh; nē hē þæt syððan āgeaf, þēah þe hē slÇ£pende besyrede hyrde þēofes cræfte: þæt se þīoden onfand, bȳ-folc beorna, þæt hē gebolgen wæs. –_Beit._ xii. 99; _Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 210.

l. 2129. B. proposes fÇ£runga, = _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. Ç£rest is possibly the verbal subs. from ārÄ«san, _to arise, = arising, origin_. R. suggested Ç£rist, _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.