List of Names

Ābel, Cain’s brother, 108.

Ælf-here (gen. Ælf-heres, 2605), a kinsman of Wīglāf’s, 2605.

Æsc-here, confidential adviser of King Hrōðgār (1326), older brother of Yrmenlāf (1325), killed by Grendel’s mother, 1295, 1324, 2123.

Bān-stān, father of Breca, 524.

Bēo-wulf, son of Scyld, king of the Danes, 18, 19. After the death of his father, he succeeds to the throne of the Scyldings, 53. His son is Healfdene, 57.

Bēo-wulf (Bīowulf, 1988, 2390; gen. Bēowulfes, 857, etc., Bīowulfes, 2195, 2808, etc.; dat. Bēowulfe, 610, etc., Bīowulfe, 2325, 2843), of the race of the Gēatas. His father is the Wǣgmunding Ecgþēow (263, etc.); his mother a daughter of Hrēðel, king of the Gēatas (374), at whose court he is brought up after his seventh year with Hrēðel’s sons, Herebeald, Hæðcyn, and Hygelāc, 2429 ff. In his youth lazy and unapt (2184 f., 2188 f.); as man he attains in the gripe of his hand the strength of thirty men, 379. Hence his victories in his combats with bare hands (711 ff., 2502 ff.), while fate denies him the victory in the battle with swords, 2683 f. His swimming-match with Breca in his youth, 506 ff. Goes with fourteen Gēatas to the assistance of the Danish king, Hrōðgār, against Grendel, 198 ff. His combat with Grendel, and his victory, 711 ff., 819 ff. He is, in consequence, presented with rich gifts by Hrōðgār, 1021 ff. His combat with Grendel’s mother, 1442 ff. Having again received gifts, he leaves Hrōðgār (1818-1888), and returns to Hygelāc, 1964 ff.—After Hygelāc’s last battle and death, he flees alone across the sea, 2360 f. In this battle he crushes Dæghrefn, one of the Hūgas, to death, 2502 f. He rejects at the same time Hygelāc’s kingdom and the hand of his widow (2370 ff.), but carries on the government as guardian of the young Heardrēd, son of Hygelāc, 2378 ff. After Heardrēd’s death, the kingdom falls to Bēowulf, 2208, 2390.—Afterwards, on an expedition to avenge the murdered Heardrēd, he kills the Scylfing, Ēadgils (2397), and probably conquers his country. —His fight with the drake, 2539 ff. His death, 2818. His burial, 3135 ff.

Breca (acc. Brecan, 506, 531), son of Bēanstān, 524. Chief of the Brondings, 521. His swimming-match with Bēowulf, 506 ff.

Brondingas (gen. Brondinga, 521), Breca, their chief, 521.

Brōsinga mene, corrupted from, or according to Müllenhoff, written by mistake for, Breosinga mene (O.N., Brisinga men, cf. Haupts Zeitschr. XII. 304), collar, which the Brisingas once possessed.

Cain (gen. Caines, 107): descended from him are Grendel and his kin, 107, 1262 ff.

Dæg-hrefn (dat. Dæghrefne, 2502), a warrior of the Hūgas, who, according to 2504-5, compared with 1203, and with 1208, seems to have been the slayer of King Hygelāc, in his battle against the allied Franks, Frisians, and Hūgas. Is crushed to death by Bēowulf in a hand-to-hand combat, 2502 ff.

Dene (gen. Dena, 242, etc., Denia, 2126, Deniga, 271, etc.; dat. Denum, 768, etc.), as subjects of Scyld and his descendants, they are also called Scyldings; and after the first king of the East Danes, Ing (Runenlied, 22), Ing-wine, 1045, 1320. They are also once called Hrēðmen, 445. On account of their renowned warlike character, they bore the names Gār-Dene, 1, 1857, Hring-Dene (Armor-Danes), 116, 1280, Beorht-Dene, 427, 610. The great extent of this people is indicated by their names from the four quarters of the heavens: Ēast-Dene, 392, 617, etc., West-Dene, 383, 1579, Sūð-Dene, 463, Norð-Dene, 784.—Their dwelling-place “in Scedelandum,” 19, “on Scedenigge,” 1687, “be sǣm twēonum,” 1686.

Ecg-lāf (gen. Ecglāfes, 499), Hunferð’s father, 499.

Ecg-þēow (nom. Ecgþēow, 263, Ecgþēo, 373; gen. Ecgþēowes, 529, etc., Ecgþīowes, 2000), a far-famed hero of the Gēatas, of the house of the Wǣgmundings. Bēowulf is the son of Ecgþēow, by the only daughter of Hrēðel, king of the Gēatas, 262, etc. Among the Wylfings, he has slain Heaðolāf (460), and in consequence he goes over the sea to the Danes (463), whose king, Hrōðgār, by means of gold, finishes the strife for him, 470.

Ecg-wela (gen. Ecg-welan, 1711). The Scyldings are called his descendants, 1711. Grein considers him the founder of the older dynasty of Danish kings, which closes with Heremōd. See Heremōd.

Elan, daughter of Healfdene, king of the Danes, (?) 62. According to the restored text, she is the wife of Ongenþēow, the Scylfing, 62, 63.

Earna-næs, the Eagle Cape in the land of the Gēatas, where occurred Bēowulf’s fight with the drake, 3032.

Ēadgils (dat. Ēadgilse, 2393), son of Ōhthere, and grandson of Ongenþēow, the Scylfing, 2393. His older brother is

Ēanmund (gen. Ēanmundes, 2612). What is said about both in our poem (2201-2207, 2380-2397, 2612-2620) is obscure, but the following may be conjectured:—

The sons of Ōhthere, Ēanmund and Ēadgils, have rebelled against their father (2382), and must, in consequence, depart with their followers from Swīorīce, 2205-6, 2380. They come into the country of the Gēatas to Heardrēd (2380), but whether with friendly or hostile intent is not stated; but, according to 2203 f., we are to presume that they came against Heardrēd with designs of conquest. At a banquet (on feorme; or feorme, MS.) Heardrēd falls, probably through treachery, by the hand of one of the brothers, 2386, 2207. The murderer must have been Ēanmund, to whom, according to 2613, “in battle the revenge of Wēohstān brings death.” Wēohstān takes revenge for his murdered king, and exercises upon Ēanmund’s body the booty-right, and robs it of helm, breastplate, and sword (2616-17), which the slain man had received as gifts from his uncle, Onela, 2617-18. But Wēohstān does not speak willingly of this fight, although he has slain Onela’s brother’s son, 2619-20.—After Heardrēd’s and Ēanmund’s death, the descendant of Ongenþēow, Ēadgils, returns to his home, 2388. He must give way before Bēowulf, who has, since Heardrēd’s death, ascended the throne of the Gēatas, 2390. But Bēowulf remembers it against him in after days, and the old feud breaks out anew, 2392-94. Ēadgils makes an invasion into the land of the Gēatas (2394-95), during which he falls at the hands of Bēowulf, 2397. The latter must have then obtained the sovereignty over the Swēonas (3005-6, where only the version, Scylfingas, can give a satisfactory sense).

Eofor (gen. Eofores, 2487, 2965; dat. Jofore, 2994, 2998), one of the Gēatas, son of Wonrēd and brother of Wulf (2965, 2979), kills the Swedish king, Ongenþēow (2487 ff., 2978-82), for which he receives from King Hygelāc, along with other gifts, his only daughter in marriage, 2994-99.

Eormen-rīc (gen. Eormenrīces, 1202), king of the Goths (cf. about him, W. Grimm, Deutsche Heldensage, p. 2, ff.). Hāma has wrested the Brōsinga mene from him, 1202.

Eomǣr, son of Offa and Þrȳðo (cf. Þrȳðo), 1961.

Eotenas (gen. pl. Eotena, 1073, 1089, 1142; dat. Eotenum, 1146), the subjects of Finn, the North Frisians: distinguished from eoton, giant. Vid eoton. Cf. Bugge, Beit., xii. 37; Earle, Beowulf in Prose, pp. 146, 198.

Finn (gen. Finnes, 1069, etc.; dat. Finne, 1129), son of Folcwalda (1090), king of the North Frisians, i.e. of the Eotenas, husband of Hildeburg, a daughter of Hōc, 1072, 1077. He is the hero of the inserted poem on the Attack in Finnsburg, the obscure incidents of which are, perhaps, as follows: In Finn’s castle, Finnsburg, situated in Jutland (1126-28), the Hōcing, Hnæf, a relative—perhaps a brother—of Hildeburg is spending some time as guest. Hnæf, who is a liegeman of the Danish king, Healfdene, has sixty men with him (Finnsburg, 38). These are treacherously attacked one night by Finn’s men, 1073. For five days they hold the doors of their lodging-place without losing one of their number (Finnsburg, 41, 42). Then, however, Hnæf is slain (1071), and the Dane, Hengest, who was among Hnæf’s followers, assumes the command of the beleaguered band. But on the attacking side the fight has brought terrible losses to Finn’s men. Their numbers are diminished (1081 f.), and Hildeburg bemoans a son and a brother among the fallen (1074 f., cf. 1116, 1119). Therefore the Frisians offer the Danes peace (1086) under the conditions mentioned (1087-1095), and it is confirmed with oaths (1097), and money is given by Finn in propitiation (1108). Now all who have survived the battle go together to Friesland, the 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 mǣg, 1945; Ēomǣr, 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 (Wīdsīð, 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. Hrǣdlan, 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, Hrēðrīc 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]ūn-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 Hūgas, 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 Wīglāf, the son of Wīhstān, who in another place, as a kinsman of Bēowulf, is called a Wǣgmunding (2815), is also called lēod Scylfinga, 2604. The family connections are perhaps as follows:—

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 Wǣgmunding (2608), father of Wīglāf, 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.

Wīg-lāf, Wēohstān’s son, 2603, etc., a Wǣgmunding, 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... gefrūnon is a variant on the usual epic formulǣ ic gefrægn (l. 74) and mīne gefrǣge (l. 777). Exodus, Daniel, Phoenix, etc., open with the same formula.

l. 1. “Gār was the javelin, armed with two of which the warrior went into battle, and which he threw over the ‘shield-wall.’ It was barbed.”—Br. 124. Cf. Maldon, l. 296; Judith, l. 224; Gnom. Verses, l. 22; etc.

l. 4. “Scild of the Sheaf, not ‘Scyld the son of Scaf’; for it is too inconsistent, even in myth, to give a patronymic to a foundling. According to the original form of the story, Scēaf was the foundling; he had come ashore with a sheaf of corn, and from that was named. This form of the story is preserved in Ethelwerd and in William of Malmesbury. But here the foundling is Scyld, and we must suppose he was picked up with the sheaf, and hence his cognomen.”—E., p. 105. Cf. the accounts of Romulus and Remus, of Moses, of Cyrus, etc.

l. 6. egsian is also used in an active sense (not in the Gloss.), = to terrify.

l. 15. S. suggests þā (which) for þæt, as object of drēogan; and for aldor-lēase, Gr. suggested aldor-ceare.—Beit. ix. 136.

S. translates: “For God had seen the dire need which the rulerless ones before endured.”

l. 18. “Beowulf (that is, Beaw of the Anglo-Saxon genealogists, not our Beowulf, who was a Geat, not a Dane), ‘the son of Scyld in Scedeland.’ This is our ancestral myth,—the story of the first culture-hero of the North; ‘the patriarch,’ as Rydberg calls him, ‘of the royal families of Sweden, Denmark, Angeln, Saxland, and England.’”—Br., p. 78. Cf. A.-S. Chron. an. 855.

H.-So. omits parenthetic marks, and reads (after S., Beit. ix. 135) eaferan; cf. Fata Apost.: lof wīde sprang þēodnes þegna.

“The name Bēowulf means literally ‘Bee-wolf,’ wolf or ravager of the bees, = bear. Cf. beorn, ‘hero,’ originally ‘bear,’ and bēohata, ‘warrior,’ in Cǣdmon, literally ‘bee-hater’ or ‘persecutor,’ and hence identical in meaning with bēowulf.”—Sw.

Cf.

“Arcite and Palamon,

That foughten breme, as it were bores two.”

—Chaucer, Knightes Tale, l. 841, ed. Morris.

Cf. M. Müller, Science of Lang., Sec. Series, pp. 217, 218; and Hunt’s Daniel, 104.

l. 19. Cf. l. 1866, where Scedenig is used, = Scania, in Sweden(?).

l. 21. wine is pl.; cf. its apposition wil-gesīðas below. H.-So. compares Héliand, 1017, for language almost identical with ll. 20, 21.

l. 22. on ylde: cf.

“In elde is bothe wisdom and usage.”

—Chaucer, Knightes Tale, l. 1590, ed. Morris.

l. 26. Reflexive objects often pleonastically accompany verbs of motion; cf. ll. 234, 301, 1964, etc.

l. 31. The object of āhte is probably geweald, to be supplied from wordum wēold of l. 30.—H.-So.

R., Kl., and B. all hold conflicting views of this passage: Beit. xii. 80, ix. 188; Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 382, etc. Kl. suggests lǣndagas for lange.

l. 32. “hringed-stefna is sometimes translated ‘with curved prow,’ but it means, I think, that in the prow were fastened rings through which the cables were passed that tied it to the shore.”—Br., p. 26. Cf. ll. 1132, 1898. Hring-horni was the mythic ship of the Edda. See Toller-Bosworth for three different views; and cf. wunden-stefna (l. 220), hring-naca (l. 1863).

ll. 34-52. Cf. the burial of Haki on a funeral-pyre ship, Inglinga Saga; the burial of Balder, Sinfiötli, Arthur, etc.

l. 35. “And this [their joy in the sea] is all the plainer from the number of names given to the ship-names which speak their pride and affection. It is the AEtheling’s vessel, the Floater, the Wave-swimmer, the Ring-sterned, the Keel, the Well-bound wood, the Sea-wood, the Sea-ganger, the Sea-broad ship, the Wide-bosomed, the Prow-curved, the Wood of the curved neck, the Foam-throated floater that flew like a bird.”—Br., p. 168.

l. 49. “We know from Scandinavian graves... that the illustrious dead were buried... in ships, with their bows to sea-ward; that they were however not sent to sea, but were either burnt in that position, or mounded over with earth.”—E. See Du Chaillu, The Viking Age, xix.

l. 51. (1) sele-rǣdende (K., S., C.); (2) sēle-rǣdenne (H.); (3) sele-rǣdende (H.-So.). Cf. l. 1347; and see Ha.

l. 51. E. compares with this canto Tennyson’s “Passing of Arthur” and the legendary burial-journey of St. James of Campostella, an. 800.

l. 53. The poem proper begins with this, “There was once upon a time,” the first 52 lines being a prelude. Eleven of the “fitts,” or cantos, begin with the monosyllable þā, four with the verb gewītan, nine with the formula Hrōðgār (Bēowulf, Unferð) maðelode, twenty-four with monosyllables in general (him, swā, sē, hwæt, þā, heht, wæs, mæg, cwōm, strǣt).

l. 58. gamel. “The... characteristics of the poetry are the use of archaic forms and words, such as mec for mé, the possessive sín, gamol, dógor, swát for eald, dǣg, blód, etc., after they had become obsolete in the prose language, and the use of special compounds and phrases, such as hildenǣdre (war-adder) for ‘arrow,’ gold-gifa (gold-giver) for ‘king,’... goldwine gumena (goldfriend of men, distributor of gold to men) for ‘king,’” etc.—Sw. Other poetic words are ides, ielde (men), etc.

l. 60. H.-So. reads rǣswa (referring to Heorogār alone), and places a point (with the Ms.) after Heorogār instead of after rǣswa. Cf. l. 469; see B., Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 193.

l. 62. Elan here (OHG. Elana, Ellena, Elena, Elina, Alyan) is thought by B. (Tidskr. viii. 43) to be a remnant of the masc. name Onela, and he reads: [On-]elan ewēn, Heaðoscilfingas(=es) healsgebedda.

l. 68. For hē, omitted here, cf. l. 300. Pronouns are occasionally thus omitted in subord. clauses.—Sw.

l. 70. þone, here = þonne, than, and micel = māre? The passage, by a slight change, might be made to read, medo-ærn micle mā gewyrcean,—þone = by much larger than,—in which þone (þonne) would come in naturally.

l. 73. folc-scare. Add folk-share to the meanings in the Gloss.; and cf. gūð-scearu.

l. 74. ic wide gefrægn: an epic formula very frequent in poetry, = men said. Cf. Judith, ll. 7, 246; Phoenix, l. 1; and the parallel (noun) formula, mīne gefrǣge, ll. 777, 838, 1956, etc.

ll. 78-83. “The hall was a rectangular, high-roofed, wooden building, its long sides facing north and south. The two gables, at either end, had stag-horns on their points, curving forwards, and these, as well as the ridge of the roof, were probably covered with shining metal, and glittered bravely in the sun.”—Br., p. 32.

l. 84. Son-in-law and father-in-law; B., a so-called dvanda compound. Cf. l. 1164, where a similar compound means uncle and nephew; and Wīdsīð’s suhtorfǣdran, used of the same persons.

l. 88. “The word drēam conveys the buzz and hum of social happiness, and more particularly the sound of music and singing.”—E. Cf. l. 3021; and Judith, l. 350; Wanderer, l. 79, etc.

ll. 90-99. There is a suspicious similarity between this passage and the lines attributed by Bede to Cǣdmon:

Nū wē sculan herian heofonrices Weard, etc.

—Sw., p. 47.

ll. 90-98 are probably the interpolation of a Christian scribe.

ll. 92-97. “The first of these Christian elements [in Bēowulf] is the sense of a fairer, softer world than that in which the Northern warriors lived.... Another Christian passage (ll. 107, 1262) derives all the demons, eotens, elves, and dreadful sea-beasts from the race of Cain. The folly of sacrificing to the heathen gods is spoken of (l. 175).... The other point is the belief in immortality (ll. 1202, 1761).”—Br. 71.

l. 100. Cf. l. 2211, where the third dragon of the poem is introduced in the same words. Beowulf is the forerunner of that other national dragon-slayer, St. George.

l. 100. onginnan in Bēowulf is treated like verbs of motion and modal auxiliaries, and takes the object inf. without tō; cf. ll. 872, 1606, 1984, 244. Cf. gan (= did) in Mid. Eng.: gan espye (Chaucer, Knightes Tale, l. 254, ed. Morris).

l. 101. B. and H.-So. read, fēond on healle; cf. l. 142.—Beit. xii.

ll. 101-151. “Grimm connects [Grendel] with the Anglo-Saxon grindel (a bolt or bar).... It carries with it the notion of the bolts and bars of hell, and hence a fiend.... Ettmüller was the first... to connect the name with grindan, to grind, to crush to pieces, to utterly destroy. Grendel is then the tearer, the destroyer.”—Br., p. 83.

l. 102. gæst = stranger (Ha.); cf. ll. 1139, 1442, 2313, etc.

l. 103. See Ha., p. 4.

l. 105 MS. and Ho. read won-sǣli.

l. 106. “The perfect and pluperfect are often expressed, as in Modern English, by hǣfð and hǣfde with the past participle.”—Sw. Cf. ll. 433, 408, 940, 205 (p. p. inflected in the last two cases), etc.

l. 106. S. destroys period here, reads in Caines, etc., and puts þone... drihten in parenthesis.

l. 108. þæs þe = because, especially after verbs of thanking (cf. ll. 228, 627, 1780, 2798); according as (l. 1351).

l. 108. The def. article is omitted with Drihten (Lord) and Deofol (devil; cf. l. 2089), as it is, generally, sparingly employed in poetry; cf. tō sǣ (l. 318), ofer sǣ (l. 2381), on lande (l. 2311), tō ræste (l. 1238), on wicge (l. 286), etc., etc.

l. 119. weras (S., H.-So.); wera (K., Th.).—Beit. ix. 137.

l. 120. unfǣlo = uncanny (R.).

l. 131. E. translates, majestic rage; adopting Gr.’s view that swyð is = Icel. sviði, a burn or burning. Cf. l. 737.

l. 142. B. supposes heal-þegnes to be corrupted from helþegnes; cf. l. 101.—Beit. xii. 80. See Gūðlāc, l. 1042.

l. 144. See Ha., p. 6, for S.’s rearrangement.

l. 146. S. destroys period after sēlest, puts wæs... micel in parenthesis, and inserts a colon after tīd.

l. 149. B. reads sārcwidum for syððan.

l. 154. B. takes sibbe for accus. obj. of wolde, and places a comma after Deniga.—Beit. xii. 82.

l. 159. R. suggests ac se for atol.

l. 168. H.-So. plausibly conjectures this parenthesis to be a late insertion, as, at ll. 180-181, the Danes also are said to be heathen. Another commentator considers the throne under a “spell of enchantment,” and therefore it could not be touched.

l. 169. nē... wisse: nor had he desire to do so (W.). See Ha., p. 7, for other suggestions.

l. 169. myne wisse occurs in Wanderer, l. 27.

l. 174. The gerundial inf. with tō expresses purpose, defines a noun or adjective, or, with the verb be, expresses duty or necessity passively; cf. ll. 257, 473, 1004, 1420, 1806, etc. Cf. tō + inf. at ll. 316, 2557.

ll. 175-188. E. regards this passage as dating the time and place of the poem relatively to the times of heathenism. Cf. the opening lines, In days of yore, etc., as if the story, even then, were very old.

l. 177. gāst-bona is regarded by Ettmüller and G. Stephens (Thunor, p. 54) as an epithet of Thor (= giant-killer), a kenning for Thunor or Thor, meaning both man and monster.—E.

l. 189. Cf. l. 1993, where similar language is used. H.-So. takes both mōd-ceare and mǣl-ceare as accus., others as instr.

ll. 190, 1994. sēað: for this use of sēoðan cf. Bede, Eccles. Hist., ed. Miller, p. 128, where p. p. soden is thus used.

l. 194. fram hām = in his home (S., H.-So.); but fram hām may be for fram him (from them, i.e. his people, or from Hrothgar’s). Cf. Ha., p. 8.

l. 197. Cf. ll. 791, 807, for this fixed phrase.

l. 200. See Andreas, Elene, and Juliana for swan-rād (= sea). “The swan is said to breed wild now no further away than the North of Sweden.” —E. Cf. ganotes bæð, l. 1862.

l. 203. Concessive clauses with þēah, þēah þe, þēah... eal, vary with subj. and ind., according as fact or contingency is dominant in the mind; cf. ll. 526, 1168, 2032, etc. (subj.), 1103, 1614 (ind.). Cf. gif, nefne.

l. 204. hǣl, an OE. word found in Wülker’s Glossaries in various forms, = augury, omen, divination, etc. Cf. hǣlsere, augur; hǣl, omen; hǣlsung, augurium, hǣlsian, etc. Cf. Tac., Germania, 10.

l. 207. C. adds “= impetrare” to the other meanings of findan given in the Gloss.

l. 217. Cf. l. 1910; and Andreas, l. 993.—E. E. compares Byron’s

“And fast and falcon-like the vessel flew,”

—Corsair, i. 17.

and Scott’s

“Merrily, merrily bounds the bark.”

—Lord of the Isles, iv. 7.

l. 218. Cf.

“The fomy stedes on the golden brydel

Gnawinge.”

—Chaucer, Knightes Tale, l. 1648, ed. Morris.

l 218. MS. and Ho. read fāmi-heals.

l. 219. Does ān-tīd mean hour (Th.), or corresponding hour = ānd-tīd (H.-So.), or in due time (E.), or after a time, when ōþres, etc., would be adv. gen.? See C., Beit. viii. 568.

l. 224. eoletes may = (1) voyage; (2) toil, labor; (3) hurried journey; but sea or fjord appears preferable.

ll. 229-257. “The scenery... is laid on the coast of the North Sea and the Kattegat, the first act of the poem among the Danes in Seeland, the second among the Geats in South Sweden.”—Br., p. 15.

l. 239. “A shoal of simple terms express in Bēowulf the earliest sea-thoughts of the English.... The simplest term is Sǣ.... To this they added Wǣter, Flod, Stream, Lagu, Mere, Holm, Grund, Heathu, Sund, Brim, Garsecg, Eagor, Geofon, Fifel, Hron-rad, Swan-rad, Segl-rad, Ganotes-bǣð.”—Br., p. 163-166.

l. 239. “The infinitive is often used in poetry after a verb of motion where we should use the present participle.”—Sw. Cf. ll. 711, 721, 1163 1803, 268, etc. Cf. German spazieren fahren reiten, etc., and similar constructions in French, etc.

l. 240, W. reads hringed-stefnan for helmas bǣron. B. inserts (?) after holmas and begins a new line at the middle of the verse. S. omits B.’s “on the wall.”

l. 245. Double and triple negatives strengthen each other and do not produce an affirmative in A.-S. or M. E. The neg. is often prefixed to several emphatic words in the sentence, and readily contracts with vowels, and h or w; cf. ll. 863, 182, 2125, 1509, 575, 583, 3016, etc.

l. 249. seld-guma = man-at-arms in another’s house (Wood); = low-ranking fellow (Ha.); stubenhocker, stay-at-home (Gr.), Scott’s “carpet knight,” Marmion, i. 5.

l. 250. næfne (nefne, nemne) usually takes the subj., = unless; cf. ll. 1057, 3055, 1553. For ind., = except, see l. 1354. Cf. būtan, gif, þēah.

l. 250. For a remarkable account of armor and weapons in Bēowulf, see S. A. Brooke, Hist. of Early Eng. Lit. For general “Old Teutonic Life in Bēowulf,” see J. A. Harrison, Overland Monthly.

l. 252. ǣr as a conj. generally has subj., as here; cf. ll. 264, 677, 2819, 732. For ind., cf. l. 2020.

l. 253. lēas = loose, roving. Ettmüller corrected to lēase.

l. 256. This proverb (ofest, etc.) occurs in Exod. (Hunt), l. 293.

l. 258. An “elder” may be a very young man; hence yldesta, = eminent, may be used of Beowulf. Cf. Laws of AElfred, C. 17: Nā þæt ǣlc eald sȳ, ac þæt hē eald sȳ on wīsdōme.

l. 273. Verbs of hearing and seeing are often followed by acc. with inf.; cf. ll. 229, 1024, 729, 1517, etc. Cf. German construction with sehen, horen, etc., French construction with voir, entendre, etc., and the classical constructions.

l. 275. dǣd-hata = instigator. Kl. reads dǣd-hwata.

l. 280. ed-wendan, n. (B.; cf. 1775), = edwenden, limited by bisigu. So ten Br. = Tidskr. viii. 291.

l. 287. “Each is denoted... also by the strengthened forms ǽghwæðer (ǽgðer), éghwæðer, etc. This prefixed ǽ, óe corresponds to the Goth, aiw, OHG. eo, io, and is umlauted from á, ó by the i of the gi which originally followed.”—Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 190.

l. 292. “All through the middle ages suits of armour are called ‘weeds.’”—E.

l. 299. MS. reads gōd-fremmendra. So H.-So.

l. 303. “An English warrior went into battle with a boar-crested helmet, and a round linden shield, with a byrnie of ringmail... with two javelins or a single ashen spear some eight or ten feet long, with a long two-edged sword naked or held in an ornamental scabbard.... In his belt was a short, heavy, one-edged sword, or rather a long knife, called the seax... used for close quarters.”—Br., p. 121.

l. 303. For other references to the boar-crest, cf. ll. 1112, 1287, 1454; Grimm, Myth. 195; Tacitus, Germania, 45. “It was the symbol of their [the Baltic AEstii’s] goddess, and they had great faith in it as a preservative from hard knocks.”—E. See the print in the illus. ed. of Green’s Short History, Harper & Bros.

l. 303. “See Kemble, Saxons in England, chapter on heathendom, and Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology, chapter on Freyr, for the connection these and other writers establish between the Boar-sign and the golden boar which Freyr rode, and his worship.”—Br., p. 128. Cf. Elene, l. 50.

l. 304. Gering proposes hlēor-bergan = cheek-protectors; cf. Beit. xii. 26. “A bronze disk found at Öland in Sweden represents two warriors in helmets with boars as their crests, and cheek-guards under; these are the hlēor-bergan.”—E. Cf. hauberk, with its diminutive habergeon, < A.-S. heals, neck + beorgan, to cover or protect; and harbor, < A.-S. here, army + beorgan, id.—Zachers Zeitschr. xii. 123. Cf. cinberge, Hunt’s Exod. l. 175.

l. 305. For ferh wearde and gūðmōde grummon, B. and ten Br. read ferh-wearde (l. 305) and gūðmōdgum men (l. 306), = the boar-images... guarded the lives of the warlike men.

l. 311. lēoma: cf. Chaucer, Nonne Preestes Tale, l. 110, ed. Morris:

“To dremen in here dremes

Of armes, and of fyr with rede lemes.”

l. 318. On the double gender of sǣ, cf. Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 147; and note the omitted article at ll. 2381, 318, 544, with the peculiar tmesis of between at ll. 859, 1298, 1686, 1957. So Cǣdmon, l. 163 (Thorpe), Exod. l. 562 (Hunt), etc.

l. 320. Cf. l. 924; and Andreas, l. 987, where almost the same words occur. “Here we have manifestly before our eye one of those ancient causeways, which are among the oldest visible institutions of civilization.” —E.

l. 322. S. inserts comma after scīr, and makes hring-īren (= ring-mail) parallel with gūð-byrne.

l. 325. Cf. l. 397. “The deposit of weapons outside before entering a house was the rule at all periods.... In provincial Swedish almost everywhere a church porch is called våkenhus,... i.e. weapon-house, because the worshippers deposited their arms there before they entered the house.”—E., after G. Stephens.

l. 333. Cf. Dryden’s “mingled metal damask’d o’er with gold.”—E.

l. 336. “ǣl-, el-, kindred with Goth. aljis, other, e.g. in ǣlþéodig, elþéodig, foreign.”—Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 47.

l. 336. Cf. l. 673 for the functions of an ombiht-þegn.

l. 338. Ho. marks wræc- and its group long.

l. 343. Cf. l. 1714 for the same bēod-genēatas,—“the predecessor title to that of the Knights of the Table Round.”—E. Cf. Andreas (K.), l. 2177.

l. 344. The future is sometimes expressed by willan + inf., generally with some idea of volition involved; cf. ll. 351, 427, etc. Cf. the use of willan as principal vb. (with omitted inf.) at ll. 318, 1372, 543, 1056; and sculan, ll. 1784, 2817.

l. 353. sīð here, and at l. 501, probably means arrival. E. translates the former by visit, the latter by adventure.

l. 357. unhār = hairless, bald (Gr., etc.).

l. 358. ēode is only one of four or five preterits of gān (gongan, gangan, gengan), viz. gēong (gīong: ll. 926, 2410, etc.), gang (l. 1296, etc.), gengde (ll. 1402, 1413). Sievers, p. 217, apparently remarks that ēode is “probably used only in prose.” (?!). Cf. geng, Gen. ll. 626, 834; Exod. (Hunt) l. 102.

l. 367. The MS. and H.-So. read with Gr. and B. glædman Hrōðgār, abandoning Thorkelin’s glædnian. There is a glass. hilaris glædman.—Beit. xii. 84; same as glæd.

l. 369. dugan is a “preterit-present” verb, with new wk. preterit, like sculan, durran, magan, etc. For various inflections, see ll. 573, 590, 1822, 526. Cf. do in “that will do”; doughty, etc.

l. 372. Cf. l. 535 for a similar use; and l. 1220. Bede, Eccles. Hist., ed. Miller, uses the same expression several times. “Here, and in all other places where cniht occurs in this poem, it seems to carry that technical sense which it bore in the military hierarchy [of a noble youth placed out and learning the elements of the art of war in the service of a qualified warrior, to whom he is, in a military sense, a servant], before it bloomed out in the full sense of knight.”—E.

l. 373. E. remarks of the hyphened eald-fæder, “hyphens are risky toys to play with in fixing texts of pre-hyphenial antiquity”; eald-fæder could only = grandfather. eald here can only mean honored, and the hyphen is unnecessary. Cf. “old fellow,” “my old man,” etc.; and Ger. alt-vater.

l. 378. Th. and B. propose Gēatum, as presents from the Danish to the Geatish king.—Beit. xii.

l. 380. hæbbe. The subj. is used in indirect narration and question, wish and command, purpose, result, and hypothetical comparison with swelce = as if.

ll. 386, 387. Ten Br. emends to read: “Hurry, bid the kinsman-throng go into the hall together.”

l. 387. sibbe-gedriht, for Beowulf’s friends, occurs also at l. 730. It is subject-acc. to sēon. Cf. ll. 347, 365, and Hunt’s Exod. l. 214.

l. 404. “Here, as in the later Icelandic halls, Beowulf saw Hrothgar enthroned on a high seat at the east end of the hall. The seat is sacred. It has a supernatural quality. Grendel, the fiend, cannot approach it.”—Br., p. 34. Cf. l. 168.

l. 405. “At Benty Grange, in Derbyshire, an Anglo-Saxon barrow, opened in 1848, contained a coat of mail. ‘The iron chain work consists of a large number of links of two kinds attached to each other by small rings half an inch in diameter; one kind flat and lozenge-shaped... the others all of one kind, but of different lengths.’”—Br., p. 126.

l. 407. Wes... hāl: this ancient Teutonic greeting afterwards grew into wassail. Cf. Skeat’s Luke, i. 28; Andreas (K.), 1827; Layamon, l. 14309, etc.

l. 414. “The distinction between wesan and weorðan [in passive relations] is not very clearly defined, but wesan appears to indicate a state, weorðan generally an action.”—Sw. Cf. Mod. German werden and sein in similar relations.

l. 414. Gr. translates hādor by receptaculum; cf. Gering, Zachers Zeitschr. xii. 124. Toller-Bosw. ignores Gr.’s suggestion.

ll. 420, 421. B. reads: þǣr ic (on) fīfelgeban (= ocean) ȳðde eotena cyn. Ten Br. reads: þǣr ic fīfelgeban ȳðde, eotena hām. Ha. suggests fīfelgeband = monster-band, without further changes.

l. 420. R. reads þǣra = of them, for þǣr.—Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 399; Beit. xii. 367.

l. 420. “niht has a gen., nihtes, used for the most part only adverbially, and almost certainly to be regarded as masculine.”—Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 158.

l. 425. Cf. also ll. 435, 635, 2345, for other examples of Beowulf’s determination to fight single-handed.

l. 441. þe hine = whom, as at l. 1292, etc. The indeclinable þe is often thus combined with personal pronouns, = relative, and is sometimes separated from them by a considerable interval.—Sw.

l. 443. The MS. has Geotena. B. and Fahlbeck, says H.-So., do not consider the Gēatas, but the Jutes, as the inhabitants of Swedish West-Gothland. Alfred translates Juti by Gēatas, but Jutland by Gotland. In the laws they are called Guti.—Beit. xii. 1, etc.

l. 444. B., Gr., and Ha. make unforhte an adv. = fearlessly, modifying etan. Kl. reads anforhte = timid.

l. 446. Cf. l. 2910. Th. translates: thou wilt not need my head to hide (i.e. bury). Simrock supposes a dead-watch or lyke-wake to be meant. Wood, thou wilt not have to bury so much as my head! H.-So. supposes hēafod-weard, a guard of honor, such as sovereigns or presumptive rulers had, to be meant by hafalan hȳdan; hence, you need not give me any guard, etc. Cf. Schmid, Gesetze der A., 370-372.

l. 447. S. places a colon after nimeð.

l. 451. H.-So., Ha., and B. (Beit. xii. 87) agree essentially in translating feorme, food. R. translates consumption of my corpse. Maintenance, support, seems preferable to either.

l. 452. Rönning (after Grimm) personifies Hild.—Beovulfs Kvadet, l. 59. Hildr is the name of one of the Scandinavian Walkyries, or battle-maidens, who transport the spirits of the slain to Walhalla. Cf. Kent’s Elene, l. 18, etc.

l. 455. “The war-smiths, especially as forgers of the sword, were garmented with legend, and made into divine personages. Of these Weland is the type, husband of a swan maiden, and afterwards almost a god.”— Br., p. 120. Cf. A. J. C. Hare’s account of “Wayland Smith’s sword with which Henry II. was knighted,” and which hung in Westminster Abbey to a late date.—Walks in London, ii. 228.

l. 455. This is the ǣlces mannes wyrd of Boethius (Sw., p. 44) and the wyrd bið swīðost of Gnomic Verses, 5. There are about a dozen references to it in Bēowulf.

l. 455. E. compares the fatalism of this concluding hemistich with the Christian tone of l. 685 seq.

ll. 457, 458. B. reads wǣre-ryhtum ( = from the obligations of clientage).

l. 480. Cf. l. 1231, where the same sense, “flown with wine,” occurs.

l. 488. “The duguð, the mature and ripe warriors, the aristocracy of the nation, are the support of the throne.”—E. The M. E. form of the word, douth, occurs often. Associated with geogoð, ll. 160 and 622.

l. 489. Kl. omits comma after meoto and reads (with B.) sige-hrēð-secgum, = disclose thy thought to the victor-heroes. Others, as Körner, convert meoto into an imperative and divide on sǣl = think upon happiness. But cf. onband beadu-rūne, l. 501. B. supposes onsǣl meoto =speak courteous words. Tidskr. viii. 292; Haupts Zeitschr. xi. 411; Eng. Stud. ii. 251.

l. 489. Cf. the invitation at l. 1783.

l. 494. Cf. Grimm’s Andreas, l. 1097, for deal, =proud, elated, exulting; Phoenix (Bright), l. 266.

l. 499. MS. has Hunferð, but the alliteration requires Unferð, as at ll. 499, 1166, 1489; and cf. ll. 1542, 2095, 2930. See List of Names.

l. 501. sīð = arrival (?); cf. l. 353.

l. 504. þon mā = the more (?), may be added to the references under þon.

l. 506. E. compares the taunt of Eliab to David, I Sam. xvii. 28.

l. 509. dol-gilp = idle boasting. The second definition in the Gloss. is wrong.

l. 513. “Eagor-stream might possibly be translated the stream of Eagor, the awful terror-striking stormy sea in which the terrible [Scandinavian] giant dwelt, and through which he acted.”—Br., p. 164. He remarks, “The English term eagre still survives in provincial dialect for the tide-wave or bore on rivers. Dryden uses it in his Threnod. Angust. ‘But like an eagre rode in triumph o’er the tide.’ Yet we must be cautious,” etc. Cf. Fox’s Boethius, ll. 20, 236; Thorpe’s Cǣdmon, 69, etc.

l. 524. Krüger and B. read Bānstānes.—Beit. ix. 573.

l. 525. R. reads wyrsan (= wyrses: cf. Mod. Gr. guten Muthes) geþinges; but H.-So. shows that the MS. wyrsan... þingea = wyrsena þinga, can stand; cf. gen. pl. banan, Christ, l. 66, etc.

l. 545 seq. “Five nights Beowulf and Breca kept together, not swimming, but sailing in open boats (to swim the seas is to sail the seas), then storm drove them asunder... Breca is afterwards chief of the Brondings, a tribe mentioned in Wīdsíth. The story seems legendary, not mythical.”—Br., pp. 60, 61.

ll. 574-578. B. suggests swā þǣr for hwæðere, = so there it befell me. But the word at l. 574 seems = however, and at l. 578 = yet; cf. l. 891; see S.; Beit. ix. 138; Tidskr. viii. 48; Zacher, iii. 387, etc.

l. 586. Gr. and Grundt. read fāgum sweordum (no ic þæs fela gylpe!), supplying fela and blending the broken half-lines into one. Ho. and Kl. supply geflites.

l. 599. E. translates nȳd-bāde by blackmail; adding “nēd bād, toll; nēd bādere, tolltaker.”—Land Charters, Gloss, v.

l. 601. MS. has ond = and in three places only (601, 1149, 2041); elsewhere it uses the symbol 7 = and.

l. 612. seq. Cf. the drinking ceremony at l. 1025. “The royal lady offers the cup to Beowulf, not in his turn where he sate among the rest, but after it has gone the round; her approach to Beowulf is an act apart.”—E.

l. 620. “The [loving] cup which went the round of the company and was tasted by all,” like the Oriel and other college anniversary cups.—E.

l. 622. Cf. ll. 160, 1191, for the respective places of young and old.

l. 623. Cf. the circlet of gold worn by Wealhþēow at l. 1164.

l. 631. gyddode. Cf. Chaucer, Prol. l. 237 (ed. Morris):

“Of yeddynges he bar utterly the prys.”

Cf. giddy.

l. 648. Kl. suggests a period after geþinged, especially as B. (Tidskr. viii. 57) has shown that oþþe is sometimes = ond. Th. supplies ne.

l. 650. oþþe here and at ll. 2476, 3007, probably = and.

l. 651. Cf. 704, where sceadu-genga (the night-ganger of Leechdoms, ii. 344) is applied to the demon.—E.

l. 659. Cf. l. 2431 for same formula, “to have and to hold” of the Marriage Service.—E.

l. 681. B. considers þēah... eal a precursor of Mod. Eng. although.

l. 682. gōdra = advantages in battle (Gr.), battle-skill (Ha.), skill in war (H.-So.). Might not nāt be changed to nah = ne + āh (cf. l. 2253), thus justifying the translation ability (?) —he has not the ability to, etc.

l. 695. Kl. reads hiera.—Beit. ix. 189. B. omits hīe as occurring in the previous hemistich.—Beit. xii. 89.

l. 698. “Here Destiny is a web of cloth.”—E., who compares the Greek Clotho, “spinster of fate.” Women are also called “weavers of peace,” as l. 1943. Cf. Kent’s Elene, l. 88; Wīdsīð, l. 6, etc.

l. 711. B. translates þā by when and connects with the preceding sentences, thus rejecting the ordinary canto-division at l. 711. He objects to the use of cōm as principal vb. at ll. 703, 711, and 721. (Beit, xii.)

l. 711. “Perhaps the Gnomic verse which tells of Thyrs, the giant, is written with Grendel in the writer’s mind,—þyrs sceal on fenne gewunian āna inuan lande, the giant shall dwell in the fen, alone in the land (Sweet’s Read., p. 187).”—Br. p. 36.

l. 717. Dietrich, in Haupt. xi. 419, quotes from AElfric, Hom. ii. 498: hē beworhte þā bigelsas mid gyldenum lǣfrum, he covered the arches with gold-leaf,—a Roman custom derived from Carthage. Cf. Mod. Eng. oriel = aureolum, a gilded room.—E. (quoting Skeat). Cf. ll. 2257, 1097, 2247, 2103, 2702, 2283, 333, 1751, for various uses of gold-sheets.

l. 720. B. and ten Br. suggest hell-thane (Grendel) for heal-þegnas, and make hæle refer to Beowulf. Cf. l. 142.

l. 723. Z. reads [ge]hrān.

l. 727. For this use of standan, cf. ll. 2314, 2770; and Vergil, Ecl. ii. 26:

“Cum placidum ventis staret mare.”

l. 757. gedræg. Tumult is one of the meanings of this word. Here, appar. = occupation, lair.

l. 759. R. reads mōdega for gōda, “because the attribute cannot be separated from the word modified unless the two alliterate.”

l. 762. Cf. Andreas, l. 1537, for a similar use of ūt = off.—E.

l. 769. The foreign words in Bēowulf (as ceaster-here) are not numerous; others are (aside from proper names like Cain, Abel, etc.) dēofol (diabolus), candel (l. 1573), ancor (l. 303), scrīfan (forge-), segn (l. 47), gīgant (l. 113), mīl- (l. 1363), strǣt (l. 320), ombeht (l. 287), gim (l. 2073), etc.

l. 770. MS. reads cerwen, a word conceived by B. and others to be part of a fem. compd.: -scerwen like -wenden in ed-wenden, -rǣden, etc. (cf. meodu-scerpen in Andreas, l. 1528); emended to -scerwen, a great scare under the figure of a mishap at a drinking-bout; one might compare bescerwan, to deprive, from bescyrian (Grein, i. 93), hence ealu-scerwen would = a sudden taking away, deprivation, of the beer.—H.-So., p. 93. See B., Tidskr. viii. 292.

l. 771. Ten Br. reads rēðe, rēnhearde, = raging, exceeding bold.

l. 792. Instrumental adverbial phrases like ǣnige þinga, nǣnige þinga (not at all), hūru þinga (especially) are not infrequent. See Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 178; March, A.-S. Gram., p. 182.

l. 811. myrðe. E. translates in wanton mood. Toller-Bosw. does not recognize sorrow as one of the meanings of this word.

ll. 850, 851. S. reads dēop for dēog and erases semicolon after wēol, = the death-stained deep welled with sword-gore; cf. l. 1424. B. reads dēað-fǣges dēop, etc., = the deep welled with the doomed one’s gore.—Beit. xii. 89.

l. 857. The meaning of blaneum is partly explained by fealwe mēaras below, l. 866. Cf. Layamon’s “and leop on his blancke” = steed, l. 23900; Kent’s Elene, l. 1185.

l. 859. Körner, Eng. Stud. i. 482, regards the oft-recurring be sǣm twēonum as a mere formula = on earth; cf. ll. 1298, 1686. twēone is part of the separable prep. between; see be-. Cf. Baskerville’s Andreas, l. 558.

l. 865. Cf. Voyage of Ōhthere and Wulfstān for an account of funeral horse-racing, Sweet’s Read., p. 22.

l. 868. See Ha., p. 31, for a variant translation.

l. 871 seq. R. considers this a technical description of improvised alliterative verse, suggested by and wrought out on the spur of the moment.

l. 872. R. and B. propose secg[an], = rehearse, for secg, which suits the verbs in the next two lines.

ll. 878-98. “It pleases me to think that it is in English literature we possess the first sketch of that mighty saga [the Volsunga Saga = Wælsinges gewin] which has for so many centuries engaged all the arts, and at last in the hands of Wagner the art of music.”—Br., p. 63. Cf. Nibelung. Lied, l. 739.

l. 894. Intransitive verbs, as gān, weorðan, sometimes take habban, “to indicate independent action.”—Sw. Cf. hafað... geworden, l. 2027.

l. 895. “brūcan (enjoy) always has the genitive.”—Sw.; cf. l. 895; acc., gen., instr., dat., according to March, A.-S. Gram., p. 151.

l. 898. Scherer proposes hāte, = from heat, instr. of hāt, heat; cf. l. 2606.

l. 901. hē þæs āron þāh = he throve in honor (B.). Ten Br. inserts comma after þāh, making siððan introduce a depend. clause.—Beit. viii. 568. Cf. weorð-myndum þāh, l. 8; ll. 1155, 1243.—H.-So.

l. 902. Heremōdes is considered by Heinzel to be a mere epithet = the valiant; which would refer the whole passage to Sigmund (Sigfrid), the eotenas, l. 903, being the Nibelungen. This, says H.-So., gets rid of the contradiction between the good “Heremōd” here and the bad one, l. 1710 seq.—B. however holds fast to Heremōd.—Beit. xii. 41. on fēonda geweald, l. 904,—into the hands of devils, says B.; cf. ll. 809, 1721, 2267; Christ, l. 1416; Andreas, l. 1621; for hine fyren onwōd, cf. Gen. l. 2579; Hunt’s Dan. 17: hīe wlenco anwōd.

l. 902 seq. “Heremōd’s shame is contrasted with the glory of Sigemund, and with the prudence, patience, generosity, and gentleness of Beowulf as a chieftain.”—Br., p. 66.

l. 906. MS. has lemede. Toller-Bosw. corrects to lemedon.

l. 917. Cf. Hunt’s Exod., l. 170, for similar language.

l. 925. hōs, G. hansa, company, “the word from which the mercantile association of the ‘Hanseatic’ towns took their designation.”—E.

l. 927. on staþole = on the floor (B., Rask, ten Br.).—Beit. xii. 90.

l. 927. May not stēapne here = bright, from its being immediately followed by golde fāhne? Cf. Chaucer’s “his eyen stepe,” Prol. l. 201 (ed. Morris); Cockayne’s Ste. Marherete, pp. 9, 108; St. Kath., l. 1647.

l. 931. grynna may be for gyrnna (= sorrows), gen. plu. of gyrn, as suggested by one commentator.

l. 937. B. (Beit. xii. 90) makes gehwylcne object of wīd-scofen (hæfde). Gr. makes wēa nom. absolute.

l. 940. scuccum: cf. G. scheuche, scheusal; Prov. Eng. old-shock; perhaps the pop. interjection O shucks! (!)

l. 959. H. explains wē as a “plur. of majesty,” which Bēowulf throws off at l. 964.

l. 963. fēond þone frætgan (B. Beit. xii. 90).

l. 976. synnum. “Most abstract words in the poetry have a very wide range of meanings, diverging widely from the prose usage, synn, for instance, means simply injury, mischief, hatred, and the prose meaning sin is only a secondary one; hata in poetry is not only hater, but persecutor, enemy, just as nīð is both hatred and violence, strength; heard is sharp as well as hard.”—Sw.

l. 986. S. places wæs at end of l. 985 and reads stīðra nægla, omitting gehwylc and the commas after that and after scēawedon. Beit. ix. 138; stēdra (H.-So.); hand-sporu (H.-So.) at l. 987.

l. 986. Miller (Anglia, xii. 3) corrects to ǣghwylene, in apposition to fingras.

l. 987. hand-sporu. See Anglia, vii. 176, for a discussion of the intrusion of u into the nom. of n-stems.

l. 988. Cf. ll. 2121, 2414, for similar use of unhēoru = ungeheuer.

l. 992. B. suggests hēatimbred for hāten, and gefrætwon for -od; Kl., hroden (Beit. ix. 189).

l. 995, 996. Gold-embroidered tapestries seem to be meant by web = aurifrisium.

l. 997. After þāra þe = of those that, the depend, vb. often takes sg. for pl.; cf. ll. 844, 1462, 2384, 2736.—Sw.; Dietrich.

l. 998. “Metathesis of l takes place in seld for setl, bold for botl,” etc.—Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 96. Cf. Eng. proper names, Bootle, Battlefield, etc.—Skeat, Principles, i. 250.

l. 1000. heorras: cf. Chaucer, Prol. (ed. Morris) l. 550:

“Ther was no dore that he nolde heve of harre.”

ll. 1005-1007. See Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 391, and Beit. xii. 368, for R.’s and B.’s views of this difficult passage.

l. 1009. Cf. l. 1612 for sǣl and mǣl, surviving still in E. Anglia in “mind your seals and meals,” = times and occasions, i.e. have your wits about you.—E.

ll. 1012, 1013. Cf. ll. 753, 754 for two similar comparatives used in conjunction.

l. 1014. Cf. l. 327 for similar language.

ll. 1015, 1016. H.-So. puts these two lines in parentheses (fylle... þāra). Cf. B., Beit. xii. 91.

l. 1024. One of the many famous swords spoken of in the poem. See Hrunting, ll. 1458, 1660; Hūnlāfing, l. 1144, etc. Cf. Excalibur, Roland’s sword, the Nibelung Balmung, etc.

l. 1034. scūr-heard. For an ingenious explanation of this disputed word see Professor Pearce’s article in Mod. Lang. Notes, Nov. 1, 1892, and ensuing discussion.

l. 1039. eoderas is of doubtful meaning. H. and Toller-Bosw. regard the word here = enclosure, palings of the court. Cf. Cǣdmon, ll. 2439, 2481. The passage throws interesting light on horses and their trappings l. 1043. Grundt. emends wīg to wicg, = charger; and E. quotes Tacitus, Germania, 7.

l. 1044. “Power over each and both”; cf. “all and some,” “one and all.”

For Ingwin, see List of Names.

l. 1065. Gr. contends that fore here = de, concerning, about (Ebert’s Jahrb., 1862, p. 269).

l. 1069. H.-So. supplies fram after eaferum, to govern it, = concerning (?). Cf. Fight at Finnsburg, Appendix.

l. 1070. For the numerous names of the Danes, “bright-” “spear-” “east-” “west-” “ring-” Danes, see these words.

l. 1073. Eotenas = Finn’s people, the Frisians; cf. ll. 1089, 1142, 1146, etc., and Beit. xii. 37. Why they are so called is not known.

l. 1084. R. proposes wiht Hengeste wið gefeohtan (Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 394). Kl., wið H. wiht gefeohtan.

ll. 1085 and 1099. wēa-lāf occurs in Wulfstan, Hom. 133, ed. Napier.—E. Cf. daroða lāf, Brunanb., l. 54; ādes lāfe, Phoenix, 272 (Bright), etc.

l. 1098. elne unflitme = so dass der eid (der inhalt des eides) nicht streitig war.—B., Beit. iii. 30. But cf. 1130, where Hengist and Finn are again brought into juxtaposition and the expression ealles (?) unhlitme occurs.

l. 1106. The pres. part. + be, as myndgiend wǣre here, is comparatively rare in original A.-S. literature, but occurs abundantly in translations from the Latin. The periphrasis is generally meaningless. Cf. l. 3029.

l. 1108. Körner suggests ecge, = sword, in reference to a supposed old German custom of placing ornaments, etc., on the point of a sword or spear (Eng. Stud. i. 495). Singer, ince-gold = bright gold; B., andīege = Goth, andaugjo, evidently. Cf. incge lāfe, l. 2578. Possibly: and inge (= young men) gold āhōfon of horde. For inge, cf. Hunt’s Exod. l. 190.

ll. 1115-1120. R. proposes (hēt þā...) bānfatu bærnan ond on bǣl dōn, earme on eaxe = to place the arms in the ashes, reading gūðrēc = battle-reek, for -rinc (Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 395). B., Sarrazin (Beit. xi. 530), Lichtenfeld (Haupts Zeitschr. xvi. 330), C., etc., propose various emendations. See H.-So., p. 97, and Beit. viii. 568. For gùðrinc āstāh, cf. Old Norse, stiga á bál, “ascend the bale-fire.”

l. 1116. sweoloðe. “On Dartmoor the burning of the furze up the hillsides to let new grass grow, is called zwayling.”—E. Cf. sultry, G. schwül, etc.

l. 1119. Cf. wudu-rēc āstāh, l. 3145; and Exod. (Hunt), l. 450: wǣlmist āstāh.

l. 1122. ætspranc = burst forth, arose (omitted from the Gloss.), < æt + springan.

l. 1130. R. and Gr. read elne unflitme, = loyally and without contest, as at l. 1098. Cf. Ha., p. 39; H.-So., p. 97.

l. 1137. scacen = gone; cf. ll. 1125, 2307, 2728.

l. 1142. “The sons of the Eotenas” (B., Beit. xii. 31, who conjectures a gap after 1142).

l. 1144. B. separates thus: Hūn Lāfing, = Hūn placed the sword Lāfing, etc.—Beit. xii. 32; cf. R., Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 396. Heinzel and Homburg make other conjectures (Herrig’s Archiv, 72, 374, etc.).

l. 1143. B., H.-So., and Möller read: worod rǣdenne, þonne him Hūn Lāfing, = military brotherhood, when Hūn laid upon his breast (the sword) Lāfing. There is a sword Laufi, Lövi in the Norse sagas; but swords, armor, etc., are often called the leaving (lāf) of files, hammers, etc., especially a precious heirloom; cf. ll. 454, 1033, 2830, 2037, 2629, 796, etc., etc.

l. 1152. roden = reddened (B., Tidskr. viii. 295).

l. 1160. For ll. 1069-1160, containing the Finn episode, cf. Möller, Alteng. Volksepos, 69, 86, 94; Heinzel, Anz. f. dtsch. Altert., 10, 226; B., Beit. xii. 29-37. Cf. Wīdsīð, l. 33, etc.

ll. 1160, 1161. lēoð (lied = song, lay) and gyd here appear synonyms.

ll. 1162-1165. “Behind the wars and tribal wanderings, behind the contentions of the great, we watch in this poem the steady, continuous life of home, the passions and thoughts of men, the way they talked and moved and sang and drank and lived and loved among one another and for one another.”—Br., p. 18.

l. 1163. Cf. wonderwork. So wonder-death, wonder-bidding, wonder-treasure, -smith, -sight, etc. at ll. 1748, 3038, 2174, 1682, 996, etc. Cf. the German use of the same intensive, = wondrous, in wunder-schön, etc.

l. 1165. þā gȳt points to some future event when “each” was not “true to other,” undeveloped in this poem, suhtor-gefæderan = Hrōðgār and Hrōðulf, l. 1018. Cf. āðum-swerian, l. 84.

l. 1167 almost repeats l. 500, æt fōtum, etc., where Unferð is first introduced.

l. 1191. E. sees in this passage separate seats for youth and middle-aged men, as in English college halls, chapels, convocations, and churches still.

l. 1192. ymbutan, round about, is sometimes thus separated: ymb hīe ūtan; cf. Voyage of Ōhthere, etc. (Sw.), p. 18, l. 34, etc.; Bēowulf, ll. 859, 1686, etc.

l. 1194. bewægned, a ἃπαξ λεγόμενον, tr. offered by Th. Probably a p. p. wægen, made into a vb. by -ian, like own, drown, etc. Cf. hafenian ( < hafen, < hebban), etc.

l. 1196. E. takes the expression to mean “mantle and its rings or broaches.” “Rail” long survived in Mid. Eng. (Piers Plow., etc.).

l. 1196. This necklace was afterwards given by Beowulf to Hygd, ll. 2173, 2174.

ll. 1199-1215. From the obscure hints in the passage, a part of the poem may be approximately dated,—if Hygelāc is the Chochi-laicus of Gregory of Tours, Hist. Francorum, iii. 3,—about A.D. 512-20.

l. 1200. The Breosinga men (Icel. Brisinga men) is the necklace of the goddess Freya; cf. Elder Edda, Hamarshemt. Hāma stole the necklace from the Gothic King Eormenrīc; cf. Traveller’s Song, ll. 8, 18, 88, 111. The comparison of the two necklaces leads the poet to anticipate Hygelāc’s history,—a suggestion of the poem’s mosaic construction.

l. 1200. For Brōsinga mene, cf. B., Beit. xii. 72. C. suggests flēah, = fled, for fealh, placing semicolon after byrig, and making hē subject of flēah and gecēas.

l. 1202. B. conjectures gecēas ēcne rǣd to mean he became a pious man and at death went to heaven. Heime (Hāma) in the Thidrekssaga goes into a cloister = to choose the better part (?). Cf. H.-So., p. 98. But cf. Hrōðgār’s language to Beowulf, ll. 1760, 1761.

l. 1211. S. proposes feoh, = property, for feorh, which would be a parallel for brēost-gewǣdu... bēah below.

l. 1213. E. remarks that in the Laws of Cnut, i. 26, the devil is called se wōdfreca werewulf, the ravening werwolf.

l. 1215. C. proposes heals-bēge onfēng. Beit. viii. 570. For hreā- Kl. suggests hrǣ-.

l. 1227. The son referred to is, according to Ettmüller, the one that reigns after Hrōðgār.

l. 1229. Kl. suggests sī, = be, for is.

l. 1232. S. gives wine-elated as the meaning of druncne.—Beit. ix. 139; Kl. ibid. 189, 194. But cf. Judith, ll. 67, 107.

l. 1235. Cf. l. 119 for similarity of language.

l. 1235. Kl. proposes gea-sceaft; but cf. l. 1267.

l. 1246. Ring armor was common in the Middle Ages. E. points out the numerous forms of byrne in cognate languages,—Gothic, Icelandic, OHG., Slavonic, O. Irish, Romance, etc. Du Chaillu, The Viking Age, i. 126. Cf. Murray’s Dict. s. v.

l. 1248. ānwīg-gearwe = ready for single combat (C.); but cf. Ha. p. 43; Beit. ix. 210, 282.

l. 1252. Some consider this fitt the beginning of Part (or Lay) II. of the original epic, if not a separate work in itself.

l. 1254. K., W., and Ho. read farode = wasted; Kolbing reads furode; but cf. wēsten warode, l. 1266. MS. has warode.

ll. 1255-1258. This passage is a good illustration of the constant parallelism of word and phrase characteristic of A.-S. poetry, and is quoted by Sw. The changes are rung on ende and swylt, on gesȳne and wīdcūð, etc.

l. 1259. “That this story of Grendel’s mother was originally a separate lay from the first seems to be suggested by the fact that the monsters are described over again, and many new details added, such as would be inserted by a new singer who wished to enhance and adorn the original tale.”—Br., p. 41.

l. 1259. Cf. l. 107, which also points to the ancestry of murderers and monsters and their descent from “Cain.”

l. 1261. The MS. has sē þe, m.; changed by some to seo þe. At ll. 1393, 1395, 1498, Grendel’s mother is referred to as m.; at ll. 1293, 1505, 1541-1546, etc., as f., the uncertain pronoun designating a creature female in certain aspects, but masculine in demonic strength and savageness.—H.-So.; Sw. p. 202. Cf. the masc. epithets at ll. 1380, 2137, etc.

l. 1270. āglǣca = Grendel, though possibly referring to Beowulf, as at l. 1513.—Sw.

l. 1273. “It is not certain whether anwalda stands for onwealda, or whether it should be read ānwealda, = only ruler.—Sw.

l. 1279. The MS. has sunu þeod wrecan, which R. changes to sunu þēod-wrecan, þēod- = monstrous; but why not regard þēod as opposition to sunu, = her son, the prince? See Sweet’s Reader, and Körner’s discussion, Eng. Stud. i. 500.

l. 1281. Ten Br. suggests (for sōna) sāra = return of sorrows.

l. 1286. “geþuren (twice so written in MSS.) stands for geþrúen, forged, and is an isolated p. p.”—Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., 209. But see Toller-Bosw. for examples; Sw., Gloss.; March, p. 100, etc.

ll. 1292. þe hine = whom; cf. ll. 441, 1437, 1292; Hēliand, l. 1308.

l. 1298. be sǣm tweonum; cf. l. 1192; Hunt’s Exod. l. 442; and Mod. Eng. “to us-ward, etc.—Earle’s Philol., p. 449. Cf. note, l. 1192.

l. 1301. C. proposes ōðer him ærn = another apartment was assigned him.

l. 1303. B. conjectures under hrōf genam; but Ha., p. 45, shows this to be unnecessary, under also meaning in, as in (or under) these circumstances.

l. 1319. E. and Sw. suggest nǣgde or nēgde, accosted, nēgan = Mid. Ger. nēhwian, pr. p. nēhwiandans, approach. For hnǣgan, press down, vanquish, see ll. 1275, 1440, etc.

l. 1321. C. suggests nēad-lāðum for nēod-laðu, after crushing hostility; but cf. frēond-laðu, l. 1193.

l. 1334. K. and ten Br. conjecture gefægnod = rejoicing in her fill, a parallel to ǣse wlanc, l. 1333.

l. 1340. B. translates: “and she has executed a deed of blood-vengeance of far-reaching consequence.”—Beit. xii. 93.

l. 1345. B. reads gēo for ēow (Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 205).

ll. 1346-1377. “This is a fine piece of folk-lore in the oldest extant form.... The authorities for the story are the rustics (ll. 1346, 1356).” —E.

l. 1347. Cf. sele-rǣdende at l. 51.

l. 1351. “The ge [of gewitan] may be merely a scribal error,—a repetition (dittography) of the preceding ge of gewislīcost.”—Sw.

l. 1352. ides, like fīras, men, etc., is a poetic word supposed by Grimm to have been applied, like Gr. νύμφη, to superhuman or semi-divine women.

ll. 1360-1495 seq. E. compares this Dantesque tarn and scenery with the poetical accounts of AEneid, vii. 563; Lucretius, vi. 739, etc.

l. 1360. firgenstrēam occurs also in the Phoenix (Bright, p. 168) l. 100; Andreas, ll. 779, 3144 (K.); Gnomic Verses, l. 47, etc.

l. 1363. The genitive is often thus used to denote measure = by or in miles; cf. l. 3043; and contrast with partitive gen. at l. 207.

l. 1364. The MS. reads hrinde = hrīnende (?), which Gr. adopts; K. and Th. read hrinde-bearwas; hringde, encircling (Sarrazin, Beit. xi. 163); hrīmge = frosty (Sw.); with frost-whiting covered (Ha.). See Morris, Blickling Hom., Preface, vi., vii.

l. 1364. Cf. Ruin, hrīmige edoras behrofene, rimy, roofless halls.

l. 1366. nīðwundor may = nið- (as in nið-sele, q. v.) wundor, wonder of the deep.

l. 1368. The personal pronoun is sometimes omitted in subordinate and even independent clauses; cf. wite here; and Hunt’s Exod., l. 319.

l. 1370. hornum. Such “datives of manner or respect” are not infrequent with adj.

l. 1371. “seleð is not dependent on ǣr, for in that case it would be in the subjunctive, but ǣr is simply an adverb, correlative with the conjunction ǣr in the next line: ‘he will (sooner) give up his life, before he will,’ etc.”—Sw.

l. 1372. Cf. ll. 318 and 543 for willan with similar omitted inf.

l. 1373. heafola is found only in poetry.—Sw. It occurs thirteen or fourteen times in this poem. Cf. the poetic gamol, swāt (l. 2694), etc., for eald, blōd.

l. 1391. uton: hortatory subj. of wītan, go, = let us go; cf. French allons, Lat. eamus, Ital. andiamo, etc. + inf. Cf. ll. 2649, 3102.

l. 1400. H. is dat. of person indirectly affected, = advantage.

l. 1402. geatolīc probably = in his equipments, as B. suggests (Beit. xii. 83), comparing searolīc.

ll. 1402, 1413 reproduce the wk. form of the pret. of gān (Goth, gaggida). Cf. Andreas, l. 1096, etc.

l. 1405. S. (Beit. ix. 140) supplies [þǣr hēo] gegnum fōr; B. (ibid. xii. 14) suggests hwǣr hēo.

l. 1411. B., Gr., and E. take ān-paðas = paths wide enough for only one, like Norwegian einstig; cf. stīge nearwe, just above. Trail is the meaning. Cf. enge ānpaðas, uncūð gelād, Exod. (Hunt), l. 58.

l. 1421. Cf. oncȳð, l. 831. The whole passage (ll. 1411-1442) is replete with suggestions of walrus-hunting, seal-fishing, harpooning of sea-animals (l. 1438), etc.

l. 1425. E. quotes from the 8th cent. Corpus Gloss., “Falanx foeða.”

l. 1428. For other mention of nicors, cf. ll. 422, 575, 846. E. remarks, “it survives in the phrase ‘Old Nick’... a word of high authority... Icel. nykr, water-goblin, Dan. nök, nisse, Swed. näcken, G. nix, nixe, etc.” See Skeat, Nick.

l. 1440. Sw. reads gehnǣged, prostrated, and regards nīða as gen. pl. “used instrumentally,” = by force.

l. 1441. -bora = bearer, stirrer; occurs in other compds., as mund-, rǣd-, wǣg-bora.

l. 1447. him = for him, a remoter dative of reference.—Sw.

l. 1455. Gr. reads brondne, = flaming.

l. 1457. lēon is the inf. of lāh; cf. onlāh (< onlēon) at l. 1468. līhan was formerly given as the inf.; cf. lǣne = lǣhne.

l. 1458. Cf. the similar dat. of possession as used in Latin.

l. 1458. H.-So. compares the Icelandic saga account of Grettir’s battle with the giant in the cave. hæft-mēce may be = Icel. heptisax (Anglia, iii. 83), “hip-knife.”

l. 1459. “The sense seems to be ‘pre-eminent among the old treasures.’... But possibly foran is here a prep. with the gen.: ‘one before the old treasures.’”.—Sw. For other examples of foran, cf. ll. 985, 2365.

l. 1460. āter-tēarum = poison-drops (C., Beit. viii. 571; S., ibid. xi. 359).

l. 1467. þæt, comp. relative, = that which; “we testify that we do know.”

l. 1480. forð-gewitenum is in appos. to me, = mihi defuncto.—M. Callaway, Am. Journ. of Philol., October, 1889.

l. 1482. nime. Conditional clauses of doubt or future contingency take gif or būton with subj.; cf. ll. 452, 594; of fact or certainty, the ind.; cf. ll. 442, 447, 527, 662, etc. For būton, cf. ll. 967, 1561.

l. 1487. “findan sometimes has a preterit funde in W. S. after the manner of the weak preterits.”—Cook’s Sievers’ Cram., p, 210.

l. 1490. Kl. reads wæl-sweord, = battle-sword.

l. 1507. “This cave under the sea seems to be another of those natural phenomena of which the writer had personal knowledge (ll. 2135, 2277), and which was introduced by him into the mythical tale to give it a local color. There are many places of this kind. Their entrance is under the lowest level of the tide.”—Br., p. 45.

l. 1514. B. (Beit. xii. 362) explains niðsele, hrōfsele as roof-covered hall in the deep; cf. Grettir Saga (Anglia, iii. 83).

l. 1538. Sw., R., and ten Br. suggest feaxe for eaxle, = seized by the hair.

l. 1543. and-lēan (R.); cf. l. 2095. The MS. has hand-lēan.

l. 1546. Sw. and S. read seax.—Beit. ix. 140.

l. 1557. H.-So. omits comma and places semicolon after ȳðelīce; Sw. and S. place comma after gescēd.

l. 1584. ōðer swylc = another fifteen (Sw.); = fully as many (Ha.).

ll. 1592-1613 seq. Cf. Anglia, iii; 84 (Grettir Saga).

l. 1595. blondenfeax = grizzly-haired (Bright, Reader, p. 258); cf. Brunanb., l. 45 (Bright).

l. 1599. gewearð, impers. vb., = agree, decide = many agreed upon this, that, etc. (Ha., p. 55; cf. ll. 2025-2027, 1997; B., Beit. xii. 97).

l. 1605. C. supposes wiston = wīscton = wished.—Beit. viii. 571.

l. 1607. brōden mǣl is now regarded as a comp. noun, = inlaid or damascened sword.—W., Ho.

l. 1611. wæl-rāpas = water-ropes = bands of frost (l. 1610) (?). Possibly the Prov. Eng. weele, whirlpool. Cf. wǣl, gurges, Wright, Voc., Gnom. Verses, l. 39.—E.

l. 1611. wǣgrāpas (Sw.) = wave-bands (Ha.).

l. 1622. B. suggests eatna = eotena, eardas, haunts of the giants (Northumbr. ea for eo).

l. 1635. cyning-holde (B., Beit. xii. 369); cf. l. 290.

l. 1650. H., Gr., and Ettmüller understand idese to refer to the queen.

l. 1651. Cf. Anglia, iii. 74, Beit. xi. 167, for coincidences with the Grettir Saga (13th cent.).

l. 1664. B. proposes eotenise... èste for ēacen... oftost, omitting brackets (Zackers Zeitschr. iv. 206). G. translates mighty... often.

l. 1675. ondrǣdan. “In late texts the final n of the preposition on is frequently lost when it occurs in a compound word or stereotyped phrase, and the prefix then appears as a: abútan, amang, aweg, aright, adr’ǣdan.”—Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 98.

ll. 1680-1682. Giants and their work are also referred to at ll. 113, 455, 1563, 1691, etc.

l. 1680. Cf. ceastra... orðanc enta geweorc, Gnomic Verses, l. 2; Sweet’s Reader, p. 186.

ll. 1687-1697. “In this description of the writing on the sword, we see the process of transition from heathen magic to the notions of Christian times.... The history of the flood and of the giants... were substitutes for names of heathen gods, and magic spells for victory.”—E. Cf. Mohammedan usage.

ll. 1703, 1704. þæt þē eorl nǣre geboren betera (B., Tidskr. 8, 52).

l. 1715. āna hwearf = he died solitary and alone (B., Beit. xii. 38); = lonely (Ha.); = alone (G.).

l. 1723. lēod-bealo longsum = eternal hell-torment (B., Beit. xii. 38, who compares Ps. Cott. 57, līf longsum).

l. 1729. E. translates on lufan, towards possession; Ha., to possessions.

l. 1730. mōdgeþonc, like lig, sǣ, segn, niht, etc., is of double gender (m., n. in the case of mōdgeþ.).

l. 1741. The doctrine of nemesis following close on ὓβρις, or overweening pride, is here very clearly enunciated. The only protector against the things that “assault and hurt” the soul is the “Bishop and Shepherd of our souls” (l. 1743).

l. 1745 appears dimly to fore-shadow the office of the evil archer Loki, who in the Scandinavian mythology shoots Balder with a mistletoe twig. The language closely resembles that of Psalm 64.

l. 1748. Kl. regards wom = wō(u)m; cf. wōh-bogen, l. 2828. See Gloss., p. 295, under wam. Contrast the construction of bebeorgan a few lines below (l. 1759), where the dat. and acc. are associated.

l. 1748. See Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 167, for declension of wōh, wrong = gen. wōs or wōges, dat. wō(u)m, etc.; pl. gen. wōra, dat. wō(u)m, etc.; and cf. declension of hēah, hrēoh, rūh, etc.

l. 1748. wergan gāstes; cf. Blickl. Hom. vii.; Andreas, l. 1171. “Auld Wearie is used in Scotland, or was used a few years ago,... to mean the devil.”—E. Bede’s Eccles. Hist. contains (naturally) many examples of the expression = devil.

l. 1750. on gyld = in reward (B. Beit. xii. 95); Ha. translates boastfully; G., for boasting; Gr., to incite to boastfulness. Cf. Christ, l. 818.

l. 1767. E. thinks this an allusion to the widespread superstition of the evil eye (mal occhio, mauvais ǣil). Cf. Vergil, Ecl. iii. 103. He remarks that Pius IX., Gambetta, and President Carnot were charged by their enemies with possessing this weapon.

l. 1784. wigge geweorðad (MS. wigge weorðad) is C.’s conjecture; cf. Elene, l. 150. So G., honored in war.

l. 1785. The future generally implied in the present of bēon is plainly seen in this line; cf. ll. 1826, 661, 1830, 1763, etc.

l. 1794. Some impers. vbs. take acc. (as here, Geat) of the person affected; others (as þyncan) take the dat. of the person, as at ll. 688, 1749, etc. Cf. verbs of dreaming, being ashamed, desiring, etc.—March, A.-S. Gram., p. 145.

l. 1802. E. remarks that the blaca hrefn here is a bird of good omen, as opposed to se wonna hrefn of l. 3025. The raven, wolf, and eagle are the regular epic accompaniments of battle and carnage. Cf. ll. 3025-3028; Maldon, 106; Judith, 205-210, etc.

l. 1803. S. emends to read: “then came the light, going bright after darkness: the warriors,” etc. Cf. Ho., p. 41, l. 23. G. puts period before “the warriors.” For ōnettan, cf. Sw.’s Gloss, and Bright’s Read., Gloss.

ll. 1808-1810. Müllenh. and Grundt. refer se hearda to Beowulf, correct sunu (MS.) to suna Ecglāfes (i.e. Unferth); [he] (Beo.) thanked him (Un.) for the loan. Cf. ll. 344, 581, 1915.

ll. 1823-1840. “Beowulf departing pledges his services to Hroðgar, to be what afterwards in the mature language of chivalry was called his ‘true knight’”—E.

l. 1832. Kl. corrects to dryhtne, in appos. with Higelāce.

l. 1835 gār-holt more properly means spear-shaft; cf. æsc-holt.

l. 1855. sēl = better (Grundt.; B., Beit. xii. 96), instead of MS. wēl.

ll. 1855-1866. “An ideal picture of international amity according to the experience and doctrine of the eighth century.”—E.

l. 1858. S. and Kl. correct to gemǣne, agreeing with sib.—Beit. ix. 140, 190.

l. 1862. “The gannet is a great diver, plunging down into the sea from a considerable height, such as forty feet.”—E.

l. 1863. Kl. suggests heafu, = seas.

l. 1865. B. proposes geþōhte, = with firm thought, for geworhte; cf. l. 611.

l. 1876. gesēon = see again (Kl., Beit. ix. 190). S. and B. insert nā to modify gesēon and explain Hrōðgār’s tears. Ha. and G. follow Heyne’s text. Cf. l. 567.

l. 1881. Is beorn here = bearn (be-arn?) of l. 67? or more likely = born, barn, = burned?—S., Th.

l. 1887. orleahtre is a ἃπαξ λεγόμενον. E. compares Tennyson’s “blameless” king. Cf. also ll. 2015, 2145; and the gōd cyning of l. 11.

l. 1896. scaðan = warriors (cf. l. 1804) has been proposed by C.; but cf. l. 253.

l. 1897. The boat had been left, at ll. 294-302, in the keeping of Hrōðgār’s men; at l. 1901 the bāt-weard is specially honored by Beowulf with a sword and becomes a “sworded squire.”—E. This circumstance appears to weld the poem together. Cf. also the speed of the journey home with ymb ān-tīd ōþres dōgores of l. 219, and the similarity of language in both passages (fāmig-heals, clifu, næssas, sǣlde, brim, etc.).—The nautical terms in Beowulf would form an interesting study.

l. 1904. R. proposes, gewāt him on naca, = the vessel set out, on alliterating as at l. 2524 (Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 402). B. reads on nacan, but inserts irrelevant matter (Beit. xii. 97).

l. 1913. Cf. the same use of cēol, = ship, in the A.-S. Chron., ed. Earle-Plummer; Gnomic Verses, etc.

l. 1914. S. inserts þæt hē before on lande.

l. 1916. B. makes lēofra manna depend on wlātode, = looked for the dear men ready at the coast (Beit. xii. 97).

l. 1924. Gr., W., and Ho. propose wunade, = remained; but cf. l. 1929. S. conceives ll. 1924, 1925 as “direct speech” (Beit. ix. 141).

l. 1927 seq. “The women of Beowulf are of the fine northern type; trusted and loved by their husbands and by the nobles and people; generous, gentle, and holding their place with dignity.”—Br., p. 67. Thrytho is the exception, l. 1932 seq.

l. 1933. C. suggests frēcnu, = dangerous, bold, for Thrytho could not be called “excellent.” G. writes “Modthrytho” as her name. The womanly Hygd seems purposely here contrasted with the terrible Thrytho, just as, at l. 902 seq., Sigemund and Heremōd are contrasted. For Thrytho, etc., cf. Gr., Jahrb. für rom. u. eng. Lit. iv. 279; Müllenhoff, Haupts Zeitschr. xiv. 216; Matthew Paris; Suchier, Beit. iv. 500-521; R. Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 402; B., ibid. iv. 206; Körner, Eng. Stud. i. 489-492; H.-So., p. 106.

l. 1932-1963. K. first pointed out the connection between the historical Offa, King of Mercia, and his wife Cwendrida, and the Offa and Þrȳðo (Gr.’s Drida of the Vita Offǣ Secundi) of the present passage. The tale is told of her, not of Hygd.

l. 1936. Suchier proposes andǣges, = eye to eye; Leo proposes āndǣges, = the whole day; G., by day. No change is necessary if an be taken to govqern hire, = on her, and dæges be explained (like nihtes, etc.) as a genitive of time, = by day.

l. 1943. R. and Suchier propose onsēce, = seek, require; but cf. 2955.

l. 1966. Cf. the heofoncandel of Exod. l. 115 (Hunt). Shak.’s ‘night’s candles.’

l. 1969. Cf. l. 2487 seq. for the actual slayer of Ongenþēow, i.e. Eofor, to whom Hygelāc gave his only daughter as a reward, l. 2998.

l. 1981. meodu-scencum = with mead-pourers or mead-cups (G., Ha.); draught or cup of mead (Toller-Bosw.).

l. 1982. K., Th., W., H. supply [heal-]reced; Holler [hēa-].

l. 1984. B. defends the MS., reading hǣ nū (for hǣðnū), which he regards as = Heinir, the inhabitants of the Jutish “heaths” (hǣð). Cf. H.-So., p. 107; Beit. xii. 9.

l. 1985. sīnne. “In poetry there is a reflexive possessive of the third person, sīn (declined like mīn). It is used not only as a true reflexive, but also as a non-reflexive (= Lat. ejus)”—Sw.; Cook’s Sievers’ Gram., p. 185. Cf. ll. 1508, 1961, 2284, 2790.

l. 1994. Cf. l. 190 for a similar use of sēað; cf. to “glow” with emotion, “boil” with indignation, “burn” with anger, etc. weallan is often so used; cf. ll. 2332, 2066, etc.

l. 2010. B. proposes fācne, = in treachery, for fenne. Cf. Juliana, l. 350; Beit. xii. 97.

l. 2022. Food of specific sorts is rarely, if at all, mentioned in the poem. Drink, on the other hand, occurs in its primitive varieties,—ale (as here: ealu-wǣg), mead, beer, wine, līð (cider? Goth. leiþus, Prov. Ger. leit- in leit-haus, ale-house), etc.

l. 2025. Kl. proposes is for wæs.

l. 2027. Cf. l. 1599 for a similar use of weorðan, = agree, be pleased with (Ha.); appear (Sw., Reader, 6th ed.).

ll. 2030, 2031. Ten Br. proposes: oft seldan ( = gave) wǣre æfter lēod-hryre: lȳtle hwīle bongār būgeð, þēah sēo brȳd duge = oft has a treaty been given after the fall of a prince: but little while the murder-spear resteth, however excellent the bride be. Cf. Kl., Beit. ix. 190; B., Beit. xii. 369; R., Zachers Zeitschr. in. 404; Ha., p. 69; G., p. 62.

l. 2036. Cf. Kl, Beit. ix. 191; R., Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 404.

l. 2042. For bēah B. reads bā, = both, i.e. Freaware and the Dane.

l. 2063. Thorkelin and Conybeare propose wīgende, = fighting, for lifigende.

l. 2068. W.’s edition begins section xxx. (not marked in the MS.) with this line. Section xxxix. (xxxviii. in copies A and B, xxxix. in Thorkelin) is not so designated in the MS., though þā (at l. 2822) is written with capitals and xl. begins at l. 2893.

l. 2095. Cf. l. 1542, and note.

l. 2115 seq. B. restores thus:

Þǣr on innan gīong niðða nāthwylc, nēode tō gefēng hǣðnum horde; hond ætgenam seleful since fāh; nē hē þæt syððan āgeaf,

þēah þe hē slǣpende 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 fǣrunga, = suddenly, for Gr.’s reading in the text.—Beit. xii. 98.

l. 2132. MS. has þine life, which Leo translates by thy leave (= ON. leyfi); B., by thy life.—Beit. xii. 369.

l. 2150. B. renders gēn, etc., by “now I serve thee alone again as my gracious king” (Beit. xii. 99).

l. 2151. The forms hafu [hafo], hafast, hafað, are poetic archaisms.—Sw.

l. 2153. Kl. proposes ealdor, = prince, for eafor. W. proposes the compd. eafor-hēafodsegn, = helm; cf. l. 1245.

l. 2157. The wk. form of the adj. is frequent in the vocative, especially when postponed: “Beowulf lēofa,” l. 1759. So, often, in poetry in nom.: wudu selesta, etc.

l. 2158. ǣrest is possibly the verbal subs. from ārīsan, to arise, = arising, origin. R. suggested ǣrist, arising, origin. Cf. Bede, Eccles. Hist., ed. Miller, where the word is spelt as above, but = (as usual) resurrection. See Sweet, Reader, p. 211; E.-Plummer’s Chronicle, p. 302, etc. The MS. has est. See Ha., p. 73; S., Beit. x. 222; and cf. l. 2166.

l. 2188. Gr., W., H. supply [wēn]don, = weened, instead of Th.’s [oft sæg]don.

l. 2188. The “slack” Beowulf, like the sluggish Brutus, ultimately reveals his true character, and is presented with a historic sword of honor. It is “laid on his breast” (l. 2195) as Hun laid Lāfing on Hengest’s breast, l. 1145.

l. 2188. “The boy was at first slothful, and the Geats thought him an unwarlike prince, and long despised him. Then, like many a lazy third son in the folk tales, a change came, he suddenly showed wonderful daring and was passionate for adventure.”—Br., p. 22.

l. 2196. “Seven of thousands, manor and lordship” (Ha.). Kl., Beit. ix. 191, thinks with Ettm. that þūsendo means a hide of land (see Schmid, Ges. der Angl, 610), Bede’s familia = 1/2 sq. meter; seofan being used (like hund, l. 2995) only for the alliteration.

l. 2196. “A vast Honour of 7000 hides, a mansion, and a judgment-seat” [throne].—E.

l. 2210. MS. has the more correct wintra.

l. 2211. Cf. similar language about the dragon at l. 100. Beowulf’s “jubilee” is fitly solemnized by his third and last dragon-fight.

l. 2213. B. proposes sē þe on hearge hǣðen hord beweotode; cf. Ha., p. 75.

l. 2215. “The dragon lies round the treasures in a cave, as Fafnir, like a Python, lay coiled over his hoard. So constant was this habit among the dragons that gold is called Worms’ bed, Fafnir’s couch, Worms’ bed-fire. Even in India, the cobras... are guardians of treasure.”—Br., p. 50.

l. 2216. nēode. E. translates deftly; Ha., with ardor. H.-So. reads nēode, = with desire, greedily, instr. of nēod.

l. 2223. E. begins his “Part Third” at this point as he begins “Part Second” at l. 1252, each dragon-fight forming part of a trilogy.

ll. 2224, 2225. B. proposes: nealles mid gewealdum wyrmes weard gæst sylfes willum.—Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 211; Beit. xii. 100.

l. 2225. For þēow read þegn.—K. and Z.

l. 2227. For ofer-þearfe read ǣrnes þearfa.—Z.

ll. 2229-2231. B. proposes:

secg synbysig sōna onwlātode,

þēah þām gyste gryrebrōga stōd, hwæðre earmsceapen innganges þearfa

fēasceapen, þā hyne se fǣr begeat.

—Beit. xii. 101. Cf. Ha., p. 69.

l. 2232. W. suggests seah or seīr for geseah, and Gr. suggests searolīc.

l. 2233. Z. surmises eorð-hūse (for -scræfe).

l. 2241. B. proposes lǣn-gestrēona, = transitory, etc.; Th., R. propose leng (= longer) gestrēona; S. accepts the text but translates “the long accumulating treasure.”

l. 2246. B. proposed (1) hard-fyndne, = hard to find; (2) hord-wynne dǣl,—a deal of treasure-joy (cf. l. 2271).—Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 211; Beit. xii. 102.

l. 2247. fecword = banning words (?) MS. has fec.

l. 2254. Others read feor-[mie], = furbish, for fetige: I own not one who may, etc.

l. 2261. The Danes themselves were sometimes called the “Ring-Danes,” = clad in ringed (or a ring of) armor, or possessing rings. Cf. ll. 116, 1280.

l. 2263. Koeppel suggests nis for næs.

The editors are much indebted to E. Koeppel (in Eng. Stud. xiii. 3) for numerous corrections in text and glossary.

l. 2264. Note the early reference to hawking. Minstrelsy (hearpan wyn), saga-telling, racing, swimming, harpooning of sea-animals, feasting, and the bestowal of jewels, swords, and rings, are the other amusements most frequent in Bēowulf.

l. 2264. Cf. Maldon, ll. 8, 9, for a reference to hawking.

l. 2276. Z. suggests swȳðe ondrǣdað; Ho. puts gesēcean for Gr.’s gewunian.

l. 2277. Z. and K. read: hord on hrūsan. “Three hundred winters,” at l. 2279, is probably conventional for “a long time,” like hund missēra, l. 1499; hund þūsenda, l. 2995; þrītig (of Beowulf’s strength), l. 379; þrītig (of the men slain by Grendel), l. 123; seofan þūsendo, l. 2196, etc.

l. 2285. B. objects to hord as repeated in ll. 2284, 2285; but cf. Ha., p. 77. C. prefers sum to hord. onboren = inminutus; cf. B., Beit. xii. 102.

l. 2285. onberan is found also at line 991, = carry off, with on- = E. un—(un-bind, -loose, -tie, etc.), G. ent-. The negro still pronounces on-do, etc.

l. 2299. Cf. H.-So., p. 112, for a defense of the text as it stands. B. proposes “nor was there any man in that desert who rejoiced in conflict,” etc. So ten Br.

l. 2326. B. and ten Br,. propose hām, = home, for him.—Beit. xii. 103.

l. 2335. E. translates ēalond utan by the sea-board front, the water-washed land on the (its) outside. See B., Beit. xii. 1, 5.

l. 2346. Cf. l. 425, where Beowulf resolves to fight the dragon single-handed. E. compares Guy of Warwick, ll. 49, 376.

l. 2355. Ten Br. proposes laðan cynne as apposition to mǣgum.

l. 2360. Cf. Beowulf’s other swimming-feat with Breca, ll. 506 seq.

l. 2362. Gr. inserts āna, = lone-going, before xxx.: approved by B.; and Krüger, Beit. ix. 575. Cf. l. 379.

l. 2362. “Beowulf has the strength of thirty men in the original tale. Here, then, the new inventor makes him carry off thirty coats of mail.”—Br., p. 48.

l. 2364. Hetware = Chattuarii, a nation allied against Hygelāc in his Frisian expedition; cf. ll. 1208 seq., 2917, etc.

l. 2368. B. proposes quiet sea as trans, of sioleða bigong, and compares Goth. anasilan, to be still; Swed. dial, sil, still water between waterfalls.—Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 214.

l. 2380. hyne—Heardrēd; so him, l. 2358.

l. 2384. E. calls attention to Swīo-rīce as identical with the modern Sverige = Sweden; cf. l. 2496.

l. 2386. Gr. reads on feorme, = at the banquet; cf. Möller, Alteng. Volksepos, 111, who reads (f)or feorme. The MS. has or.

l. 2391. Cf. l. 11.

l. 2394. B., Gr., and Mūllenh. understand ll. 2393-2397 to mean that Ēadgils, Ōhthere’s son, driven from Sweden, returns later, supported by Beowulf, takes the life of his uncle Onela, and probably becomes himself O.’s successor and king of Sweden. For another view see H.-So., p. 115. MS. has freond (l. 2394), which Leo, etc., change to fēond. G. translates friend.—Beit. xii. 13; Anzeiger f. d. Altert. iii. 177.

l. 2395. Ēadgils is Ōhthere’s son; cf. l. 2381; Onela is Ōhthere’s brother; cf. ll. 2933, 2617.

l. 2402. “Twelfsome”; cf. “fifteensome” at l. 207, etc. As Bēowulf is essentially the Epic of Philanthropy, of the true love of man, as distinguished from the ordinary love-epic, the number twelve in this passage may be reminiscent of another Friend of Man and another Twelve. In each case all but one desert the hero.

l. 2437. R. proposes stȳred, = ordered, decreed, for strēd.—Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 409.

l. 2439. B. corrects to frēo-wine = noble friend, asking, “How can Herebeald be called Hæðcyn’s frēa-wine [MS.], lord?”

l. 2442. feohlēas gefeoht, “a homicide which cannot be atoned for by money—in this case an unintentional fratricide.”—Sw.

l. 2445. See Ha., pp. 82, 83, for a discussion of ll. 2445-2463. Cf. G., p. 75.

l. 2447. MS. reads wrece, justified by B. (Tidskr. viii. 56). W. conceives wrece as optative or hortative, and places a colon before þonne.

l. 2449. For helpan read helpe.—K., Th., S. (Zeitschr. f. D. Phil. xxi. 3, 357).

ll. 2454-2455. (1) Müllenh. (Haupts Zeitschr. xiv. 232) proposes:

þonne se ān hafað

þurh dǣda nȳd dēaðes gefandod.

(2) B. proposes:

þurh dǣda nīð dēaðes gefondad.

—Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 215.

l. 2458. Cf. scēotend, pl., ll. 704, 1155, like rīdend. Cf. Judith, l. 305, etc.

l. 2474. Th. considers the “wide water” here as the Mälar lake, the boundary between Swedes and Goths.

l. 2477. On oþþe = and, cf. B., Tidskr. viii. 57. See Ha., p. 83.

l. 2489. B. proposes hrēa-blāc for Gr.’s heoro-.—Tikskr. viii. 297.

l. 2494. S. suggests ēðel-wynne.

l. 2502. E. translates for dugeðum, of my prowess; so Ettmüller.

ll. 2520-2522. Gr. and S. translate, “if I knew how else I might combat the monster’s boastfulness.”—Ha., p. 85.

l. 2524. and-hāttres is H.’s invention. Gr. reads oreðes and attres, blast and venom. Cf. oruð, l. 2558, and l. 2840 (where attor- also occurs).

l. 2526. E. quotes flēon fōtes trym from Maldon, l. 247.

l. 2546. Gr., H.-So., and Ho. read standan stān-bogan (for stōd on stān-bogan) depending on geseah.

l. 2550. Grundt. and B. propose dēor, brave one, i.e. Beowulf, for dēop.

L. 2565. MS. has ungleaw (K., Th.), unglaw (Grundt.). B. proposes unslāw, = sharp.—Beit. xii. 104. So H.-So., Ha., p. 86.

ll. 2570, 2571. (1) May not gescīfe (MS. to gscipe) = German schief, “crooked,” “bent,” “aslant,” and hence be a parallel to gebogen, bent, coiled? cf. l. 2568, þā se wyrm gebēah snūde tōsomne, and l. 2828. Coiled serpents spring more powerfully for the coiling. (2) Or perhaps destroy comma after tō and read gescæpe, = his fate; cf. l. 26: him þā Scyld gewāt tō gescæp-hwīle. G. appar. adopts this reading, p. 78.

l. 2589. grund-wong = the field, not the earth (so B.); H.-So., cave, as at l. 2771. So Ha., p. 87.

l. 2595. S. proposes colon after stefne.—Beit. ix. 141.

l. 2604. Müllenh. explains lēod Scylfinga in Anzeiger f. d. Altert. iii. 176-178.

l. 2607. āre = possessions, holding (Kl., Beit. ix. 192; Ha., p. 88).

l. 2609. folcrihta. Add “folk-right” to the meanings in the Gloss.; and cf. ēðel-, land-riht, word-riht.

l. 2614. H.-So. reads with Gr. wrǣccan winelēasum Wēohstān bana, = whom, a friendless exile, W. had slain.

ll. 2635-61. E. quotes Tacitus, Germania, xiv.: “turpe comitatui virtutem principis non adaequare.” Beowulf had been deserted by his comitatus.

l. 2643. B. proposes ūser.—Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 216.

l. 2649. wutun; l. 3102, uton = pres. subj. pl. 1st person of wītan, to go, used like Mod. Eng. let us + inf., Lat. eamus, Ital. andiamo, Fr. allons; M. E. (Layamon) uten. Cf. Psa. ii. 3, etc. March, A.-S. Gram., pp. 104, 196.

l. 2650. B. suggests hāt for hyt,.—Beit. xii. 105.

l. 2656. fāne = fāh-ne; cf. fāra = fāh-ra, l. 578; so hēanne (MS.) = hēah-ne, etc., l. 984. See Cook’s Sievers’ Gram.

ll. 2660, 2661. Why not read beadu-scrūd, as at l. 453, = battle-shirt? B. and R. suppose two half-verses omitted between byrdu-scrūd and bām gemǣne. B. reads bȳwdu, = handsome, etc. Gr. suggests unc nū, = to us two now, for ūrum; and K. and Grundt. read bēon gemǣne for bām, etc. This makes sense. Cf. Ha., p. 89.

l. 2666. Cf. the dat. absolute without preposition.

l. 2681. Nægling; cf. Hrunting, Lāfing, and other famous wundor-smiða geweorc of the poem.

l. 2687. B. changes þonne into þone (rel. pro.) = which.—Beit. xii. 105.

l. 2688. B. supports the MS. reading, wundum.

l. 2688. Cf. l. 2278 for similar language.

l. 2698. B. (Beit. xii. 105) renders: “he did not heed the head of the dragon (which Beowulf with his sword had struck without effect), but he struck the dragon somewhat further down.” Cf. Saxo, vi. p. 272.

l. 2698. Cf. the language used at ll. 446 and 1373, where hafelan also occurs; and hȳdan.

l. 2700. hwēne; cf. Lowl. Sc. wheen, a number; Chaucer’s woon, number.

l. 2702. S. proposes þā (for þæt) þæt fȳr, etc., = when the fire began, etc.

l. 2704. “The (hup)-seax has often been found in Saxon graves on the hip of the skeleton.”—E.

l. 2707. Kl. proposes: feorh ealne wræc, = drove out all the life; cf. Gen. l. 1385.—Beit. ix. 192. S. suggests gefylde,—he felled the foe, etc.—Ibid. Parentheses seem unnecessary.

l. 2727. dæg-hwīl = time allotted, lifetime.

l. 2745, 2745. Ho. removes geong from the beginning of l. 2745 and places it at the end of l. 2744.

l. 2750. R. proposes sigle searogimmas, as at l. 1158.

l. 2767. (1) B. proposes doubtfully oferhīgean or oferhīgan, = Goth, ufarhauhjan, p. p. ufarhauhids (Gr. τυφωθείς) = exceed in value.—Tidskr. viii. 60. (2) Kl. proposes oferhȳdian, = to make arrogant, infatuate; cf. oferhȳd.—Beit. ix. 192.

l. 2770. gelocen leoðocræftum = (1) spell-bound (Th., Arnold, E.); (2) wrought with hand-craft (G.); (3) meshed, linked together (H., Ho.); cf. Elene, ll. 1251, 522.

l. 2778. B. considers bill... ealdhlāfordes as Beowulf’s short sword, with which he killed the dragon, l. 2704 (Tidskr. viii. 299). R. proposes ealdhlāforde. Müllenh. understands ealdhlāford to mean the former possessor of the hoard. W. agrees to this, but conceives ǣrgescōd as a compd. = ǣre calceatus, sheathed in brass. Ha. translates ǣrgescōd as vb. and adv.

l. 2791. Cf. l. 224, eoletes æt ende; landes æt ende, Exod. (Hunt).

l. 2792. MS. reads wæteres weorpan, which R. would change to wætere sweorfan.

l. 2806. “Men saw from its height the whales tumbling in the waves, and called it Whale’s Ness (Hrones-nǣs).”—Br. p. 28. Cf. l. 3137.

l. 2815. Wīglāf was the next of kin, the last of the race, and hence the recipient of Beowulf’s kingly insignia. There is a possible play on the word lāf (Wīg-lāf, ende-lāf).

l. 2818. gingeste word; cf. novissima verba, and Ger. jüngst, lately.

l. 2837. E. translates on lande, in the world, comparing on līfe, on worulde.

l. 2840. gerǣsde = pret. of gerǣsan (omitted from the Gloss.), same as rǣsan; cf. l. 2691.

l. 2859. B. proposes dēað ārǣdan, = determine death.—Beit. xii. 106.

l. 2861. Change geongum to geongan as a scribal error (?), but cf. Lichtenheld, Haupts Zeitschr. xvi. 353-355.

l. 2871. S. and W. propose ōwēr.—Beit. ix. 142.

l. 2873. S. punctuates: wrāðe forwurpe, þā, etc.

l. 2874. H.-So. begins a new sentence with nealles, ending the preceding one with beget.

l. 2879. ætgifan = to render, to afford; omitted in Gloss.

ll. 2885-2892. “This passage... equals the passage in Tacitus which describes the tie of chief to companion and companion to chief among the Germans, and which recounts the shame that fell on those who survived their lord.”—Br., p. 56.

l. 2886. cyn thus has the meaning of gens or clan, just as in many Oriental towns all are of one blood. E. compares Tacitus, Germania, 7; and cf. “kith and kin.”

l. 2892. Death is preferable to dishonor. Cf. Kemble, Saxons, i. 235.

l. 2901. The ἄγγελος begins his ἀγγελία here.

l. 2910. S. proposes higemēðe, sad of soul; cf. ll. 2853 and 2864 (Beit. ix. 142). B. considers higemēðum a dat. or instr. pl. of an abstract in -u (Beit. xii. 106). H. makes it a dat. pl. = for the dead. For heafod-wearde, etc., cf. note on l. 446.

l. 2920-2921. B. explains “he could not this time, as usual, give jewels to his followers.”—Beit. xii. 106.

l. 2922. The Merovingian or Frankish race.

l. 2940 seq. B. conjectures:

cwæð hīe on mergenne mēces ecgum gētan wolde, sumon galgtreowu

āhēawan on holte ond hīe āhōan on þā fuglum tō gamene.

—Beit. xii. 107, 372.

Cf. S., Beit. ix. 143. gētan = cause blood to be shed.

l. 2950. B. proposes gomela for gōda; “a surprising epithet for a Geat to apply to the ‘terrible’ Ongentheow.”—Ha. p. 99. But “good” does not necessarily mean “morally excellent,” as a “good” hater, a “good” fighter.

l. 2959. See H.-So. for an explanatory quotation from Paulus Diaconus, etc. B., K., and Th. read segn Higelāces, = H.’s banner uplifted began to pursue the Swede-men.—Beit. xii. 108. S. suggests sǣce, = pursuit.

l. 2977. gewyrpton: this vb. is also used reflexively in Exod. (Hunt), l. 130: wyrpton hīe wērige.

l. 2989. bær is Grundt.’s reading, after the MS. “The surviving victor is the heir of the slaughtered foe.”—H.-So. Cf. Hildebrands Lied, ll. 61, 62.

l. 2995. “A hundred of thousands in land and rings” (Ha., p. 100). Cf. ll. 2196, 3051. Cf. B., Beit. xii. 20, who quotes Saxo’s bis senas gentes and remarks: “Hrolf Kraki, who rewards his follower, for the slaying of the foreign king, with jewels, rich lands, and his only daughter’s hand, answers to the Jutish king Hygelāc, who rewards his liegeman, for the slaying of Ongenthēow, with jewels, enormous estates, and his only daughter’s hand.”

l. 3006. H.-So. suggests Scilfingas for Scyldingas, because, at l. 2397, Beowulf kills the Scylfing Ēadgils and probably acquires his lands. Thus ll. 3002, 3005, 3006, would indicate that, after Beowulf’s death, the Swedes desired to shake off his hated yoke. Müllenh., however, regards l. 3006 as a thoughtless repetition of l. 2053.—Haupts Zeitschr. xiv. 239.

l. 3008. Cf. the same proverb at l. 256; and Exod. (Hunt.) l. 293.

l. 3022. E. quotes:

“Thai token an harp gle and game

And maked a lai and yaf it name.”

—Weber, l. 358.

and from Percy, “The word glee, which peculiarly denoted their art (the minstrels’), continues still in our own language... it is to this day used in a musical sense, and applied to a peculiar piece of composition.”

l. 3025. “This is a finer use than usual of the common poetic attendants of a battle, the wolf, the eagle, and the raven. The three are here like three Valkyrie, talking of all that they have done.”—Br., p. 57.

l. 3033. Cf. Hunt’s Dan. l. 731, for similar language.

l. 3039. B. supplies a supposed gap here:

[banan ēac fundon bennum sēocne

(nē) ǣr hī þǣm gesēgan syllīcran wiht]

wyrm on wonge...

—Beit. xii. 372.

Cf. Ha., p. 102. W. and Ho. insert [þǣr] before gesēgan.

l. 3042. Cf. l. 2561, where gryre-giest occurs as an epithet of the dragon. B. proposes gry[re-fāh].

l. 3044. lyft-wynne, in the pride of the air, E.; to rejoice in the air, Ha.

l. 3057. (1) He (God) is men’s hope; (2) he is the heroes’ hope; (3) gehyld = the secret place of enchanters; cf. hēlsmanna gehyld, Gr.’s reading, after A.-S. hǣlsere, haruspex, augur.

l. 3060. B. suggests gehȳðde, = plundered (i.e. by the thief), for gehȳdde.

ll. 3063-3066. (1) B. suggests wundur [dēaðe] hwār þonne eorl ellenrof ende gefēre = let a brave man then somewhere meet his end by wondrous venture, etc.—Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 241; cf. l. 3038. (2) S. supposes an indirect question introduced by hwār and dependent upon wundur, = a mystery is it when it happens that the hero is to die, if he is no longer to linger among his people.—Beit. ix. 143. (3) Müllenh. suggests: is it to be wondered at that a man should die when he can no longer live?—Zachers Zeitschr. xiv. 241. (4) Possibly thus:

Wundrað hwæt þonne, eorl ellen-rōf, ende gefēre līf-gesceafta, þonne leng ne mæg (etc.), in which hwæt would = þurh hwæt at l. 3069, and eorl would be subject of the conjectural vb. wundrað: “the valiant earl wondereth then through what he shall attain his life’s end, when he no longer may live.... So Bēowulf knew not (wondered how) through what his end should come,” etc. W. and Ho. join þonne to the next line. Or, for hwār read wǣre: Wundur wǣre þonne (= gif), etc., = “would it be any wonder if a brave man,” etc., which is virtually Müllenhoff’s.

l. 3053. galdre bewunden, spell-bound, throws light on l. 2770, gelocen leoðo-cræftum. The “accursed” gold of legend is often dragon-guarded and placed under a spell. Even human ashes (as Shakespeare’s) are thus banned. ll. 3047-3058 recall the so-called “Treasury of Atreus.”

l. 3070. H.-So. begins a new line with swā.

l. 3073. herh, hearh, temple, is conjectured by E. to survive in Harrow. Temple, barrow, etc., have thus been raised to proper names. Cf. Bīowulfes biorh of l. 2808.

l. 3074. H.-So. has strude, = ravage, and compares l. 3127. MS. has strade. S. suggests stride, = tread.

l. 3074. H.-So. omits strādan, = tread, stride over, from the Gloss., referring ll. 3174 and 3074 to strūdan, q. v.

l. 3075. S. proposes: næs hē goldhwætes gearwor hæfde, etc., = Beowulf had not before seen the greedy possessor’s favor.—Beit. ix. 143. B. reads, goldhwæte gearwor hæfde, etc., making goldhwæte modify ēst, = golden favor; but see Beit. xii. 373, for B.’s later view.

l. 3086-3087. B. translates, “that which (i.e. the treasure) drew the king thither was granted indeed, but it overwhelmed us.”—Beit. xii. 109.

l. 3097. B. and S. propose æfter wine dēadum, = in memory of the dead friend.—Beit. ix. 144.

l. 3106. The brād gold here possibly includes the iū-monna gold of l. 3053 and the wunden gold of l. 3135. E. translates brād by bullion.

l. 3114. B. supposes folc-āgende to be dat. sg. to gōdum, referring to Beowulf.

l. 3116. C. considers weaxan, = Lat. vescor, to devour, as a parallel to fretan, and discards parentheses.—Beit. viii. 573.

l. 3120. fūs = furnished with; a meaning which must be added to those in the Gloss.

ll. 3124-3125. S. proposes:

ēode eahta sum under inwit-hrōf hilderinca: sum on handa bær, etc.

—Beit. ix. 144.

l. 3136. H.-So. corrects (after B.) to æðelingc, the MS. having e.

l. 3145. “It was their [the Icelanders’] belief that the higher the smoke rose in the air the more glorious would the burnt man be in heaven.”— Ynglinga Saga, 10 (quoted by E.). Cf. the funeral pyre of Herakles.

l. 3146-3147. B. conjectures:

... swōgende lēc wōpe bewunden windblonda lēg

(lēc from lācan, see Gloss.).—Beit. xii. 110. Why not windblonda lāc?

l. 3147. Müllenhoff rejected wind-blond gelæg because a great fire raises rather than “lays” the wind; hence B., as above, = “swoughing sported the flame wound with the howling of wind-currents.”

l. 3151 seq. B. restores conjecturally:

swylce giōmor-gyd sio geō-meowle

[æfter Bēowulfe] bunden-heorde

[song] sorg-cearig, sǣde geneahhe,

þæt hīo hyre [hearm-]dagas hearde on [dr]ēde, wælfylla worn, [w]īgendes egesan, hȳ[n]ðo ond hæftnȳd, hēof on rīce wealg.

—Beit. xii. 100.

Here geō-meowle = old woman or widow; bunden-heorde = with bound locks; hēof = lamentation; cf. l. 3143. on rīce wealg is less preferable than the MS. reading, heofon rēce swealg = heaven swallowed the smoke.—H.-So. B. thinks Beowulf’s widow (geōmeowle) was probably Hygd; cf. ll. 2370, 3017-3021.

l. 3162. H.-So. reads (with MS.) bronda be lāfe, for betost, and omits colon after bēcn. So B., Zachers Zeitschr. iv. 224.

l. 3171. E. quotes Gibbon’s accounts of the burial of Attila when the “chosen squadrons of the Hun, wheeling round in measured evolutions, chanted a funeral song to the memory of a hero.”

ll. 3173-3174. B. proposes:

woldon gēn cwīðan [ond] kyning wordgyd wrecan ond ymb wēl sprecan.

—Beit. xii. 112.

l. 3183. Z., K., Th. read manna for mannum.

l. 3184. “It is the English ideal of a hero as it was conceived by an Englishman some twelve hundred years ago.”—Br., p. 18.

Notes to the Fight at Finnsburg

The original MS. of this fragment has vanished, but a copy had been made and printed by Hickes in his Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium, i. 192. The original was written on a single sheet attached to a codex of homilies in the Lambeth Library. Möller, Alteng. Epos, p. 65, places the fragment in the Finn episode, between ll. 1146 and 1147. Bugge (Beit. xii. 20) makes it illustrate the conflict in which Hnæf fell, i.e. as described in Bēowulf as antecedent to the events there given. Heinzel (Anzeiger f. d. Altert.), however, calls attention to the fact that Hengest in the fragment is called cyning, whereas in Bēowulf, l. 1086, he is called þegn. See H.-So., p. 125.

“The Fight at Finnsburg and the lays from which our Bēowulf was composed were, as it seems to me, sung among the English who dwelt in the north of Denmark and the south of Sweden, and whose tribal name was the Jutes or Goths.”—Br., p. 101.

l. 1. R. supposes [hor]nas, and conjectures such an introductory conversation as follows: “Is it dawning in the east, or is a fiery dragon flying about, or are the turrets of some castle burning?” questions which the king negatives in the same order. Then comes the positive declaration, “rather they are warriors marching whose armor gleams in the moonlight.” —Alt-und Angels. Lesebuch, 1861. Heinzel and B. conjecture, [beorhtor hor]nas byrnað nǣfre. So. G.—Beit. xii. 22; Anzeiger f. d. Altert. x. 229.

l. 5. B. conjectures fugelas to mean arrows, and supplies:

ac hēr forð berað [fyrdsearu rincas, flacre flānbogan], fugelas singað.

He compares Saxo, p. 95, cristatis galeis hastisque sonantibus instant, as explanatory of l. 6.—Beit. xii. 22. But see Brooke, Early Eng. Literature, who supposes fugelas = raven and eagle, while grǣg-hama is = wulf (the “grey-coated one”), the ordinary accompaniers of battle.

l. 11. hicgeað, etc.: cf. Maldon, l. 5; Exod. l. 218.

l. 15. Cf. B. (Beit. xii. 25), etc., and Saxo, p. 101, for l. 13.

ll. 18-21. H.-So. remarks: “If, according to Möller and Bugge, Gārulf is one of the attackers, one of Finn’s men, this does not harmonize with his character as Gūðlāf’s son (l. 33), who (l. 16, and Bēowulf, l. 1149) is a Dane, therefore one of Finn’s antagonists.” B. (Beit. xii. 25) conjectures:

þā gȳt Gūðdene Gārulf styrode,

þæt hē swā frēolīc feorh forman sīðe tō þǣre healle durum hyrsta ne bǣre, nū hīe nīða heard ānyman wolde; in which Gūðdene is the same as Sigeferð, l. 24; hē (l. 22) refers to Gārulf; and hīe (l. 21) to hyrsta.

l. 27. swæðer = either (bad or good, life or death).—H.-So.

l. 29. cēlod: meaning doubtful; cf. Maldon, l. 283. G. renders “curved board”; Sw. suggests “round”? “hollow”?

l. 30. B. suggests bār-helm, = boar-helm. Cf. Saxo, p. 96.—Beit. xii. 26.

l. 34. B. conjectures: (1) hwearf flacra hrǣw hræfen, wandrode; (2) hwearf flacra hrǣw hræfen fram ōðrum = flew from one corpse to another.—Beit. xii. 27.

l. 43. B. supposes wund hæleð to be a Dane, folces hyrde to be Hnæf, in opposition to Holtzmann (Germania, viii. 494), who supposes the wounded man to be a Frisian, and folces hyrde to be their king, Finn.—Beit. xii. 28.

l. 45. B. adopts Th.’s reading heresceorp unhrōr = equipments useless.—Beit. xii. 28.

l. 47. “Though wounded, they had retained their strength and activity in battle.”—B., Beit. xii. 28.

← Back to I. Beowulf