Part 8
l. 70. þone, here = þonne, _than_, and micel = mâre? The passage, by a slight change, might be made to read, medo-ärn micle mâ 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. gûð-scearu.
l. 74. ic wide gefrägn: an epic formula very frequent in poetry, = _men said._ Cf. _Judith_, ll. 7, 246; _Phoenix_, l. 1; and the parallel (noun) formula, mîne gefræge, 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 Wîdsîð's suhtorfædran, used of the same persons.
l. 88. "The word dreám 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 Cædmon:
Nû wê 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 _Beówulf_] 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 _Beówulf_ is treated like verbs of motion and modal auxiliaries, and takes the object inf. without tô; 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, feónd 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. gäst = _stranger_ (Ha.); cf. ll. 1139, 1442, 2313, etc.
l. 103. See Ha., p. 4.
l. 106. "The perfect and pluperfect are often expressed, as in Modern English, by hæfð and hæfde 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. þäs 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. tô sæ (l. 318), ofer sæ (l. 2381), on lande (l. 2311), tô räste (l. 1238), on wicge (l. 286), etc., etc.
l. 119. weras (S., H.-So.); wera (K., Th.).--_Beit._ ix. 137.
l. 120. unfælo = _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 Gûðlâc, l. 1042.
l. 144. See Ha., p. 6, for S.'s rearrangement.
l. 146. S. destroys period after sêlest, puts wäs ... micel in parenthesis, and inserts a colon after tîd.
l. 149. B. reads sârcwidum 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. ne ... 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 tô 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. tô + 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. gâst-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 môd-ceare and mæl-ceare as accus., others as instr.
ll. 190, 1994. seáð: for this use of seóðan cf. Bede, _Eccles. Hist._, ed. Miller, p. 128, where p. p. soden is thus used.
l. 194. fram hâm = _in his home_ (S., H.-So.); but fram hâm 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-râd (_= sea_). "The swan is said to breed wild now no further away than the North of Sweden." --E. Cf. ganotes bäð, l. 1862.
l. 203. Concessive clauses with þeáh, þeáh þe, þeáh ... 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. hæl, an OE. word found in Wülker's Glossaries in various forms, = _augury, omen, divination_, etc. Cf. hælsere, _augur_; hæl, _omen;_ hælsung, _augurium_, hælsian, 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. 219. Does ân-tîd mean _hour_ (Th.), or _corresponding hour_ = ând-tîd (H.-So.), or _in due time_ (E.), or _after a time_, when ôþres, 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 _Beówulf_ the earliest sea-thoughts of the English.... The simplest term is Sæ.... To this they added Wæter, Flod, Stream, Lagu, Mere, Holm, Grund, Heathu, Sund, Brim, Garsecg, Eagor, Geofon, Fifel, Hron-rad, Swan-rad, Segl-rad, Ganotes-bæð."--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 bæron. 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. näfne (nefne, nemne) usually takes the subj., = _unless_; cf. ll. 1057, 3055, 1553. For ind., = _except_, see l. 1354. Cf. bûtan, gif, þeáh.
l. 250. For a remarkable account of armor and weapons in _Beówulf_, see S. A. Brooke, _Hist. of Early Eng. Lit_. For general "Old Teutonic Life in Beówulf," see J. A. Harrison, _Overland Monthly_.
l. 252. ær as a conj. generally has subj., as here; cf. ll. 264, 677, 2819, 732. For ind., cf. l. 2020.
l. 253. leás = _loose_, _roving_. Ettmüller corrected to leáse.
l. 256. This proverb (ôfest, 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 Ælfred_, C. 17: Nâ þät ælc eald sý, ac þät he eald sý on wîsdôme.
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. dæd-hata = _instigator_. Kl. reads dæd-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 'æghwæðer ('ægðer), éghwæðer, etc. This prefixed 'æ, 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. 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 Æstii'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 hleór-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 hleór-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 gûðmôde grummon, B. and ten Br. read ferh-wearde (l. 305) and gûðmôdgum men (l. 306), = _the boar-images ... guarded the lives of the warlike men_.
l. 311. leóma: 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 sæ, 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 _Cædmon_, 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 scîr, and makes hring-îren (= _ring-mail_) parallel with gûð-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. "æl-, el-, kindred with Goth. _aljis_, other, e.g. in ælþéodig, elþéodig, foreign."--Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 47.
l. 336. Cf. l. 673 for the functions of an ombiht-þegn.
l. 343. Cf. l. 1714 for the same beód-geneátas,--"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. sîð here, and at l. 501, probably means _arrival_. E. translates the former by _visit_, the latter by _adventure_.
l. 357. unhâr = _hairless, bald_ (Gr., etc.).
l. 358. eode is only one of four or five preterits of gân (gongan, gangan, gengan), viz. geóng (gióng: ll. 926, 2410, etc.), gang (l. 1296, etc.), gengde (ll. 1402, 1413). Sievers, p. 217, apparently remarks that eode 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. glädman Hrôðgâr, abandoning Thorkelin's glädnian. There is a glass. hilaris glädman.--_Beit._ xii. 84; same as gläd.
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-fäder, "hyphens are risky toys to play with in fixing texts of pre-hyphenial antiquity"; eald-fäder 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 Geátum, as presents from the Danish to the Geatish king.--_Beit._ xii.
l. 380. häbbe. 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 seón. 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 ... hâl: 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 hâdor by _receptaculum_; cf. Gering, _Zachers Zeitschr._ xii. 124. Toller-Bosw. ignores Gr.'s suggestion.
ll. 420, 421. B. reads: þær ic (_on_) fîfelgeban (= _ocean_) ýðde eotena cyn. Ten Br. reads: þær ic fîfelgeban ýðde, eotena hâm. Ha. suggests fîfelgeband = _monster-band_, without further changes.
l. 420. R. reads þæra = _of them_, for þær.--_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 Geátas, but the Jutes, as the inhabitants of Swedish West-Gothland. Alfred translates Juti by Geátas, 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 heáfod-weard, _a guard of honor_, such as sovereigns or presumptive rulers had, to be meant by hafalan hýdan; 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 ælces mannes wyrd of Boethius (Sw., p. 44) and the wyrd bið swîðost of Gnomic Verses, 5. There are about a dozen references to it in _Beówulf_.
l. 455. E. compares the fatalism of this concluding hemistich with the Christian tone of l. 685 _seq._
ll. 457, 458. B. reads wære-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-hrêð-secgum, = _disclose thy thought to the victor-heroes_. Others, as Körner, convert meoto into an imperative and divide on sæl = _think upon happiness_. But cf. onband beadu-rûne, l. 501. B. supposes onsæl 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 Ûnferð, as at ll. 499, 1166, 1489; and cf. ll. 1542, 2095, 2930. See _List of Names_.
l. 501. sîð = _arrival_ (?); cf. l. 353.
l. 504. þon mâ = _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 _Cædmon_, 69, etc.
l. 524. Krüger and B. read Bânstânes.--_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. 534. Insert, under eard-lufa (in Gloss.), earfoð, st. n., _trouble, difficulty, struggle_; acc. pl. earfeðo, 534.
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 _Wîdsíth_. The story seems legendary, not mythical."--Br., pp. 60, 61.
ll. 574-578. B. suggests swâ þær for hwäðere, = _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 fâgum sweordum (no ic þäs fela gylpe!), supplying fela and blending the broken half-lines into one. Ho. and Kl. supply geflites.
l. 599. E. translates nýd-bâde by _blackmail_; adding "nêd bâd, _toll_; nêd bâdere, _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 Wealhþeów 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 þeáh ... eal a precursor of Mod. Eng. _although_.