Concessive
clauses with þēah, þēah þe, þēah .
Beowulf
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.
