Add _folk-share_ to the
meanings
in the Gloss.
Beowulf
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.
