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.
forms and words, such as mec for mé, the possessive sín, gamol, dógor, swát
for eald, dǣg, blód, etc.
Beowulf
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.
