"It is the English ideal of a hero as it was
conceived
by an
Englishman some twelve hundred years ago.
Englishman some twelve hundred years ago.
Beowulf
_ 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 æðeling_c_, 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.
GLOSSARY
A
ac, conj. denoting contrariety: hence 1) _but_ (like N. H. G. sondern), 109,
135, 339, etc. --2) _but_ (N. H. G. aber), _nevertheless_, 602, 697, etc. --3)
in direct questions: nonne, numquid, 1991.
āglǣca, āhlǣca, ǣglǣca, -cea, w. m. (cf. Goth, aglo, _trouble_, O. N. agi,
_terror_, + lāc, _gift, sport: = misery, vexation, = bringer of trouble_;
hence): 1) _evil spirit, demon, a demon-like being_; of Grendel, 159, 433,
593, etc. ; of the drake, 2535, 2906, etc. --2) _great hero, mighty warrior_;
of Sigemund, 894; of Bēowulf: gen. sg. āglǣcan(? ), 1513; of Bēowulf and the
drake: nom. pl. þā āglǣcean, 2593.
āglǣc-wīf, st. n. , _demon, devil, in the form of a woman_; of Grendel's
mother, 1260.
aldor. See ealdor.
al-wealda. See eal-w.
am-biht (from and-b. , Goth, and-baht-s), st. m. , _servant, man-servant_:
nom. sg. ombeht, of the coast-guard, 287; ombiht, of Wulfgār, 336.
ambiht-þegn (from ambiht n. officium and þegn, which see), _servant,
man-servant_: dat. sg. ombiht-þegne, of Bēowulf's servant, 674.
an, prep, with the dat. , _on, in, with respect to_, 678; _with, among, at,
upon_ (position after the governed word), 1936; with the acc. , 1248.
Elsewhere on, which see.
ancor, st. m. , _anchor_: dat. sg. ancre, 303, 1884.
ancor-bend, m. (? ) f.
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 æðeling_c_, 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.
GLOSSARY
A
ac, conj. denoting contrariety: hence 1) _but_ (like N. H. G. sondern), 109,
135, 339, etc. --2) _but_ (N. H. G. aber), _nevertheless_, 602, 697, etc. --3)
in direct questions: nonne, numquid, 1991.
āglǣca, āhlǣca, ǣglǣca, -cea, w. m. (cf. Goth, aglo, _trouble_, O. N. agi,
_terror_, + lāc, _gift, sport: = misery, vexation, = bringer of trouble_;
hence): 1) _evil spirit, demon, a demon-like being_; of Grendel, 159, 433,
593, etc. ; of the drake, 2535, 2906, etc. --2) _great hero, mighty warrior_;
of Sigemund, 894; of Bēowulf: gen. sg. āglǣcan(? ), 1513; of Bēowulf and the
drake: nom. pl. þā āglǣcean, 2593.
āglǣc-wīf, st. n. , _demon, devil, in the form of a woman_; of Grendel's
mother, 1260.
aldor. See ealdor.
al-wealda. See eal-w.
am-biht (from and-b. , Goth, and-baht-s), st. m. , _servant, man-servant_:
nom. sg. ombeht, of the coast-guard, 287; ombiht, of Wulfgār, 336.
ambiht-þegn (from ambiht n. officium and þegn, which see), _servant,
man-servant_: dat. sg. ombiht-þegne, of Bēowulf's servant, 674.
an, prep, with the dat. , _on, in, with respect to_, 678; _with, among, at,
upon_ (position after the governed word), 1936; with the acc. , 1248.
Elsewhere on, which see.
ancor, st. m. , _anchor_: dat. sg. ancre, 303, 1884.
ancor-bend, m. (? ) f.
