we ... gefrunon is a variant on the usual epic formulæ ic gefrägn (l. 74) and mîne gefræge (l. 777). _Exodus, Daniel, Phoenix_, etc., open with the same formula.

l. 1. "Gâr 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, Sceáf 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 þâ (_which_) for þät, as object of dreógan; and for aldor-leáse, 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 wîde sprang þeódnes þegna.

"The name _Beowulf_ means literally 'Bee-wolf,' wolf or ravager of the bees, = bear. Cf. _beorn_, 'hero,' originally 'bear,' and _beohata_, 'warrior,' in Cædmon, literally 'bee-hater' or 'persecutor,' and hence identical in meaning with _beowulf_."--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-gesîðas 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. 28. faroð = _shore, strand, edge._ Add these to the meanings in the Gloss.

l. 31. The object of âhte is probably geweald, to be supplied from wordum weóld 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 lændagas 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 Ætheling'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-rædende (K., S., C.); (2) sêle-rædenne (H.); (3) sele-rædende (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 þâ, four with the verb gewîtan, nine with the formula Hrôðgâr (Beówulf, Unferð) maðelode, twenty-four with monosyllables in general (him, swâ, sê, hwät, þâ, hêht, wäs, mäg, cwôm, stræt).

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, dæg, blód, etc., after they had become obsolete in the prose language, and the use of special compounds and phrases, such as hildenædre (_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 ræswa (referring to Heorogâr alone), and places a point (with the Ms.) after Heorogâr instead of after ræswa. 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 ewên, Heaðoscilfingas(=es) healsgebedda.

l. 68. For hê, omitted here, cf. l. 300. Pronouns are occasionally thus omitted insubord. clauses.--Sw.

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.