l. 711. B. translates þā by _when_ and connects with the preceding sentences, thus rejecting the ordinary canto-division at l. 711. He objects to the use of cōm as principal vb. at ll. 703, 711, and 721. (_Beit_, xii.)
l. 711. "Perhaps the Gnomic verse which tells of Thyrs, the giant, is written with Grendel in the writer's mind,--þyrs sceal on fenne gewunian āna inuan lande, _the giant shall dwell in the fen, alone in the land_ (Sweet's Read., p. 187)."--Br. p. 36.
l. 717. Dietrich, in _Haupt._ xi. 419, quotes from AElfric, _Hom._ ii. 498: hē beworhte þā bigelsas mid gyldenum lǣfrum, _he covered the arches with gold-leaf_,--a Roman custom derived from Carthage. Cf. Mod. Eng. _oriel_ = _aureolum_, a gilded room.--E. (quoting Skeat). Cf. ll. 2257, 1097, 2247, 2103, 2702, 2283, 333, 1751, for various uses of gold-sheets.
l. 720. B. and ten Br. suggest _hell-thane_ (Grendel) for heal-þegnas, and make hæle refer to Beowulf. Cf. l. 142.
l. 723. Z. reads [ge]hrān.
l. 727. For this use of standan, cf. ll. 2314, 2770; and Vergil, _Ecl._ ii. 26:
"Cum placidum ventis _staret_ mare."
l. 757. gedræg. _Tumult_ is one of the meanings of this word. Here, appar. = _occupation, lair_.
l. 759. R. reads mōdega for gōda, "because the attribute cannot be separated from the word modified unless the two alliterate."
l. 762. Cf. _Andreas_, l. 1537, for a similar use of ūt = _off_.--E.
l. 769. The foreign words in _Bēowulf_ (as ceaster-here) are not numerous; others are (aside from proper names like _Cain, Abel_, etc.) dēofol (diabolus), candel (l. 1573), ancor (l. 303), scrīfan (for- ge-), segn (l. 47), gīgant (l. 113), mīl- (l. 1363), strǣt (l. 320), ombeht (l. 287), gim (l. 2073), etc.
l. 770. MS. reads cerwen, a word conceived by B. and others to be part of a fem. compd.: -scerwen like -wenden in ed-wenden, -rǣden, etc. (cf. meodu-scerpen in _Andreas_, l. 1528); emended to -scerwen, _a great scare under the figure of a mishap at a drinking-bout_; one might compare bescerwan, _to deprive_, from bescyrian (Grein, i. 93), hence ealu-scerwen would = _a sudden taking away, deprivation, of the beer_.--H.-So., p. 93. See B., _Tidskr._ viii. 292.
l. 771. Ten Br. reads rēðe, rēnhearde, = _raging, exceeding bold_.
l. 792. Instrumental adverbial phrases like ǣnige þinga, nǣnige þinga (_not at all_), hūru þinga (_especially_) are not infrequent. See Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 178; March, _A.-S. Gram._, p. 182.
l. 811. myrðe. E. translates _in wanton mood_. Toller-Bosw. does not recognize _sorrow_ as one of the meanings of this word.
ll. 850, 851. S. reads dēop for dēog and erases semicolon after wēol, = _the death-stained deep welled with sword-gore_; cf. l. 1424. B. reads dēað-fǣges dēop, etc., = _the deep welled with the doomed one's gore_.--_Beit._ xii. 89.
l. 857. The meaning of blaneum is partly explained by fealwe mēaras below, l. 866. Cf. Layamon's "and leop on his _blancke" = steed_, l. 23900; Kent's _Elene_, l. 1185.
l. 859. Körner, _Eng. Stud._ i. 482, regards the oft-recurring be sǣm twēonum as a mere formula = _on earth_; cf. ll. 1298, 1686. twēone is part of the separable prep. _between_; see be-. Cf. Baskerville's _Andreas_, l. 558.
l. 865. Cf. _Voyage of Ōhthere and Wulfstān_ for an account of funeral horse-racing, Sweet's Read., p. 22.
l. 868. See Ha., p. 31, for a variant translation.
l. 871 _seq._ R. considers this a technical description of improvised alliterative verse, suggested by and wrought out on the spur of the moment.
l. 872. R. and B. propose secg[an], = _rehearse_, for secg, which suits the verbs in the next two lines.
ll. 878-98. "It pleases me to think that it is in English literature we possess the first sketch of that mighty saga [the Volsunga Saga = Wælsinges gewin] which has for so many centuries engaged all the arts, and at last in the hands of Wagner the art of music."--Br., p. 63. Cf. _Nibelung. Lied_, l. 739.
l. 894. Intransitive verbs, as gān, weorðan, sometimes take habban, "to indicate independent action."--Sw. Cf. hafað ... geworden, l. 2027.
l. 895. "brūcan (_enjoy_) always has the genitive."--Sw.; cf. l. 895; acc., gen., instr., dat., according to March, _A.-S. Gram._, p. 151.
l. 898. Scherer proposes hāte, = _from heat_, instr. of hāt, _heat_; cf. l. 2606.
l. 901. hē þæs āron þāh = _he throve in honor_ (B.). Ten Br. inserts comma after þāh, making siððan introduce a depend. clause.--_Beit._ viii. 568. Cf. weorð-myndum þāh, l. 8; ll. 1155, 1243.--H.-So.
l. 902. Heremōdes is considered by Heinzel to be a mere epithet = _the valiant_; which would refer the whole passage to Sigmund (Sigfrid), the eotenas, l. 903, being the Nibelungen. This, says H.-So., gets rid of the contradiction between the good "Heremōd" here and the bad one, l. 1710 _seq._--B. however holds fast to Heremōd.--_Beit._ xii. 41. on fēonda geweald, l. 904,--_into the hands of devils_, says B.; cf. ll. 809, 1721, 2267; _Christ_, l. 1416; _Andreas_, l. 1621; for hine fyren onwōd, cf. _Gen._ l. 2579; Hunt's _Dan._ 17: hīe wlenco anwōd.
l. 902 _seq._ "Heremōd's shame is contrasted with the glory of Sigemund, and with the prudence, patience, generosity, and gentleness of Beowulf as a chieftain."--Br., p. 66.
l. 906. MS. has lemede. Toller-Bosw. corrects to lemedon.
l. 917. Cf. Hunt's _Exod._, l. 170, for similar language.
l. 925. hōs, G. hansa, _company_, "the word from which the mercantile association of the 'Hanseatic' towns took their designation."--E.
l. 927. on staþole = _on the floor_ (B., Rask, ten Br.).--_Beit._ xii. 90.
l. 927. May not stēapne here = _bright_, from its being immediately followed by golde fāhne? Cf. Chaucer's "his eyen _stepe_," _Prol._ l. 201 (ed. Morris); Cockayne's _Ste. Marherete_, pp. 9, 108; _St. Kath._, l. 1647.
l. 931. grynna may be for gyrnna (= _sorrows_), gen. plu. of gyrn, as suggested by one commentator.
l. 937. B. (_Beit._ xii. 90) makes gehwylcne object of wīd-scofen (hæfde). Gr. makes wēa nom. absolute.
l. 940. scuccum: cf. G. scheuche, scheusal; Prov. Eng. _old-shock_; perhaps the pop. interjection _O shucks!_ (!)
l. 959. H. explains wē as a "plur. of majesty," which Bēowulf throws off at l. 964.
l. 963. fēond þone frætgan (B. _Beit._ xii. 90).
l. 976. synnum. "Most abstract words in the poetry have a very wide range of meanings, diverging widely from the prose usage, synn, for instance, means simply _injury, mischief, hatred_, and the prose meaning _sin_ is only a secondary one; hata in poetry is not only _hater_, but _persecutor, enemy_, just as nīð is both _hatred_ and _violence, strength_; heard is _sharp_ as well as _hard_."--Sw.
l. 986. S. places wæs at end of l. 985 and reads stīðra nægla, omitting gehwylc and the commas after that and after scēawedon. _Beit._ ix. 138; stēdra (H.-So.); hand-sporu (H.-So.) at l. 987.
l. 986. Miller (_Anglia_, xii. 3) corrects to ǣghwylene, in apposition to fingras.
l. 987. hand-sporu. See _Anglia_, vii. 176, for a discussion of the intrusion of u into the nom. of n-stems.
l. 988. Cf. ll. 2121, 2414, for similar use of unhēoru = ungeheuer.
l. 992. B. suggests hēatimbred for hāten, and gefrætwon for -od; Kl., hroden (_Beit._ ix. 189).
l. 995, 996. Gold-embroidered tapestries seem to be meant by web = _aurifrisium_.
l. 997. After þāra þe = _of those that_, the depend, vb. often takes sg. for pl.; cf. ll. 844, 1462, 2384, 2736.--Sw.; Dietrich.
l. 998. "Metathesis of l takes place in seld for setl, bold for botl," etc.--Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 96. Cf. Eng. proper names, _Bootle, Battle_field, etc.--Skeat, _Principles_, i. 250.
l. 1000. heorras: cf. Chaucer, _Prol._ (ed. Morris) l. 550:
"Ther was no dore that he nolde heve of _harre_."
ll. 1005-1007. See _Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 391, and _Beit._ xii. 368, for R.'s and B.'s views of this difficult passage.
l. 1009. Cf. l. 1612 for sǣl and mǣl, surviving still in E. Anglia in "mind your _seals and meals_," = _times and occasions_, i.e. have your wits about you.--E.
ll. 1012, 1013. Cf. ll. 753, 754 for two similar comparatives used in conjunction.
l. 1014. Cf. l. 327 for similar language.
ll. 1015, 1016. H.-So. puts these two lines in parentheses (fylle ... þāra). Cf. B., _Beit._ xii. 91.
l. 1024. One of the many famous swords spoken of in the poem. See Hrunting, ll. 1458, 1660; Hūnlāfing, l. 1144, etc. Cf. Excalibur, Roland's sword, the Nibelung Balmung, etc.
l. 1034. scūr-heard. For an ingenious explanation of this disputed word see Professor Pearce's article in _Mod. Lang. Notes_, Nov. 1, 1892, and ensuing discussion.
l. 1039. eoderas is of doubtful meaning. H. and Toller-Bosw. regard the word here = _enclosure, palings of the court_. Cf. _Cǣdmon_, ll. 2439, 2481. The passage throws interesting light on horses and their trappings
l. 1043. Grundt. emends wīg to wicg, = _charger_; and E. quotes Tacitus, _Germania_, 7.
l. 1044. "Power over each and both"; cf. "all and some," "one and all."
For Ingwin, see _List of Names_.
l. 1065. Gr. contends that fore here = de, _concerning, about_ (Ebert's _Jahrb._, 1862, p. 269).
l. 1069. H.-So. supplies fram after eaferum, to govern it, = _concerning_ (?). Cf. _Fight at Finnsburg_, Appendix.