l. 2158. ǣrest is possibly the verbal subs. from ārīsan, _to arise, = arising, origin_. R. suggested ǣrist, _arising, origin_. Cf. Bede, _Eccles. Hist._, ed. Miller, where the word is spelt as above, but = (as usual) _resurrection_. See Sweet, Reader, p. 211; E.-Plummer's _Chronicle_, p. 302, etc. The MS. has est. See Ha., p. 73; S., _Beit._ x. 222; and cf. l. 2166.
l. 2188. Gr., W., H. supply [wēn]don, = _weened_, instead of Th.'s [oft sæg]don.
l. 2188. The "slack" Beowulf, like the sluggish Brutus, ultimately reveals his true character, and is presented with a historic sword of honor. It is "laid on his breast" (l. 2195) as Hun laid Lāfing on Hengest's breast, l. 1145.
l. 2188. "The boy was at first slothful, and the Geats thought him an unwarlike prince, and long despised him. Then, like many a lazy third son in the folk tales, a change came, he suddenly showed wonderful daring and was passionate for adventure."--Br., p. 22.
l. 2196. "Seven of thousands, manor and lordship" (Ha.). Kl., _Beit._ ix. 191, thinks with Ettm. that þūsendo means a hide of land (see Schmid, _Ges. der Angl_, 610), Bede's familia = 1/2 sq. meter; seofan being used (like hund, l. 2995) only for the alliteration.
l. 2196. "A vast Honour of 7000 hides, a mansion, and a judgment-seat" [throne].--E.
l. 2210. MS. has the more correct wintra.
l. 2211. Cf. similar language about the dragon at l. 100. Beowulf's "jubilee" is fitly solemnized by his third and last dragon-fight.
l. 2213. B. proposes sē þe on hearge hǣðen hord beweotode; cf. Ha., p. 75.
l. 2215. "The dragon lies round the treasures in a cave, as Fafnir, like a Python, lay coiled over his hoard. So constant was this habit among the dragons that gold is called Worms' bed, Fafnir's couch, Worms' bed-fire. Even in India, the cobras ... are guardians of treasure."--Br., p. 50.
l. 2216. nēode. E. translates _deftly_; Ha., _with ardor_. H.-So. reads nēode, = _with desire, greedily_, instr. of nēod.
l. 2223. E. begins his "Part Third" at this point as he begins "Part Second" at l. 1252, each dragon-fight forming part of a trilogy.
ll. 2224, 2225. B. proposes: nealles mid gewealdum wyrmes weard gæst sylfes willum.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 211; _Beit._ xii. 100.
l. 2225. For þēow read þegn.--K. and Z.
l. 2227. For ofer-þearfe read ǣrnes þearfa.--Z.
ll. 2229-2231. B. proposes:
secg synbysig sōna onwlātode, þēah þām gyste gryrebrōga stōd, hwæðre earmsceapen innganges þearfa . . . . . . . . . . fēasceapen, þā hyne se fǣr begeat. --_Beit._ xii. 101. Cf. Ha., p. 69.
l. 2232. W. suggests seah or seīr for geseah, and Gr. suggests searolīc.
l. 2233. Z. surmises eorð-hūse (for -scræfe).
l. 2241. B. proposes lǣn-gestrēona, = _transitory_, etc.; Th., R. propose leng (= _longer_) gestrēona; S. accepts the text but translates "the long accumulating treasure."
l. 2246. B. proposed (1) hard-fyndne, = _hard to find_; (2) hord-wynne dǣl,--_a deal of treasure-joy_ (cf. l. 2271).--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 211; _Beit._ xii. 102.
l. 2247. fecword = _banning words_ (?) MS. has fec.
l. 2254. Others read feor-[mie], = _furbish_, for fetige: _I own not one who may_, etc.
l. 2261. The Danes themselves were sometimes called the "Ring-Danes," = clad in ringed (or a ring of) armor, or possessing rings. Cf. ll. 116, 1280.
l. 2263. Koeppel suggests nis for næs.
The editors are much indebted to E. Koeppel (in _Eng. Stud._ xiii. 3) for numerous corrections in text and glossary.
l. 2264. Note the early reference to hawking. Minstrelsy (hearpan wyn), saga-telling, racing, swimming, harpooning of sea-animals, feasting, and the bestowal of jewels, swords, and rings, are the other amusements most frequent in _Bēowulf_.
l. 2264. Cf. _Maldon_, ll. 8, 9, for a reference to hawking.
l. 2276. Z. suggests swȳðe ondrǣdað; Ho. puts gesēcean for Gr.'s gewunian.
l. 2277. Z. and K. read: hord on hrūsan. "Three hundred winters," at l. 2279, is probably conventional for "a long time," like hund missēra, l. 1499; hund þūsenda, l. 2995; þrītig (of Beowulf's strength), l. 379; þrītig (of the men slain by Grendel), l. 123; seofan þūsendo, l. 2196, etc.
l. 2285. B. objects to hord as repeated in ll. 2284, 2285; but cf. Ha., p. 77. C. prefers sum to hord. onboren = _inminutus_; cf. B., _Beit._ xii. 102.
l. 2285. onberan is found also at line 991, = _carry off_, with on- = E. _un--(un-bind, -loose, -tie_, etc.), G. _ent-_. The negro still pronounces _on-do_, etc.
l. 2299. Cf. H.-So., p. 112, for a defense of the text as it stands. B. proposes "nor was there any man in that desert who rejoiced in conflict," etc. So ten Br.
l. 2326. B. and ten Br,. propose hām, = _home_, for him.--_Beit._ xii. 103.
l. 2335. E. translates ēalond utan by _the sea-board front, the water-washed land on the (its) outside_. See B., _Beit._ xii. 1, 5.
l. 2346. Cf. l. 425, where Beowulf resolves to fight the dragon single-handed. E. compares _Guy of Warwick_, ll. 49, 376.
l. 2355. Ten Br. proposes laðan cynne as apposition to mǣgum.
l. 2360. Cf. Beowulf's other swimming-feat with Breca, ll. 506 _seq._
l. 2362. Gr. inserts āna, = _lone-going_, before xxx.: approved by B.; and Krüger, _Beit._ ix. 575. Cf. l. 379.
l. 2362. "Beowulf has the strength of thirty men in the original tale. Here, then, the new inventor makes him carry off thirty coats of mail."--Br., p. 48.
l. 2364. Hetware = Chattuarii, a nation allied against Hygelāc in his Frisian expedition; cf. ll. 1208 _seq._, 2917, etc.
l. 2368. B. proposes _quiet sea_ as trans, of sioleða bigong, and compares Goth. _anasilan_, to be still; Swed. dial, _sil_, still water between waterfalls.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 214.
l. 2380. hyne--Heardrēd; so him, l. 2358.
l. 2384. E. calls attention to Swīo-rīce as identical with the modern _Sverige_ = Sweden; cf. l. 2496.
l. 2386. Gr. reads on feorme, = _at the banquet_; cf. Möller, _Alteng. Volksepos_, 111, who reads (f)or feorme. The MS. has or.
l. 2391. Cf. l. 11.
l. 2394. B., Gr., and Mūllenh. understand ll. 2393-2397 to mean that Ēadgils, Ōhthere's son, driven from Sweden, returns later, supported by Beowulf, takes the life of his uncle Onela, and probably becomes himself O.'s successor and king of Sweden. For another view see H.-So., p. 115. MS. has freond (l. 2394), which Leo, etc., change to fēond. G. translates _friend_.--_Beit._ xii. 13; _Anzeiger f. d. Altert._ iii. 177.
l. 2395. Ēadgils is Ōhthere's son; cf. l. 2381; Onela is Ōhthere's brother; cf. ll. 2933, 2617.
l. 2402. "Twelfsome"; cf. "fifteensome" at l. 207, etc. As _Bēowulf_ is essentially _the_ Epic of Philanthropy, of the true love of man, as distinguished from the ordinary love-epic, the number twelve in this passage may be reminiscent of another Friend of Man and another Twelve. In each case all but one desert the hero.
l. 2437. R. proposes stȳred, = _ordered, decreed_, for strēd.--_Zachers Zeitschr._ iii. 409.
l. 2439. B. corrects to frēo-wine = _noble friend_, asking, "How can Herebeald be called Hæðcyn's frēa-wine [MS.], _lord?_"
l. 2442. feohlēas gefeoht, "a homicide which cannot be atoned for by money--in this case an unintentional fratricide."--Sw.
l. 2445. See Ha., pp. 82, 83, for a discussion of ll. 2445-2463. Cf. G., p. 75.
l. 2447. MS. reads wrece, justified by B. (_Tidskr._ viii. 56). W. conceives wrece as optative or hortative, and places a colon before þonne.
l. 2449. For helpan read helpe.--K., Th., S. (_Zeitschr. f. D. Phil._ xxi. 3, 357).
ll. 2454-2455. (1) Müllenh. (_Haupts Zeitschr._ xiv. 232) proposes:
þonne se ān hafað þurh dǣda nȳd dēaðes gefandod.
(2) B. proposes:
þurh dǣda nīð dēaðes gefondad. --_Zachers Zeitschr._ iv. 215.
l. 2458. Cf. scēotend, pl., ll. 704, 1155, like rīdend. Cf. _Judith_, l. 305, etc.
l. 2474. Th. considers the "wide water" here as the Mälar lake, the boundary between Swedes and Goths.
l. 2477. On oþþe = _and_, cf. B., _Tidskr._ viii. 57. See Ha., p. 83.
l. 2489. B. proposes hrēa-blāc for Gr.'s heoro-.--_Tikskr._ viii. 297.
l. 2494. S. suggests ēðel-wynne.
l. 2502. E. translates for dugeðum, _of my prowess_; so Ettmüller.
ll. 2520-2522. Gr. and S. translate, "if I knew how else I might combat the monster's boastfulness."--Ha., p. 85.
l. 2524. and-hāttres is H.'s invention. Gr. reads oreðes and attres, _blast and venom_. Cf. oruð, l. 2558, and l. 2840 (where attor- also occurs).
l. 2526. E. quotes flēon fōtes trym from _Maldon_, l. 247.
l. 2546. Gr., H.-So., and Ho. read standan stān-bogan (for stōd on stān-bogan) depending on geseah.
l. 2550. Grundt. and B. propose dēor, _brave one_, i.e. Beowulf, for dēop.
L. 2565. MS. has ungleaw (K., Th.), unglaw (Grundt.). B. proposes unslāw, = _sharp_.--_Beit._ xii. 104. So H.-So., Ha., p. 86.
ll. 2570, 2571. (1) May not gescīfe (MS. to gscipe) = German _schief_, "crooked," "bent," "aslant," and hence be a parallel to gebogen, _bent, coiled?_ cf. l. 2568, þā se wyrm gebēah snūde tōsomne, and l. 2828. Coiled serpents spring more powerfully for the coiling. (2) Or perhaps destroy comma after tō and read gescæpe, = _his fate_; cf. l. 26: him þā Scyld gewāt tō gescæp-hwīle. G. appar. adopts this reading, p. 78.