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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Beowulf, by R. W. Chambers
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Beowulf
+ An Introduction to the Study of the Poem with a Discussion
+ of the Stories of Offa and Finn
+
+Author: R. W. Chambers
+
+Release Date: October 23, 2010 [EBook #34117]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEOWULF ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Ted Garvin, Keith Edkins and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note: In Germanic languages [=a] signifies "a macron"; [o,]
+"o with Ogonek"; and so forth. [gh] represents yogh.
+
+[Illustration: Drida (Thryth) reproached for her Evil Deeds
+
+_From MS Cotton Nero D. I, fol. 11 b_
+
+"That is no way for a lady to behave." (Ne bið swylc cw[=e]nl[=i]c þ[=e]aw
+| idese t[=o] efnanne:
+
+_Beowulf_, ll 1940-1.) ]
+
+BEOWULF
+
+AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
+THE POEM WITH A DISCUSSION OF
+THE STORIES OF OFFA AND FINN
+
+BY
+
+R. W. CHAMBERS
+
+
+
+Dey mout er bin two deloojes: en den agin dey moutent.
+UNCLE REMUS, _The Story of the Deluge_.
+
+
+
+CAMBRIDGE
+AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
+1921
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+TO
+
+PROF. WILLIAM WITHERLE LAWRENCE
+
+DEAR PROF. LAWRENCE,
+
+When, more than four years ago, I asked you to allow me to dedicate this
+volume to you, it was as a purely personal token of gratitude for the help
+I had received from what you have printed, and from what you have written
+to me privately.
+
+Since then much has happened: the debt is greater, and no longer purely
+personal. We in this country can never forget what we owe to your people.
+And the self-denial which led them voluntarily to stint themselves of food,
+that we in Europe might be fed, is one of many things about which it is not
+easy to speak. Our heart must indeed have been hardened if we had not
+considered the miracle of those loaves. But I fear that to refer to that
+great debt in the dedication to this little book may draw on me the
+ridicule incurred by the poor man who dedicated his book to the Universe.
+
+Nevertheless, as a fellow of that College which has just received from an
+American donor the greatest benefaction for medical research which has ever
+been made in this country of ours, I may rejoice that the co-operation
+between our nations is being continued in that warfare against ignorance
+and disease which some day will become the only warfare waged among men.
+
+ Sceal hring-naca ofer heafu bringan
+ l[=a]c ond luf-t[=a]cen. Ic þ[=a] l[=e]ode w[=a]t
+ ge wið f[=e]ond ge wið fr[=e]ond fæste geworhte,
+ [=æ]ghwæs unt[=æ]le ealde w[=i]san.
+ R. W. C.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{vii}
+
+PREFACE
+
+I have to thank various colleagues who have read proofs of this book, in
+whole or in part: first and foremost my old teacher, W. P. Ker; also Robert
+Priebsch, J. H. G. Grattan, Ernest Classen and two old students, Miss E. V.
+Hitchcock and Mrs Blackman. I have also to thank Prof. W. W. Lawrence of
+Columbia; and though there are details where we do not agree, I think there
+is no difference upon any important issues. If in these details I am in the
+right, this is largely due to the helpful criticism of Prof. Lawrence,
+which has often led me to reconsider my conclusions, and to re-state them
+more cautiously, and, I hope, more correctly. If, on the other hand, I am
+in the wrong, then it is thanks to Prof. Lawrence that I am not still more
+in the wrong.
+
+From Axel Olrik, though my debt to him is heavy, I find myself differing on
+several questions. I had hoped that what I had to urge on some of these
+might have convinced him, or, better still, might have drawn from him a
+reply which would have convinced me. But the death of that great scholar
+has put an end to many hopes, and deprived many of us of a warm personal
+friend. It would be impossible to modify now these passages expressing
+dissent, for the early pages of this book were printed off some years ago.
+I can only repeat that it is just because of my intense respect for the
+work of Dr Olrik that, where I cannot agree with his conclusions, I feel
+bound to go into the matter at length. Names like those of Olrik, Bradley,
+Chadwick and Sievers carry rightly such authority as to make it the duty of
+those who differ, if only on minor details, to justify that difference if
+they can.
+
+From Dr Bradley especially I have had help in discussing various of these
+problems: also from Mr Wharton of the British Museum, Prof. Collin of
+Christiania, Mr Ritchie Girvan of Glasgow, and Mr Teddy. To Prof. Brøgger,
+the Norwegian state-antiquary, I am indebted for permission to reproduce
+photographs of the {viii} Viking ships: to Prof. Finnur Jónsson for
+permission to quote from his most useful edition of the _Hrólfs Saga_ and
+the _Bjarka Rímur_, and, above all, to Mr Sigfús Blöndal, of the Royal
+Library of Copenhagen, for his labour in collating with the manuscript the
+passages quoted from the _Grettis Saga_.
+
+Finally, I have to thank the Syndics of the University Press for
+undertaking the publication of the book, and the staff for the efficient
+way in which they have carried out the work, in spite of the long
+interruption caused by the war.
+
+ R. W. C.
+ _April 6, 1921._
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{ix}
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ PAGE
+ GENEALOGICAL TABLES xii
+
+ PART I
+
+ CHAPTER I. THE HISTORICAL ELEMENTS
+
+ SECTION I. The Problem 1
+ SECTION II. The Geatas--their Kings and their Wars 2
+ SECTION III. Heorot and the Danish Kings 13
+ SECTION IV. Leire and Heorot 16
+ SECTION V. The Heathobeardan 20
+ SECTION VI. Hrothulf 25
+ SECTION VII. King Offa 31
+
+ CHAPTER II. THE NON-HISTORICAL ELEMENTS
+
+ SECTION I. The Grendel Fight 41
+ SECTION II. The Scandinavian Parallels--Grettir and Orm 48
+ SECTION III. Bothvar Bjarki 54
+ SECTION IV. Parallels from Folklore 62
+ SECTION V. Scef and Scyld 68
+ SECTION VI. Beow 87
+ SECTION VII. The house of Scyld and Danish parallels--Heremod-Lotherus
+ and Beowulf-Frotho 89
+
+ CHAPTER III. THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN,
+ DATE AND STRUCTURE OF THE POEM
+
+ SECTION I. Is _Beowulf_ translated from a Scandinavian
+ original? 98
+ SECTION II. The dialect, syntax and metre of _Beowulf_ as
+ evidence of its literary history 104
+ SECTION III. Theories as to the structure of _Beowulf_ 112
+ SECTION IV. Are the Christian elements incompatible with the rest
+ of the poem? 121
+ {x}
+
+ PART II
+
+ DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATING THE STORIES IN
+ _BEOWULF_, AND THE _OFFA_-SAGA
+
+ A. The early Kings of the Danes, according to Saxo Grammaticus:
+ Dan, Humblus, Lotherus and Scioldus; Frotho's dragon fight;
+ Haldanus, Roe and Helgo; Roluo (Rolf Kraki) and Biarco
+ (Bjarki); the death of Rolf 129
+
+ B. Extract from _Hrólfs Saga Kraka_, with translation
+ (cap. 23) 138
+
+ C. Extracts from _Grettis Saga_, with translation: (_a_) Glam episode
+ (caps. 32-35); (_b_) Sandhaugar episode (caps. 64-66) 146
+
+ D. Extracts from _Bjarka Rímur_, with translation 182
+
+ E. Extract from _Þáttr Orms Stórólfssonar_, with
+ translation 186
+
+ F. A Danish Dragon-slaying of the Beowulf-type, with translation 192
+
+ G. The Old English Genealogies. I. The Mercian Genealogy. II. The
+ stages above Woden: Woden to Geat and Woden to Sceaf 195
+
+ H. Extract from the Chronicle Roll 201
+
+ I. Extract from the Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire 204
+
+ K. The Story of Offa in Saxo Grammaticus 206
+
+ L. From Skiold to Offa in Sweyn Aageson 211
+
+ M. Note on the Danish Chronicles 215
+
+ N. The _Life of Offa I_, with extracts from the _Life of Offa II_. Edited
+ from two MSS in the Cottonian Collection 217
+
+ O. Extract from _Widsith_, II. 18, 24-49 243
+
+ PART III
+
+ THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURG
+
+ SECTION I. The _Finnsburg Fragment_ 245
+
+ SECTION II. The Episode in _Beowulf_ 248
+
+ SECTION III. Möller's Theory 254
+
+ SECTION IV. Bugge's Theory 257
+
+ SECTION V. Some Difficulties in Bugge's Theory 260
+
+ SECTION VI. Recent Elucidations. Prof. Ayres' Comments 266
+
+ SECTION VII. Problems still outstanding 268
+
+ SECTION VIII. The Weight of Proof: the Eotens 272
+
+ SECTION IX. Ethics of the Blood Feud 276
+
+ {xi}
+ SECTION X. An Attempt at Reconstruction 283
+
+ SECTION XI. Gefwulf, Prince of the Jutes 286
+
+ SECTION XII. Conclusion 287
+ _Note_. Frisia in the heroic age 288
+
+ PART IV
+
+ APPENDIX
+
+ A. A Postscript on Mythology in _Beowulf_. (1) Beowulf the Scylding
+ and Beowulf son of Ecgtheow. (2) Beow 291
+ B. Grendel 304
+ C. The Stages above Woden in the West-Saxon Genealogy 311
+ D. Grammatical and literary evidence for the date of _Beowulf_. The
+ relation of _Beowulf_ to the Classical Epic 322
+ E. The "Jute-question" reopened 333
+ F. _Beowulf_ and the Archaeologists 345
+ G. Leire before Rolf Kraki 365
+ H. Bee-wolf and Bear's son 365
+ I. The date of the death of Hygelac 381
+
+ BIBLIOGRAPHY OF _BEOWULF_ AND _FINNSBURG_ 383
+
+ INDEX 414
+
+PLATES
+
+ PLATE
+
+ I. Drida (Thryth) reproached for her Evil Deeds FRONTISPIECE
+
+ II. Leire in the Seventeenth Century TO FACE 16
+
+ III. Offa, miraculously restored, vindicates his Right.
+ At the side, Offa is represented in Prayer " " 34
+
+ IV. Drida (Thryth) arrives in the land of King Offa,
+ "in nauicula armamentis carente" " " 36
+
+ V. Riganus (or Aliel) comes before King Warmundus
+ to claim that he should be made King in place of
+ the incompetent Offa " " 218
+
+ VI. Drida (Thryth) entraps Albertus (Æthelberht) of
+ East Anglia, and causes him to be slain " " 242
+
+ VII. The Gokstad Ship. The Oseberg Ship " " 362
+
+ VIII. Southern Scandinavia in the Sixth Century.
+ English Boar-Helmet and Ring-Swords _At end_
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{xii}
+
+GENEALOGICAL TABLES
+
+The names of the corresponding characters in Scandinavian legend are added
+in italics; first the Icelandic forms, then the Latinized names as recorded
+by Saxo Grammaticus.
+
+(1) THE DANISH ROYAL FAMILY
+
+ Scyld Sc[=e]fing [_Skj[o,]ldr_, _Skyoldus_]
+ |
+ B[=e]owulf [not the hero of the poem]
+ |
+ Healfdene [_Halfdan_, _Haldanus_]
+ |
+ .-----------------------------------------------------------.
+ | | | |
+ Heorog[=a]r Hr[=o]ðg[=a]r [_Hróarr_[1], H[=a]lga a daughter
+ [_no _Roe_], _mar._ Wealhþ[=e]ow [_Helgi_, [_Signy_]
+ Scandinavian_ | _Helgo_]
+ _parallel_] .----------------------. |
+ | | | | |
+ | | Hr[=o]ðmund | |
+ Heoroweard Hr[=e]ðr[=i]c Hr[=o]ðulf |
+ [_Hj[o,]rvarðr,_ [_Hrærekr,_ _mar._ [_Hrólfr_
+ _Hiarwarus:_ _Røricus:_ Ingeld _Kraki,_
+ _but not_ _not_ _Roluo_]
+ _recognized as_ _recognized_
+ _belonging_ _as a son of_
+ _to this family_] _Hroarr_]
+
+(2) THE GEAT ROYAL FAMILY
+
+ Hr[=e]ðel W[=æ]gmund
+ | |
+ .----------------------------. .-------------.
+ | | | | | |
+ Herebeald Hæðcyn | a daughter, _mar._ Ecgþ[=e]ow W[=e]ohst[=a]n
+ | | |
+ Hygel[=a]c, _mar._ Hygd | |
+ | | |
+ .-----------------. B[=e]owulf W[=i]gl[=a]f
+ | |
+ a daughter, Heardr[=e]d
+ _mar._ Eofor
+
+(3) THE SWEDISH ROYAL FAMILY
+
+ Ongenþ[=e]ow
+ |
+ .-------------------------------------.
+ | |
+ Onela [=O]hthere [_Óttarr_]
+ [_Áli, not recognized_ |
+ _as belonging to this_ .---------------.
+ _family_] | |
+ Eanmund [=E]adgils
+ [_Aðils_[2],
+ _Athislus_]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{1}
+
+PART I
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE HISTORICAL ELEMENTS
+
+SECTION I. THE PROBLEM.
+
+The unique MS of _Beowulf_ may be, and if possible should be, seen by the
+student in the British Museum. It is a good specimen of the elegant script
+of Anglo-Saxon times: "a book got up with some care," as if intended for
+the library of a nobleman or of a monastery. Yet this MS is removed from
+the date when the poem was composed and from the events which it narrates
+(so far as these events are historic at all) by periods of time
+approximately equal to those which separate us from the time when
+Shakespeare's _Henry V_ was written, and when the battle of Agincourt was
+fought.
+
+To try to penetrate the darkness of the five centuries which lie behind the
+extant MS by fitting together such fragments of illustrative information as
+can be obtained, and by using the imagination to bridge the gaps, has been
+the business of three generations of scholars distributed among the ten
+nations of Germanic speech. A whole library has been written around our
+poem, and the result is that this book cannot be as simple as either writer
+or reader might have wished.
+
+
+
+The story which the MS tells us may be summarized thus: Beowulf, a prince
+of the Geatas, voyages to Heorot, the hall of Hrothgar, king of the Danes;
+there he destroys a monster Grendel, who for twelve years has haunted the
+hall by night and slain all he found therein. When Grendel's mother in
+revenge makes an attack on the hall, Beowulf seeks her out and kills her
+also in her home beneath the waters. He then {2} returns to his land with
+honour and is rewarded by his king Hygelac. Ultimately he himself becomes
+king of the Geatas, and fifty years later slays a dragon and is slain by
+it. The poem closes with an account of the funeral rites.
+
+Fantastic as these stories are, they are depicted against a background of
+what appears to be fact. Incidentally, and in a number of digressions, we
+receive much information about the Geatas, Swedes and Danes: all which
+information has an appearance of historic accuracy, and in some cases can
+be proved, from external evidence, to be historically accurate.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION II. THE GEATAS--THEIR KINGS AND THEIR WARS.
+
+Beowulf's people have been identified with many tribes: but there is strong
+evidence that the Geatas are the Götar (O.N. _Gautar_), the inhabitants of
+what is now a portion of Southern Sweden, immediately to the south of the
+great lakes Wener and Wetter. The names _Geatas_ and _Gautar_ correspond
+exactly[3], according to the rules of O.E. and O.N. phonetic development,
+and all we can ascertain of the Geatas and of the Gautar harmonizes well
+with the identification[4].
+
+We know of one occasion only when the Geatas came into violent contact with
+the world outside Scandinavia. Putting together the accounts which we
+receive from Gregory of Tours and from two other (anonymous) writers, we
+learn that a piratical raid was made upon the country of the Atuarii (the
+O.E. _Hetware_) who dwelt between the lower Rhine and what is now the
+Zuyder Zee, by a king whose name is spelt in a variety of ways, all of
+which readily admit of identification with that of the Hygelac of our
+poem[5]. From the land of the Atuarii this king carried much spoil to his
+ships; but, remaining on shore, he was overwhelmed and slain by the army
+which the {3} Frankish king Theodoric had sent under his son to the rescue
+of these outlying provinces; the plunderers' fleet was routed and the booty
+restored to the country. The bones of this gigantic king of the "Getae"
+[presumably = Geatas] were long preserved, it was said, on an island near
+the mouth of the Rhine.
+
+Such is the story of the raid, so far as we can reconstruct it from monkish
+Latin sources. The precise date is not given, but it must have been between
+A.D. 512 and 520.
+
+Now this disastrous raid of Hygelac is referred to constantly in _Beowulf_:
+and the mention there of Hetware, Franks and the Merovingian king as the
+foes confirms an identification which would be satisfactory even without
+these additional data[6].
+
+ Our authorities are:
+
+ (1) Gregory of Tours (d. 594):
+
+ _His ita gestis, Dani cum rege suo nomine Chlochilaico evectu navale
+ per mare Gallias appetunt. Egressique ad terras, pagum unum de regno
+ Theudorici devastant atque captivant, oneratisque navibus tam de
+ captivis quam de reliquis spoliis, reverti ad patriam cupiunt; sed rex
+ eorum in litus resedebat donec naves alto mare conpraehenderent, ipse
+ deinceps secuturus. Quod cum Theudorico nuntiatum fuisset, quod
+ scilicet regio ejus fuerit ab extraneis devastata, Theudobertum, filium
+ suum, in illis partibus cum valido exercitu et magno armorum apparatu
+ direxit. Qui, interfecto rege, hostibus navali proelio superatis
+ opprimit, omnemque rapinam terrae restituit._
+
+ The name of the vanquished king is spelt in a variety of ways:
+ _Chlochilaichum_, _Chrochilaicho_, _Chlodilaichum_, _Hrodolaicum_.
+
+ See _Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Historia Francorum_, p. 110, in
+ _Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Scriptores rerum merovingicarum, I)_.
+
+ (2) The _Liber Historiae Francorum_ (commonly called the _Gesta
+ Francorum_):
+
+ _In illo tempore Dani cum rege suo nomine Chochilaico cum navale hoste
+ per alto mare Gallias appetent, Theuderico paygo [i.e. pagum] Attoarios
+ vel alios devastantes atque captivantes plenas naves de captivis alto
+ mare intrantes rex eorum ad litus maris resedens. Quod cum Theuderico
+ nuntiatum fuisset, Theudobertum filium suum cum magno exercitu in illis
+ partibus dirigens. Qui consequens eos, pugnavit cum eis caede magna
+ atque prostravit, regem eorum interficit, preda tullit, et in terra sua
+ restituit._
+
+ The _Liber Historiae Francorum_ was written in 727, but although so
+ much later than Gregory, it preserves features which are wanting in the
+ earlier historian, such as the mention of the Hetware (_Attoarii_).
+ Note too that the name of the invading king is given in a form which
+ {4} approximates more closely to _Hygelac_ than that of any of the MSS
+ of Gregory: variants are _Chrochilaico_, _Chohilaico_, _Chochilago_,
+ etc.
+
+ See _Monumenta Germaniae Historica_ (_Scriptores rerum merovingicarum,
+ II_, 274).
+
+ (3) An anonymous work _On monsters and strange beasts_, appended to two
+ MSS of Phaedrus.
+
+ _Et sunt [monstra] mirae magnitudinis: ut rex Huiglaucus qui imperavit
+ Getis et a Francis occisus est. Quem equus a duodecimo anno portare non
+ potuit. Cujus ossa in Reni fluminis insula, ubi in Oceanum prorumpit,
+ reservata sunt et de longinquo venientibus pro miraculo ostenduntur._
+
+ This treatise was first printed (from a MS of the tenth century, in
+ private possession) by J. Berger de Xivrey (_Traditions
+ tératologiques_, Paris, 1836, p. 12). It was again published from a
+ second MS at Wolfenbüttel by Haupt (see his _Opuscula_ II, 223, 1876).
+ This MS is in some respects less accurate, reading _Huncglacus_ for
+ _Huiglaucus_, and _gentes_ for _Getis_. The treatise is assigned by
+ Berger de Xivrey to the sixth century, on grounds which are hardly
+ conclusive (p. xxxiv). Haupt would date it not later than the eighth
+ century (II, 220).
+
+ The importance of this reference lies in its describing Hygelac as king
+ of the Getae, and in its fixing the spot where his bones were preserved
+ as near the mouth of the Rhine[7].
+
+But if _Beowulf_ is supported in this matter by what is almost contemporary
+evidence (for Gregory of Tours was born only some twenty years after the
+raid he narrates) we shall probably be right in arguing that the other
+stories from the history of the Geatas, their Danish friends, and their
+Swedish foes, told with what seems to be such historic sincerity in the
+different digressions of our poem, are equally based on fact. True, we have
+no evidence outside _Beowulf_ for Hygelac's father, king Hrethel, nor for
+Hygelac's elder brothers, Herebeald and Hæthcyn; and very little for
+Hæthcyn's deadly foe, the Swedish king Ongentheow[8].
+
+And in the last case, at any rate, such evidence might {5} fairly have been
+expected. For there are extant a very early Norse poem, the _Ynglinga tal_,
+and a much later prose account, the _Ynglinga saga_, enumerating the kings
+of Sweden. The _Ynglinga tal_ traces back these kings of Sweden for some
+thirty reigns. Therefore, though it was not composed till some four
+centuries after the date to which we must assign Ongentheow, it should deal
+with events even earlier than the reign of that king: for, unless the rate
+of mortality among early Swedish kings was abnormally high, thirty reigns
+should occupy a period of more than 400 years. Nothing is, however, told us
+in the _Ynglinga tal_ concerning the deeds of any king Angantyr--which is
+the name we might expect to correspond to Ongentheow[9].
+
+But on the other hand, the son and grandson of Ongentheow, as recorded in
+_Beowulf_, _do_ meet us both in the _Ynglinga tal_ and in the _Ynglinga
+saga_.
+
+According to _Beowulf_, Ongentheow had two sons, Onela and Ohthere: Onela
+became king of Sweden and is spoken of in terms of highest praise[10]. Yet
+to judge from the account given in _Beowulf_, the Geatas had little reason
+to love him. He had followed up the defeat of Hygelac by dealing their
+nation a second deadly blow. For Onela's nephews, Eadgils and Eanmund (the
+sons of Ohthere), had rebelled against him, and had taken refuge at the
+court of the Geatas, where Heardred, son of Hygelac, was now reigning,
+supported by Beowulf. Thither Onela pursued them, and slew the young king
+Heardred. Eanmund also was slain[11], then or later, but Eadgils escaped.
+
+It is not clear from the poem what part Beowulf is supposed to have taken
+in this struggle, or why he failed to ward off disaster from his lord and
+his country. It is not even made clear whether or no he had to make formal
+submission to the hated Swede: but we are told that when Onela withdrew he
+succeeded to the vacant throne. In later days he took his revenge upon
+Onela. "He became a friend to Eadgils in his distress; he supported the son
+of Ohthere across the broad water with men, with warriors and arms: he
+wreaked his {6} vengeance in a chill journey fraught with woe: he deprived
+the king [Onela] of his life."
+
+This story bears in its general outline every impression of true history:
+the struggle for the throne between the nephew and the uncle, the support
+given to the unsuccessful candidate by a rival state, these are events
+which recur frequently in the wild history of the Germanic tribes during
+the dark ages, following inevitably from the looseness of the law of
+succession to the throne.
+
+Now the _Ynglinga tal_ contains allusions to these events, and the
+_Ynglinga saga_ a brief account of them, though dim and distorted[12]. We
+are told how Athils (=Eadgils) king of Sweden, son of Ottar (=Ohthere),
+made war upon Ali (=Onela). By the time the _Ynglinga tal_ was written it
+had been forgotten that Ali was Athils' uncle, and that the war was a civil
+war. But the issue, as reported in the _Ynglinga tal_ and _Ynglinga saga_,
+is the same as in _Beowulf_:
+
+ "King Athils had great quarrels with the king called Ali of Uppland; he
+ was from Norway. They had a battle on the ice of Lake Wener; there King
+ Ali fell, and Athils had the victory. Concerning this battle there is
+ much said in the _Skjoldunga saga_."
+
+From the _Ynglinga saga_ we learn more concerning King Athils: not always
+to his credit. He was, as the Swedes had been from of old, a great
+horse-breeder. Authorities differed as to whether horses or drink were the
+death of him[13]. According to one account he brought on his end by
+celebrating, with immoderate drinking, the death of his enemy Rolf (the
+_Hrothulf_ of _Beowulf_). According to another:
+
+ "King Athils was at a sacrifice of the goddesses, and rode his horse
+ through the hall of the goddesses: the horse tripped under him and fell
+ and threw the king; and his head smote a stone so that the skull broke
+ and the brains lay on the stones, and that was his death. He died at
+ Uppsala, and there was laid in mound, and the Swedes called him a
+ mighty king."
+
+{7}
+
+There can, then, hardly be a doubt that there actually was such a king as
+Eadgils: and some of the charred bones which still lie within the gigantic
+"King's mounds" at Old Uppsala may well be his[14]. And, though they are
+not quite so well authenticated, there can also be little doubt as to the
+historic existence of Onela, Ohthere, and even of Ongentheow.
+
+ _The Swedish Kings._
+
+ The account in the _Ynglinga saga_ of the fight between Onela and
+ Eadgils is as follows:
+
+ _Aðils konungr átti deilur miklar við konung þann, er Áli hét inn
+ upplenzki: hann var ór Nóregi. Þeir áttu orrostu á Vænis ísi; þar fell
+ Áli konungr en Aðils hafði sigr; frá þessarri orrostu er langt sagt í
+ Skj[o,]ldunga s[o,]gu._ (_Ynglinga saga_ in _Heimskringla_, ed.
+ Jónsson, Kjøbenhavn, 1893, I, 56.)
+
+ The _Skjoldunga saga_ here mentioned is an account of the kings of
+ Denmark. It is preserved only in a Latin abstract.
+
+ _Post haec ortis inter Adilsum illum Sveciae regem et Alonem
+ Opplandorum regem in Norvegia, inimicitiis, praelium utrinque
+ indicitur: loco pugnae statuto in stagno Waener, glacie jam obducto. Ad
+ illud igitur se viribus inferiorem agnoscens Rolphonis privigni sui
+ opem implorat, hoc proposito praemio, ut ipse Rolpho tres
+ praeciosissimas res quascunque optaret ex universo regno Sveciae
+ praemii loco auferret: duodecim autem pugilum ipsius quilibet 3 libras
+ auri puri, quilibet reliquorum bellatorum tres marcas argenti defecati.
+ Rolpho domi ipse reses pugilos suos duodecim Adilso in subsidium
+ mittit, quorum etiam opera is alioqui vincendus, victoriam obtinuit.
+ Illi sibi et regi propositum praemium exposcunt, negat Adilsus,
+ Rolphoni absenti ullum deberi praemium, quare et Dani pugiles sibi
+ oblatum respuebant, cum regem suum eo frustrari intelligerent,
+ reversique rem, ut gesta est, exponunt._ (See _Skjoldungasaga i Arngrim
+ Jonssons Udtog, udgiven af Axel Olrik_, Kjøbenhavn, 1894, p. 34
+ [116].)
+
+ There is also a reference to this battle on the ice in the _Kálfsvísa_,
+ a mnemonic list of famous heroes and their horses. It is noteworthy
+ that in this list mention is made of Vestein, who is perhaps the
+ Wihstan of our poem, and of Biar, who has been thought (very
+ doubtfully) to correspond to the O.E. Beaw.
+
+ _Dagr reiþ Dr[o,]sle en Dvalenn Móþne..._
+ _Ále Hrafne es til íss riþo,_
+ _enn annarr austr und Aþilse_
+ _grár hvarfaþe geire undaþr._
+ _Bj[o,]rn reiþ Blakke en Biarr Kerte,_
+ _Atle Glaume en Aþils Slungne..._
+ _Lieder der Edda_, ed. Symons and Gering, I, 221-2.
+
+ "Ale was on Hrafn when they rode to the ice: but another horse, a grey
+ one, with Athils on his back, fell eastward, wounded by the spear."
+ This, as Olrik points out, appears to refer to a version of the story
+ in which Athils had his fall from his horse, not at a ceremony at
+ Uppsala, but after the battle with Ali. (_Heltedigtning_, I, 203-4.)
+
+ {8}
+
+ For various theories as to the early history of the Swedish royal
+ house, as recorded in _Beowulf_, see Weyhe, _König Ongentheows Fall_,
+ in _Engl. Stud._, XXXIX, 14-39; Schück, _Studier i Ynglingatal_
+ (1905-7); Stjerna, _Vendel och Vendelkråka_, in _A.f.n.F._ XXI, 71,
+ _etc._
+
+ _The Geatas._
+
+ The identification of Geatas and Götar has been accepted by the great
+ majority of scholars, although Kemble wished to locate the Geatas in
+ Schleswig, Grundtvig in Gotland, and Haigh in England. Leo was the
+ first to suggest the Jutes: but the "Jute-hypothesis" owes its currency
+ to the arguments of Fahlbeck (_Beovulfsqvädet såsom källa för nordisk
+ fornhistoria_ in the _Antiqvarisk Tidskrift för Sverige_, VIII, 2, 1).
+ Fahlbeck's very inconclusive reasons were contested at the time by
+ Sarrazin (23 _etc._) and ten Brink (194 _etc._) and the arguments
+ against them have lately been marshalled by H. Schück (_Folknamnet
+ Geatas i den fornengelska dikten Beowulf_, Upsala, 1907). It is indeed
+ difficult to understand how Fahlbeck's theory came to receive the
+ support it has had from several scholars (e.g. Bugge, _P.B.B._ XII, 1
+ _etc._; Weyhe, _Engl. Stud._, XXXIX, 38 _etc._; Gering). For his
+ conclusions do not arise naturally from the O.E. data: his whole
+ argument is a piece of learned pleading, undertaken to support his
+ rather revolutionary speculations as to early Swedish history. These
+ speculations would have been rendered less probable had the natural
+ interpretation of Geatas as Götar been accepted. The Jute-hypothesis
+ has recently been revived, with the greatest skill and learning, by
+ Gudmund Schütte (_Journal of English and Germanic Philology_, XI, 574
+ _etc._). But here again I cannot help suspecting that the wish is
+ father to the thought, and that the fact that that eminent scholar is a
+ Dane living in Jutland, has something to do with his attempt to locate
+ the Geatas there. No amount of learning will eradicate patriotism.
+
+ The following considerations need to be weighed:
+
+ (1) _Geatas_ etymologically corresponds exactly with O.N. _Gautar_, the
+ modern Götar. The O.E. word corresponding to Jutes (the Iutae of Bede)
+ should be, not _Geatas_, but in the Anglian dialect _Eote_, _Iote_, in
+ the West Saxon _Iete_, _Yte_.
+
+ Now it is true that in one passage in the O.E. translation of Bede (I,
+ 15) the word "Iutarum" _is_ rendered _Geata_: but in the other (IV, 16)
+ "Iutorum" is rendered _Eota_, _Ytena_. And this latter rendering is
+ supported (_a_) by the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ (_Iotum_, _Iutna_) and
+ (_b_) by the fact that the current O.E. word for Jutes was _Yte_,
+ _Ytan_, which survived till after the Norman conquest. For the name
+ _Ytena land_ was used for that portion of Hampshire which had been
+ settled by the Jutes: William Rufus was slain, according to Florence of
+ Worcester, in _Ytene_ (which Florence explains as _prouincia Jutarum_).
+
+ From the purely etymological point of view the Götar-hypothesis, then,
+ is unimpeachable: but the Jute-hypothesis is unsatisfactory, since it
+ is based upon one passage in the O.E. Bede, where _Jutarum_ is
+ incorrectly rendered _Geata_, whilst it is invalidated by the other
+ passage in the O.E. Bede, by the _Chronicle_ and by Florence of
+ Worcester, where _Jutorum_ is correctly translated by _Ytena_, or its
+ Anglian or Kentish equivalent _Eota_, _Iotna_.
+
+ (2) It is obvious that the Geatas of _Beowulf_ were a strong and
+ independent power--a match for the Swedes. Now we learn from Procopius
+ that in the sixth century the Götar were an independent {9} and
+ numerous nation. But we have no equal evidence for any similar
+ preponderant Jutish power in the sixth century. The _Iutae_ are indeed
+ a rather puzzling tribe, and scholars have not even been able to agree
+ where they dwelt.
+
+ The Götar on the other hand are located among the great nations of
+ Scandinavia both by Ptolemy (_Geog._ II, 11, 16) in the second century
+ and by Procopius (_Bell. Gott._ II, 15) in the sixth. When we next get
+ clear information (through the Christian missionaries) both Götar and
+ Swedes have been united under one king. But the Götar retained their
+ separate laws, traditions, and voice in the selection of the king, and
+ they were constantly asserting themselves during the Middle Ages. The
+ title of the king of Sweden, _rex Sveorum Gothorumque_, commemorates
+ the old distinction.
+
+ From the historical point of view, then, the Götar comply with what we
+ are told in _Beowulf_ of the power of the Geatas much better than do
+ the Jutes.
+
+ (3) Advocates of the Jute-hypothesis have claimed much support from the
+ geographical argument that the Swedes and Geatas fight _ofer s[=æ]_
+ (e.g. when Beowulf and Eadgils attack Onela, 2394). But the term
+ _s[=æ]_ is just as appropriate to the great lakes Wener and Wetter,
+ which separated the Swedes from the Götar, as it is to the Cattegatt.
+ And we have the evidence of Scandinavian sources that the battle
+ between Eadgils and Onela actually _did_ take place on the ice of lake
+ Wener (see above, p. 6). Moreover the absence of any mention of ships
+ in the fighting narrated in ll. 2922-2945 would be remarkable if the
+ contending nations were Jutes and Swedes, but suits Götar and Swedes
+ admirably: since they could attack each other by land as well as by
+ water.
+
+ (4) There is reason to think that the old land of the Götar included a
+ great deal of what is now the south-west coast of Sweden[15]. Hygelac's
+ capital was probably not far from the modern Göteborg. The descriptions
+ in _Beowulf_ would suit the cliffs of southern Sweden well, but they
+ are quite inapplicable to the sandy dunes of Jutland.
+
+ Little weight can, however, be attached to this last argument, as the
+ cliffs of the land of the Geatas are in any case probably drawn from
+ the poet's imagination.
+
+ (5) If we accept the identification Beowulf = Bjarki (see below, pp.
+ 60-1) a further argument for the equation of Geatas and Götar will be
+ found in the fact that Bjarki travels to Denmark from Gautland just as
+ Beowulf from the land of the Geatas; Bjarki is the brother of the king
+ of the Gautar, Beowulf the nephew of the king of the Geatas.
+
+ (6) No argument as to the meaning of _Geatas_ can be drawn from the
+ fact that Gregory calls Chlochilaicus (Hygelac) a Dane. For it is clear
+ from _Beowulf_ that, whatever else they may have been, the Geatas were
+ not Danes. Either, then, Gregory must be misinformed, or he must be
+ using the word _Dane_ vaguely, to cover any kind of Scandinavian
+ pirate.
+
+ (7) Probably what has weighed most heavily (often perhaps not
+ consciously) in gaining converts to the "Jute-hypothesis" has been the
+ conviction that "in ancient times each nation celebrated in song its
+ own heroes alone." Hence one set of scholars, accepting the
+ identification of the Geatas with the Scandinavian Götar, have argued
+ that _Beowulf_ is therefore simply a translation from a Scandinavian
+ Götish original. Others, accepting _Beowulf_ as an English poem, have
+ {10} argued that the Geatas who are celebrated in it must therefore be
+ one of the tribes that settled in England, and have therefore favoured
+ the "Jute theory." But the _a priori_ assumption that each Germanic
+ tribe celebrated in song its own national heroes only is demonstrably
+ incorrect[16].
+
+But in none of the accounts of the warfare of these Scandinavian kings,
+whether written in Norse or monkish Latin, is there mention of any name
+corresponding to that of Beowulf, as king of the Geatas. Whether he is as
+historic as the other kings with whom in our poem he is brought into
+contact, we cannot say.
+
+It has been generally held that the Beowulf of our poem is compounded out
+of two elements: that an historic Beowulf, king of the Geatas, has been
+combined with a mythological figure Beowa[17], a god of the ancient Angles:
+that the historical achievements against Frisians and Swedes belong to the
+king, the mythological adventures with giants and dragons to the god. But
+there is no conclusive evidence for either of these presumed component
+parts of our hero. To the god Beowa we shall have to return later: here it
+is enough to note that the current assumption that there _was_ a king
+Beowulf of the Geatas lacks confirmation from Scandinavian sources.
+
+And one piece of evidence there is, which tends to show that Beowulf is not
+an historic king at all, but that his adventures have been violently
+inserted amid the historic names of the kings of the Geatas. Members of the
+families in _Beowulf_ which we have reason to think historic bear names
+which alliterate the one with the other. The inference seems to be that it
+was customary, when a Scandinavian prince was named in the Sixth Century,
+to give him a name which had an initial letter similar to that of his
+father: care was thus taken that metrical difficulties should not prevent
+the names of father and son being linked together in song[18]. In the case
+of Beowulf himself, however, this rule breaks down. Beowulf seems an
+intruder {11} into the house of Hrethel. It may be answered that since he
+was only the offspring of a daughter of that house, and since that daughter
+had three brothers, there would have been no prospect of his becoming king,
+when he was named. But neither does his name fit in with that of the other
+great house with which he is supposed to be connected. Wiglaf, son of
+Wihstan of the Wægmundingas, was named according to the familiar rules: but
+Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, seems an intruder in that family as well.
+
+This failure to fall in with the alliterative scheme, and the absence of
+confirmation from external evidence, are, of course, not in themselves
+enough to prove that the reign of Beowulf over the Geatas is a poetic
+figment. And indeed our poem _may_ quite possibly be true to historic fact
+in representing him as the last of the great kings of the Geatas; after
+whose death his people have nothing but national disaster to expect[19]. It
+would be strange that this last and most mighty and magnanimous of the
+kings of the Geatas should have been forgotten in Scandinavian lands: that
+outside _Beowulf_ nothing should be known of his reign. But when we
+consider how little, outside _Beowulf_, we know of the Geatic kingdom at
+all, we cannot pronounce such oblivion impossible.
+
+What tells much more against Beowulf as a historic Geatic king is that
+there is always apt to be something extravagant and unreal about what the
+poem tells us of his deeds, contrasting with the sober and historic way in
+which other kings, like Hrothgar or Hygelac or Eadgils, are referred to.
+True, we must not disqualify Beowulf forthwith because he slew a
+dragon[20]. Several unimpeachably historical persons have done this: so
+sober an authority as the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ assures us that fiery
+dragons were flying in Northumbria as late as A.D. 793[21].
+
+{12}
+
+But (and this is the serious difficulty) even when Beowulf is depicted in
+quite historic circumstances, there is still something unsubstantial about
+his actions. When, in the midst of the strictly historical account of
+Hygelac's overthrow, we are told that Beowulf swam home bearing thirty
+suits of armour, this is as fantastic as the account of his swimming home
+from Grendel's lair with Grendel's head and the magic swordhilt. We may
+well doubt whether there is any more kernel of historic fact in the one
+feat than in the other[22]. Again, we are told how Beowulf defended the
+young prince Heardred, Hygelac's son. Where was he, then, when Heardred was
+defeated and slain? To protect and if necessary avenge his lord upon the
+battlefield was the essential duty of the Germanic retainer. Yet Beowulf
+has no part to play in the episode of the death of Heardred. He is simply
+ignored till it is over. True, we are told that in later days he _did_ take
+vengeance, by supporting the claims of Eadgils, the pretender, against
+Onela, the slayer of Heardred. But here again difficulties meet us: for the
+Scandinavian authorities, whilst they agree that Eadgils overthrew Onela by
+the use of foreign auxiliaries, represent these auxiliaries as Danish
+retainers, dispatched by the Danish king Hrothulf. The chief of these
+Danish retainers is Bothvar Bjarki, who, as we shall see later, has been
+thought to stand in some relation to Beowulf. But Bothvar is never regarded
+as king of the Geatas: and the fact remains that _Beowulf_ is at variance
+with our other authorities in representing Eadgils as having been placed on
+the throne by a Geatic rather than by a Danish force. Yet this Geatic
+expedition against Onela is, with the exception of the dragon episode, the
+only event which our poem has to narrate concerning Beowulf's long reign of
+fifty years. And in other respects the reign is shadowy. Beowulf, we are
+told, came to the throne at a time of utter national distress; he had a
+long and prosperous reign, and became so powerful that he was able to
+dethrone the mighty[23] Swedish king Onela, and place in his stead the
+miserable fugitive[24] Eadgils. Yet, after this half century of success,
+the {13} kingdom is depicted upon Beowulf's death as being in the same
+tottering condition in which it stood at the time when he is represented as
+having come to the throne, after the fall of Heardred.
+
+The destruction one after the other of the descendants of Hrethel sounds
+historic: at any rate it possesses verisimilitude. But the picture of the
+childless Beowulf, dying, after a glorious reign, in extreme old age,
+having apparently made no previous arrangements for the succession, so that
+Wiglaf, a youth hitherto quite untried in war, steps at once into the place
+of command on account of his valour in slaying the dragon--this is a
+picture which lacks all historic probability.
+
+I cannot avoid a suspicion that the fifty years' reign of Beowulf over the
+Geatas may quite conceivably be a poetic fiction[25]; that the downfall of
+the Geatic kingdom and its absorption in Sweden were very possibly brought
+about by the destruction of Hygelac and all his warriors at the mouth of
+the Rhine.
+
+Such an event would have given the Swedes their opportunity for vengeance:
+they may have swooped down, destroyed Heardred, and utterly crushed the
+independent kingdom of the Geatas before the younger generation had time to
+grow up into fighting men.
+
+To the fabulous achievements of Beowulf, his fight with Grendel, Grendel's
+dam, and the dragon, it will be necessary to return later. As to his other
+feats, all we can say is that the common assumption that they rest upon an
+historic foundation does not seem to be capable of proof. But that they
+have an historic background is indisputable.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION III. HEOROT AND THE DANISH KINGS.
+
+Of the Danish kings mentioned in _Beowulf_, we have first Scyld Scefing,
+the foundling, an ancient and probably a mythical figure, then Beowulf, son
+of Scyld, who seems an intruder among the Danish kings, since the Danish
+records know nothing {14} of him, and since his name does not alliterate
+with those of either his reputed father or his reputed son. Then comes the
+"high" Healfdene, to whom four children were born: Heorogar, Hrothgar,
+Halga "the good," and a daughter who was wedded to the Swedish king. Since
+Hrothgar is represented as an elder contemporary of Hygelac, we must
+date[26] Healfdene and his sons, should they be historic characters,
+between A.D. 430 and 520.
+
+Now it is noteworthy that just after A.D. 500 the Danes first become widely
+known, and the name "Danes" first meets us in Latin and Greek authors. And
+this cannot be explained on the ground that the North has become more
+familiar to dwellers in the classical lands: on the contrary far less is
+known concerning the geography of the North Sea and the Baltic than had
+been the case four or five centuries before. Tacitus and Ptolemy knew of
+many tribes inhabiting what is now Denmark, but not of the Danes: the
+writers in Ravenna and Constantinople in the sixth century, though much
+less well informed on the geography of the North, know of the Danes as
+amongst the most powerful nations there. _Beowulf_ is, then, supported by
+the Latin and Greek records when it depicts these rulers of Denmark as a
+house of mighty kings, the fame of whose realm spread far and wide. We
+cannot tell to what extent this realm was made by the driving forth of
+alien nations from Denmark, to what extent by the coming together (under
+the common name of Danes) of many tribes which had hitherto been known by
+other distinct names.
+
+The pedigree of the house of Healfdene can be constructed from the
+references in _Beowulf_. Healfdene's three sons, Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga,
+are presumably enumerated in order of age, since Hrothgar mentions
+Heorogar, but not Halga, as his senior[27]. Heorogar left a son
+Heoroweard[28], but it is in accordance with Teutonic custom that Hrothgar
+should have succeeded to the throne if, as we may well suppose, Heoroweard
+was too young to be trusted with the kingship.
+
+{15}
+
+The younger brother Halga is never mentioned during Beowulf's visit to
+Heorot, and the presumption is that he is already dead.
+
+The Hrothulf who, both in _Beowulf_ and _Widsith_, is linked with King
+Hrothgar, almost as his equal, is clearly the son of Halga: for he is
+Hrothgar's nephew[29], and yet he is not the son of Heorogar[30]. The
+mention of how Hrothgar shielded this Hrothulf when he was a child confirms
+us in the belief that his father Halga had died early. Yet, though he thus
+belongs to the youngest branch of the family, Hrothulf is clearly older
+than Hrethric and Hrothmund, the two sons of Hrothgar, whose youth, in
+spite of the age of their father, is striking. The seat of honour occupied
+by Hrothulf[31] is contrasted with the undistinguished place of his two
+young cousins, sitting among the _giogoth_[32]. Nevertheless Hrothgar and
+his wife expect their son, not their nephew, to succeed to the throne[33].
+Very small acquaintance with the history of royal houses in these lawless
+Teutonic times is enough to show us that trouble is likely to be in store.
+
+
+
+So much can be made out from the English sources, _Beowulf_ and _Widsith_.
+Turning now to the Scandinavian records, we find much confusion as to
+details, and as to the characters of the heroes: but the relationships are
+the same as in the Old English poem.
+
+Heorogar is, it is true, forgotten; and though a name Hiarwarus is found in
+Saxo corresponding to that of Heoroweard, the son of Heorogar, in
+_Beowulf_, this Hiarwarus is cut off from the family, now that his father
+is no longer remembered. Accordingly the Halfdan of Danish tradition
+(Haldanus in Saxo's Latin: = O.E. Healfdene) has only two sons, Hroar {16}
+(Saxo's Roe, corresponding to O.E. Hrothgar) and Helgi (Saxo's Helgo: =
+O.E. Halga). Helgi is the father of Rolf Kraki (Saxo's Roluo: = O.E.
+Hrothulf), the type of the noble king, the Arthur of Denmark.
+
+And, just as Arthur holds court at Camelot, or Charlemagne is at home _ad
+Ais, à sa capele_, so the Scandinavian traditions represent Rolf Kraki as
+keeping house at Leire (_Lethra_, _Hleiðar garðr_).
+
+ Accounts of all these kings, and above all of Rolf Kraki, meet us in a
+ number of Scandinavian documents, of which three are particularly
+ important:
+
+ (1) Saxo Grammaticus (the lettered), the earlier books of whose
+ _Historia Danica_ are a storehouse of Scandinavian tradition and
+ poetry, clothed in a difficult and bombastic, but always amusing,
+ Latin. How much later than the English these Scandinavian sources are,
+ we can realize by remembering that when Saxo was putting the finishing
+ touches to his history, King John was ruling in England.
+
+ There are also a number of other Danish-Latin histories and
+ genealogies.
+
+ (2) The Icelandic _Saga of Rolf Kraki_, a late document belonging to
+ the end of the middle ages, but nevertheless containing valuable
+ matter.
+
+ (3) The Icelandic _Skjoldunga saga_, extant only in a Latin summary of
+ the end of the sixteenth century.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION IV. LEIRE AND HEOROT.
+
+The village of Leire remains to the present day. It stands near the north
+coast of the island of Seeland, some five miles from Roskilde and three
+miles from the sea, in a gentle valley, through the midst of which flows a
+small stream. The village itself consists of a tiny cluster of cottages:
+the outstanding feature of the place is formed by the huge grave mounds
+scattered around in all directions.
+
+The tourist, walking amid these cottages and mounds, may feel fairly
+confident that he is standing on the site of Heorot.
+
+There are two distinct stages in this identification: it must be proved
+(_a_) that the modern Leire occupies the site of the Leire (_Lethra_) where
+Rolf Kraki ruled, and (_b_) that the Leire of Rolf Kraki was built on the
+site of Heorot.
+
+[Illustration: Leire in the Seventeenth Century
+
+From Saxo Grammaticus, ed. Stephanius, 1644.]
+
+{17} (_a_) That the modern Leire occupies the site of the ancient Leire has
+indeed been disputed[34], but seems hardly open to doubt, in view of the
+express words of the Danish chroniclers[35]. It is true that the mounds,
+which these early chroniclers probably imagined as covering the ashes of
+'Haldanus' or 'Roe,' and which later antiquaries dubbed with the names of
+other kings, are now thought to belong, not to the time of Hrothgar, but to
+the Stone or Bronze Ages. But this evidence that Leire was a place of
+importance thousands of years before Hrothgar or Hrothulf were born, in no
+wise invalidates the overwhelming evidence that it was their residence
+also.
+
+The equation of the modern Leire with the Leire of Rolf Kraki we may then
+accept. We cannot be quite so sure of our thesis (_b_): that the ancient
+Leire was identical with the site where Hrothgar built Heorot. But it is
+highly probable: for although Leire is more particularly connected with the
+memory of Rolf Kraki himself, we are assured, in one of the mediæval Danish
+chronicles, that Leire was the royal seat of Rolf's predecessors as well:
+of Ro (Hrothgar) and of Ro's father: and that Ro "enriched it with great
+magnificence[36]." Ro also, according to this chronicler, heaped a mound at
+Leire over the grave of his father, and was himself buried at Leire under
+another mound.
+
+Now since the Danish tradition represents Hrothgar as enriching his royal
+town of Leire, whilst English tradition commemorates him as a builder king,
+constructing a royal hall "greater than the sons of men had ever heard
+speak of"--it becomes very probable that the two traditions are reflections
+of the same fact, and that the site of that hall was Leire. That Heorot,
+the picturesque name of the hall itself, should, in English tradition, have
+been remembered, whilst that of the town where it was built had been
+forgotten, is natural[37]. For {18} though the names of heroes survived in
+such numbers, after the settlement of the Angles in England, it was very
+rarely indeed, so far as we can judge, that the Angles and Saxons continued
+to have any clear idea concerning the _places_ which had been familiar to
+their forefathers, but which they themselves had never seen.
+
+Further, the names of both Hrothgar and Hrothulf are linked with Heorot in
+English tradition in the same way as those of Roe and Rolf are with Leire
+in Danish chronicles.
+
+Yet there is some little doubt, though not such as need seriously trouble
+us, as to this identification of the site of Heorot with Leire. Two causes
+especially have led students to doubt the connection of Roe (Hrothgar) with
+Leire, and to place elsewhere the great hall Heorot which he built.
+
+In the first place, Rolf Kraki came to be so intimately associated with
+Leire that his connection overshadowed that of Roe, and Saxo even goes so
+far in one place as to represent Leire as having been _founded_ by
+Rolf[38]. In that case Leire clearly could not be the place where Rolf's
+predecessor built his royal hall. But that Saxo is in error here seems
+clear, for elsewhere he himself speaks of Leire as being a Danish
+stronghold when Rolf was a child[39].
+
+In the second place, Roe is credited with having founded the neighbouring
+town of Roskilde (Roe's spring)[40] so that some have wished to locate
+Heorot there, rather than at Leire, five miles to the west. But against
+this identification of Heorot with Roskilde it must be noted that Roe is
+said to have built Roskilde, not as a capital for himself, but as a
+market-place for the merchants: there is no suggestion that it was his
+royal town, though in time it became the capital, and its cathedral is
+still the Westminster Abbey of Denmark.
+
+What at first sight looks so much in favour of our equating {19} Roskilde
+with Heorot--the presence in its name of the element _Ro_ (Hrothgar)--is in
+reality the most suspicious thing about the identification. There are other
+names in Denmark with the element _Ro_, in places where it is quite
+impossible to suppose that the king's name is commemorated. Some other
+explanation of the name has therefore to be sought, and it is very probable
+that Roskilde meant originally not "Hrothgar's spring," but "the horses'
+spring," and that the connection with King Ro is simply one of those
+inevitable pieces of popular etymology which take place so soon as the true
+origin of a name is forgotten[41].
+
+Leire has, then, a much better claim than Roskilde to being the site of
+Heorot: and geographical considerations confirm this. For Heorot is clearly
+imagined by the poet of _Beowulf_ as being some distance inland; and this,
+whilst it suits admirably the position of Leire, is quite inapplicable to
+Roskilde, which is situated on the sea at the head of the Roskilde
+fjord[42]. Of course we must not expect to find the poet of _Beowulf_, or
+indeed any epic poet, minutely exact in his geography. At the same time it
+is clear that at the time _Beowulf_ was written there were traditions
+extant, dealing with the attack made upon Heorot by the ancestral foes of
+the Danes, a tribe called the Heathobeardan. These accounts of the fighting
+around Heorot must have preserved the general impression of its situation,
+precisely as from the _Iliad_ we know that Troy is neither on the sea nor
+yet very remote from it. A poet would draw on his imagination for details,
+but would hardly alter a feature like this.
+
+In these matters absolute certainty cannot be reached: but we may be fairly
+sure that the spot where Hrothgar built his "Hart-Hall" and where Hrothulf
+held that court to which the North ever after looked for its pattern of
+chivalry was {20} Leire, where the grave mounds rise out of the waving
+cornfields[43].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION V. THE HEATHOBEARDAN.
+
+Now, as _Beowulf_ is the one long Old English poem which happens to have
+been preserved, we, drawing our ideas of Old English story almost
+exclusively from it, naturally think of Heorot as the scene of the fight
+with Grendel.
+
+But in the short poem of _Widsith_, almost certainly older than _Beowulf_,
+we have a catalogue of the characters of the Old English heroic poetry.
+This catalogue is dry in itself, but is of the greatest interest for the
+light it throws upon Old Germanic heroic legends and the history behind
+them. And from _Widsith_ it is clear that the rule of Hrothgar and Hrothulf
+at Heorot and the attack of the Heathobeardan upon them, rather than any
+story of monster-quelling, was what the old poets more particularly
+associated with the name of Heorot. The passage in _Widsith_ runs:
+
+ "For a very long time did Hrothgar and Hrothwulf, uncle and nephew,
+ hold the peace together, after they had driven away the race of the
+ Vikings and humbled the array of Ingeld, had hewed down at Heorot the
+ host of the Heathobeardan."
+
+The details of this war can be reconstructed, partly from the allusions in
+_Beowulf_, partly from the Scandinavian accounts. The Scandinavian versions
+are less primitive and historic. They have forgotten all about the
+Heathobeardan as an independent tribe, and, whilst remembering the names of
+the leading chieftains on both sides, they see in them members of two rival
+branches of the Danish royal house.
+
+We gather from _Beowulf_ that for generations a blood feud has raged
+between the Danes and the Heathobeardan. Nothing is told us in _Beowulf_
+about the king Healfdene, except that he {21} was fierce in war and that he
+lived to be old. From the Scandinavian stories it seems clear that he was
+concerned in the Heathobard feud. According to some later Scandinavian
+accounts he was slain by Frothi (=Froda, whom we know from _Beowulf_ to
+have been king of the Heathobeardan) and this may well have been the
+historic fact[44]. How Hroar and Helgi (Hrothgar and Halga), the sons of
+Halfdan (Healfdene), evaded the pursuit of Frothi, we learn from the
+Scandinavian tales; whether the Old English story knew anything of their
+hair-breadth escapes we cannot tell. Ultimately, the saga tells us, Hroar
+and Helgi, in revenge for their father's death, burnt the hall over the
+head of his slayer, Frothi[45]. To judge from the hints in _Beowulf_, it
+would rather seem that the Old English tradition represented this vengeance
+upon Froda as having been inflicted in a pitched battle. The eldest brother
+Heorogar--known only to the English story--perhaps took his share in this
+feat. But, after his brothers Heorogar and Halga were dead, Hrothgar, left
+alone, and fearing vengeance in his turn, strove to compose the feud by
+wedding his daughter Freawaru to Ingeld, the son of Froda. So much we learn
+from the report which Beowulf gives, on his return home, to Hygelac, as to
+the state of things at the Danish court.
+
+Beowulf is depicted as carrying a very sage head upon his young shoulders,
+and he gives evidence of his astuteness by predicting[46] that the peace
+which Hrothgar has purchased will not be lasting. Some Heathobard survivor
+of the fight in which Froda fell, will, he thinks, see a young Dane in the
+retinue of Freawaru proudly pacing the hall, wearing the treasures which
+his father had won from the Heathobeardan. Then the old warrior will urge
+on his younger comrade "Canst thou, my lord, tell the sword, the dear iron,
+which thy father carried to the fight when he bore helm for the last time,
+when the Danes slew him and had the victory? And now the son {22} of one of
+these slayers paces the hall, proud of his arms, boasts of the slaughter
+and wears the precious sword which thou by right shouldst wield[47]."
+
+Such a reminder as this no Germanic warrior could long resist. So, Beowulf
+thinks, the young Dane will be slain; Ingeld will cease to take joy in his
+bride; and the old feud will break out afresh.
+
+That it did so we know from _Widsith_, and from the same source we know
+that this Heathobard attack was repulsed by the combined strength of
+Hrothgar and his nephew Hrothulf.
+
+But the tragic figure of Ingeld, hesitating between love for his father and
+love for his wife, between the duty of vengeance and his plighted word, was
+one which was sure to attract the interest of the old heroic poets more
+even than those of the victorious uncle and nephew. In the eighth century
+Alcuin, the Northumbrian, quotes Ingeld as the typical hero of song.
+Writing to a bishop of Lindisfarne, he reproves the monks for their
+fondness for the old stories about heathen kings, who are now lamenting
+their sins in Hell: "in the Refectory," he says, "the Bible should be read:
+the lector heard, not the harper: patristic sermons rather than pagan
+songs. For what has Ingeld to do with Christ[48]?" This protest testifies
+eloquently to the popularity of the Ingeld story, and further evidence is
+possibly afforded by the fact that few heroes of story seem to have had so
+many namesakes in Eighth Century England.
+
+What is emphasized in _Beowulf_ is not so much the struggle in the mind of
+Ingeld as the stern, unforgiving temper of the grim old warrior who will
+not let the feud die down; and this is the case also with the Danish
+versions, preserved to us in the Latin of Saxo Grammaticus. In two songs
+(translated by Saxo into "delightful sapphics") the old warrior
+Starcatherus stirs up Ingellus to his revenge:
+
+ "Why, Ingeld, buried in vice, dost thou delay to avenge thy father?
+ Wilt thou endure patiently the slaughter of thy righteous sire?...
+
+ {23}
+
+ Whilst thou takest pleasure in honouring thy bride, laden with gems,
+ and bright with golden vestments, grief torments us, coupled with
+ shame, as we bewail thine infamies.
+
+ Whilst headlong lust urges thee, our troubled mind recalls the fashion
+ of an earlier day, and admonishes us to grieve over many things.
+
+ For we reckon otherwise than thou the crime of the foes, whom now thou
+ holdest in honour; wherefore the face of this age is a burden to me,
+ who have known the old ways.
+
+ By nought more would I desire to be blessed, if, Froda, I might see
+ those guilty of thy murder paying the due penalty of such a crime[49]."
+
+Starkath came to be one of the best-known figures in Scandinavian legend,
+the type of the fierce, unrelenting warrior. Even in death his severed head
+bit the earth: or according to another version "the trunk fought on when
+the head was gone[50]." Nor did the Northern imagination leave him there.
+It loved to follow him below, and to indulge in conjectures as to his
+bearing in the pit of Hell[51].
+
+ Who the Heathobeardan were is uncertain. It is frequently argued that
+ they are identical with the Longobardi; that the words _Heatho-Bard_
+ and _Long-Bard_ correspond, just as we get sometimes _Gar-Dene_,
+ sometimes _Hring-Dene_. (So Heyne; Bremer in _Pauls Grdr._ (2) III, 949
+ _etc._) The evidence for this is however unsatisfactory (see Chambers,
+ _Widsith_, 205). Since the year 186 A.D. onwards the Longobardi were
+ dwelling far inland, and were certainly never in a position from which
+ an attack upon the Danes would have been practicable. If, therefore, we
+ accept the identification of Heatho-Bard and Long-Bard, we must suppose
+ the Heathobeardan of _Beowulf_ to have been not the Longobardi of
+ history, but a separate portion of the people, which had been left
+ behind on the shores of the Baltic, when the main body went south. But
+ as we have no evidence for any such offshoot from the main tribe, it is
+ misleading to speak of the Heathobeardan as identical with the
+ Longobardi: and although the similarity of one element in the name
+ suggests some primitive relationship, that relationship may well have
+ been exceedingly remote[52].
+
+ {24}
+
+ It has further been proposed to identify the Heathobeardan with the
+ Heruli[53]. The Heruli came from the Scandinavian district, overran
+ Europe, and became famous for their valour, savagery, and value as
+ light-armed troops. If the Heathobeardan are identical with the Heruli,
+ and if what we are told of the customs of the Heruli is true, Freawaru
+ was certainly to be pitied. The Heruli were accustomed to put to death
+ their sick and aged: and to compel widows to commit suicide.
+
+ The supposed identity of the Heruli with the Heathobeardan is however
+ very doubtful. It rests solely upon the statement of Jordanes that they
+ had been driven from their homes by the Danes (_Dani ... Herulos
+ propriis sedibus expulerunt_). This is inconclusive, since the growth
+ of the Danish power is likely enough to have led to collisions with
+ more than one tribe. In fact _Beowulf_ tells us that Scyld "tore away
+ the mead benches from _many_ a people." On the other hand the
+ dissimilarity of names is not conclusive evidence against the
+ identification, for the word _Heruli_ is pretty certainly the same as
+ the Old English _Eorlas_, and is a complimentary nick-name applied by
+ the tribe to themselves, rather than their original racial designation.
+
+ Nothing, then, is really known of the Heathobeardan, except that
+ evidence points to their having dwelt somewhere on the Baltic[54].
+
+ The Scandinavian sources which have preserved the memory of this feud
+ have transformed it in an extraordinary way. The Heathobeardan came to
+ be quite forgotten, although maybe some trace of their name remains in
+ _Hothbrodd_, who is represented as the foe of Roe (Hrothgar) and Rolf
+ (Hrothulf). When the Heathobeardan were forgotten, Froda and Ingeld
+ were left without any subjects, and naturally came to be regarded, like
+ Healfdene and the other kings with whom they were associated in story,
+ as Danish kings. Accordingly the tale developed in Scandinavian lands
+ in two ways. Some documents, and especially the Icelandic ones[55],
+ represent the struggle as a feud between two branches of the Danish
+ royal house. Even here there is no agreement who is the usurper and who
+ the victim, so that sometimes it is Froda and sometimes Healfdene who
+ is represented as the traitor and murderer.
+
+ But another version[56]--the Danish--whilst making Froda and Ingeld
+ into Danish kings, separates their story altogether from that of
+ Healfdene and his house: in this version the quarrel is still thought
+ of as being between two nations, not as between the rightful heir to
+ the throne and a treacherous and relentless usurper. Accordingly the
+ feud is such as may be, at any rate temporarily, laid aside: peace
+ between the contending parties is not out of the question. This version
+ therefore preserves much more of the original character of the story,
+ for it remains the tale of a young prince who, willing to marry into
+ the house of his ancestral foes and to forgive and forget the old feud,
+ is stirred by his more unrelenting henchman into taking vengeance for
+ his father. But, owing to the prince having come to be represented as a
+ Dane, patriotic reasons have suggested to the {25} Danish poets and
+ historians a quite different conclusion to the story. Instead of being
+ routed, Ingeld, in Saxo, is successful in his revenge.
+
+ See Neckel, _Studien über Froði_ in _Z.f.d.A._ XLVIII, 182: Heusler,
+ _Zur Skiöldungendichtung_ in _Z.f.d.A._ XLVIII, 57: Olrik,
+ _Skjoldungasaga_, 1894, 112 [30]; Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, II, 11
+ _etc._: Olrik, _Sakses Oldhistorie_, 222-6: Chambers, _Widsith_, pp.
+ 79-81.]
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION VI. HROTHULF.
+
+Yet, although the Icelandic sources are wrong in representing Froda and
+Ingeld as Danes, they are not altogether wrong in representing the Danish
+royal house as divided against itself. Only they fail to place the blame
+where it really lay. For none of the Scandinavian sources attribute any act
+of injustice or usurpation to Rolf Kraki. He is the ideal king, and his
+title to the throne is not supposed to be doubtful.
+
+Yet we saw that, in _Beowulf_, the position of Hrothulf is represented as
+an ambiguous one[57], he is the king's too powerful nephew, whose claims
+may prejudice those of his less distinguished young cousins, the king's
+sons, and the speech of queen Wealhtheow is heavy with foreboding. "I
+know," she says, "that my gracious Hrothulf will support the young princes
+in honour, if thou, King of the Scyldings, shouldst leave the world sooner
+than he. I ween that he will requite our children, if he remembers all
+which we two have done for his pleasure and honour, being yet a child[58]."
+Whilst Hrethric and Hrothmund, the sons of King Hrothgar, have to sit with
+the juniors, the _giogoth_[59], Hrothulf is a man of tried valour, who sits
+side by side with the king: "where the two good ones sat, uncle and nephew:
+_as yet_ was there peace between them, and each was true to the other[60]."
+
+Again we have mention of "Hrothgar and Hrothulf. Heorot was filled full of
+friends: _at that time_ the mighty Scylding folk in no wise worked
+treachery[61]." Similarly in _Widsith_ the mention of Hrothgar and Hrothulf
+together seems to stir the poet to dark sayings. "_For a very long time_
+did Hrothgar and Hrothulf, uncle and nephew, hold the peace together[62]."
+
+{26}
+
+The statement that "as yet" or "for a very long time" or "at that time"
+there was peace within the family, necessarily implies that, at last, the
+peace _was_ broken, that Hrothulf quarrelled with Hrothgar, or strove to
+set aside his sons[63].
+
+Further evidence is hardly needed; yet further evidence we have: by rather
+complicated, but quite unforced, fitting together of various Scandinavian
+authorities, we find that Hrothulf deposed and slew his cousin Hrethric.
+
+Saxo Grammaticus tells us how Roluo (Rolf = O.N. Hrolfr, O.E. Hrothulf)
+slew a certain Røricus (or Hrærek = O.E. Hrethric) and gave to his own
+followers all the plunder which he found in the city of Røricus. Saxo is
+here translating an older authority, the _Bjarkamál_ (now lost), and he did
+not know who Røricus was: he certainly did not regard him as a son or
+successor of Roe (Hrothgar) or as a cousin of Roluo (Hrothulf). "Roluo, who
+laid low Røricus _the son of the covetous Bøkus_" is Saxo's phrase (_qui
+natum Bøki Røricum stravit avari_). This would be a translation of some
+such phrase in the _Bjarkamál_ as _Hræreks bani hnøggvanbauga_, "the slayer
+of Hrærek Hnoggvanbaugi[64]."
+
+But, when we turn to the genealogy of the Danish kings[65], we actually
+find a _Hrærekr Hnauggvanbaugi_ given as a king of Denmark about the time
+of Roluo. This _Røricus_ or _Hrærekr_ who was slain by Roluo was then,
+himself, a king of the Danes, and must, therefore, have preceded Roluo on
+the throne. But in that case Røricus _must_ be son of Roe, and identical
+with his namesake Hrethric, the son of Hrothgar, in _Beowulf_. For no one
+but a son of King Roe could have had such a claim to the throne as to rule
+between that king and his all powerful nephew Roluo[65].
+
+It is difficult, perhaps, to state this argument in a way which will be
+convincing to those who are not acquainted with Saxo's method of working.
+To those who realize how he treats {27} his sources, it will be clear that
+Røricus is the son of Roe, and is slain by Roluo. Translating the words
+into their Old English equivalents, Hrethric, son of Hrothgar, is slain by
+Hrothulf.
+
+The forebodings of Wealhtheow were justified.
+
+Hrethric is then almost certainly an actual historic prince who was thrust
+from the throne by Hrothulf. Of Hrothmund[66], his brother, Scandinavian
+authorities seem to know nothing. He is very likely a poetical fiction, a
+duplicate of Hrethric. For it is very natural that in story the princes
+whose lives are threatened by powerful usurpers should go in pairs.
+Hrethric and Hrothmund go together like Malcolm and Donalbain. Their
+helplessness is thus emphasized over against the one mighty figure, Rolf or
+Macbeth, threatening them[67].
+
+Yet this does not prove Hrothmund unhistoric. On the contrary it may well
+happen that the facts of history will coincide with the demands of
+well-ordered narrative, as was the case when Richard of Gloucester murdered
+_two_ young princes in the Tower.
+
+
+
+Two other characters, who meet us in _Beowulf_, seem to have some part to
+play in this tragedy.
+
+It was a maxim of the old Teutonic poetry, as it is of the British
+Constitution, that the king could do no wrong: the real fault lay with the
+adviser. If Ermanaric the Goth slew his wife and his son, or if Irminfrid
+the Thuringian unwisely challenged Theodoric the Frank to battle, this was
+never supposed to be due solely to the recklessness of the monarch
+himself--it was the work of an evil counsellor--a Bikki or an Iring. Now we
+have seen that there is mischief brewing in Heorot--and we are introduced
+to a counsellor Unferth, the _thyle_ or official spokesman and adviser of
+King Hrothgar. And Unferth is evil. His jealous temper is shown by the
+hostile and inhospitable reception which he gives to Beowulf. And Beowulf's
+reply gives us a hint of some darker stain: "though {28} thou hast been the
+slayer of thine own brethren--thy flesh and blood: for that thou shalt
+suffer damnation in hell, good though thy wit may be[68]." One might
+perhaps think that Beowulf in these words was only giving the "countercheck
+quarrelsome," and indulging in mere reckless abuse, just as Sinfjotli (the
+Fitela of _Beowulf_) in the _First Helgi Lay_ hurls at his foes all kinds
+of outrageous charges assuredly not meant to be taken literally. But, as we
+learn from the _Helgi Lay_ itself, the uttering of such unfounded taunts
+was not considered good form; whilst it seems pretty clear that the speech
+of Beowulf to Unferth is intended as an example of justifiable and spirited
+self-defence, not, like the speech of Sinfjotli, as a storehouse of things
+which a well-mannered warrior should _not_ say.
+
+Besides, the taunt of Beowulf is confirmed, although but darkly, by the
+poet himself, in the same passage in which he has recorded the fears of
+Wealhtheow lest perhaps Hrothulf should not be loyal to Hrothgar and his
+issue: "Likewise there Unferth the counsellor sat at the foot of the lord
+of the Scyldingas: each of them [i.e. both Hrothgar and Hrothulf] trusted
+to his spirit: that his courage was great, _though he had not done his duty
+by his kinsmen at the sword-play_[69]."
+
+But, granting that Unferth has really been the cause of the death of his
+kinsmen, some scholars have doubted whether we are to suppose that he
+literally slew them himself. For, had that been the case, they urge, he
+could not be occupying a place of trust with the almost ideal king
+Hrothgar. But the record of the historians makes it quite clear that murder
+of kin did happen, and that constantly[70]. Amid the tragic complexities of
+heroic life it often could not be avoided. The _comitatus_-system, by which
+a man was expected to give unflinching support to any chief whose service
+he had entered, must often have resulted in slaughter between men united by
+very close bonds of kin or friendship. Turning from history to saga, we
+find some of the greatest heroes not free from the stain. Sigmund, {29}
+Gunnar, Hogni, Atli, Hrothulf, Heoroweard, Hnæf, Eadgils, Hæthcyn,
+Ermanaric and Hildebrand were all marred with this taint, and indeed were,
+in many cases, rather to be pitied than blamed. I doubt, therefore, whether
+we need try and save Unferth's character by suggesting that the stern words
+of the poet mean only that he had indirectly caused the death of his
+brethren by failing them, in battle, at some critical moment[71]. I suspect
+that this, involving cowardice or incompetence, would have been held the
+more unpardonable offence, and _would_ have resulted in Unferth's disgrace.
+But a man might well have slain his kin under circumstances which, while
+leaving a blot on his record, did not necessitate his banishment from good
+society. All the same, the poet evidently thinks it a weakness on the part
+of Hrothgar and Hrothulf that, after what has happened, they still put
+their trust in Unferth.
+
+Here then is the situation. The king has a counsellor: that counsellor is
+evil. Both the king and his nephew trust the evil counsellor. A bitter feud
+springs up between the king and his nephew. That the feud was due to the
+machinations of the evil adviser can hardly be doubted by those who have
+studied the ways of the old Germanic heroic story. But it is only an
+inference: positive proof we have none.
+
+
+
+Lastly, there is Heoroweard. Of him we are told in _Beowulf_ very little.
+He is son of Heorogar (or Heregar), Hrothgar's elder brother, who was
+apparently king before him, but died young[72]. It is quite natural, as we
+have seen, that, if Heoroweard was too young for the responsibility when
+his father died, he should not have succeeded to the throne. What is not so
+natural is that he does not inherit his father's arms, which one might
+reasonably have supposed Hrothgar would have preserved, to give to him when
+he came of age. Instead, Hrothgar gives them to Beowulf[73]. Does Hrothgar
+deliberately avoid doing honour to Heoroweard, because he fears that any
+distinction conferred upon him would strengthen a rival {30} whose claims
+to the throne might endanger those of his own sons? However this may be, in
+any future struggle for the throne Heoroweard may reasonably be expected to
+play some part.
+
+Turning now to Saxo, and to the _Saga of Rolf Kraki_, we find that Rolf
+owed his death to the treachery of one whose name corresponds exactly to
+that of Heoroweard--Hiarwarus (Saxo), Hj[o,]rvarthr (_Saga_). Neither Saxo
+nor the _Saga_ thinks of Hiarwarus as the cousin of Rolf Kraki: they do not
+make it really clear _what_ the cause of his enmity was. But they tell us
+that, after a banquet, he and his men treacherously rose upon Rolf and his
+warriors. The defence which Rolf and his men put up in their burning hall:
+the loyalty and defiance of Rolf's champions, invincible in death--these
+were amongst the most famous things of the North; they were told in the
+_Bjarkamál_, now unfortunately extant in Saxo's paraphrase only.
+
+But the triumph of Hiarwarus was brief. Rolf's men all fell around him,
+save the young Wiggo, who had previously, in the confidence of youth,
+boasted that, should Rolf fall, he would avenge him. Astonished at the
+loyalty of Rolf's champions, Hiarwarus expressed regret that none had taken
+quarter, declaring that he would gladly accept the service of such men.
+Whereupon Wiggo came from the hiding-place where he had taken refuge, and
+offered to do homage to Hiarwarus, by placing his hand on the hilt of his
+new lord's sword: but in doing so he drove the point through Hiarwarus, and
+rejoiced as he received his death from the attendants of the foe he had
+slain. It shows how entirely the duty of vengeance was felt to outweigh all
+other considerations, that this treacherous act of Wiggo is always spoken
+of with the highest praise.
+
+ For the story of the fall of Rolf and his men see Saxo, Book II (ed.
+ Holder, pp. 55-68): _Saga of Rolf Kraki_, caps. 32-34: _Skjoldunga
+ Saga_ (ed. Olrik, 1894, 36-7 [118-9]).
+
+ How the feud between the different members of the Danish family forms
+ the background to _Beowulf_ was first explained in full detail by
+ Ludvig Schrøder (_Om Bjovulfs-drapen. Efter en række foredrag på
+ folke-höjskolen i Askov_, Kjøbenhavn, 1875). Schrøder showed how the
+ bad character of Unferth has its part to play: "It is a _weakness_ in
+ Hrothgar that he entrusts important office to such a man--a {31}
+ weakness which will carry its punishment." Independently the domestic
+ feud was demonstrated again by Sarrazin (_Rolf Krake und sein vetter im
+ Beowulfliede_: _Engl. Stud._ XXIV, 144-5). The story has been fully
+ worked out by Olrik (_Heltedigtning_, 1903, I, 11-18 _etc._).
+
+ These views have been disputed by Miss Clarke (_Sidelights_, 102), who
+ seems to regard as "hypotheses" of Olrik data which have been
+ ascertained facts for more than a generation. Miss Clarke's
+ contentions, however, appear to me to be based upon a misunderstanding
+ of Olrik.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION VII. KING OFFA.
+
+The poem, then, is mainly concerned with the deeds of Geatic and Danish
+kings: only once is reference made to a king of Anglian stock--Offa.
+
+The _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ tells us of several kings named Offa, but two
+only concern us here. Still remembered is the historic tyrant-king who
+reigned over Mercia during the latter half of the eighth century, and who
+was celebrated through the Middle Ages chiefly as the founder of the great
+abbey of St Albans. This Offa is sometimes referred to as Offa _the
+Second_, because he had a remote ancestor, Offa I, who, if the Mercian
+pedigree can be trusted, lived twelve generations earlier, and therefore
+presumably in the latter half of the fourth century. Offa I, then, must
+have ruled over the Angles whilst they were still dwelling in Angel, their
+continental home, in or near the modern Schleswig.
+
+Now the Offa mentioned in _Beowulf_ is spoken of as related to Garmund and
+Eomer (MS _geomor_). This, apart from the abundant further evidence, is
+sufficient to identify him with Offa I, who was, according to the pedigree,
+the son of Wærmund and the grandfather of Eomer.
+
+This Offa I, king of Angel, is referred to in _Widsith_. _Widsith_ is a
+composite poem: the passage concerning Offa, though not the most obviously
+primitive portion of it, is, nevertheless, early: it may well be earlier
+than _Beowulf_. After a list of famous chieftains we are told:
+
+ Offa ruled Angel, Alewih the Danes; he was the boldest of all these
+ men, yet did he not in his deeds of valour surpass Offa. But Offa
+ gained, first of men, by arms the greatest of kingdoms whilst yet a
+ boy; no one of equal age ever did greater deeds of valour in battle
+ with his single sword: he drew the boundary against the Myrgingas at
+ Fifeldor. The boundaries were held afterwards by the Angles and the
+ Swæfe as Offa struck it out.
+
+{32}
+
+Much is obscure here: more particularly our ignorance as to the Myrgingas
+is to be regretted: but there is reason for thinking that they were a
+people dwelling to the south of the old continental home of the Angles.
+
+After the lapse of some five centuries, we get abundant further information
+concerning Offa. The legends about him, though carried to England by the
+Anglian conquerors, must also have survived in the neighbourhood of his old
+kingdom of Angel: for as Angel was incorporated into the Danish kingdom, so
+these stories became part of the stock of Danish national legend. Offa came
+to be regarded as a Danish king, and his story is told at length by the two
+earliest historians of Denmark, Sweyn Aageson and Saxo Grammaticus. In Saxo
+the story runs thus:
+
+Wermund, king of Denmark, had a son Uffo [Offa], tall beyond the measure of
+his age, but dull and speechless. When Wermund grew blind, his southern
+neighbour, the king of Saxony, laid claim to Denmark on the ground that he
+was no longer fit to rule, and, relying upon Uffo's incapacity, suggested
+that the quarrel should be decided by their two sons in single combat.
+Wermund, in despair, offered himself to fight, in spite of his blindness:
+this offer the envoys of the Saxon king refused with insult, and the Danes
+knew not what to say. Thereupon Uffo, who happened to be present, suddenly
+asked leave to speak. Wermund could not believe that it was really his son
+who had spoken, but when they all assured him that it _was_, he gave the
+permission. "In vain," then said Uffo, "does the king of Saxony covet the
+land of Denmark, which trusts to its true king and its brave nobles:
+neither is a son wanting to the king nor a successor to the kingdom." And
+he offered to fight not only the Saxon prince, but any chosen champion the
+prince might bring with him.
+
+The Saxon envoys accepted the offer and departed. The blind king was at
+last convinced, by passing his hands over him, that the speaker had been in
+truth his son. But it was found difficult to arm him; for his broad chest
+split the rings of every coat of mail: the largest, his father's, had to be
+cleft down the side and fastened with a clasp. Likewise no sword {33} was
+so well tempered that he did not shatter it by merely brandishing it, till
+the old king directed his men how they might find his ancient sword,
+_Skrep_ (= ? stedfast) which he had buried, in despair, thinking his son
+unworthy of it. The sword, when found, was so frail from age that Uffo did
+not test it: for Wermund told him that, if he broke it, there was no other
+left strong enough for him.
+
+So Uffo and his two antagonists were taken to the place of combat, an
+island in the river Eider. Crowds lined either bank, and Wermund stood
+prepared to throw himself into the river should his son be slain. Uffo held
+back at first, till he had discovered which of his antagonists was the more
+dangerous, since he feared the sword would only be good for one blow. Then,
+having by his taunts induced the champion to come to close quarters, he
+clove him asunder with one stroke. Wermund cried out that he had heard the
+sound of his son's sword, and asked where the blow had fallen: his
+attendants assured him that it had pierced, not any particular part, but
+the man's whole structure.
+
+So Wermund drew back from the edge, desiring life now as keenly as before
+he had longed for death. Finally Uffo smote his second antagonist through,
+thus opening a career which after such a beginning we may well believe to
+have been glorious.
+
+The story is told again by Sweyn Aageson in a slightly varying form.
+Sweyn's story has some good traits of its own--as when it makes Uffo enter
+the lists girt with _two_ swords, intending to use his father's only in an
+emergency. The worthless sword breaks, and all the Danes quake for fear:
+whereupon Uffo draws the old sword and achieves the victory. But above all
+Sweyn Aageson tells us the _reason_ of Uffo's dumbness and incapacity,
+which Saxo leaves obscure: it was the result of shame over the deeds of two
+Danes who had combined to avenge their father upon a single foe. What is
+the incident referred to we can gather from Saxo. Two Danes, Keto and Wigo,
+whose father Frowinus had been slain by a hostile king Athislus, attacked
+Athislus together, two to one, thus breaking the laws of the duel. Uffo had
+wedded the sister of {34} Keto and Wigo, and it was in order to wipe out
+the stain left upon his family and his nation by their breach of duelling
+etiquette that he insisted upon fighting single-handed against two
+opponents.
+
+That this incident was also known in England is rendered probable by the
+fact that Freawine and Wig, who correspond to Saxo's Frowinus and Wiggo,
+are found in the genealogy of English kings, and that an Eadgils, king of
+the Myrgingas, who is almost certainly the Athislus of Saxo[74], also
+appears in Old English heroic poetry. It is probable then that the two
+tales were connected in Old English story: the two brethren shamefully
+combine to avenge their father: in due time the family of the slain foe
+take up the feud: Offa saves his country and his country's honour by
+voluntarily undertaking to fight one against two.
+
+About the same time that the Danish ecclesiastics were at work, a monk of
+St Albans was committing to Latin the English stories which were still
+current concerning Offa. The object of the English writer was, however,
+local rather than national. He wrote the _Vitae duorum Offarum_ to
+celebrate the historic Offa, king of Mercia, the founder of his abbey, and
+that founder's ancestor, Offa I: popular tradition had confused the two,
+and much is told concerning the Mercian Offa that seems to belong more
+rightly to his forefather. The St Albans writer drew upon contemporary
+tradition, and it is evident that in certain cases, as when he gives two
+sets of names to some of the chief actors in the story, he is trying to
+harmonize two distinct versions: he makes at least one error which seems to
+point to a written source[75]. In one of the MSS the story is illustrated
+by a series of very artistic drawings, which might possibly be from the pen
+of Matthew Paris himself[76]. These drawings depict a version of the story
+which in some respects differs from the Latin text which they accompany.
+
+[Illustration: Offa, miraculously restored, vindicates his Right. At the
+side, Offa is represented in Prayer
+
+_From MS Cotton Nero D. I, fol. 2 b._ ]
+
+{35} The story is located in England. Warmundus is represented as a king of
+the Western Angles, ruling at Warwick. Offa, his only son, was blind till
+his seventh, dumb till his thirtieth year. Accordingly an ambitious noble,
+Riganus, otherwise called Aliel, claims to be recognized heir, in hope of
+gaining the throne for his son, Hildebrand (Brutus). Offa gains the gift of
+speech in answer to prayer; to the joy of his father and the councillors he
+vindicates his right, much as in the Danish story. He is knighted with a
+chosen body of companions, armed, and leads the host to meet the foe. He
+dashes across the river which separates the two armies, although his
+followers hang back. This act of cowardice on their part is not explained:
+it is apparently a reminiscence of an older version in which Offa fights
+his duel single handed by the river, and his host look on. The armies join
+battle, but after a long struggle draw away from each other with the
+victory undecided. Offa remaining in front of his men is attacked by Brutus
+(or Hildebrand) and Sueno, the sons of the usurper, and slays them both (a
+second reminiscence of the duel-scene). He then hurls himself again upon
+the foe, and wins the victory.
+
+_Widsith_ shows us that the Danish account has kept closer to the primitive
+story than has later English tradition. _Widsith_ confirms the Danish view
+that the quarrel was with a foreign, not with a domestic foe, and the
+combat a duel, not a pitched battle: above all, _Widsith_ confirms Saxo in
+representing the fight as taking place on the Eider--_b[=i]
+F[=i]feldore_[77], whilst the account recorded by the monk of St Albans had
+localised the story in England.
+
+{36}
+
+In _Beowulf_ too we hear of Offa as a mighty king, "the best of all mankind
+betwixt the seas." But, although his wars are referred to, we are given no
+details of them. The episode in _Beowulf_ relates rather to his wife
+Thryth, and his dealings with her. The passage is the most obscure in the
+whole poem, but this at least is clear: Thryth had an evil reputation for
+cruelty and murder: she wedded Offa, and he put a stop to her evil deeds:
+she became to him a good and loyal wife.
+
+Now in the _Lives of the two Offas_ quite a long space is devoted to the
+matrimonial entanglements of both kings. Concerning Offa I, a tale is told
+of how he succoured a daughter of the king of York, who had been turned
+adrift by her father; how when his years were advancing his subjects
+pressed him to marry: and how his mind went back to the damsel whom he had
+saved, and he chose her for his wife. Whilst the king was absent on his
+wars, a messenger whom he had sent with a letter to report his victories
+passed through York, where the wicked father of Offa's queen lived. A false
+letter was substituted, commanding that the queen and her children should
+be mutilated and left to die in the woods, because she was a witch and had
+brought defeat upon the king's arms. The order was carried out, but a
+hermit rescued and healed the queen and her children, and ultimately united
+them to the king.
+
+This is a popular folk-tale which is scattered all over Europe, and which
+has many times been clothed in literary form: in France in the romance of
+the _Manekine_, in English in the metrical romance of _Emaré_, and in
+Chaucer's _Man of Lawes Tale_. From the name of the heroine in the last of
+these versions, the tale is often known as the _Constance_-story. But it is
+clear that this tale is not identical with the obscure story of the wife of
+Offa, which is indicated in _Beowulf_.
+
+When, however, we turn to the _Life of Offa II_, we do find a very close
+parallel to the Thryth story.
+
+[Illustration: Drida (Thryth) arrives in the land of King Offa, "in
+nauicula armamentis carente"
+
+_From MS Cotton Nero D. I, fol. 11a_ ]
+
+{37} This tells how in the days of Charles the Great a certain beautiful
+but wicked girl, related to that king, was condemned to death on account of
+her crimes, but, from respect for her birth, was exposed instead in a boat
+without sails or tackle, and driven ashore on the coast of King Offa's
+land. Drida, as she said her name was, deceived the king by a tale of
+injured innocence, and he committed her to the safe keeping of his mother,
+the Countess Marcellina. Later, Offa fell in love with Drida, and married
+her, after which she became known as _Quendrida_. But Drida continued her
+evil courses and compassed the death of St Æthelbert, the vassal king of
+East Anglia. In the end she was murdered by robbers--a just punishment for
+her crimes--and her widowed husband built the Abbey of St Albans as a
+thank-offering for her death.
+
+The parallel here is too striking to be denied: for Drida is but another
+way of spelling Thryth, and the character of the murderous queen is the
+same in both stories. There are, however, striking differences: for whereas
+Thryth ceases from her evil deeds and becomes a model wife to Offa, Drida
+continues on her course of crime, and is cut off by violence in the midst
+of her evil career. How are we to account for the parallels and for the
+discrepancies?
+
+As a matter of historical fact, the wife of Offa, king of Mercia, _was_
+named (not indeed Cwoenthryth, which is the form which should correspond to
+Quendrida, but) Cynethryth. The most obvious and facile way of accounting
+for the likeness between what we are told in _Beowulf_ of the queen of Offa
+I, and what we are elsewhere told of the queen of Offa II, is to suppose
+that Thryth in _Beowulf_ is a mere fiction evolved from the historic
+Cynethryth, wife of Offa II, and by poetic licence represented as the wife
+of his ancestor, Offa I. It was in this way she was explained by Professor
+Earle:
+
+ The name [Thrytho] was suggested by that of Cynethryth, Offa's
+ queen.... The vindictive character here given to Thrytho is a poetic
+ and veiled admonition addressed to Cynethryth[78].
+
+Unfortunately this, like many another facile theory, is open to fatal
+objections. In the first place the poem of _Beowulf_ can, with fair
+certainty, be attributed to a date _earlier_ than that at which the
+historic Offa and his spouse lived. Of course, it may be said that the Offa
+episode in _Beowulf_ is an interpolation of a later date. But this needs
+proof.
+
+There are metrical and above all syntactical grounds {38} which have led
+most scholars to place _Beowulf_ very early[79]. If we wish to regard the
+_Offa-Thryth_-episode as a later interpolation, we ought first to prove
+that it is later in its syntax and metre. We have no right to assume that
+the episode is an interpolation merely because such an assumption may suit
+our theory of the development of _Beowulf_. So until reasons are
+forthcoming for supposing the episode of Thryth to be later than the rest
+of the poem, we can but note that what we know of the date of _Beowulf_
+forbids us to accept Earle's theory that Thryth is a reflection of, or
+upon, the historic Cynethryth.
+
+But there are difficulties in the way of Earle's theory even more serious
+than the chronological one. We know nothing very definitely about the wife
+of Offa II, except her name, but from a reference in a letter of Alcuin it
+seems clear that she was a woman of marked piety: it is not likely that she
+could have been guilty of deliberate murder of the kind represented in the
+_Life of Offa II_. The St Albans _Life_ depends, so far as we know, upon
+the traditions which were current four centuries after her death. There may
+be, there doubtless are, some historic facts concerning Offa preserved in
+it: but we have no reason to think that the bad character of Offa's queen
+is one of them. Indeed, on purely intrinsic grounds we might well suppose
+the reverse. As a matter of history we know that Offa _did_ put to death
+Æthelberht, the vassal king of East Anglia. When in the _Life_ we find Offa
+completely exonerated, and the deed represented as an assassination brought
+about by the malice and cruelty of his queen, it seems intrinsically likely
+that we are dealing with an attempt of the monks to clear their founder by
+transferring his cruel deeds to the account of his wife.
+
+So far, then, from Thryth being a reflection of an historic cruel queen
+Cynethryth, it is more probable that the influence has been in the reverse
+direction; that the pious Cynethryth has been represented as a monster of
+cruelty because she has not unnaturally been confused with a mythical
+Thryth, the wife of Offa I.
+
+To this it may be objected that we have no right to assume remarkable
+coincidences, and that such a coincidence is {39} involved by the
+assumption that there was a story of a mythical Thryth, the wife of Offa I,
+and that this existed prior to, and independently of, the actual wedding of
+Offa II to a Cynethryth. But the exceeding frequency of the element
+_thryth_ in the names of women robs this objection of all its point. Such a
+coincidence, far from being remarkable, would be the most natural in the
+world. If we look at the Mercian pedigree we find that almost half the
+ladies connected with it have that element _thryth_ in their names. The
+founder of the house, Wihtlæg, according to Saxo Grammaticus[80], wedded
+Hermuthruda, the old English form of which would be Eormenthryth.
+
+It is to this lady Hermuthruda that we must now devote our attention. She
+belongs to a type which is common in folk-tale down to the time of Hans
+Andersen--the cruel princess who puts her lovers to death unless they can
+vanquish her in some way, worsting her in a contest of wits, such as the
+guessing of riddles, or a contest of strength, such as running, jumping, or
+wrestling. The stock example of this perilous maiden is, of course, for
+classical story Atalanta, for Germanic tradition the Brunhilt of the
+_Nibelungen Lied_, who demands from her wooer that he shall surpass her in
+all three feats; if he fails in one, his head is forfeit[81].
+
+Of this type was Hermuthruda: "in the cruelty of her arrogance she had
+always loathed her wooers, and inflicted upon them the supreme punishment,
+so that out of many there was not one but paid for his boldness with his
+head[82]," words which remind us strongly of what our poet says of Thryth.
+
+Hamlet (Amlethus) is sent by the king of Britain to woo this maiden for
+him: but she causes Hamlet's shield and the commission to be stolen while
+he sleeps: she learns from the shield that the messenger is the famous and
+valiant Hamlet, and alters the commission so that her hand is requested,
+not for the king of Britain, but for Hamlet himself. With this request she
+complies, and the wedding is celebrated. But when Wihtlæg (Vigletus)
+conquers and slays Hamlet, she weds the conqueror, thus becoming ancestress
+of Offa.
+
+{40}
+
+It may well be that there is some connection between the Thryth of
+_Beowulf_ and the Hermuthruda who in Saxo weds Offa's ancestor--that they
+are both types of the wild maiden who becomes a submissive though not
+always happy wife. If so, the continued wickedness of Drida in the _Life of
+Offa II_ would be an alteration of the original story, made in order to
+exonerate Offa II from the deeds of murder which, as a matter of history,
+did characterize his reign.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{41}
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE NON-HISTORICAL ELEMENTS
+
+SECTION I. THE GRENDEL FIGHT.
+
+When we come to the story of Beowulf's struggle with Grendel, with
+Grendel's mother, and with the dragon, we are faced by difficulties much
+greater than those which meet us when considering that background of Danish
+or Geatic history in which these stories are framed.
+
+In the first place, it is both surprising and confusing that, in the
+prologue, before the main story begins, _another_ Beowulf is introduced,
+the son of Scyld Scefing. Much emphasis is laid upon the upbringing and
+youthful fame of this prince, and the glory of his father. Any reader would
+suppose that the poet is going on to tell of _his_ adventures, when
+suddenly the story is switched off, and, after brief mention of this
+Beowulf's son, Healfdene, we come to Hrothgar, the building of Heorot,
+Grendel's attack, and the voyage of Beowulf the Geat to the rescue.
+
+Now "Beowulf" is an exceedingly rare name. The presence of the earlier
+Beowulf, Scyld's son, seems then to demand explanation, and many critics,
+working on quite different lines, have arrived independently at the
+conclusion that either the story of Grendel and his mother, or the story of
+the dragon, or both stories, were originally told of the son of Scyld, and
+only afterwards transferred to the Geatic hero. This has indeed been
+generally accepted, almost from the beginning of {42} Beowulf
+criticism[83]. Yet, though possible enough, it does not admit of any
+demonstration.
+
+Now Beowulf, son of Scyld, clearly corresponds to a Beow or Beaw in the
+West Saxon genealogy. In this genealogy Beow is always connected with Scyld
+and Scef, and in some versions the relations are identical with those given
+in _Beowulf_: Beow, son of Scyld, son of Scef, in the genealogies[84],
+corresponding to Beowulf, son of Scyld Scefing, in our poem. Hence arose
+the further speculation of many scholars that the hero who slays the
+monsters was originally called, not Beowulf, but Beow, and that he was
+identical with the hero in the West Saxon pedigree; in other words, that
+the original story was of a hero Beow (son of Scyld) who slew a monster and
+a dragon: and that this adventure was only subsequently transferred to
+Beowulf, prince of the Geatas.
+
+This is a theory based upon a theory, and some confirmation may reasonably
+be asked, before it is entertained. As to the dragon-slaying, the
+confirmatory evidence is open to extreme doubt. It is dealt with in Section
+VII (Beowulf-Frotho), below. As to Grendel, one such piece of confirmation
+there is. The conquering Angles and Saxons seem to have given the names of
+their heroes to the lands they won in England: some such names--'Wade's
+causeway,' 'Weyland's smithy'--have survived to modern times. The evidence
+of the Anglo-Saxon charters shows that very many which have now been lost
+existed in England prior to the Conquest. Now in a Wiltshire charter of the
+year 931, we have _B[=e]owan hammes hecgan_ mentioned not far from a
+_Grendles mere_. This has been claimed as evidence that the story of
+Grendel, with Beow as his adversary, was localized in Wiltshire in the
+reign of Athelstan, and perhaps had been localized there since the
+settlement four centuries previously. Until recently this was accepted as
+definitely {43} proving that the Beowulf-Grendel story was derived from an
+ancient Beow-myth. Yet one such instance of name-association is not
+conclusive. We cannot leave out of consideration the possibility of its
+being a mere chance coincidence, especially considering how large is the
+number of place names recorded in Old English charters. Of late, people
+have become more sceptical in drawing inferences from proper names, and
+quite recently there has been a tendency entirely to overlook the evidence
+of the charter, by way of making compensation for having hitherto overrated
+it.
+
+All that can be said with certainty is that it _is_ remarkable that a place
+named after Beowa should be found in the immediate proximity of a
+"Grendel's lake," and that this fact supports the possibility, though it
+assuredly does not prove, that in the oldest versions of the tale the
+monster queller was named Beow, not Beowulf. But it is only a possibility:
+it is not grounded upon any real evidence.
+
+ These crucial references occur in a charter given by Athelstan at
+ Luton, concerning a grant of land at Ham in Wiltshire to his thane
+ Wulfgar. [See Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_, 1887, vol. II, p. 363.]
+
+ ... Ego Æðelstanus, rex Anglorum ... quandam telluris particulam meo
+ fideli ministro Wulfgaro ... in loco quem solicolae _oet Hamme_
+ vocitant tribuo ... Praedicta siquidem tellus his terminis circumcincta
+ clarescit....
+
+ ðonne norð ofer d[=u]ne on m[=e]os-hlinc westeweardne; ðonne ad[=u]ne
+ on ð[=a] yfre on b[=e]owan hammes hecgan, on br[=e]meles sceagan
+ [=e]asteweardne; ðonne on ð[=a] bl[=a]can gr[=æ]fan; ðonne norð be
+ ð[=e]m ondh[=e]afdan t[=o] ð[=æ]re scortan d[=i]c b[=u]tan [=a]nan
+ æcre; ðonne t[=o] fugelmere t[=o] ð[=a]n wege; ondlong weges t[=o]
+ ottes forda; ðonon t[=o] wudumere; ðonne t[=o] ð[=æ]re r[=u]wan hecgan;
+ ðæt on langan hangran; ðonne on grendles mere; ðonon on dyrnan geat....
+
+ Ambiguous as this evidence is, I do not think it can be dismissed as it
+ is by Lawrence (_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXIV, 252) and Panzer
+ (_Beowulf_, 397), who both say "How do we know that it is not the
+ merest chance?" It _may_ of course be chance: but this does not justify
+ us in basing an argument upon the assumption that it _is_ the merest
+ chance. Lawrence continues: "Suppose one were to set up a theory that
+ there was a saga-relation between Scyld and Bikki, and offered as proof
+ the passage in the charter for the year 917 in which there are
+ mentioned, as in the same district, _scyldes treow_ and _bican
+ sell_.... How much weight would this carry?"
+
+ The answer surely is that the occurrence of the two names together in
+ the charter would, by itself, give no basis whatever for starting such
+ a theory: but if, on other grounds, the theory were likely, then the
+ occurrence of the two names together would certainly have some
+ corroborative value. Exactly how much, it is impossible to say, because
+ we cannot estimate the element of chance, and we cannot {44} be certain
+ that the _grendel_ and the _beowa_ mentioned are identical with our
+ Grendel and our Beowulf.
+
+ Miller has argued [_Academy_, May 1894, p. 396] that _grendles_ is not
+ a proper name here, but a common noun signifying "drain," and that
+ _grendles mere_ therefore means "cesspool."
+
+ Now "grindle" is found in modern dialect and even in Middle English[85]
+ in the sense of "a narrow ditch" or "gutter," but I doubt if it can be
+ proved to be an Old English word. Evidence would rather point to its
+ being an East Anglian corruption of the much more widely spread
+ _drindle_, or _dringle_, used both as a verb "to go slowly, to
+ trickle," and as "a small trickling stream." And even if an O.E.
+ _grendel_ as a common noun meaning "gutter" were authenticated, it
+ seems unlikely to me that places were named "the fen," "the mere," "the
+ pit," "the brook"--"of the gutter." There is no ground whatever for
+ supposing the existence of an O.E. _grendel_ = "sewer," or anything
+ which would lead us to suppose _grendles mere_ or _gryndeles sylle_ to
+ mean "cesspool[86]." Surely it is probable, knowing what we do of the
+ way in which the English settlers gave epic names to the localities
+ around their settlements, that these places were named after Grendel
+ because they seemed the sort of place where his story might be
+ localized--like "Weyland's smithy" or "Wade's causeway": and that the
+ meaning is "Grendel's fen," "mere," "pit" or "brook."
+
+ Again, both Panzer and Lawrence suggest that the Beowa who gave his
+ name to the _ham_ may have been, not the hero, but "an ordinary mortal
+ called after him" ... "some individual who lived in this locality."
+ But, among the numerous English proper names recorded, can any instance
+ be found of any individual named Beowa? {45} And was it in accordance
+ with the rules of Old English nomenclature to give to mortals the names
+ of these heroes of the genealogies[87]?
+
+Recent scepticism as to the "Beow-myth" has been largely due to the fact
+that speculation as to Beow had been carried too far. For example, because
+Beow appeared in the West Saxon genealogy, it had been assumed that the
+Beow-myth belonged essentially to the Angles and Saxons. Yet Beow would
+seem to have been also known among Scandinavians. For in somewhat later
+days Scandinavian genealogists, when they had made the acquaintance of the
+Anglo-Saxon pedigrees, noted that Beow had a Scandinavian counterpart in a
+hero whom they called Bjar[88]. That something was known in the north of
+this Bjar is proved by the _Kálfsvísa_, that same catalogue of famous
+heroes and their horses which we have already found giving us the
+counterparts of Onela and Eadgils. Yet this dry reference serves to show
+that Bjar must once have been sufficiently famous to have a horse specially
+his own[89]. Whether the fourteenth century Scandinavian who made Bjar the
+Northern equivalent of Beow was merely guessing, we unfortunately cannot
+tell. Most probably he was, for there is reason to think that the hero
+corresponding to Beow was named, not _Bjár_, but _Byggvir_[90]: a
+correspondence intelligible to modern philologists as in agreement with
+phonetic law, but naturally not obvious to an Icelandic genealogist. But
+however this may be, the assumption that Beow was peculiarly the hero of
+Angles and Saxons seems hardly justified.
+
+{46}
+
+Again, since Beow is an ancestor of Woden, it was further assumed that he
+was an ancient god, and that in the story of his adventures we had to deal
+with a nature-myth of a divine deliverer who saved the people from Grendel
+and his mother, the personified powers of the stormy sea. It is with the
+name of Müllenhoff, its most enthusiastic and ablest advocate, that this
+"mythological theory" is particularly associated. That Grendel is
+fictitious no one, of course, would deny. But Müllenhoff and his school, in
+applying the term "mythical" to those portions of the _Beowulf_ story for
+which no historical explanation could be found, meant that they enshrined
+_nature-myths_. They thought that those elements in heroic poetry which
+could not be referred back to actual fact must be traced to ancient stories
+in which were recorded the nation's belief about the sun and the gods:
+about storms and seasons.
+
+The different mythological explanations of Beowulf-Beowa and Grendel have
+depended mainly upon hazardous etymological explanations of the hero's
+name. The most popular is Müllenhoff's interpretation. Beaw is the divine
+helper of man in his struggle with the elements. Grendel represents the
+stormy North Sea of early spring, flooding and destroying the habitations
+of men, till the god rescues them: Grendel's mother represents the depths
+of the ocean. But in the autumn the power of the god wanes: the dragon
+personifies the coming of the wild weather: the god sinks in his final
+struggle to safeguard the treasures of the earth for his people[91].
+Others, remembering that Grendel dwells in the fen, see in him rather a
+demon of the sea-marsh than of the sea itself: he is the pestilential
+swamp[92], and the hero a wind which drives him away[93]. Or, whilst
+Grendel still represents the storms, his antagonist is a "Blitzheros[94]."
+Others, whilst hardly ranking Beowulf as {47} a god, still see an allegory
+in his adventures, and Grendel must be a personification either of an
+inundation[95], or of the terror of the long winter nights[96], or possibly
+of grinding at the mill, the work of the enslaved foe[97].
+
+Such explanations were till recently universally current: the instances
+given above might be increased considerably.
+
+Sufficient allowance was not made for the influence upon heroic poetry of
+the simple popular folk-tale, a tale of wonder with no mythological or
+allegorical meaning. Now, of late years, there has been a tendency not only
+to recognize but even to exaggerate this influence: to regard the hero of
+the folk-tale as the original and essential element in heroic poetry[98].
+Though this is assuredly to go too far, it is but reasonable to recognize
+the fairy tale element in the O.E. epic.
+
+We have in _Beowulf_ a story of giant-killing and dragon-slaying. Why
+should we construct a legend of the gods or a nature-myth to account for
+these tales? Why must Grendel or his mother represent the tempest, or the
+malaria, or the drear long winter nights? We know that tales of
+giant-killers and dragon-slayers have been current among the people of
+Europe for thousands of years. Is it not far more easy to regard the story
+of the fight between Beowulf and Grendel merely as a fairy tale, glorified
+into an epic[99]?
+
+Those students who of late years have tried thus to elucidate the story of
+Beowulf and Grendel, by comparison with folk-tales, have one great
+advantage over Müllenhoff and the "mythological" school. The weak point of
+Müllenhoff's view was that the nature-myth of Beow, which was called in to
+explain the origin of the Beowulf story as we have it, was itself only an
+assumption, a conjectural reconstruction. But the various popular tales in
+which scholars have more recently tried to find parallels to _Beowulf_ have
+this great merit, that {48} they do indubitably exist. And as to the first
+step--the parallel between _Beowulf_ and the _Grettis saga_--there can,
+fortunately, be but little hesitation.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION II. THE SCANDINAVIAN PARALLELS--GRETTIR AND ORM.
+
+The _Grettis saga_ tells the adventures of the most famous of all Icelandic
+outlaws, Grettir the strong. As to the historic existence of Grettir there
+is no doubt: we can even date the main events of his life, in spite of
+chronological inconsistencies, with some precision. But between the year
+1031, when he was killed, and the latter half of the thirteenth century,
+when his saga took form, many fictitious episodes, derived from folk-lore,
+had woven themselves around his name. Of these, one bears a great, if
+possibly accidental, likeness to the Grendel story: the second is
+emphatically and unmistakably the same story as that of Grendel and his
+mother. In the first, Grettir stops at a farm house which is haunted by
+Glam, a ghost of monstrous stature. Grettir awaits his attack alone, but,
+like Beowulf, lying down. Glam's entry and onset resemble those of Grendel:
+when Grettir closes with him he tries to get out. They wrestle the length
+of the hall, and break all before them. Grettir supports himself against
+anything that will give him foothold, but for all his efforts he is dragged
+as far as the door. There he suddenly changes his tactics, and throws his
+whole weight upon his adversary. The monster falls, undermost, so that
+Grettir is able to draw, and strike off his head; though not till Glam has
+laid upon Grettir a curse which drags him to his doom.
+
+The second story--the adventure of Grettir at Sandhaugar
+(Sandheaps)--begins in much the same way as that of Grettir and Glam.
+Grettir is staying in a haunted farm, from which first the farmer himself
+and then a house-carl have, on two successive Yuletides, been spirited
+away. As before, a light burns in the room all night, and Grettir awaits
+the attack alone, lying down, without having put off his clothes. As
+before, Grettir and his assailant wrestle down the room, breaking all {49}
+in their way. But this time Grettir is pulled put of the hall, and dragged
+to the brink of the neighbouring gorge. Here, by a final effort, he
+wrenches a hand free, draws, and hews off the arm of the ogress, who falls
+into the torrent below.
+
+Grettir conjectures that the two missing men must have been pulled by the
+ogress into the gulf. This, after his experience, is surely a reasonable
+inference: but Stein, the priest, is unconvinced. So they go together to
+the river, and find the side of the ravine a sheer precipice: it is ten
+fathom down to the water below the fall. Grettir lets down a rope: the
+priest is to watch it. Then Grettir dives in: "the priest saw the soles of
+his feet, and then knew no more what had become of him." Grettir swims
+under the fall and gets into the cave, where he sees a giant sitting by a
+fire: the giant aims a blow at him with a weapon with a wooden handle
+("such a weapon men then called a _hefti-sax_"). Grettir hews it asunder.
+The giant then grasps at another sword hanging on the wall of the cave, but
+before he can use it Grettir wounds him. Stein, the priest, seeing the
+water stained with blood from this wound, concludes that Grettir is dead,
+and departs home, lamenting the loss of such a man. "But Grettir let little
+space come between his blows till the giant lay dead." Grettir finds the
+bones of the two dead men in the cave, and bears them away with him to
+convince the priest: but when he reaches the rope and shakes it, there is
+no reply, and he has to climb up, unaided. He leaves the bones in the
+church porch, for the confusion of the priest, who has to admit that he has
+failed to do his part faithfully.
+
+Now if we compare this with _Beowulf_, we see that in the Icelandic story
+much is different: for example, in the _Grettis saga_ it is the female
+monster who raids the habitation of men, the male who stays at home in his
+den. In this the _Grettis saga_ probably represents a corrupt tradition:
+for, that the female should remain at home whilst the male searches for his
+prey, is a rule which holds good for devils as well as for men[100]. {50}
+The change was presumably made in order to avoid the difficulty--which the
+_Beowulf_ poet seems also to have realized--that after the male has been
+slain, the rout of the female is felt to be a deed of less note--something
+of an anti-climax[101].
+
+The sword on the wall, also, which in the _Beowulf_-story is used by the
+hero, is, in the _Grettir_-story, used by the giant in his attack on the
+hero.
+
+But that the two stories are somehow connected cannot be disputed. Apart
+from the general likeness, we have details such as the escape of the
+monster after the loss of an arm, the fire burning in the cave, the
+_hefti-sax_, a word which, like its old English equivalent (_hæft-m[=e]ce_,
+_Beowulf_, 1457), is found in this story only, and the strange reasoning of
+the watchers that the blood-stained water must necessarily be due to the
+hero's death[102].
+
+Now obviously such a series of resemblances cannot be the result of an
+accident. Either the _Grettir_-story is derived directly or indirectly from
+the _Beowulf_ epic, more or less as we have it, or both stories are derived
+from one common earlier source. The scholars who first discovered the
+resemblance believed that both stories were independently derived from one
+original[103]. This view has generally been endorsed by later
+investigators, but not universally[104]. And this is one of the questions
+which the student cannot leave open, because our view of the origin of the
+_Grendel_-story will have to depend largely upon the view we take as to its
+connection with the episode in the _Grettis saga_.
+
+If this episode be derived from _Beowulf_, then we have an interesting
+literary curiosity, but nothing further. But if it is {51} independently
+derived from a common source, then the episode in the _saga_, although so
+much later, may nevertheless contain features which have been obliterated
+or confused or forgotten in the _Beowulf_ version. In that case the story,
+as given in the _Grettis saga_, would be of great weight in any attempt to
+reconstruct the presumed original form of the _Grendel_-story.
+
+The evidence seems to me to support strongly the view of the majority of
+scholars--that the _Grettir_-episode is not derived from _Beowulf_ in the
+form in which that poem has come down to us, but that both come from one
+common source.
+
+It is certain that the story of the monster invading a dwelling of men and
+rendering it uninhabitable, till the adventurous deliverer arrives, did not
+originate with Hrothgar and Heorot. It is an ancient and widespread type of
+story, of which one version is localized at the Danish court. When
+therefore we find it existing, independently of its Danish setting, the
+presumption is in favour of this being a survival of the old independent
+story. Of course it is _conceivable_ that the Hrothgar-Heorot setting might
+have been first added, and subsequently stripped off again so clean that no
+trace of it remains. But it seems going out of our way to assume this,
+unless we are forced to do so[105].
+
+Again, it is certain that these stories--like all the subject matter of the
+Old English epic--did not originate in England, but were brought across the
+North Sea from the old home. And that old home was in the closest
+connection, so far as the passage to and fro of story went, with
+Scandinavian lands. Nothing could be intrinsically more probable than that
+a story, current in ancient Angel and carried thence to England, should
+also have been current in Scandinavia, and thence have been carried to
+Iceland.
+
+Other stories which were current in England in the eighth century were also
+current in Scandinavia in the thirteenth. Yet this does not mean that the
+tales of Hroar and Rolf, or of Athils and Ali, were borrowed from English
+epic accounts of Hrothgar and Hrothulf, or Eadgils and Onela. They were
+part of the common inheritance--as much so as the strong verbs {52} or the
+alliterative line. Why then, contrary to all analogy, should we assume a
+literary borrowing in the case of the _Beowulf-Grettir_-story? The compiler
+of the _Grettis saga_ could not possibly have drawn his material from a MS
+of _Beowulf_[106]: he could not have made sense of a single passage. He
+conceivably _might_ have drawn from traditions _derived_ from the Old
+English epic. But it is difficult to see how. Long before his time these
+traditions had for the most part been forgotten in England itself. One of
+the longest lived of all, that of Offa, is heard of for the last time in
+England at the beginning of the thirteenth century. That a Scandinavian
+sagaman at the end of the century could have been in touch, in any way,
+with Anglo-Saxon epic tradition seems on the whole unlikely. The
+Scandinavian tradition of Offa, scholars are now agreed[107], was not
+borrowed from England, and there is no reason why we should assume such
+borrowing in the case of Grettir.
+
+The probability is, then, considerable, that the _Beowulf_-story and the
+_Grettir_-story are independently derived from one common original.
+
+And this probability would be confirmed to a certainty if we should find
+that features which have been confused and half obliterated in the O.E.
+story become clear when we turn to the Icelandic. This argument has lately
+been brought forward by Dr Lawrence in his essay on "The Haunted Mere in
+_Beowulf_[108]." Impressive as the account of this mere is, it does not
+convey any very clear picture. Grendel's home seems sometimes to be in the
+sea: and again it seems to be amid marshes, moors and fens, and again it is
+"where the mountain torrent goes down under the darkness of the cliffs--the
+water below the ground (i.e. beneath overhanging rocks)."
+
+This last account agrees admirably with the landscape depicted in the
+_Grettis saga_, and the gorge many fathoms deep through which the stream
+rushes, after it has fallen over the precipice; not so the other accounts.
+These descriptions are {53} best harmonized if we imagine an original
+version in which the monsters live, as in the _Grettis saga_, in a hole
+under the waterfall. This story, natural enough in a Scandinavian country,
+would be less intelligible as it travelled South. The Angles and Saxons,
+both in their old home on the Continent and their new one in England, were
+accustomed to a somewhat flat country, and would be more inclined to place
+the dwelling of outcast spirits in moor and fen than under waterfalls, of
+which they probably had only an elementary conception. "The giant must
+dwell in the fen, alone in the land[109]."
+
+Now it is in the highest degree improbable that, after the landscape had
+been blurred as it is in _Beowulf_, it could have been brought out again
+with the distinctness it has in the _Grettis saga_. To preserve the
+features so clearly the _Grettir_-story can hardly be derived from
+_Beowulf_: it must have come down independently.
+
+But if so, it becomes at once of prime importance. For by a comparison of
+_Beowulf_ and _Grettir_ we must form an idea of what the original story
+was, from which both were derived.
+
+
+
+Another parallel, though a less striking one, has been found in the story
+of Orm Storolfsson, which is extant in a short saga about contemporary with
+that of Grettir, _Ormsþáttr Stórólfssonar_[110], in two ballads from the
+Faroe Islands[111] and two from Sweden[112].
+
+It is generally asserted that the _Orm_-story affords a close parallel to
+the episodes of Grendel and his mother. I cannot find close resemblance,
+and I strongly suspect that the repetition of the assertion is due to the
+fact that the _Orm_-story has not been very easily accessible, and has
+often been taken as read by the critics.
+
+But, in any case, it has been proved that the _Orm_-tale borrows largely
+from other sagas, and notably from the _Grettis saga_ itself[113]. Before
+arguing, therefore, from any parallel, it must first be shown that the
+feature in which Orm resembles {54} Beowulf is not derived at second hand
+from the _Grettis saga_. One such feature there is, namely Orm's piety,
+which he certainly does not derive from Grettir. In this he with equal
+certainty resembles Beowulf. According to modern ideas, indeed, there is
+more of the Christian hero in Beowulf than in Orm.
+
+Now Orm owes his victory to the fact, among other things, that, at the
+critical moment, he vows to God and the holy apostle St Peter to make a
+pilgrimage to Rome should he be successful. In this a parallel is seen to
+the fact that Beowulf is saved, not only by his coat of mail, but also by
+the divine interposition[114]. But is this really a parallel? Beowulf is
+too much of a sportsman to buy victory by making a vow when in a tight
+place. _G[=æ]ð [=a] wyrd sw[=a] h[=i]o scel_[115] is the exact antithesis
+of Orm's pledge.
+
+However, I have given in the Second Part the text of the _Orm_-episode, so
+that readers may judge for themselves the closeness or remoteness of the
+parallel.
+
+ The parallel between Grettir and Beowulf was noted by the Icelander
+ Gudbrand Vigfússon upon his first reading _Beowulf_ (see _Prolegomena
+ to Sturlunga saga_, 1878, p. xlix: _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_, II, 501:
+ _Icelandic Reader_, 1879, 404). It was elaborately worked out by Gering
+ in _Anglia_, III, 74-87, and it is of course noticed in almost every
+ discussion of _Beowulf_. The parallel with Orm was first noted by
+ Schück (_Svensk Literaturhistoria_, Stockholm, 1886, _etc._, I, 62) and
+ independently by Bugge (_P.B.B._ XII, 58-68).
+
+ The best edition of the _Grettis saga_ is the excellent one of Boer
+ (Halle, 1900), but the opinions there expressed as to the relationship
+ of the episodes to each other and to the Grendel story have not
+ received the general support of scholars.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION III. BOTHVAR BJARKI.
+
+We have seen that there are in _Beowulf_ two distinct elements, which never
+seem quite harmonized: firstly the historic background of the Danish and
+Geatic courts, with their chieftains, Hrothgar and Hrothulf, or Hrethel and
+Hygelac: and secondly the old wives' fables of struggles with ogres and
+dragons. In the story of Grettir, the ogre fable appears--unmistakably
+connected with the similar story as given in _Beowulf_, but with {55} no
+faintest trace of having ever possessed any Danish heroic setting.
+
+Turning back to the _Saga of Rolf Kraki_, we _do_ find against that Danish
+setting a figure, that of the hero Bothvar Bjarki, bearing a very
+remarkable resemblance to Beowulf.
+
+Bjarki, bent on adventure, leaves the land of the Gautar (Götar), where his
+brother is king, and reaches Leire, where Rolf, the king of the Danes,
+holds his court; [just as Beowulf, bent on adventure, leaves the land of
+the Geatas (Götar) where his uncle is king, and reaches Heorot, where
+Hrothgar and Hrothulf (Rolf) hold court].
+
+Arrived at Leire, Bjarki takes under his protection the despised coward
+Hott, whom Rolf's retainers have been wont to bully. The champions at the
+Danish court [in _Beowulf_ one of them only--Unferth] prove quarrelsome,
+and they assail the hero during the feast, in the _Saga_ by throwing bones
+at him, in _Beowulf_ only by bitter words. The hero in each case replies,
+in kind, with such effect that the enemy is silenced.
+
+But despite the fame and splendour of the Danish court, it has long been
+subject to the attacks of a strange monster[116]--a winged beast whom no
+iron will bite [just as Grendel is immune from swords[117]]. Bjarki [like
+Beowulf[118]] is scornful at the inability of the Danes to defend their own
+home: "if one beast can lay waste the kingdom and the cattle of the king."
+He goes out to fight with the monster _by night_, accompanied only by Hott.
+He tries to draw his sword, but the sword is fast in its sheath: he tugs,
+the sword comes out, and he slays the beast with it. This seems a most
+pointless incident: taken in connection with the supposed invulnerability
+of the foe, it looks like the survival of some episode in which the hero
+was unwilling [as in Beowulf's fight with Grendel[119]] or unable [as in
+Beowulf's fight with Grendel's mother[120]] to slay the foe {56} with his
+sword. Bjarki then compels the terrified coward Hott to drink the monster's
+blood. Hott forthwith becomes a valiant champion, second only to Bjarki
+himself. The beast is then propped up as if still alive: when it is seen
+next morning the king calls upon his retainers to play the man, and Bjarki
+tells Hott that now is the time to clear his reputation. Hott demands first
+the sword, Gullinhjalti, from Rolf, and with this he slays the dead beast a
+second time. King Rolf is not deceived by this trick; yet he rejoices that
+Bjarki has not only himself slain the monster, but changed the cowardly
+Hott into a champion; he commands that Hott shall be called Hjalti, after
+the sword which has been given him. We are hardly justified in demanding
+logic in a wild tale like this, or one might ask how Rolf was convinced of
+Hott's valour by what he knew to be a piece of stage management on the part
+of Bjarki. But, however that may be, it is remarkable that in _Beowulf_
+also the monster Grendel, though proof against all ordinary weapons, is
+smitten _when dead_ by a magic sword of which the _golden hilt_[121] is
+specially mentioned.
+
+In addition to the undeniable similarity of the stories of these heroes, a
+certain similarity of name has been claimed. That _Bjarki_ is not
+etymologically connected with _B[=e]owulf_ or _B[=e]ow_ is clear: but if we
+are to accept the identification of Beowulf and Beow, remembering that the
+Scandinavian equivalent of the latter is said to be _Bjár_, the resemblance
+to _Bjarki_ is obvious. Similarity of sound might have caused one name to
+be substituted for another[122]. This argument obviously depends upon the
+identification _B[=e]ow_ = _Bjár_, which is extremely doubtful: it will be
+argued below that it is more likely that _B[=e]ow_ = _Byggvir_[123].
+
+But force remains in the argument that the name Bjarki (little bear) is
+very appropriate to a hero like the Beowulf of {57} our epic, who crushes
+or hugs his foe to death instead of using his sword; even if we do not
+accept explanations which would interpret the name "Beowulf" itself as a
+synonym for "Bear."
+
+It is scarcely to be wondered at, then, that most critics have seen in
+Bjarki a Scandinavian parallel to Beowulf. But serious difficulties remain.
+There is in the Scandinavian story a mass of detail quite unparallelled in
+_Beowulf_, which overshadows the resemblances. Bjarki's friendship, for
+example, with the coward Hott or Hjalti has no counterpart in _Beowulf_.
+And Bjarki becomes a retainer of King Rolf and dies in his service, whilst
+Beowulf never comes into direct contact with Hrothulf at all; the poet
+seems to avoid naming them together. Still, it is quite intelligible that
+the story should have developed on different lines in Scandinavia from
+those which it followed in England, till the new growths overshadowed the
+original resemblance, without obliterating it. After nearly a thousand
+years of independent development discrepancies must be expected. It would
+not be a reasonable objection to the identity of _Gullinhjalti_ with
+_Gyldenhilt_, that the word _hilt_ had grown to have a rather different
+meaning in Norse and in English; subsequent developments do not invalidate
+an original resemblance if the points of contact are really there.
+
+But, allowing for this independent growth in Scandinavia, we should
+naturally expect that the further back we traced the story the greater the
+resemblance would become.
+
+This brings us to the second, serious difficulty: that, when we turn from
+the _Saga of Rolf Kraki_--belonging in its present form perhaps to the
+early fifteenth century--to the pages of Saxo Grammaticus, who tells the
+same tale more than two centuries earlier, the resemblance, instead of
+becoming stronger, almost vanishes. Nothing is said of Bjarki coming from
+Gautland, or indeed of his being a stranger at the Danish court: nothing is
+said of the monster having paid previous visits, visits repeated till king
+Rolf, like Hrothgar, has to give up all attempt at resistance, and submit
+to its depredations. The monster, instead of being a troll, like Grendel,
+becomes a commonplace bear. All Saxo tells us is that "He [Biarco, i.e.
+Bjarki] met a great bear in a thicket and slew it with a spear, and bade
+his {58} comrade Ialto [i.e. Hjalti] place his lips to the beast and drink
+its blood as it flowed, that he might become stronger."
+
+Hence the Danish scholar, Axel Olrik, in the best and most elaborate
+discussion of Bjarki and all about him, has roundly denied any connection
+between his hero and Beowulf. He is astonished at the slenderness of the
+evidence upon which previous students have argued for relationship.
+"Neither Beowulf's wrestling match in the hall, nor in the fen, nor his
+struggle with the firedrake has any real identity, but when we take a
+little of them all we can get a kind of similarity with the latest and
+worst form of the Bjarki saga[124]." The development of Saxo's bear into a
+winged monster, "the worst of trolls," Olrik regards as simply in
+accordance with the usual heightening, in later Icelandic, of these early
+stories of struggles with beasts, and of this he gives a parallel instance.
+
+Some Icelandic ballads on Bjarki (the _Bjarka rímur_), which were first
+printed in 1904, were claimed by Olrik as supporting his contention. These
+ballads belong to about the year 1400. Yet, though they are thus in date
+and dialect closely allied to the _Saga of Rolf Kraki_ and remote from Saxo
+Grammaticus, they are so far from supporting the tradition of the _Saga_
+with regard to the monster slain, that they represent the foe first as a
+man-eating she-wolf, which is slain by Bjarki, then as a grey bear [as in
+Saxo], which is slain by Hjalti after he has been compelled to drink the
+blood of the she-wolf. We must therefore give up the winged beast as mere
+later elaboration; for if the Bjarki ballads in a point like this support
+Saxo, as against the _Saga_ which is so closely connected with them by its
+date and Icelandic tongue, we must admit Saxo's version here to represent,
+beyond dispute, the genuine tradition.
+
+Accordingly the attempt which has been made to connect Bjarki's winged
+monster with Beowulf's winged dragon goes overboard at once. But such an
+attempt ought never to have been made at all. The parallel is between
+Bjarki and the Beowulf-Grendel episode, not between Bjarki and the
+Beowulf-dragon episode, which ought to be left out of consideration. And
+the monstrous bear and the wolf of the _Rímur_ are not so {59} dissimilar
+from Grendel, with his bear-like hug, and Grendel's mother, the
+'sea-wolf[125].'
+
+The likeness between Beowulf and Bjarki lies, not in the wingedness or
+otherwise of the monsters they overthrow, but in the similarity of the
+position--in the situation which places the most famous court of the North,
+and its illustrious king, at the mercy of a ravaging foe, till a chance
+stranger from Gautland brings deliverance. And here the _Rímur_ support,
+not Saxo, but the _Saga_, though in an outworn and faded way. In the
+_Rímur_ Bjarki is a stranger come from abroad: the bear has made previous
+attacks upon the king's folds.
+
+Thus, whilst we grant the wings of the beast to be a later elaboration, it
+does not in the least follow that other features in which the _Saga_
+differs from Saxo--the advent of Bjarki from Gautland, for instance--are
+also later elaboration.
+
+And we must be careful not to attach too much weight to the account of Saxo
+merely because it is earlier in date than that of the _Saga_. The
+presumption is, of course, that the earlier form will be the more original:
+but just as a late manuscript will often preserve, amidst its corruptions,
+features which are lost in much earlier manuscripts, so will a tradition.
+Saxo's accounts are often imperfect[126]. And in this particular instance,
+there is a want of coherency and intelligibility in Saxo's account, which
+in itself affords a strong presumption that it _is_ imperfect.
+
+What Saxo tells us is this:
+
+ At which banquet, when the champions were rioting with every kind of
+ wantonness, and flinging knuckle-bones at a certain Ialto [Hjalti] from
+ all sides, it happened that his messmate Biarco [Bjarki] through the
+ bad aim of the thrower received a severe blow on the head. But Biarco,
+ equally annoyed by the injury and the insult, sent the bone back to the
+ thrower, so that he twisted the front of his head to the back and the
+ back to the front, punishing the cross-grain of the man's temper by
+ turning his face round about.
+
+But who were this "certain Hjalti" and Bjarki? There seems to be something
+missing in the story. The explanation [which Saxo does not give us, but the
+_Saga_ does] that Bjarki has come from afar and taken the despised
+Hott-Hjalti under his {60} protection, seems to be necessary. Why was
+Hjalti chosen as the victim, at whom missiles were to be discharged?
+Obviously [though Saxo does not tell us so], because he was the butt of the
+mess. And if Bjarki had been one of the mess for many hours, his messmates
+would have known him too well to throw knuckle-bones either at him or his
+friend. This is largely a matter of personal feeling, but Saxo's account
+seems to me pointless, till it is supplemented from the _Saga_[127].
+
+
+
+And there is one further piece of evidence which seems to clinch the whole
+matter finally, though its importance has been curiously overlooked, by
+Panzer and Lawrence in their arguments for the identification, and by Olrik
+in his arguments to the contrary.
+
+We have seen above how Beowulf "became a friend" to Eadgils, helping him in
+his expedition against King Onela of Sweden, and avenging, in "chill raids
+fraught with woe," _cealdum cears[=i]ðum_, the wrongs which Onela had
+inflicted upon the Geatas. We saw, too, that this expedition was remembered
+in Scandinavian tradition. "They had a battle on the ice of Lake Wener;
+there King Ali fell, and Athils had the victory. Concerning this battle
+there is much said in the _Skjoldunga saga_." The _Skjoldunga saga_ is
+lost, but the Latin extracts from it give some information about this
+battle[128]. Further, an account of it _is_ preserved in the _Bjarka
+rímur_, probably derived from the lost _Skjoldunga saga_. And the _Bjarka
+rímur_ expressly mention Bjarki as helping Athils in this battle against
+Ali on the ice of Lake Wener[129].
+
+Olrik does not seem to allow for this at all, though of course aware of it.
+The other parallels between Bjarki and Beowulf he believes to be mere
+coincidence. But is this likely?
+
+To recapitulate: In old English tradition a hero comes from the land of the
+Geatas to the royal court of Denmark, where Hrothgar and Hrothulf hold
+sway. This hero is received in none too friendly wise by one of the
+retainers, but {61} puts his foe to shame, is warmly welcomed by the king,
+and slays by night a monster which has been attacking the Danish capital
+and against which the warriors of that court have been helpless. The
+monster is proof against all swords, yet its dead body is mutilated by a
+sword with a golden hilt. Subsequently this same hero helps King Eadgils of
+Sweden to overthrow Onela.
+
+We find precisely the same situation in Icelandic tradition some seven
+centuries later, except that not Hrothgar and Hrothulf, but Hrothulf (Rolf)
+alone is represented as ruling the Danes, and the sword with the golden
+hilt has become a sword named "Golden-hilt." It is _conceivable_ for a
+situation to have been reconstructed in this way by mere accident, just as
+it is conceivable that one player may have the eight or nine best trumps
+dealt him. But it does not seem advisable to base one's calculations, as
+Olrik does, upon such an accident happening.
+
+ The parallel of Bjarki and Beowulf seems to have been first noted by
+ Gisli Brynjulfsson (_Antiquarisk Tidsskrift_, 1852-3, p. 130). It has
+ been often discussed by Sarrazin (_Beowulf Studien_, 13 _etc._, 47:
+ _Anglia_, IX, 195 _etc._: _Engl. Stud._ XVI, 79 _etc._, XXIII, 242
+ _etc._, XXXV, 19 _etc._). Sarrazin's over-elaborated parallels form a
+ broad target for doubters: it must be remembered that a case, though it
+ may be discredited, is not invalidated by exaggeration. The problem is
+ of course noted in the Beowulf studies of Müllenhoff (55), Bugge
+ (_P.B.B._ XII, 55) and Boer (_Die Beowulfsage_, II, in _Arkiv f. nord.
+ filol._ XIX, 44 _etc._) and discussed at length and convincingly by
+ Panzer (364-386) and Lawrence (_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXIV,
+ 1909, 222 _etc._). The usual view which accepts some relationship is
+ endorsed by all these scholars, as it is by Finnur Jónsson in his
+ edition of the _Hrólfs Saga Kraka og Bjarkarímur_ (København, 1904, p.
+ xxii).
+
+ Ten Brink (185 _etc._) denied any original connection, on the ground of
+ the dissimilarity between _Beowulf_ and the story given by Saxo. Any
+ resemblances between _Beowulf_ and the _Hrólfs Saga_ he attributed to
+ the influence of the English _Beowulf_-story upon the _Saga_.
+
+ For Olrik's emphatic denial of any connection at all, see _Danmarks
+ Heltedigtning_, I, 134 _etc._ (This seems to have influenced Brandl,
+ who expresses some doubt in _Pauls Grdr._ (2) II. 1. 993.) For
+ arguments to the contrary, see Heusler in _A.f.d.A._ XXX, 32, and
+ especially Panzer and Lawrence as above.
+
+ The parallel of _Gullinhjalti_ and _gyldenhilt_ was first noted
+ tentatively by Kluge (_Engl. Stud._ XXII, 145).
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{62}
+
+SECTION IV. PARALLELS FROM FOLKLORE.
+
+Hitherto we have been dealing with parallels to the Grendel story in
+written literature: but a further series of parallels, although much more
+remote, is to be found in that vast store of old wives' tales which no one
+till the nineteenth century took the trouble to write down systematically,
+but which certainly go back to a very ancient period. One particular tale,
+that of the Bear's Son[130] (extant in many forms), has been instanced as
+showing a resemblance to the _Beowulf_-story. In this tale the hero, a
+young man of extraordinary strength, (1) sets out on his adventures,
+associating with himself various companions; (2) makes resistance in a
+house against a supernatural being, which his fellows have in vain striven
+to withstand, and succeeds in mishandling or mutilating him. (3) By the
+blood-stained track of this creature, or guided by him in some other
+manner, the hero finds his way to a spring, or hole in the earth, (4) is
+lowered down by a cord and (5) overcomes in the underworld different
+supernatural foes, amongst whom is often included his former foe, or very
+rarely the mother of that foe: victory can often only be gained by the use
+of a magic sword which the hero finds below. (6) The hero is left
+treacherously in the lurch by his companions, whose duty it was to have
+drawn him up...
+
+Now it may be objected, with truth, that this is not like the
+_Beowulf_-story, or even particularly like the _Grettir_-story. But the
+question is not merely whether it resembles these stories as we possess
+them, but whether it resembles the story which must have been the common
+origin of both. And we have only to try to reconstruct from _Beowulf_ and
+from the _Grettis saga_ a tale which can have been the common original of
+both, to see that it must be something extraordinarily like the folk-tale
+outlined above.
+
+{63}
+
+For example, it is true that the departure of the Danes homeward because
+they believe that Beowulf has met his death in the water below, bears only
+the remotest resemblance to the deliberate treachery which the companions
+in the folk-tale mete out to the hero. But when we compare the
+_Grettir_-story, we see there that a real breach of trust is involved, for
+there the priest Stein leaves the hero in the lurch, and abandons the rope
+by which he should have drawn Grettir up. This can hardly be an innovation
+on the part of the composer of the _Grettis saga_, for he is quite well
+disposed towards Stein, and has no motive for wantonly attributing
+treachery to him. The innovation presumably lies in the _Beowulf_-story,
+where Hrothgar and his court are depicted in such a friendly spirit that no
+disreputable act can be attributed to them, and consequently Hrothgar's
+departure home must not be allowed in any way to imperil or inconvenience
+the hero. A comparison of the _Beowulf_-story with the _Grettir_-story
+leads then to the conclusion that in the oldest version those who remained
+above when the hero plunged below _were_ guilty of some measure of
+disloyalty in ceasing to watch for him. In other words we see that the
+further we track the _Beowulf_-story back, the more it comes to resemble
+the folk-tale.
+
+And our belief that there is some connection between the folk-tale and the
+original of _Beowulf_ must be strengthened when we find that, by a
+comparison of the folk-tale, we are able to explain features in _Beowulf_
+which strike us as difficult and even absurd: precisely as when we turn to
+a study of Shakespeare's sources we often find the explanation of things
+that puzzle us: we see that the poet is dealing with an unmanageable
+source, which he cannot make quite plausible. For instance: when Grendel
+enters Heorot he kills and eats the first of Beowulf's retinue whom he
+finds: no one tries to prevent him. The only explanation which the poet has
+to offer is that the retinue are all asleep[131]--strange somnolence on the
+part of men who are awaiting a hostile attack, which they expect will be
+fatal to them all[132]. And Beowulf at any rate is not asleep. Yet he
+calmly watches whilst his henchman is {64} both killed and eaten: and
+apparently, but for the accident that the monster next tackles Beowulf
+himself, he would have allowed his whole bodyguard to be devoured one after
+another.
+
+But if we suppose the story to be derived from the folk-tale, we have an
+explanation. For in the folk-tale, the companions and the hero await the
+foe singly, in succession: the turn of the hero comes last, after all his
+companions have been put to shame. But Beowulf, who is represented as
+having specially voyaged to Heorot in order to purge it, cannot leave the
+defence of the hall for the first night to one of his comrades. Hence the
+discomfiture of the comrade and the single-handed success of the hero have
+to be represented as simultaneous. The result is incongruous: Beowulf _has_
+to look on whilst his comrade is killed.
+
+Again, both Beowulf and Grettir plunge in the water with a sword, and with
+the deliberate object of shedding the monster's blood. Why then should the
+watchers on the cliff above assume that the blood-stained water must
+necessarily signify the _hero's_ death, and depart home? Why did it never
+occur to them that this deluge of blood might much more suitably proceed
+from the monster?
+
+But we can understand this unreason if we suppose that the story-teller had
+to start from the deliberate and treacherous departure of the companions,
+whilst at the same time it was not to his purpose to represent the
+companions as treacherous. In that case some excuse _must_ be found for
+them: and the blood-stained water was the nearest at hand[133].
+
+Again, quite independently of the folk-tale, many _Beowulf_ scholars have
+come to the conclusion that in the original version of the story the hero
+did not wait for a second attack from the mother of the monster he had
+slain, but rather, from a natural and laudable desire to complete his task,
+followed the monster's tracks to the mere, and finished him and his mother
+below. Many traits have survived which may conceivably point to an original
+version of the story in which Beowulf (or the figure corresponding to him)
+at once plunged down {65} in order to combat the foe corresponding to
+Grendel. There are unsatisfactory features in the story as it stands. For
+why, it might be urged, should the wrenching off of an arm have been fatal
+to so tough a monster? And why, it has often been asked, is the adversary
+under the water sometimes male, sometimes female? And why is it apparently
+the blood of Grendel, not of his mother, which discolours the water and
+burns up the sword, and the head of Grendel, not of his mother, which is
+brought home in triumph? These arguments may not carry much weight, but at
+any rate when we turn to the folk-tale we find that the adventure beneath
+the earth _is_ the natural following up of the adventure in the house, not
+the result of any renewed attack.
+
+
+
+In addition, there are many striking coincidences between individual
+versions or groups of the folk-tale on the one hand and the
+_Beowulf-Grettir_ story on the other: yet it is very difficult to know what
+value should be attached to these parallels, since there are many features
+of popular story which float around and attach themselves to this or that
+tale without any original connection, so that it is easy for the same trait
+to recur in _Beowulf_ and in a group of folk-tales, without this proving
+that the stories as a whole are connected[134].
+
+The hero of the Bear's son folk-tale is often in his youth unmanageable or
+lazy. This is also emphasized in the stories both of Grettir and of Orm:
+and though such a feature was uncongenial to the courtly tone of _Beowulf_,
+which sought to depict the hero as a model prince, yet it _is_ there[135],
+even though only alluded to incidentally, and elsewhere ignored or even
+denied[136].
+
+Again, the hero of the folk-tale is very frequently (but not necessarily)
+either descended from a bear, nourished by a bear, or has some ursine
+characteristic. We see this recurring in certain traits of Beowulf such as
+his bear-like method of hugging {66} his adversary to death. Here again the
+courtly poet has not emphasized his hero's wildness[137].
+
+Again, there are some extraordinary coincidences in names, between the
+_Beowulf-Grettir_ story and the folk-tale. These are not found in _Beowulf_
+itself, but only in the stories of Grettir and Orm. Yet, as the
+_Grettir_-episode is presumably derived from the same original as the
+_Beowulf_-episode, any _original_ connection between it and the folk-tale
+involves such connection for _Beowulf_ also. We have seen that in _Grettis
+saga_ the priest Stein, as the unfaithful guardian of the rope which is to
+draw up the hero, seems to represent the faithless companions of the
+folktale. There is really no other way of accounting for him, for except on
+this supposition he is quite otiose and unnecessary to the _Grettir_-story:
+the saga-man has no use for him. And his name confirms this explanation,
+for in the folk-tale one of the three faithless companions of the hero is
+called the Stone-cleaver, _Steinhauer_, _Stenkløver_, or even, in one
+Scandinavian version, simply _Stein_[138].
+
+Again, the struggle in the _Grettis saga_ is localized at Sandhaugar in
+Barthardal in Northern Iceland. Yet it is difficult to say why the
+saga-teller located the story there. The scenery, with the neighbouring
+river and mighty waterfall, is fully described: but students of Icelandic
+topography assert that the neighbourhood does _not_ at all lend itself to
+this description[139]. When we turn to the story of Orm we find it
+localized on the island Sandey. We are forced to the conclusion that the
+name belongs to the story, and that in some early version this was
+localized at a place called Sandhaug, perhaps at one of the numerous places
+in Norway of that name. Now turning to one of the Scandinavian versions of
+the folk-tale, we find that the descent into the earth and the consequent
+struggle is localized in _en stor sandhaug_[140].
+
+{67}
+
+On the other hand, it must be remembered that if a collection is made of
+some two hundred folk-tales, it is bound to contain, in addition to the
+essential kernel of common tradition, a vast amount of that floating
+material which tends to associate itself with this or that hero of story.
+Individual versions or groups of versions of the tale may contain features
+which occur also in the _Grendel_-story, without that being any evidence
+for primitive connection. Thus we are told how Grendel forces open the door
+of Heorot. In a Sicilian version of the folk-tale the doors spring open of
+themselves as the foe appears. This has been claimed as a parallel. But, as
+a sceptic has observed, the extraordinary thing is that of so slight a
+similarity (if it is entitled to be called a similarity) we should find
+only one example out of two hundred, and have to go to Sicily for
+that[141].
+
+ The parallel between the _Beowulf_-story and the "Bear's son" folk-tale
+ had been noted by Laistner (_Das Rätsel der Sphinx_, Berlin, 1889, II,
+ 22 _etc._): but the prevalent belief that the _Beowulf_-story was a
+ nature-myth seems to have prevented further investigation on these
+ lines till Panzer independently (p. 254) undertook his monumental work.
+
+Yet there are other features in the folk-tale which are entirely
+unrepresented in the _Beowulf-Grettir_ story. The hero of the folk-tale
+rescues captive princesses in the underworld (it is because they wish to
+rob him of this prize that his companions leave him below); he is saved by
+some miraculous helper, and finally, after adopting a disguise, puts his
+treacherous comrades to shame and weds the youngest princess. None of these
+elements[142] are to be found in the stories of Beowulf, Grettir, Orm or
+Bjarki, yet they are essential to the fairy tale[143].
+
+{68}
+
+So that to speak of _Beowulf_ as a version of the fairy tale is undoubtedly
+going too far. All we can say is that some early story-teller took, from
+folk-tale, those elements which suited his purpose, and that a tale,
+containing many leading features found in the "Bear's son" story, but
+omitting many of the leading motives of that story, came to be told of
+Beowulf and of Grettir[144].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION V. SCEF AND SCYLD.
+
+Our poem begins with an account of the might, and of the funeral, of Scyld
+Scefing, the ancestor of that Danish royal house which is to play so large
+a part in the story. After Scyld's death his retainers, following the
+command he had given them, placed their beloved prince in the bosom of a
+ship, surrounded by many treasures brought from distant lands, by weapons
+of battle and weeds of war, swords and byrnies. Also they placed a golden
+banner high over his head, and let the sea bear him away, with soul
+sorrowful and downcast. Men could not say for a truth, not the wisest of
+councillors, who received that burden.
+
+Now there is much in this that can be paralleled both from the literature
+and from the archaeological remains of the North. Abundant traces have been
+found, either of the burial or of the burning of a chief within a ship. And
+we are told by different authorities of two ancient Swedish kings who,
+sorely wounded, and unwilling to die in their beds, had themselves placed
+upon ships, surrounded by weapons and the bodies of the slain. The funeral
+pyre was then lighted on the vessel, and the ship sent blazing out to sea.
+Similarly the dead body of Baldr was put upon his ship, and burnt.
+
+ Haki konungr fekk svá stór sár, at hann sá, at hans lífdagar mundu eigi
+ langir verða; þá lét hann taka skeið, er hann átti, ok lét hlaða dauðum
+ m[o,]nnum, ok vápnum, lét þá flytja út til hafs ok leggja stýri {69} í
+ lag ok draga upp segl, en leggja eld í tyrvið ok gera bál á skipinu;
+ veðr stóð af landi; Haki var þá at kominn dauða eða dauðr, er hann var
+ lagiðr á bálit; siglði skipit síðan loganda út í haf, ok var þetta
+ allfrægt lengi síðan.
+
+ (King Haki was so sore wounded that he saw that his days could not be
+ long. Then he had a warship of his taken, and loaded with dead men and
+ weapons, had it carried out to sea, the rudder shipped, the sail drawn
+ up, the fir-tree wood set alight, and a bale-fire made on the ship. The
+ wind blew from the land. Haki was dead or nearly dead, when he was
+ placed on the pyre. Then the ship sailed blazing out to sea; and that
+ was widely famous for a long time after.)
+
+ _Ynglinga Saga_, Kap. 23, in _Heimskringla_, udg. af Finnur Jónsson,
+ København, 1893, vol. I, p. 43.
+
+ The _Skjoldunga Saga_ gives a story which is obviously connected with
+ this. King Sigurd Ring in his old age asked in marriage the lady
+ Alfsola; but her brothers scorned to give her to an aged man. War
+ followed; and the brothers, knowing that they could not withstand the
+ hosts of Sigurd, poisoned their sister before marching against him. In
+ the battle the brothers were slain, and Sigurd badly wounded.
+
+ Qui, Alfsola funere allato, magnam navim mortuorum cadaveribus oneratam
+ solus vivorum conscendit, seque et mortuam Alfsolam in puppi collocans
+ navim pice, bitumine et sulphure incendi jubet: atque sublatis velis in
+ altum, validis a continente impellentibus ventis, proram dirigit,
+ simulque manus sibi violentas intulit; sese ... more majorum suorum
+ regali pompa Odinum regem (id est inferos) invisere malle, quam inertis
+ senectutis infirmitatem perpeti....
+
+ _Skjoldungasaga i Arngrim Jónssons udtog_, udgiven af Axel Olrik,
+ Kjøbenhavn, 1894, Cap. XXVII, p. 50 [132].
+
+ So with the death of Baldr.
+
+ En æsirnir tóku lík Baldrs ok fluttu til sævar. Hringhorni hét skip
+ Baldrs; hann var allra skipa mestr, hann vildu goðin framm setja ok
+ gera þar á bálf[o,]r Baldrs ... þá var borit út á skipit lík Baldrs,...
+ Oðinn lagði á bálit gullhring þann, er Draupnir heitir ... hestr Baldrs
+ var leiddr á bálit með [o,]llu reiði.
+
+ (But the gods took the body of Baldr and carried it to the sea-shore.
+ Baldr's ship was named Hringhorni: it was the greatest of all ships and
+ the gods sought to launch it, and to build the pyre of Baldr on it....
+ Then was the body of Baldr borne out on to the ship.... Odin laid on
+ the pyre the gold ring named Draupnir ... and Baldr's horse with all
+ his trappings was placed on the pyre.)
+
+ _Snorra Edda: Gylfaginning_, 48; udg. af Finnur Jónsson, København,
+ 1900.
+
+ We are justified in rendering _setja skip fram_ by "launch": Olrik
+ (_Heltedigtning_, I, 250) regards Baldr's funeral as a case of the
+ burning of a body in a ship on land. But it seems to me, as to Mr
+ Chadwick (_Origin_, 287), that the natural meaning is that the ship was
+ launched in the sea.
+
+But the case of Scyld is not exactly parallel to these. The ship which
+conveyed Scyld out to sea was _not_ set alight. And the words of the poet,
+though dark, seem to imply that it was intended to come to land somewhere:
+"None could say who received that freight." {70}
+
+Further, Scyld not merely departed over the waves--he had in the first
+instance come over them: "Not with less treasure did they adorn him," says
+the poet, speaking of the funeral rites, "than did those who at the
+beginning sent him forth alone over the waves, being yet a child."
+
+Scyld Scefing then, like Tennyson's Arthur, comes from the unknown and
+departs back to it.
+
+The story of the mysterious coming over the water was not confined to
+Scyld. It meets us in connection with King Scef, who was regarded, at any
+rate from the time of Alfred, and possibly much earlier, as the remotest
+ancestor of the Wessex kings. Ethelwerd, a member of the West Saxon royal
+house, who compiled a bombastic Latin chronicle towards the end of the
+tenth century, traces back the pedigree of the kings of Wessex to Scyld
+_and his father Scef_. "This Scef," he says, "came to land on a swift boat,
+surrounded by arms, in an island of the ocean called Scani, when a very
+young child. He was unknown to the people of that land, but was adopted by
+them as if of their kin, well cared for, and afterwards elected king[145]."
+Note here, firstly, that the story is told, not of Scyld Scefing, but of
+Scef, father of Scyld. Secondly, that although Ethelwerd is speaking of the
+ancestor of the West Saxon royal house, he makes him come to land and rule,
+not in the ancient homeland of continental Angeln, but in the "island of
+Scani," which signifies what is now the south of Sweden, and perhaps also
+the Danish islands[146]--that same land of _Scedenig_ which is mentioned in
+_Beowulf_ as the realm of Scyld. The tone of the narrative is, so far as we
+can judge from Ethelwerd's dry summary, entirely warlike: Scef is
+surrounded by weapons.
+
+In the twelfth century the story is again told by William of Malmesbury.
+"Sceldius was the son of Sceaf. He, they say, was carried as a small boy in
+a boat without any oarsman to a certain isle of Germany called Scandza,
+concerning which {71} Jordanes, the historian of the Goths, speaks. He was
+sleeping, and a handful of corn was placed at his head, from which he was
+called 'Sheaf.' He was regarded as a wonder by the folk of that country and
+carefully nurtured; when grown up he ruled in a town then called Slaswic,
+and now Haithebi--that region is called ancient Anglia[147]."
+
+William of Malmesbury was, of course, aware of Ethelwerd's account, and may
+have been influenced by it. Some of his variations may be his own
+invention. The substitution of the classical form _Scandza_ for Ethelwerd's
+_Scani_ is simply a change from popular to learned nomenclature, and
+enables the historian to show that he has read something of Jordanes. The
+alteration by which Malmesbury makes Sceaf, when grown up, rule at
+Schleswig in ancient Angel, may again be his own work--a variant added in
+order to make Sceaf look more at home in an Anglo-Saxon pedigree.
+
+But William of Malmesbury was, as we shall see later, prone to incorporate
+current ballads into his history, and after allowing for what he may have
+derived from Ethelwerd, and what he may have invented, there can be no
+doubt that many of the additional details which he gives are genuine
+popular poetry. Indeed, whilst the story of Scyld's _funeral_ is very
+impressive in _Beowulf_, it is in William's narrative that the story of the
+child coming over the sea first becomes poetic.
+
+Now since even the English historians connected this tale with the Danish
+territory of _Scani, Scandza_, we should expect to find it again on turning
+to the records of the Danish royal house. And we do find there, generally
+at the head of the pedigree[148], a hero--Skjold--whose name corresponds,
+and whose relationship to the later Danish kings shows him to be the same
+as the _Scyld Scefing_ of _Beowulf_. But neither Saxo Grammaticus, nor any
+other Danish historian, knows anything of {72} Skjold having come in his
+youth or returned in his death over the ocean.
+
+How are we to harmonize these accounts?
+
+_Beowulf_ and Ethelwerd agree in representing the hero as "surrounded by
+arms"; William of Malmesbury mentions only the sheaf; the difference is
+weighty, for presumably the spoils which the hero brings with him from the
+unknown, or takes back thither, are in harmony with his career. _Beowulf_
+and Ethelwerd seem to show the warrior king, William of Malmesbury seems
+rather to be telling the story of a semi-divine foundling, who introduces
+the tillage of the earth[149].
+
+In _Beowulf_ the child is Scyld Scefing, in Ethelwerd and William of
+Malmesbury he is Sceaf, father of Scyld.
+
+_Beowulf_, Ethelwerd and William of Malmesbury agree in connecting the
+story with _Scedenig_, _Scani_ or _Scandza_, yet the two historians and the
+_Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ all make Sceaf the ancestor of the West Saxon
+house. Yet we have no evidence that the English were regarded as having
+come from Scandinavia.
+
+The last problem admits of easy solution. In heathen times the English
+traced the pedigree of most of their kings to Woden, and stopped there. For
+higher than that they could not go. But a Christian poet or genealogist,
+who had no belief in Woden as a god, would regard the All Father as a
+man--a mere man who, by magic powers, had made the heathen believe he was a
+god. To such a Christian pedigree-maker Woden would convey no idea of
+finality; he would feel no difficulty in giving this human Woden any number
+of ancestors. Wishing to glorify the pedigree of his king, he would add any
+other distinguished and authentic genealogies, and the obvious place for
+these would be at the end of the line, i.e., above Woden. Hence we have in
+some quite early (not West Saxon) pedigrees, five names given as ancestors
+of Woden. These five names end in Geat or Geata, who was apparently
+regarded as a god, and was possibly Woden under another name[150]. Somewhat
+later, in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, under {73} the year 855, we have a
+long version of the West Saxon pedigree with yet nine further names above
+Geat, ending in Sceaf. Sceaf is described as a son of Noah, and so the
+pedigree is carried back to Adam, 25 generations in all beyond Woden[151].
+But it is rash to assume with Müllenhoff that, because Sceaf comes at the
+head[152] of this English pedigree, Sceaf was therefore essentially an
+English hero. _All_ these later stages above Woden look like the ornate
+additions of a later compiler. Some of the figures, Finn, Sceldwa, Heremod,
+Sceaf himself, we have reason to identify with the primitive heroes of
+other nations.
+
+The genealogist who finally made Sceaf into a son born to Noah in the ark,
+and then carried the pedigree nine stages further back through Noah to
+Adam, merely made the last of a series of accretions. It does not follow
+that, because he made them ancestors of the English king, this compiler
+regarded Noah, Enoch and Adam as Englishmen. Neither need he have so
+regarded Sceaf or Scyld[153] or Beaw. In fact--and this has constantly been
+overlooked--the authority for Sceaf, Scyld and Beaw as Anglo-Saxon heroes
+is but little stronger than the authority for Noah and Adam in that
+capacity. No manuscript exists which stops at Scyld or Sceaf. There is no
+version which goes beyond Geat except that which goes up to Adam. Scyld,
+Beaw, Sceaf, Noah and Adam as heroes of English mythology are all alike
+doubtful.
+
+We must be careful, however, to define what we mean when we regard these
+stages of the pedigree as doubtful. They are doubtful in so far as they are
+represented as standing above Woden in the Anglo-Saxon pedigree, because it
+is incredible that, in primitive and heathen times, Woden was credited with
+a dozen or more forefathers. The _position_ of these names in the pedigree
+is therefore doubtful. But it is only their connection with the West Saxon
+house that is unauthentic. It does not follow that the names are, _per se_,
+unauthentic. On the contrary, it is because the genealogist had such
+implicit belief in the authenticity of the generations {74} from Noah to
+Adam that he could not rest satisfied with his West Saxon pedigree till he
+had incorporated these names. They are not West Saxon, but they are part of
+a tradition much more ancient than any pedigree of the West Saxon kings.
+And the argument which applies to the layer of Hebrew names between Noah
+and Adam applies equally to the layer of Germanic names between Woden and
+Sceaf. From whatever branch of the Germanic race the genealogist may have
+taken them, the fact that he placed them where he did in the pedigree is a
+proof of his veneration for them. But we must not without evidence claim
+them as West Saxon or Anglo-Saxon: we must not be surprised if evidence
+points to some of them being connected with other nations--as Heremod, for
+example, with the Danes[154].
+
+
+
+More difficult are the other problems. William of Malmesbury tells the
+story of Sceaf, with the attributes of a culture-hero: _Beowulf_, four
+centuries earlier, tells it of Scyld, a warrior hero: Ethelwerd tells it of
+Sceaf, but gives him the warrior attributes of Scyld[155] instead of the
+sheaf of corn.
+
+The earlier scholars mostly agreed[156] in regarding Malmesbury's
+attribution of the story to Sceaf as the original and correct version of
+the story, in spite of its late date. As a representative of these early
+scholars we may take Müllenhoff[157]. Müllenhoff's love of mythological
+interpretation found ample scope in the story of the child with the sheaf,
+which he, with considerable reason, regarded as a "culture-myth."
+Müllenhoff believed the carrying over of the attributes of a god to a line
+of his supposed descendants to be a common feature of myth--the descendants
+representing the god under another name. In accordance with this view,
+Scyld could be explained as an "hypostasis" of his father or forefather
+Sceaf, as a figure further explaining him and representing him, so that in
+the end the tale of the boat arrival came to be told, in _Beowulf_, of
+Scyld instead of Sceaf.
+
+{75}
+
+Recent years have seen a revolt against most of Müllenhoff's theories. The
+view that the story originally belonged to Sceaf has come to be regarded
+with a certain amount of impatience as "out of date." Even so fine a
+scholar as Dr Lawrence has expressed this impatience:
+
+ "That the graceful story of the boy sailing in an open boat to the land
+ of his future people was told originally of Sceaf ... needs no detailed
+ refutation at the present day.
+
+ "The attachment of the motive to Sceaf must be, as an examination of
+ the sources shows, a later development[158]."
+
+Accordingly the view of recent scholars has been this: That the story
+belongs essentially to Scyld. That, as the hero of the boat story is
+obviously of unknown parentage, we must interpret _Scefing_ not as "son of
+Sceaf" but as "with the sheaf" (in itself a quite possible explanation).
+That this stage of the story is preserved in _Beowulf_. That subsequently
+_Scyld Scefing_, standing at the head of the pedigree, came to be
+misunderstood as "Scyld, son of Sceaf". That consequently the story, which
+must be told of the earlier ancestor, was thus transferred from Scyld to
+his supposed father Sceaf--the version which is found in Ethelwerd and
+William of Malmesbury.
+
+One apparent advantage of this theory is that the oldest version, that of
+_Beowulf_, is accepted as the correct and original one, and the much later
+versions of the historians Ethelwerd and William of Malmesbury are regarded
+as subsequent corruptions. This on the surface seems eminently reasonable.
+But let us look closer. _Scyld Scefing_ in _Beowulf_ is to be interpreted
+"Scyld with the Sheaf." But _Beowulf_ nowhere mentions the sheaf as part of
+Scyld's equipment. On the contrary, we gather that the hero is connected
+rather with prowess in war. It is the same in Ethelwerd. It is not till
+William of Malmesbury that the sheaf comes into the story. So that the
+interpretation of _Scefing_ as "with the sheaf" assumes the accuracy of
+William of Malmesbury's story even in a point where it receives no support
+from the _Beowulf_ version. In other words this theory does the very thing
+to avoid doing which it was called into being[159].
+
+{76}
+
+Besides this, there are two fundamental objections to the theory that Sceaf
+is a late creation, a figure formed from the misunderstanding of the
+epithet _Scefing_ applied to _Scyld_. One portion of the poem of _Widsith_
+consists of a catalogue of ancient kings, and among these occurs _Sceafa_,
+ruling the Langobards. Now portions of _Widsith_ are very ancient, and this
+catalogue in which Sceafa occurs is almost certainly appreciably older than
+_Beowulf_ itself.
+
+Secondly, the story of the wonderful foundling who comes over the sea from
+the unknown and founds a royal line, must _ex hypothesi_ be told of the
+first in the line, and we have seen that it is Sceaf, not Scyld, who comes
+at the head of the Teutonic names in the genealogy in the _Anglo-Saxon
+Chronicle_.
+
+Now we can date this genealogy fairly exactly. It occurs under the year
+855, and seems to have been drawn up at the court of King Æthelwulf. In any
+case it cannot be later than the latter part of Alfred's reign. This takes
+us back to a period when the old English epic was still widely popular. A
+genealogist at Alfred's court must have known much about Old English story.
+
+These facts are simply not consistent with the belief that Sceaf is a late
+creation, a figure formed from a misunderstanding of the epithet _Scefing_,
+applied to Scyld[160].
+
+{77}
+
+To arrive at any definite conclusion is difficult. But the following may be
+hazarded.
+
+It may be taken as proved that the Scyld or Sceldwa of the genealogists is
+identical with the Scyld Scefing of _Beowulf_. For Sceldwa according to the
+genealogy is also ultimately a _Sceafing_, and is the father of Beow; Scyld
+is _Scefing_ and is father of Beowulf[161].
+
+It is equally clear that the Scyld Scefing of _Beowulf_ is identical with
+the Skjold of the Danish genealogists and historians. For Scyld and Skjold
+are both represented as the founder and head of the Danish royal house of
+Scyldingas or Skjoldungar, and as reigning in the same district. Here,
+however, the resemblance ceases. _Beowulf_ tells us of Scyld's marvellous
+coming and departure. The only Danish authority who tells us much of Skjold
+is Saxo Grammaticus, who records how as a boy Skjold wrestled successfully
+with a bear and overcame champions, and how later he annulled unrighteous
+laws, and distinguished himself by generosity to his court. But the Danish
+and English accounts have nothing specifically in common, though the type
+they portray is the same--that of a king from his youth beloved by his
+retainers and feared by neighbouring peoples, whom he subdues and makes
+tributary. It looks rather as if the oldest traditions had had little to
+say about this hero beyond the typical things which might be said of any
+great king; so that Danes and English had each supplied the deficiency in
+their own way.
+
+Now this is exactly what we should expect. For Scyld-Skjold is hardly a
+personality: he is a figure evolved out of the name _Scyldingas_,
+_Skjoldungar_, which is an old epic title for the Danes. Of this we may be
+fairly certain: the Scyldingas did not get their name because they were
+really descended from Scyld, but Scyld was created in order to provide an
+eponymous father to the Scyldingas[162]. In just the same way {78}
+tradition also evolved a hero Dan, from whom the Danes were supposed to
+have their name. Saxo Grammaticus has combined both pedigrees, making
+Skjold a descendant of Dan; but usually it was agreed that nothing came
+before Skjold, that he was the beginning of the Skjoldung line[163]. At
+first a mere name, we should expect that he would have no characteristic
+save that, like every respectable Germanic king, he took tribute from his
+foes and gave it to his friends. He differs therefore from those heroic
+figures like Hygelac or Guthhere (Gunnar) which, being derived from actual
+historic characters, have, from the beginning of their story, certain
+definite features attached to them. Scyld is, in the beginning, merely a
+name, the ancestor of the Scyldings. Tradition collects round him
+gradually.
+
+Hence it will be rash to attach much weight to any feature which is found
+in one account of him only. Anything we are told of Scyld in English
+sources alone is not to be construed as evidence as to his original story,
+but only as to the form that story assumed in England. When, for example,
+_Beowulf_ tells us that Scyld is _Scefing_, or that he is father of
+Beowulf, it will be very rash of us to assume that these relationships
+existed in the Danish, but have been forgotten. This is, I think,
+universally admitted[164]. Yet the very scholars who emphasize this, have
+assumed that the marvellous arrival as a child, in a boat, surrounded by
+weapons, is an essential feature of Scyld's story. Yet the evidence for
+this is no better and no worse than the evidence for his relationship to
+Sceaf or Beow--it rests solely on the English documents. Accordingly it
+only shows what was told about Scyld in England.
+
+Of course the boat arrival _might_ be an original part of the story of
+_Scyld-Skjold_, which has been forgotten in his native {79} country, but
+remembered in England. But I cannot see that we have any right to assert
+this, without proof.
+
+What we can assert to have been the original feature of Scyld is this--that
+he was the eponymous hero king of the Danes. Both _Beowulf_ and the
+Scandinavian authorities agree upon that. The fact that his name (in the
+form _Sceldwa_) appears in the genealogy of the kings of Wessex is not
+evidence against a Danish origin. The name appears in close connection with
+that of Heremod, another Danish king, and is merely evidence of a desire on
+the part of the genealogist of the Wessex kings to connect his royal house
+with the most distinguished family he knew: that of the Scyldingas, about
+whom so much is said in the prologue to _Beowulf_.
+
+Neither do the instances of place-names in England, such as _Scyldes
+treow_, _Scildes well_, prove Scyld to have been an English hero. They
+merely prove him to have been a hero who was celebrated in England--which
+the Prologue to _Beowulf_ alone is sufficient to show to have been the
+case. For place-names commemorating heroes of alien tribes are common
+enough[165] on English ground.
+
+So much at least is gained. Whatever Müllenhoff[166] and his followers
+constructed upon the assumption that Scyld was an essentially Anglo-Saxon
+hero goes overboard. Scyld is the ancestor king of the Danish house--more
+than this we can hardly with safety assert.
+
+Now let us turn to the figure of Sceaf. This was not necessarily connected
+with Scyld from the first.
+
+The story of Sceaf first meets us in its completeness in the pages of
+William of Malmesbury. And William of Malmesbury is a twelfth century
+authority; by his time the Old English courtly epics had died out--for they
+could not have long survived the Norman Conquest and the overthrow of Old
+English court life. But the popular tradition[167] remained, and {80} a
+good many of the old stories, banished from the hall, must have lingered on
+at the cross-roads--tales of Wade and Weyland, of Offa and Sceaf. For
+songs, sung by minstrels at the cross roads, William of Malmesbury is good
+evidence, and he owns to having drawn information from similar popular
+sources[168]. William's story, then, is evidence that in his own day there
+was a tradition of a mythical king Sheaf who came as a child sleeping in a
+ship with a sheaf of corn at his head How old this tradition may be, we
+cannot say. Ethelwerd knew the story, though he has nothing to say of the
+sheaf. But we have seen that when we get back to the ninth century, and the
+formation of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, at a court where we may be sure
+the old English heroic stories were still popular, it is Sceaf and not
+Sceldwa who is regarded as the beginning of things--the king whose origin
+is so remote that he is the oldest Germanic ancestor one can get back
+to[169]: "he was born in Noah's ark."
+
+Whether or no Noah's ark was chosen as Sceaf's birthplace because legend
+represented him as coming in a boat over the water, we cannot tell. But the
+place he occupies, with only the Biblical names before him, as compared
+with Sceldwa the son of Heremod, clearly marks Sceaf rather than Sceldwa as
+the hero who comes from the unknown. Turning now to the catalogue of kings
+in _Widsith_, probably the oldest extant piece of Anglo-Saxon verse, some
+generations more ancient than _Beowulf_, we find a King Sceafa, who ruled
+over the Langobards. Finally, in _Beowulf_ itself, although the story is
+told of Scyld, nevertheless this Scyld is characterized as _Scefing_. If
+this means "with the sheaf," then the _Beowulf_-story stands convicted of
+imperfection, of needing explanation outside itself from the {81} account
+which William of Malmesbury wrote four centuries later. If it means "son of
+Sceaf," why should a father be given to Scyld, when the story demands that
+he should come from the unknown? Was it because, if the boat story was to
+be attributed to Scyld, it was felt that this could only be made plausible
+by giving him some relation to Sceaf?
+
+
+
+When we find an ancient king bearing the extraordinary name of "Sheaf," it
+is difficult not to connect this with the honour done to the sheaf of corn,
+survivals of which have been found in different parts of England. In
+Herrick's time, the sheaves of corn were still kissed as they were carried
+home on the Hock-cart, whilst
+
+ Some, with great
+ Devotion, stroke the home-borne wheat.
+
+Professor Chadwick argues, on the analogy of Prussian and Bulgarian harvest
+customs, that the figure of the "Harvest Queen" in the English ceremony is
+derived from a corn figure made from the last sheaf, and that the sheaf was
+once regarded as a religious symbol[170]. But the evidence for this is
+surely even stronger than would be gathered from Professor Chadwick's very
+cautious statement. I suppose there is hardly a county in England from Kent
+to Cornwall and from Kent to Northumberland, where there is not evidence
+for honour paid to the last sheaf--an honour which cannot be accounted for
+as merely expressing the joy of the reapers at having got to the end of
+their task. In Kent "a figure composed of some of the best corn" was made
+into a human shape: "this is afterwards curiously dressed by the women, and
+adorned with paper trimmings cut to resemble a cap, ruffles, handkerchief,
+etc., of the finest lace. It is brought home with the last load of
+corn[171]." In Northumberland and Durham a sheaf known as the "Kern baby"
+was made into the likeness of a human figure, decked out and brought home
+in triumph with dancing and singing[172]. But the most striking form of the
+sheaf ceremony is found in the honour done to the "Neck" in the West of
+England.
+
+{82}
+
+ ... After the wheat is all cut, on most farms in the north of Devon the
+ harvest people have a custom of "crying the neck." I believe that this
+ practice is seldom omitted on any large farm in that part of the
+ country. It is done in this way. An old man, or someone else well
+ acquainted with the ceremonies used on the occasion (when the labourers
+ are reaping the last field of wheat), goes round to the shocks and
+ sheaves, and picks out a little bundle of all the best ears he can
+ find; this bundle he ties up very neat and trim, and plats and arranges
+ the straws very tastefully. This is called "the neck" of wheat, or
+ wheaten-ears. After the field is cut out, and the pitcher once more
+ circulated, the reapers, binders, and the women, stand round in a
+ circle. The person with "the neck" stands in the centre, grasping it
+ with both his hands. He first stoops and holds it near the ground, and
+ all the men forming the ring take off their hats, stooping and holding
+ them with both hands towards the ground. They then all begin at once in
+ a very prolonged and harmonious tone to cry "the neck!" at the same
+ time slowly raising themselves upright, and elevating their arms and
+ hats above their heads; the person with "the neck" also raising it on
+ high. This is done three times. They then change their cry to "wee
+ yen!"--"way yen!"--which they sound in the same prolonged and slow
+ manner as before, with singular harmony and effect, three times. This
+ last cry is accompanied by the same movements of the body and arms as
+ in crying "the neck." ...
+
+ ... After having thus repeated "the neck" three times, and "wee yen" or
+ "way yen" as often, they all burst out into a kind of loud and joyous
+ laugh, flinging up their hats and caps into the air, capering about and
+ perhaps kissing the girls. One of them then gets "the neck," and runs
+ as hard as he can down to the farm-house, where the dairy-maid, or one
+ of the young female domestics, stands at the door prepared with a pail
+ of water. If he who holds "the neck" can manage to get into the house,
+ in any way, unseen or openly, by any other way than the door at which
+ the girl stands with the pail of water, then he may lawfully kiss her;
+ but, if otherwise, he is regularly soused with the contents of the
+ bucket. On a fine still autumn evening, the "crying of the neck" has a
+ wonderful effect at a distance, far finer than that of the Turkish
+ muezzin, which Lord Byron eulogizes so much, and which he says is
+ preferable to all the bells in Christendom. I have once or twice heard
+ upwards of twenty men cry it, and sometimes joined by an equal number
+ of female voices. About three years back, on some high grounds, where
+ our people were harvesting, I heard six or seven "necks" cried in one
+ night, although I know that some of them were four miles off[173].
+
+The account given by Mrs Bray of the Devonshire custom, in her letters to
+Southey, is practically identical with this[174]. We have plenty of
+evidence for this ceremony of "Crying the Neck" in the South-Western
+counties in Somersetshire[175], in Cornwall[176], and in a mutilated form
+in Dorsetshire[177].
+
+{83}
+
+On the Welsh border the essence of the ceremony consisted in tying the last
+ears of corn--perhaps twenty--with ribbon, and severing this "neck" by
+throwing the sickle at it from some distance. The custom is recorded in
+Cheshire[178], Shropshire[179], and under a different name in
+Herefordshire[180]. The term "neck" seems to have been known as far afield
+as Yorkshire and the "little England beyond Wales"--the English-speaking
+colony of Pembrokeshire[181].
+
+Whether we are to interpret the expression "the Neck," applied to the last
+sheaf, as descended from a time when "the corn spirit is conceived in human
+form, and the last standing corn is a part of its body--its neck[182] ..."
+or whether it is merely a survival of the Scandinavian word for
+sheaf--_nek_ or _neg_[183], we have here surely evidence of the worship of
+the sheaf. "In this way 'Sheaf' was greeted, before he passed over into a
+purely mythical being[184]."
+
+I do not think these "neck" customs can be traced back beyond the
+seventeenth century[185]. Though analogous usages are recorded in England
+(near Eton) as early as the sixteenth century[186], it was not usual at
+that time to trouble to record such things.
+
+The earliest document bearing upon the veneration of the sheaf comes from a
+neighbouring district, and is contained in the Chronicle of the Monastery
+of Abingdon, which tells how in the time of King Edmund (941-946) a
+controversy arose as to the right of the monks of Abingdon to a certain
+portion of land adjoining the river. The monks appealed to a judgment of
+God to vindicate their claim, and this took the shape of {84} placing a
+sheaf, with a taper on the top, upon a round shield and letting it float
+down the river, the shield by its movements hither and thither indicating
+accurately the boundaries of the monastic domain. At last the shield came
+to the field in debate, which, thanks to the floods, it was able to
+circumnavigate[187].
+
+Professor Chadwick, who first emphasized the importance of this strange
+ordeal[188], points out that although the extant MSS of the _Chronicle_
+date from the thirteenth century, the mention of a _round_ shield carries
+the superstition back to a period before the Norman Conquest. Therefore
+this story seems to give us evidence for the use of the sheaf and shield
+together as a magic symbol in Anglo-Saxon times. "An ordeal by letting the
+sheaf sail down the river on a shield was only possible at a time when the
+sheaf was regarded as a kind of supernatural being which could find the way
+itself[189]."
+
+But a still closer parallel to the story of the corn-figure coming over the
+water is found in Finnish mythology in the person of Sämpsä Pellervoinen.
+Finnish mythology seems remote from our subject, but if the figure of
+Sämpsä was borrowed from Germanic mythology, as seems to be thought[190],
+we are justified in laying great weight upon the parallel.
+
+Readers of the _Kalewala_ will remember, near the beginning, the figure of
+Sämpsä Pellervoinen, the god of Vegetation. He does not seem to do much.
+But there are other Finnish {85} poems in his honour, extant in varying
+versions[191]. It is difficult to get a collected idea from these
+fragmentary records, but it seems to be this: Ahti, the god of the sea,
+sends messengers to summon Sämpsä, so that he may bring fertility to the
+fields. In one version, first the Winter and then the Summer are sent to
+arouse Sämpsä, that he may make the crops and trees grow. Winter--
+
+ Took a foal swift as the spring wind,
+ Let the storm wind bear him forward,
+ Blew the trees till they were leafless,
+ Blew the grass till it was seedless,
+ Bloodless likewise the young maidens.
+
+Sämpsä refuses to come. Then the Summer is sent with better results. In
+another version Sämpsä is fetched from an island beyond the sea:
+
+ It is I who summoned Sämpsä
+ From an isle amid the ocean,
+ From a skerry bare and treeless.
+
+In yet another variant we are told how the boy Sämpsä
+
+ Took six grains from off the corn heap,
+ Slept all summer mid the corn heap,
+ In the bosom of the corn boat.
+
+Now "It's a long, long way to" Ilomantsi in the east of Finland, where this
+last variant was discovered. But at least we have evidence that, within the
+region influenced by Germanic mythology, the spirit of vegetation was
+thought of as a boy coming over the sea, or sleeping in a boat with
+corn[192].
+
+To sum up:
+
+Sceafa, when the Catalogue of Kings in _Widsith_ was drawn up--before
+_Beowulf_ was composed, at any rate in its present form--was regarded as an
+ancient king. When the West Saxon pedigree was drawn up, certainly not much
+more than a century and a half after the composition of _Beowulf_, and
+perhaps much less, Sceaf was regarded as the primitive figure in the
+pedigree, before whom no one lived save the Hebrew patriarchs. That he was
+originally thought of as a child, {86} coming across the water, with the
+sheaf of corn, is, in view of the Finnish parallel, exceedingly probable,
+and acquires some confirmation from the Chronicler's placing him in Noah's
+ark. But the definite evidence for this is late.
+
+Scyld, on the other hand, is in the first place probably a mere eponym of
+the power of the Scylding kings of Denmark. He may, at a very early date,
+have been provided with a ship funeral, since later two Swedish kings, both
+apparently of Danish origin, have this ship funeral accorded to them, and
+in one case it is expressly said to be "according to the custom of his
+ancestors." But it seems exceedingly improbable that his original story
+represented him as coming over the sea in a boat. For, if so, it remains to
+be explained why this motive has entirely disappeared among his own people
+in Scandinavia, and has been preserved only in England. Would the Danes
+have been likely to forget utterly so striking a story, concerning the king
+from whom their line derived its name? Further, in England, _Beowulf_ alone
+attributes this story to Scyld, whilst later historians attribute it to
+Sceaf. In view of the way in which the story of William of Malmesbury is
+supported by folklore, to regard that story as merely the result of error
+or invention seems perilous indeed.
+
+On the other hand, all becomes straightforward if we allow that Scyld and
+Sceaf were both ancient figures standing at the head of famous dynasties.
+Their names alliterate. What more likely than that their stories should
+have influenced each other, and that one king should have come to be
+regarded as the parent or ancestor of the other? Contamination with Scyld
+would account for Sceaf's boat being stated to have come to land in Scani,
+Scanza--that Scedeland which is mentioned as the seat of Scyld's rule. Yet
+this explanation is not necessary, for if Sceaf were an early Longobard
+king, he would be rightly represented as ruling in Scandinavia[193].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{87}
+
+SECTION VI. BEOW.
+
+The Anglo-Saxon genealogies agree that the son of Sceldwa (Scyld) is Beow
+(Beaw, Beo). In _Beowulf_, he is named not Beow, but Beowulf.
+
+Many etymologies have been suggested for _B[=e]ow_. But considering that
+Beow is in some versions a grandson, in all a descendant of Sceaf, it can
+hardly be an accident that his name is identical with the O.E. word for
+grain, _b[=e]ow_. The Norse word corresponding to this is _bygg_[194].
+
+Recent investigation of the name is best summed up in the words of Axel
+Olrik:
+
+ "New light has been cast upon the question of the derivation of the
+ name Beow by Kaarle Krohn's investigation of the debt of Finnish to
+ Norse mythology, together with Magnus Olsen's linguistic
+ interpretation. The Finnish has a deity Pekko, concerning whom it is
+ said that he promoted the growth of barley: the Esths, closely akin to
+ the Finns, have a corresponding Peko, whose image--the size of a
+ three-year-old child--was carried out into the fields and invoked at
+ the time of sowing, or else was kept in the corn-bin by a custodian
+ chosen for a year. This Pekko is plainly a personification of the
+ barley; the form corresponding phonetically in Runic Norse would be
+ *_beggw-_ (from which comes Old Norse _bygg_).
+
+ "So in Norse there was a grain *_beggw-_ (becoming _bygg_) and a
+ corn-god *_Beggw-_ (becoming _Pekko_). In Anglo-Saxon there was a grain
+ _béow_ and an ancestral _Béow_. And all four are phonetically identical
+ (proceeding from a primitive form *_beuwa_, 'barley'). The conclusion
+ which it is difficult to avoid is, that the corn-spirit 'Barley' and
+ the ancestor 'Barley' are one and the same. The relation is the same as
+ that between King Sheaf and the worship of the sheaf: the worshipped
+ corn-being gradually sinks into the background, and comes to be
+ regarded as an epic figure, an early ancestor.
+
+ "We have no more exact knowledge of the mythical ideas connected either
+ with the ancestor Beow or the corn-god Pekko. But we know enough of the
+ worship of Pekko to show that he dwelt in the corn-heap, and that, in
+ the spring, he was fetched out in the shape of a little child. That
+ reminds us not a little of Sämpsä, who lay in the corn-heap on the
+ ship, and came to land and awoke in the spring[195]."
+
+{88}
+
+But it may be objected that this is "harking back" to the old mythological
+interpretations. After refusing to accept Müllenhoff's assumptions, are we
+not reverting, through the names of Sceaf and Beow, and the worship of the
+sheaf, to very much the same thing?
+
+No. It is one thing to believe that the ancestor-king Beow may be a
+weakened form of an ancient divinity, a mere name surviving from the figure
+of an old corn-god Beow; it is quite another to assume, as Müllenhoff did,
+that what we are told about Beowulf was originally told about Beow _and
+that therefore we are justified in giving a mythological meaning to it_.
+
+All we know, conjecture apart, about Beow is his traditional relationship
+to Scyld, Sceaf and the other figures of the pedigree. That Beowulf's
+dragon fight belonged originally to him is only a conjecture. In
+confirmation of this conjecture only one argument has been put forward: an
+argument turning upon Beowulf, son of Scyld--that obscure figure,
+apparently equivalent to Beow, who meets us at the beginning of our poem.
+
+Beowulf's place as a son of Scyld and father of Healfdene is occupied in
+the Danish genealogies by Frothi, son of Skjold, and father of Halfdan. It
+has been urged that the two figures are really identical, in spite of the
+difference of name. Now Frothi slays a dragon, and it has been argued that
+this dragon fight shows similarities which enable us to identify it with
+the dragon fight attributed in our poem to Beowulf the Geat.
+
+The argument is a strong one--if it really is the case that the dragon
+slain by Frothi was the same monster as that slain by Beowulf the Geat.
+
+Unfortunately this parallel, which will be examined in the next section, is
+far from certain. We must be careful not to argue in a circle, identifying
+Beowulf and Frothi because they slew the same dragon, and then identifying
+the dragons because they were slain by the same hero.
+
+Whilst, therefore, we admit that it is highly probable that Beow (grain)
+the descendant of Sceaf (sheaf) was originally a corn divinity or corn
+fetish, we cannot follow Müllenhoff in his bold attribution to this
+"culture hero" of Beowulf's adventures with the dragon or with Grendel.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{89}
+
+SECTION VII. THE HOUSE OF SCYLD AND DANISH PARALLELS: HEREMOD-LOTHERUS AND
+BEOWULF-FROTHO.
+
+Scyld, although the source of that Scylding dynasty which our poem
+celebrates, is _not_ apparently regarded in _Beowulf_ as the earliest
+Danish king. He came to the throne after an interregnum; the people whom he
+grew up to rule had long endured cruel need, "being without a prince[196]."
+We hear in _Beowulf_ of one Danish king only whom we can place
+chronologically before Scyld--viz. Heremod[197]. The way in which Heremod
+is referred to would fit in very well with the supposition[198] that he was
+the last of a dynasty; the immediate predecessor of Scyld; and that it was
+the death or exile of Heremod which ushered in the time when the Danes were
+without a prince.
+
+Now there is a natural tendency in genealogies for each king to be
+represented as the descendant of his predecessor, whether he really was so
+or no; so that in the course of time, and sometimes of a very short time,
+the first king of a new dynasty may come to be reckoned as son of a king of
+the preceding line[199]. Consequently, there would be nothing surprising
+if, in another account, we find Scyld represented as a son of Heremod. And
+we _do_ find the matter represented thus in the West Saxon genealogy, where
+Sceldwa or Scyld is son of Heremod. Turning to the Danish accounts,
+however, we do not find any _Hermóðr_ (which is the form we should expect
+corresponding to _Herem[=o]d_) as father to Skjold (Scyld). Either no
+father of Skjold is known, or else (in Saxo Grammaticus) he has a father
+Lotherus. But, although the names are different, there is some
+correspondence between what we are told of Lother and what we are told of
+Heremod. A close parallel has indeed been drawn by Sievers between the
+whole dynasty: on the one hand Lotherus, his son Skioldus, and his
+descendant Frotho, {90} as given in Saxo: and on the other hand the
+corresponding figures in _Beowulf_, Heremod, Scyld, and Scyld's son,
+Beowulf the Dane.
+
+The fixed and certain point here is the identity of the central figure,
+Skioldus-Scyld. All the rest is very doubtful; not that there are not many
+parallel features, but because the parallels are of a commonplace type
+which might so easily recur accidentally.
+
+The story of Lother, as given by Saxo, will be found below: the story of
+Heremod as given in _Beowulf_ is hopelessly obscure--a mere succession of
+allusions intended for an audience who knew the tale quite well. Assuming
+the stories of Lother and Heremod to be different versions of one original,
+the following would seem to be the most likely reconstruction[200], the
+more doubtful portions being placed within round brackets thus ( ):
+
+ The old Danish prince [Dan in Saxo] has two sons, one a weakling
+ [_Humblus_, Saxo] the other a hero [_Lotherus_, Saxo: _Heremod_,
+ _Beowulf_] (who was already in his youth the hope of the nation). But
+ after his father's death the elder was (through violence) raised to the
+ throne: and Lother-Heremod went into banishment. (But under the rule of
+ the weakling the kingdom went to pieces, and thus) many a man longed
+ for the return of the exile, as a help against these evils. So the hero
+ conquers and deposes the weaker brother. But then his faults break
+ forth, his greed and his cruelty: he ceases to be the darling and
+ becomes the scourge of his people, till they rise and either slay him
+ or drive him again into exile.
+
+If the stories of Lother and Heremod _are_ connected, we may be fairly
+confident that Heremod, not Lother, was the name of the king in the
+original story.
+
+For Scandinavian literature does know a Hermoth (_Hermóðr_), though no such
+adventures are attributed to him as those recorded of Heremod in _Beowulf_.
+Nevertheless it is probable that this Hermoth and Heremod in _Beowulf_ are
+one and the same, because both heroes are linked in some way or other with
+Sigemund. How these two kings, Heremod and Sigemund, came to be connected,
+we do not know, but we find this connection recurring again and again[201].
+This _may_ be {91} mere coincidence: but I doubt if we are justified in
+assuming it to be so[202].
+
+It has been suggested[203] that both Heremod and Sigemund were originally
+heroes specially connected with the worship of Odin, and hence grouped
+together. The history of the Scandinavian Sigmund is bound up with that of
+the magic sword which Odin gave him, and with which he was always
+victorious till the last fight when Odin himself shattered it.
+
+And we are told in the Icelandic that Odin, whilst he gave a sword to
+Sigmund, gave a helm and byrnie to Hermoth.
+
+Again, whilst in one Scandinavian poem Sigmund is represented as welcoming
+the newcomer at the gates of Valhalla, in another the same duty is
+entrusted to Hermoth.
+
+It is clear also that the _Beowulf_-poet had in mind some kind of
+connection, though we cannot tell what, between Sigemund and Heremod.
+
+We may take it, then, that the Heremod who is linked with Sigemund in
+_Beowulf_ was also known in Scandinavian literature as a hero in some way
+connected with Sigmund: whether or no the adventures which Saxo records of
+Lotherus were really told in Scandinavian lands in connection with Hermoth,
+we cannot say. The wicked king whose subjects rebel against him is too
+common a feature of Germanic story for us to feel sure, without a good deal
+of corroborative evidence, that the figures of Lotherus and Heremod are
+identical.
+
+The next king in the line, Skioldus in Saxo, is, as we have seen, clearly
+identical with Scyld in _Beowulf_. But beyond the name, the two traditions
+have, as we have also seen, but little in common. Both are youthful
+heroes[204], both force neighbouring kings to pay tribute[205]; but such
+things are commonplaces[206].
+
+We must therefore turn to the next figure in the pedigree: the son of
+Skjold in Scandinavian tradition is Frothi (Frotho {92} in Saxo)[207], the
+son of Scyld in _Beowulf_ is Beowulf the Dane. And Frothi is the father of
+Halfdan (Haldanus in Saxo) as Beowulf the Dane is of Healfdene. The Frothi
+of Scandinavian tradition corresponds then in position to Beowulf the Dane
+in Old English story[208].
+
+Now of Beowulf the Dane we are told so little that we have really no means
+of drawing a comparison between him and Frothi. But a _theory_ that has
+found wide acceptance among scholars assumes that the dragon fight of
+Beowulf the Geat was originally narrated of Beowulf the Dane, and only
+subsequently transferred to the Geatic hero. Theoretically, then, Beowulf
+the Dane kills a dragon. Now certainly Frotho kills a dragon: and it has
+been generally accepted[209] that the parallels between the dragon slain by
+Frotho and that slain by Beowulf the Geat are so remarkable as to exclude
+the possibility of mere accidental coincidence, and to lead us to conclude
+that the dragon story was originally told of that Beowulf who corresponds
+to Frothi, i.e. Beowulf the Dane, son of Scyld and father of Healfdene; not
+Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, the Geat.
+
+But are the parallels really so close? We must not forget that here we are
+building theory upon theory. That the Frotho of Saxo is the same figure as
+Beowulf the Dane in Old English, is a theory, based upon his common
+relationship to Skiold-Scyld before him and to Haldanus-Healfdene coming
+after him: that Beowulf the Dane was the original hero of the dragon fight,
+and that that dragon fight was only subsequently transferred to the credit
+of Beowulf the Geat, is again a theory. Only if we can find real parallels
+between the dragon-slaying of Frotho and the dragon-slaying of Beowulf will
+these theories have confirmation.
+
+{93}
+
+Parallels have been pointed out by Sievers which he regards as so close as
+to justify a belief that both are derived ultimately from an old lay, with
+so much closeness that verbal resemblances can still be traced.
+
+Unfortunately the parallels are all commonplaces. That Sievers and others
+have been satisfied with them was perhaps due to the fact that they started
+by assuming as proved that the dragon fight of Beowulf the Geat belonged
+originally to Beowulf the Dane[210], and argued that since Frotho in Saxo
+occupies a place corresponding exactly to that of Beowulf the Dane in
+_Beowulf_, a comparatively limited resemblance between two dragons coming,
+as it were, at the same point in the pedigree, might be held sufficient to
+identify them.
+
+But, as we have seen, the assumption that the dragon fight of Beowulf the
+Geat belonged originally to Beowulf the Dane is only a theory that will
+have to stand or fall as we can prove that the dragon fight of Frotho is
+really parallel to that of Beowulf the Geat, and therefore must have
+belonged to the connecting link supplied by the Scylding prince Beowulf the
+Dane. In other words, the theory that the dragon in _Beowulf_ is to be
+identified with the dragon which in Saxo is slain by Frotho the Danish
+prince, father of Haldanus-Healfdene, is one of the main arguments upon
+which we must base the theory that the dragon in _Beowulf_ was originally
+slain by the Danish Beowulf, father of Healfdene, not by Beowulf the Geat.
+We cannot then turn round, and assert that the fact that they were both
+slain by a Danish prince, the father of Healfdene, is an argument for
+identifying the dragons.
+
+Turning to the dragon fight itself, the following parallels have been noted
+by Sievers:
+
+(1) A native (_indigena_) comes to Frotho, and tells him of the
+treasure-guarding dragon. An informer (_melda_) plays the same part in
+_Beowulf_[211].
+
+But a dragon is not game which can be met with every day. He is a shy
+beast, lurking in desert places. Some informant has very frequently to
+guide the hero to his {94} foe[212]. And the situation is widely different.
+Frotho knows nothing of the dragon till directed to the spot: Beowulf's
+land has been assailed, he knows of the dragon, though he needs to be
+guided to its _exact_ lair.
+
+(2) Frotho's dragon lives on an island. Beowulf's lives near the sea, and
+there is an island (_[=e]alond_, 2334) in the neighbourhood.
+
+But _[=e]alond_ in _Beowulf_ probably does not mean "island" at all: and in
+any case the dragon did not live upon the _[=e]alond_. Many dragons have
+lived near the sea. Sigemund's dragon did so[213].
+
+(3) The hero in each case attacks the dragon single-handed.
+
+But what hero ever did otherwise? On the contrary, Beowulf's exploit
+differs from that of Frotho and of most other dragon slayers in that he is
+unable to _overcome_ his foe single-handed, and needs the support of
+Wiglaf.
+
+(4) Special armour is carried by the dragon slayer in each case.
+
+But this again is no uncommon feature. The Red Cross Knight also needs
+special armour. Dragon slayers constantly invent some ingenious or even
+unique method. And again the parallel is far from close. Frotho is advised
+to cover his shield and his limbs with the hides of bulls and kine: a
+sensible precaution against fiery venom. Beowulf constructs a shield of
+iron[214]: which naturally gives very inferior protection[215].
+
+(5) Frotho's informant tells him that he must be of good courage[216].
+Wiglaf encourages Beowulf[217].
+
+But the circumstances under which the words are uttered are entirely
+different, nor have the words more than a general resemblance. That a man
+needs courage, if he is going to tackle a dragon, is surely a conclusion at
+which two minds could have arrived independently.
+
+(6) Both heroes waste their blows at first on the scaly back of the dragon.
+
+{95}
+
+But if the hero went at once for the soft parts, there would be no fight at
+all, and all the fun would be lost. Sigurd's dragon-fight is, for this
+reason, a one-sided business from the first. To avoid this, Frotho is
+depicted as beginning by an attack on the dragon's rough hide (although he
+has been specially warned by the _indigena_ not to do so):
+
+ ventre sub imo
+ esse locum scito quo ferrum mergere fas est,
+ hunc mucrone petens medium rimaberis anguem[218].
+
+(7) The hoard is plundered by both heroes.
+
+But it is the nature of a dragon to guard a hoard[219]. And, having slain
+the dragon, what hero would neglect the gold?
+
+(8) There are many verbal resemblances: the dragon spits venom[220], and
+twists himself into coils[221].
+
+Some of these verbal resemblances may be granted as proved: but they surely
+do not prove the common origin of the two dragon fights. They only tend to
+prove the common origin of the school of poetry in which these two dragon
+fights were told. That dragons dwelt in mounds was a common Germanic
+belief, to which the Cottonian Gnomic verses testify. Naturally, therefore,
+Frotho's dragon is _montis possessor_: Beowulf's is _beorges hyrde_. The
+two phrases undoubtedly point back to a similar gradus, to a similar
+traditional stock phraseology, and to similar beliefs: that is all. As well
+argue that two kings must be identical, because each is called _folces
+hyrde_.
+
+These commonplace phrases and commonplace features are surely quite
+insufficient to prove that the stories are identical--at most they only
+prove that they bear the impress of one and the same poetical school. If a
+parallel is to carry weight there must be something individual about it, as
+there is, for example, about the arguments by which the identity of Beowulf
+and Bjarki have been supported. That a hero comes from {96} Geatland
+(Gautland) to the court where Hrothulf (Rolf) is abiding; that the same
+hero subsequently is instrumental in helping Eadgils (Athils) against Onela
+(Ali)--here we have something tangible. But when two heroes, engaged upon
+slaying a dragon, are each told to be brave, the parallel is too general to
+be a parallel at all. "There is a river in Macedon: and there is also
+moreover a river at Monmouth, and there is salmons in both."
+
+And there is a fundamental difference, which would serve to neutralize the
+parallels, even did they appear much less accidental than they do.
+
+Dragon fights may be classified into several types: two stand out
+prominently. There is the story in which the young hero begins his career
+by slaying a dragon or monster and winning, it may be a hoard of gold, it
+may be a bride. This is the type of story found, for instance, in the tales
+of Sigurd, or Perseus, or St George. On the other hand there is the hero
+who, at the end of his career, seeks to ward off evil from himself and his
+people. He slays the monster, but is himself slain by it. The great example
+of this type is the god Thor, who in the last fight of the gods slays the
+Dragon, but dies when he has reeled back nine paces from the "baleful
+serpent[222]."
+
+Now the story of the victorious young Frotho is of the one type: that of
+the aged Beowulf is of the other. And this difference is essential,
+fundamental, dominating the whole situation in each case: giving its
+cheerful and aggressive tone to the story of Frotho, giving the elegiac and
+pathetic note which runs through the whole of the last portion of
+_Beowulf_[223]. It is no mere detail which could be added or subtracted by
+a narrator without altering the essence of the story.
+
+In face of this we must pronounce the two stories essentially and
+originally distinct. If, nevertheless, there were a large number of
+striking and specific similarities, we should have to allow that, though
+originally distinct, the one dragon story had influenced the other in
+detail. For, whilst each poet who retold the tale would make alterations in
+detail, and might {97} import such detail from one dragon story into
+another, what we know of the method of the ancient story tellers does not
+allow us to assume that a poet would have altered the whole drift of a
+story, either by changing the last death-struggle of an aged, childless
+prince into the victorious feat of a young hero, or by the reverse process.
+
+Those, therefore, who hold the parallels quoted above to be convincing, may
+believe that one dragon story has influenced another, originally
+distinct[224]. To me, it does not appear that even this necessarily follows
+from the evidence.
+
+It seems very doubtful whether any of the parallels drawn by Sievers
+between the stories of Lotherus and Heremod[225], Skioldus and Scyld,
+Frotho and Beowulf, are more than the resemblances inevitable in poetry
+which, like the Old Danish and the Old English, still retains so many
+traces of the common Germanic frame in which it was moulded.
+
+Indeed, of the innumerable dragon-stories extant, there is probably not one
+which we can declare to be really identical with that of Beowulf. There is
+a Danish tradition which shows many similarities[226], and I have given
+this below, in Part II; but rather as an example of a dragon-slaying of the
+_Beowulf_ type, than because I believe in any direct connection between the
+two stories.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{98}
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THEORIES AS TO THE ORIGIN, DATE, AND STRUCTURE OF THE POEM
+
+SECTION I. IS "BEOWULF" TRANSLATED FROM A SCANDINAVIAN ORIGINAL?
+
+Our poem, the first original poem of any length in the English tongue,
+ignores England. In one remarkable passage (ll. 1931-62) it mentions with
+praise Offa I, the great king who ruled the Angles whilst they were still
+upon the Continent. But, except for this, it deals mainly with heroes who,
+so far as we can identify them with historic figures, are Scandinavian.
+
+Hence, not unnaturally, the first editor boldly declared _Beowulf_ to be an
+Anglo-Saxon version of a Danish poem; and this view has had many
+supporters. The poem _must_ be Scandinavian, said one of its earliest
+translators, because it deals mainly with Scandinavian heroes and "everyone
+knows that in ancient times each nation celebrated in song its own heroes
+alone[227]." And this idea, though not so crudely expressed, seems really
+to underlie the belief which has been held by numerous scholars, that the
+poem is nothing more than a translation of a poem in which some
+Scandinavian minstrel had glorified the heroes of his own nation.
+
+But what do we mean by "nation"? Doubtless, from the point of view of
+politics and war, each Germanic tribe, or offshoot of a tribe, formed an
+independent nation: the Longobardi had no hesitation in helping the
+"Romans" to cut the throats of their Gothic kinsmen: Penda the Mercian was
+willing to ally with the Welshmen in order to overthrow his {99} fellow
+Angles of Northumbria. But all this, as the history of the ancient Greeks
+or of the ancient Hebrews might show us, is quite compatible with a
+consciousness of racial unity among the warring states, with a common
+poetic tradition and a common literature. For purposes of poetry there was
+only one nation--the Germanic--split into many dialects and groups, but
+possessed of a common metre, a common style, a common standard of heroic
+feeling: and any deed of valour performed by any Germanic chief might
+become a fit subject for the poetry of any Germanic tribe of the heroic
+age.
+
+So, if by "nation" we mean the whole Germanic race, then Germanic poetry is
+essentially "national." The Huns were the only non-Germanic tribe who were
+received (for poetical purposes) into Germania. Hunnish chiefs seem to have
+adopted Gothic manners, and after the Huns had disappeared it often came to
+be forgotten that they were not Germans. But with this exception the tribes
+and heroes of Germanic heroic poetry are Germanic.
+
+If, however, by "nation" we understand the different warring units into
+which the Germanic race was, politically speaking, divided, then Germanic
+poetry is essentially "international."
+
+This is no theory, but a fact capable of conclusive proof. The chief actors
+in the old Norse Volsung lays are not Norsemen, but Sigurd the Frank,
+Gunnar the Burgundian, Atli the Hun. In Continental Germany, the ideal
+knight of the Saxons in the North and the Bavarians in the South was no
+native hero, but Theodoric the Ostrogoth. So too in England, whilst
+_Beowulf_ deals chiefly with Scandinavian heroes, the _Finnsburg_ fragment
+deals with the Frisian tribes of the North Sea coast: _Waldere_ with the
+adventures of Germanic chiefs settled in Gaul, _Deor_ with stories of the
+Goths and of the Baltic tribes, whilst _Widsith_, which gives us a
+catalogue of the old heroic tales, shows that amongst the heroes whose
+names were current in England were men of Gothic, Burgundian, Frankish,
+Lombard, Frisian, Danish and Swedish race. There is nothing peculiar, then,
+in the fact that _Beowulf_ celebrates heroes who were not of Anglian birth.
+{100}
+
+In their old home in Schleswig the Angles had been in the exact centre of
+Germania: with an outlook upon both the North Sea and the Baltic, and in
+touch with Scandinavian tribes on the North and Low German peoples on the
+South. That the Angles were interested in the stories of all the nations
+which surrounded them, and that they brought these stories with them to
+England, is certain. It is a mere accident that the one heroic poem which
+happens to have been preserved at length is almost exclusively concerned
+with Scandinavian doings. It could easily have happened that the history of
+the _Beowulf_ MS and the _Waldere_ MS might have been reversed: that the
+_Beowulf_ might have been cut up to bind other books, and the _Waldere_
+preserved intact: in that case our one long poem would have been localized
+in ancient Burgundia, and would have dealt chiefly with the doings of
+Burgundian champions. But we should have had no more reason, without
+further evidence, to suppose the _Waldere_ a translation from the
+Burgundian than we have, without further evidence, to suppose _Beowulf_ a
+translation from the Scandinavian.
+
+To deny that _Beowulf_, as we have it, is a translation from the
+Scandinavian does not, of course, involve any denial of the Scandinavian
+origin of the _story_ of Beowulf's deeds. The fact that his achievements
+are framed in a Scandinavian setting, and that the closest parallels to
+them have to be sought in Scandinavian lands, makes it probable on _a
+priori_ grounds that the story had its origin there. On the face of it,
+Müllenhoff's belief that the story was indigenous among the Angles is quite
+unlikely. It would seem rather to have originated in the Geatic country.
+But stories, whether in prose or verse, would spread quickly from the
+Geatas to the Danes and from the Danes to the Angles.
+
+After the Angles had crossed the North Sea, however, this close intimacy
+ceased, till the Viking raids again reminded Englishmen, in a very
+unpleasant way, of their kinsmen across the sea. Now linguistic evidence
+tends to show that _Beowulf_ belongs to a time prior to the Viking
+settlement in England, and it is unlikely that the Scandinavian traditions
+embodied in _Beowulf_ found their way to England just at the time when
+{101} communication with Scandinavian lands seems to have been suspended.
+We must conclude then that all this Scandinavian tradition probably spread
+to the Angles whilst they were still in their old continental home, was
+brought across to England by the settlers in the sixth century, was handed
+on by English bards from generation to generation, till some Englishmen
+formed the poem of _Beowulf_ as we know it.
+
+Of course, if evidence can be produced that _Beowulf_ is translated from
+some Scandinavian original, which was brought over in the seventh century
+or later, that is another matter. But the evidence produced so far is not
+merely inconclusive, but ludicrously inadequate.
+
+It has been urged[228] by Sarrazin, the chief advocate of the translation
+theory, that the description of the country round Heorot, and especially of
+the journey to the Grendel-lake, shows such local knowledge as to point to
+its having been composed by some Scandinavian poet familiar with the
+locality. Heorot can probably, as we have seen, be identified with Leire:
+and the Grendel-lake Sarrazin identifies with the neighbouring Roskilde
+fjord. But it is hardly possible to conceive a greater contrast than that
+between the Roskilde fjord and the scenery depicted in ll. 1357 _etc._,
+1408 _etc._ Seen, as Sarrazin saw it, on a May morning, in alternate sun
+and shadow, the Roskilde fjord presents a view of tame and peaceful beauty.
+In the days of Hrothgar, when there were perhaps fewer cultivated fields
+and more beech forests, the scenery may have been less tame, but can hardly
+have been less peaceful. The only trace of accurate geography is that
+Heorot is represented as not on the shore, and yet not far remote from it
+(ll. 307 _etc._). But, as has been pointed out above, we know that
+traditions of the attack by the Heathobeardan upon Heorot were current in
+England: and these would be quite sufficient to keep alive, even among
+English bards, some remembrance of the strategic situation of Heorot with
+regard to the sea. A man need not have been near Troy, to realize that the
+town was no seaport and yet near the sea.
+
+{102}
+
+Again, it has been claimed by Sarrazin that the language of _Beowulf_ shows
+traces of the Scandinavian origin of the poem. Sarrazin's arguments on this
+head have been contested energetically by Sievers[229]. After some heated
+controversy Sarrazin made a final and (presumably) carefully-weighed
+statement of his case. In this he gave a list of twenty-nine words upon
+which he based his belief[230]. Yet of these twenty-nine, twenty-one occur
+in other O.E. writings, where there can be no possible question of
+translation from the Scandinavian: some of these words, in fact, are
+amongst the commonest of O.E. poetical expressions. There remain eight
+which do not happen to be found elsewhere in the extant remains of O.E.
+poetry. But these are mostly compounds like _heaðo-l[=a]c_,
+_feorh-s[=e]oc_: and though the actual compound is not elsewhere extant in
+English, the component elements are thoroughly English. There is no reason
+whatever to think that these eight rare words are taken from Old Norse.
+Indeed, three of them do not occur in Old Norse at all.
+
+Evidence to prove _Beowulf_ a translation from a Scandinavian original is,
+then, wanting. On the other hand, over and above the difficulty that the
+_Beowulf_ belongs just to the period when intimate communication between
+the Angles and Scandinavians was suspended, there is much evidence against
+the translation theory. The earliest Scandinavian poetry we possess, or of
+which we can get information, differs absolutely from _Beowulf_ in style,
+metre and sentiment: the manners of _Beowulf_ are incompatible with all we
+know of the wild heathendom of Scandinavia in the seventh or eighth
+century[231]. _Beowulf_, as we now have it, with its Christian references
+and its Latin loan-words, _could_ not be a translation from the
+Scandinavian. And the proper names in _Beowulf_ which Sarrazin claimed were
+Old Norse, not Old English, and had been taken {103} over from the Old
+Norse original, are in all cases so correctly transliterated as to
+necessitate the assumption that they were brought across early, at the time
+of the settlement of Britain or very shortly after, and underwent phonetic
+development side by side with the other words in the English language. Had
+they been brought across from Scandinavia at a later date, much confusion
+must have ensued in the forms.
+
+Somewhat less improbable is the suggestion "that the poet had travelled on
+the continent and become familiar with the legends of the Danes and Geats,
+or else had heard them from a Scandinavian resident in England[232]." But
+it is clear from the allusive manner in which the Scandinavian tales are
+told, that they must have been familiar to the poet's audience. If, then,
+the English audience knew them, why must the poet himself have travelled on
+the continent in order to know them? There is, therefore, no need for this
+theory, and it is open to many of the objections of the translation theory:
+for example it fails, equally with that theory, to account for the
+uniformly correct development of the proper names.
+
+The obvious conclusion is that these Scandinavian traditions were brought
+over by the English settlers in the sixth century. Against this only one
+cavil can be raised, and that will not bear examination. It has been
+objected that, since Hygelac's raid took place about 516, since Beowulf's
+accession was some years subsequent, and since he then reigned fifty years,
+his death cannot be put much earlier than 575, and that this brings us to a
+date when the migration of the Angles and Saxons had been completed[233].
+But it is forgotten that all the historical events mentioned in the poem,
+which we can date, occur before, or not very long after, the raid of
+Hygelac, c. 516. The poem asserts that fifty years after these events
+Beowulf slew a dragon and was slain by it. But this does not make the
+dragon historic, nor does it make the year 575 the historic date of the
+death of Beowulf. We cannot be sure that there _was_ any actual king of the
+Geatas named Beowulf; and if there was, the last known historic act with
+which that king is associated is the raising of Eadgils to the Swedish
+throne, {104} c. 525: the rest of Beowulf's long reign, since it contains
+no event save the slaying of a dragon, has no historic validity.
+
+It is noteworthy that, whereas there is full knowledge shown in our poem of
+those events which took place in Scandinavian lands during the whole period
+from about 450 to 530--the period during which hordes of Angles, Saxons and
+Jutes were landing in Britain--there is no reference, not even by way of
+casual allusion, to any continental events which we can date with certainty
+as subsequent to the arrival of the latest settlers from the continent.
+Surely this is strong evidence that these tales were brought over by some
+of the last of the invaders, not carried to England by some casual
+traveller a century or two later.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION II. THE DIALECT, SYNTAX, AND METRE OF "BEOWULF" AS EVIDENCE OF ITS
+LITERARY HISTORY.
+
+A full discussion of the dialect, metre and syntax of _Beowulf_ forms no
+part of the scheme of this study. It is only intended in this section to
+see how far such investigations throw light upon the literary history of
+the poem.
+
+_Dialect._
+
+_Beowulf_ is written in the late West Saxon dialect. Imbedded in the poem,
+however, are a large number of forms, concerning which this at least can be
+said--that they are not normal late West Saxon. Critics have classified
+these forms, and have drawn conclusions from them as to the history of the
+poem: arguing from sporadic "Mercian" and "Kentish" forms that _Beowulf_ is
+of Mercian origin and has passed through the hands of a Kentish
+transcriber.
+
+But, in fact, the evidence as to Old English dialects is more scanty and
+more conflicting than philologists have always been willing to admit. It is
+exceedingly difficult to say with any certainty what forms are "Mercian"
+and what "Kentish." Having run such forms to earth, it is still more
+difficult to say what arguments are to be drawn from their _occasional_
+{105} appearance in any text. Men from widely different parts of the
+country would be working together in the scriptorium of one and the same
+monastery, and this fact alone may have often led to confusion in the
+dialectal forms of works transcribed.
+
+A thorough investigation of the significance of all the abnormal forms in
+_Beowulf_ has still to be made. Whether it would repay the labour of the
+investigator may well be questioned. In the meantime we may accept the view
+that the poem was in all probability originally written in some
+non-West-Saxon dialect, and most probably in an Anglian dialect, since this
+is confirmed by the way in which the Anglian hero Offa is dragged into the
+story.
+
+ Ten Brink's attempt to decide the dialect and transmission of _Beowulf_
+ will be found in his _Beowulf_, pp. 237-241: he notes the difficulty
+ that the "Kentish" forms from which he argues are nearly all such as
+ occur also sporadically in West Saxon texts. A classification of the
+ forms by P. G. Thomas will be found in the _Modern Language Review_, I,
+ 202 _etc._ How difficult and uncertain all classification must be has
+ been shown by Frederick Tupper (_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXVI,
+ 235 _etc._; _J.E.G.P._ XI, 82-9).
+
+"_Lichtenheld's Test._"
+
+Somewhat more definite results can be drawn from certain syntactical
+usages. There can be no doubt that as time went on, the use of _se_,
+_s[=e]o_, _þæt_ became more and more common in O.E. verse. This is largely
+due to the fact that in the older poems the _weak adjective_ + _noun_
+appears frequently where we should now use the definite article: _w[=i]sa
+fengel_--"the wise prince"; _se w[=i]sa fengel_ is used where some
+demonstrative is needed--"that wise prince." Later, however, _se_,
+_s[=e]o_, _þæt_ comes to be used in the common and vague sense in which the
+definite article is used in Modern English.
+
+We consequently get with increasing frequency the use of the _definite
+article_ + _weak adjective_ + _noun_: whilst the usage _weak adjective_ +
+_noun_ decreases. Some rough criterion of date can thus be obtained by an
+examination of a poet's usage in this particular. Of course it would be
+absurd--as has been done--to group Old English poems in a strict
+chronological order according to the proportion of forms with and without
+the article. Individual usage must count for a good deal: {106} also the
+scribes in copying and recopying our text must to a considerable extent
+have obliterated the earlier practice. Metre and syntax combine to make it
+probable that, in line 9 of our poem, the scribe has inserted the
+unnecessary article _þ[=a]ra_ before _ymbsittendra_: and in the rare cases
+where we have an O.E. poem preserved in two texts, a comparison proves that
+the scribe has occasionally interpolated an article. But this later
+tendency to level out the peculiarity only makes it the more remarkable
+that we should find such great differences between O.E. poems, all of them
+extant in copies transcribed about the year 1000.
+
+How great is the difference between the usage of _Beowulf_ and that of the
+great body of Old English poetry will be clear from the following
+statistics.
+
+The proportion of phrases containing the weak adjective + noun with and
+without the definite article in the certain works of Cynewulf is as
+follows[234]:
+
+ With article Without article
+ _Juliana_ 27 3
+ _Christ (II)_ 28 3
+ _Elene_ 66 9
+
+In _Guthlac_ (A) (c. 750) the proportions are:
+
+ With article Without article
+ _Guthlac_ (A) 42 6
+
+Contrast this with the proportion in our poem:
+
+ With article Without article
+ _Beowulf_ 13 65
+
+The nearest approach to the proportions of _Beowulf_ is in the (certainly
+very archaic)
+
+ With article Without article
+ _Exodus_ 10 14
+
+On the other hand, certain late texts show how fallible this criterion is.
+Anyone dating _Maldon_ solely by "Lichtenheld's Test" would assuredly place
+it much earlier than 991.
+
+{107}
+
+It is easy to make a false use of grammatical statistics: and this test
+should only be applied with the greatest caution. But the difference
+between _Beowulf_ and the works of Cynewulf is too striking to be
+overlooked. In _Beowulf_, to every five examples without the article (e.g.
+_heaðo-st[=e]apa helm_) we have _one_ with the article (e.g. _se hearda
+helm_): in Cynewulf to every five examples without the article we have
+_forty_ with it.
+
+A further test of antiquity is in the use of the weak adjective with the
+instrumental--a use which rapidly diminishes.
+
+There are eighteen such instrumental phrases in _Beowulf_ (3182
+lines)[235]. In _Exodus_ (589 lines) there are six
+examples[236]--proportionally more than in _Beowulf_. In Cynewulf's
+undoubted works (c. 2478 lines) there is one example only, _beorhtan
+reorde_[237].
+
+ This criterion of the absence of the definite article before the weak
+ adjective is often referred to as Lichtenheld's Test (see article by
+ him in _Z.f.d.A._ XVI, 325 _etc._). It has been applied to the whole
+ body of O.E. poetry by Barnouw (_Textcritische Untersuchungen_, 1902).
+ The data collected by Barnouw are most valuable, but we must be
+ cautious in the conclusions we draw, as is shown by Sarrazin (_Eng.
+ Stud._ XXXVIII, 145 _etc._), and Tupper (_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc._ XXVI,
+ 274).
+
+ Exact enumeration of instances is difficult. For example, Lichtenheld
+ gave 22 instances of definite article + weak adjective + noun in
+ _Beowulf_[238]. But eight of these are not quite certain; _se g[=o]da
+ m[=æ]g Hygel[=a]ces_ may be not "the good kinsman of Hygelac," but "the
+ good one--the kinsman of Hygelac," for there is the half line pause
+ after _g[=o]da_. These eight examples therefore should be
+ deducted[239]. One instance, though practically certain, is the result
+ of conjectural emendation[240]. Of the remaining thirteen[241] three
+ are variations of the same phrase.
+
+ The statistics given above are those of Brandl (_Sitzungsberichte d. k.
+ Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften_, 1905, p. 719) which are based upon
+ those of Barnouw.
+
+"_Morsbach's Test._"
+
+Sievers' theories as to O.E. metre have not been accepted by all scholars
+in their entirety. But the statistics which he {108} collected enable us to
+say, with absolute certainty, that some given types of verse were not
+acceptable to the ear of an Old English bard.
+
+Sceptics may emphasize the fact that Old English texts are uncertain, that
+nearly all poems are extant in one MS only, that the MS in each case was
+written down long after the poems were composed, and that precise verbal
+accuracy is therefore not to be expected[242]. All the more remarkable then
+becomes the fact, for it is a fact, that there are certain types of line
+which never occur in _Beowulf_, and that there are other types which are
+exceedingly rare. Again, there are certain types of line which _do_ occur
+in _Beowulf_ as we have it, though they seem contrary to the principles of
+O.E. scansion. When we find that such lines consistently contain some word
+which had a different metrical value when our extant MS of _Beowulf_ was
+transcribed, from that which it had at the earlier date when _Beowulf_ was
+composed, and that the earlier value makes the line metrical, the
+conclusion is obvious. _Beowulf_ must have been composed at a time or in a
+dialect when the earlier metrical values held good.
+
+But we reach a certain date beyond which, if we put the language back into
+its older form, it will no longer fit into the metrical structure. For
+example, words like _fl[=o]d_, _feld_, _eard_ were originally "u-nouns":
+with nom. and acc. sing. _fl[=o]du_, etc. But the half-line _ofer fealone
+fl[=o]d_ (1950) becomes exceedingly difficult if we put it in the form
+_ofer fealone fl[=o]du_[243]: the half-line _f[=i]felcynnes eard_ becomes
+absolutely impossible in the form _f[=i]felcynnes eardu_[244].
+
+It can, consequently, with some certainty be argued that these half-lines
+were composed after the time when _fl[=o]du_, _eardu_ had become _fl[=o]d_,
+_eard_. Therefore, it has been further argued, _Beowulf_ was composed after
+that date. But are we justified in this further step--in assuming that
+because a certain number of half-lines in _Beowulf_ must have been composed
+after a certain date, therefore _Beowulf_ itself must have been composed
+after that date?
+
+{109}
+
+From what we know of the mechanical way in which the Old English _scribe_
+worked, we have no reason to suppose that he would have consistently
+altered what he found in an older copy, so as to make it metrical according
+to the later speech into which he was transcribing it. But if we go back to
+a time when poems were committed to memory by a _scop_, skilled in the laws
+of O.E. metre, the matter is very different. A written poem may be copied
+word for word, even though the spelling is at the same time modernized, but
+it is obvious that a poem preserved orally will be altered slightly from
+time to time, if the language in which it is written is undergoing changes
+which make the poem no longer metrically correct.
+
+Imagine the state of things at the period when final _u_ was being lost
+after a long syllable. This loss of a syllable would make a large number of
+the half-lines and formulas in the old poetry unmetrical. Are we to suppose
+that the whole of O.E. poetry was at once scrapped, and entirely new poems
+composed to fit in with the new sound laws? Surely not; old formulas would
+be recast, old lines modified where they needed it, but the old poetry
+would go on[245], with these minor verbal changes adapting it to the new
+order of things. We can see this taking place, to a limited extent, in the
+transcripts of Middle English poems. In the transmission of poems by word
+of mouth it would surely take place to such an extent as to baffle later
+investigation[246].
+
+Consequently I am inclined to agree that this test is hardly final except
+"on the assumption that the poems were written down from the very
+beginning[247]." And we are clearly not justified in making any such
+assumption. A small number of such lines would accordingly give, not so
+much a means of fixing a period before which _Beowulf_ cannot have been
+composed, as merely {110} one before which _Beowulf_ cannot have been fixed
+by writing in its present form.
+
+If, however, more elaborate investigation were to show that the
+_percentage_ of such lines is _just as great_ in _Beowulf_ as it is in
+poems certainly written after the sound changes had taken place, it might
+be conceded that the test was a valid one, and that it proved _Beowulf_ to
+have been written after these sound changes occurred.
+
+This would then bring us to our second difficulty. At what date exactly did
+these sound changes take place? The chief documents available are the
+proper names in Bede's History, and in certain Latin charters, the glosses,
+and a few early runic inscriptions. Most important, although very scanty,
+are the charters, since they bear a date. With these we proceed to
+investigate:
+
+A. The dropping of the _u_ after a long accented syllable (_fl['=o]du_
+becoming _fl['=o]d_), or semi-accented syllable (_St['=a]nfòrdu_ becoming
+_St['=a]nfòrd_).
+
+There is evidence from an Essex charter that this was already lost in 692
+or 693 (_uuidmundesfelt_)[248]. From this date on, examples without the _u_
+are forthcoming in increasing number[249]. One certain example only has
+been claimed for the preservation of _u_. In the runic inscription on the
+"Franks casket" _flodu_ is found for _flod_. But the spelling of the Franks
+casket is erratic: for example _giuþeasu_ is also found for _giuþeas_, "the
+Jews." Now _u_ here is impossible[250], and we must conclude perhaps that
+the inscriber of the runes intended to write _giuþea su[mæ]_[250] or
+_giuþea su[na]_[251], "some of the Jews," "the sons of the Jews," and that
+having reached the end of his line at _u_, he neglected to complete the
+word: or else perhaps that he wrote _giuþeas_ and having some additional
+space added a _u_ at the end of his line, just for fun. Whichever
+explanation we {111} adopt, it will apply to _flodu_, which equally comes
+at the end of a line, and the _u_ of which may equally have been part of
+some following word which was never completed[252].
+
+Other linguistic data of the Franks casket would lead us to place it
+somewhere in the first half of the eighth century, and we should hardly
+expect to find _u_ preserved as late as this[253]. For we have seen that by
+693 the _u_ was already lost after a subordinate accent in the Essex
+charter. Yet it is arguable that the _u_ was retained later after a long
+accented syllable (_fl[=ó]du_) than after a subordinate accent
+(_uu[=í]dmùndesfèlt_); and, besides, the casket is Northumbrian, and the
+sound changes need not have been simultaneous all over the country.
+
+We cannot but feel that the evidence is pitifully scanty. All we can say is
+that _perhaps_ the _flodu_ of the Franks casket shows that _u_ was still
+preserved after a fully accented syllable as late as 700. But the _u_ in
+_flodu_ may be a deliberate archaism on the part of the writer, may be a
+local dialectal survival, may be a mere miswriting.
+
+B. The preservation of _h_ between consonant and vowel.
+
+Here there is one clear example which we can date: the archaic spelling of
+the proper name _Welhisc_. _Signum manus uelhisci_ occurs in a Kentish
+charter of 679[254]. The same charter shows _h_ already lost between
+vowels: _uuestan ae_ (_ae_ dative of _[=e]a_, "river," cf. Gothic _ahwa_).
+
+Not much can be argued from the proper name _Welhisc_, as to the current
+pronunciation in Kent in 679, for an old man may well have continued to
+spell his name as it was spelt when he was a child, even though the current
+pronunciation had changed[255]. But we have further evidence in the
+glosses, which show _h_ sometimes preserved and sometimes not. These
+glosses are mechanical copies of an original which was presumably compiled
+between 680 and 720. We are therefore justified in arguing that at that
+date _h_ was still preserved, at any rate occasionally.
+
+{112}
+
+Of "Morsbach's test" we can then say that it establishes something of an
+argument that _Beowulf_ was composed after the date when final _u_ after a
+long syllable, or _h_ between consonant and vowel, were lost, and that this
+date was probably within a generation or so of the year 700 A.D. But there
+are too many uncertain contingencies involved to make the test at all a
+conclusive one.
+
+ Morsbach's _Zur Datierung des Beowulf-epos_ will be found in the
+ Göttingen _Nachrichten_, 1906, pp. 252-77. These tests have been worked
+ out for the whole body of Old English poetry in the _Chronologische
+ Studien_ of Carl Richter, Halle, 1910.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION III. THEORIES AS TO THE STRUCTURE OF "BEOWULF."
+
+Certain peculiarities in the structure of _Beowulf_ can hardly fail to
+strike the reader. (1) The poem is not a biography of Beowulf, nor yet an
+episode in his life: it is two distinct episodes: the Grendel business and
+the dragon business, joined by a narrow bridge. (2) Both these stories are
+broken in upon by digressions: some of these concern Beowulf himself, so
+that we get a fairly complete idea of the life of our hero: but for the
+most part these digressions are not strictly apposite. (3) Even apart from
+these digressions, the narrative is often hampered: the poet begins his
+story, diverges and returns. (4) The traces of Christian thought and
+knowledge which meet us from time to time seem to belong to a different
+world from that of the Germanic life in which our poem has its roots.
+
+Now in the middle of the nineteenth century it was widely believed that the
+great epics of the world had been formed from collections of original
+shorter lays fitted together (often unskilfully) by later redactors. For a
+critic starting from this assumption, better material than the _Beowulf_
+could hardly be found. And it _was_ with such assumptions that Carl
+Müllenhoff, the greatest of the scholars who have dissected the _Beowulf_,
+set to work. He attended the lectures of Lachmann, and formed, {113} a
+biographer tells us, the fixed resolve to do for one epic what his admired
+master had done for another[256].
+
+Müllenhoff claimed for his theories that they were simple[257] and
+straightforward: and so they were, if we may be allowed to assume as a
+basis that the _Beowulf_ is made up out of shorter lays, and that the only
+business of the critic is to define the scope of these lays. In the story
+of Beowulf's fight with Grendel (ll. 194-836: Müllenhoff's Sect. I) and
+with the dragon (ll. 2200-3183: Müllenhoff's Sect. IV) Müllenhoff saw the
+much interpolated remains of two original lays by different authors. But,
+before it was united to the dragon story, the Grendel story, Müllenhoff
+held, had already undergone many interpolations and additions. The story of
+Grendel's mother (ll. 837-1623: Sect. II) was added, Müllenhoff held, by
+one continuator as a sequel to the story of Grendel, and ll. 1-193 were
+added by another hand as an introduction. Then this Grendel story was
+finally rounded off by an interpolator (A) who added the account of
+Beowulf's return home (Sect. III, ll. 1629-2199) and at the same time
+inserted passages into the poem throughout. Finally came Interpolator B,
+who was the first to combine the Grendel story, thus elaborated, with the
+dragon story. Interpolator B was responsible for the great bulk of the
+interpolations: episodes from other cycles and "theologizing" matter.
+
+Ten Brink, like Müllenhoff, regarded the poem as falling into four
+sections: the Grendel fight, the fight with Grendel's mother, the return
+home, the dragon fight. But Müllenhoff had imagined the epic composed out
+of one set of lays: incoherences, he thought, were due to the bungling of
+successive interpolators. Ten Brink assumed that in the case of all three
+fights, with Grendel, with Grendel's mother, and with the dragon, there had
+been two _parallel_ versions, which a later redactor had combined together,
+and that it was to this combination that the frequent repetitions in the
+{114} narrative were due: he believed that not only were the different
+episodes of the poem originally distinct, but that each episode was
+compounded of two originally distinct lays, combined together.
+
+Now it cannot be denied that the process postulated by Müllenhoff _might_
+have taken place: a lay on Grendel and a lay on the dragon-fight might have
+been combined by some later compiler. Ten Brink's theory, too, is
+inherently not improbable: that there should have been two or more versions
+current of a popular story is probable enough: that a scribe should have
+tried to fit these two parallel versions together is not without precedent:
+very good examples of such attempts at harmonizing different versions can
+be got from an examination of the MSS of _Piers Plowman_.
+
+It is only here and there that we are struck by an inherent improbability
+in Müllenhoff's scheme. Thus the form in which Müllenhoff assumes the poem
+to have existed before Interpolator A set to work on it, is hardly a
+credible one. The "original poet" has brought Beowulf from his home to the
+Danish court, to slay Grendel, and the "continuator" has taken him to the
+haunted lake: Beowulf has plunged down, slain Grendel's mother, come back
+to land. Here Müllenhoff believed the poem to have ended, until
+"Interpolator A" came along, and told how Beowulf returned in triumph to
+Hrothgar, was thanked and rewarded, and then betook himself home, and was
+welcomed by Hygelac. That it would have been left to an interpolator to
+supply what from the old point of view was so necessary a part of the story
+as the return to Hrothgar is an assumption perilous indeed. "An epic poem
+only closes when everything is really concluded: not, like a modern novel,
+at a point where the reader can imagine the rest for himself[258]."
+
+Generally speaking, however, the theories of the "dissecting school" are
+not in themselves faulty, if we admit the assumptions on which they rest.
+They fail however in two ways. An examination of the short lay and the long
+epic, so far as these are represented in extant documents, does not bear
+out {115} well the assumptions of the theorizers. Secondly, the minute
+scrutiny to which the poem has been subjected in matters of syntax, metre,
+dialect and tradition has failed to show any difference between the parts
+attributed to the different authors, such as we must certainly have
+expected to find, had the theories of the "dissecting school" been correct.
+
+That behind our extant _Beowulf_, and connecting it with the events of the
+sixth century, there must have been a number of older lays, may indeed well
+be admitted: also that to these lays our poem owes its plot, its traditions
+of metre and its phraseology, and perhaps (but this is a perilous
+assumption) continuous passages of its text. But what Müllenhoff and ten
+Brink go on to assume is that these original oral lays were simple in
+outline and treated a single well-defined episode in a straightforward
+manner; that later redactors and scribes corrupted this primitive
+simplicity; but that the modern critic, by demanding it, and using its
+presence or absence as a criterion, can still disentangle from the complex
+composite poem the simpler elements out of which it was built up.
+
+Here are rather large assumptions. What right have we to postulate that
+this primitive "literature without letters[259]," these short oral ballads
+and lays, dealt with a single episode without digression or confusion:
+whilst the later age,--the civilized, Christianized age of written
+literature during which _Beowulf_ in the form in which we now have it was
+produced,--is assumed to have been tolerant of both?
+
+No doubt, here and there, in different literatures, groups of short lays
+can be found which one can imagine might be combined into an orderly
+narrative poem, without much hacking about. But on the other hand a short
+lay will often tell, in less than a hundred lines, a story more complex
+than that of the _Iliad_ or the _Odyssey_. Its shortness may be due, not to
+any limitation in the scope of the plot, but rather to the passionate haste
+with which it rushes through a long story. It is one thing to admit that
+there must have been short lays on the story of Beowulf: it is another to
+assume that these lays were of such a character that nothing was needed but
+compilers {116} with a taste for arrangement and interpolation in order to
+turn them into the extant epic of _Beowulf_.
+
+When we find nearly five hundred lines spent in describing the reception of
+the hero in Hrothgar's land, we may well doubt whether this passage can
+have found its way into our poem through any such process of fitting
+together as Müllenhoff postulated. It would be out of scale in any
+narrative shorter than the _Beowulf_ as we have it. It suggests to us that
+the epic is developed out of the lay, not by a process of fitting together,
+but rather by a retelling of the story in a more leisurely way.
+
+A comparison of extant short lays or ballads with extant epics has shown
+that, if these epics were made by stringing lays together, such lays must
+have been different from the great majority of the short lays now known.
+"The lays into which this theory dissects the epics, or which it assumes as
+the sources of the epics, differ in two ways from extant lays: they deal
+with short, incomplete subjects and they have an epic breadth of
+style[260]."
+
+It has been shown by W. P. Ker[261] that a comparison of such fragments as
+have survived of the Germanic short lay (_Finnsburg_, _Hildebrand_) does
+not bear out the theory that the epic is a conglomeration of such lays. "It
+is the change and development in style rather than any increase in the
+complexity of the themes that accounts for the difference in scale between
+the shorter and the longer poems."
+
+A similar conclusion is reached by Professor Hart: "It might be
+illuminating to base a _Liedertheorie_ in part, at least, upon a study of
+existing _Lieder_, rather than wholly upon an attempt to dismember the epic
+in question. Such study reveals indeed a certain similarity in kind of
+Ballad and Epic, but it reveals at the same time an enormous difference in
+degree, in stage of development. If the _Beowulf_, then, was made up of a
+series of heroic songs, strung together with little or no modification,
+these songs must have been something very different from the popular
+ballad[262]."
+
+{117}
+
+And subsequent investigations into the history and folk-lore of our poem
+have not confirmed Müllenhoff's theory: in some cases indeed they have hit
+it very hard. When a new light was thrown upon the story by the discovery
+of the parallels between _Beowulf_ and the _Grettis saga_, it became clear
+that passages which Müllenhoff had condemned as otiose interpolations were
+likely to be genuine elements in the tale. Dr Olrik's minute investigations
+into the history of the Danish kings have shown from yet another point of
+view how allusions, which were rashly condemned by Müllenhoff and ten Brink
+as idle amplifications, are, in fact, essential.
+
+How the investigation of the metre, form, and syntax of _Beowulf_ has
+disclosed an archaic strictness of usage has been explained above (Sect.
+II). This usage is in striking contrast with the practice of later poets
+like Cynewulf. How far we are justified in relying upon such differences of
+usage as criteria of _exact_ date is open to dispute. But it seems clear
+that, had Müllenhoff's theories been accurate, we might reasonably have
+expected to have been able to differentiate between the earlier and the
+later strata in so composite a poem.
+
+
+
+The composite theory has lately been strongly supported by Schücking[263].
+Schücking starts from the fact, upon which we are all agreed, that the poem
+falls into two main divisions: the story of how Beowulf at Heorot slew
+Grendel and Grendel's mother, and the story of the dragon, which fifty
+years later he slew at his home. These are connected by the section which
+tells how Beowulf returned from Heorot to his own home and was honourably
+received by his king, Hygelac.
+
+It is now admitted that the ways of Old English narrative were not
+necessarily our ways, and that we must not postulate, because our poem
+falls into two somewhat clumsily connected sections, that therefore it is
+compounded out of two originally distinct lays. But, on the other hand, as
+Schücking rightly urges, instances _are_ forthcoming of two O.E. poems
+having been clumsily connected into one[264]. Therefore, whilst no one
+would now urge that _Beowulf_ is put together out of two older {118} lays,
+_merely_ because it can so easily be divided into two sections, this fact
+does suggest that a case exists for examination.
+
+Now if a later poet had connected together two old lays, one on the Grendel
+and Grendel's mother business, and one on the dragon business, we might
+fairly expect that this connecting link would show traces of a different
+style. It is accordingly on the connecting link, the story of _Beowulf's
+Return_ and reception by Hygelac, that Schücking concentrates his
+attention, submitting it to the most elaborate tests to see if it betrays
+metrical, stylistic or syntactical divergencies from the rest of the poem.
+
+Various tests are applied, which admittedly give no result, such as the
+frequency of the repetition in the _Return_ of half verse formulas which
+occur elsewhere in _Beowulf_[265], or the way in which compound nouns fit
+into the metrical scheme[266]. Metrical criteria are very little more
+helpful[267]. We have seen that the antiquity of _Beowulf_ is proved by the
+cases where metre demands the substitution of an older uncontracted form
+for the existing shorter one. Schücking argues that no instance occurs in
+the 267 lines of the _Return_. But, even if this were the case, it might
+well be mere accident, since examples only occur at rare intervals anywhere
+in _Beowulf_. As a matter of fact, however, examples are to be found in the
+_Return_[268] (quite up to the normal proportion), though two of the
+clearest come in a portion of it which Schücking rather arbitrarily
+excludes.
+
+Coming to syntax in its broadest sense, and especially the method of
+constructing and connecting sentences, Schücking enumerates several
+constructions which are found in the _Return_, but not elsewhere in
+_Beowulf_. Syntax is a subject to which he has given special study, and his
+opinion upon it must be of value. But I doubt whether anyone as expert in
+the subject as Schücking could not find in every passage of like length in
+_Beowulf_ some constructions not to be exactly paralleled elsewhere in the
+poem.
+
+{119}
+
+The fact that we find here, and here only, passages introduced by the
+clauses _ic sceal forð sprecan_[269], and _t[=o] lang ys t[=o]
+reccenne_[270], is natural when we realize that we have here the longest
+speech in the whole poem, which obviously calls for such apologies for
+prolixity.
+
+The fact that no parentheses occur in the _Return_ does not differentiate
+it from the rest of _Beowulf_: for, as Schücking himself points out
+elsewhere, there are three other passages in the poem, longer than the
+_Return_, which are equally devoid of parentheses[271].
+
+There remain a few _hapax legomena_[272], but very inconclusive.
+
+There are, in addition, examples which occur only in the _Return_, and in
+certain other episodic passages. These episodic passages also, Schücking
+supposes, may have been added by the same reviser who added the _Return_.
+But this is a perilous change of position. For example, a certain
+peculiarity is found only in the _Return_ and the introductory genealogical
+section[273]; or in the _Return_ and the _Finn Episode_[274]. But when
+Schücking proceeds to the suggestion that the _Introduction_ or the _Finn
+Episode_ may have been added by the same reviser who added _Beowulf's
+Return_, he knocks the bottom out of some of his previous arguments. The
+argument from the absence of parentheses (whatever it was worth) must go:
+for according to Schücking's own punctuation, such parentheses are found
+both in the _Introduction_ and in the _Finn Episode_. If these are by the
+author of the _Return_, then doubt is thrown upon one of the alleged
+peculiarities of that author; we find the author of the _Return_ no more
+averse _on the whole_ to parentheses than the author or authors of the rest
+of the poem.
+
+Peculiar usages of the moods and tenses are found twice in the
+_Return_[275], and once again in the episode where Beowulf {120} recalls
+his youth[276]. Supposing this episode to be also the work of the author of
+the _Return_, we get peculiar constructions used three times by this
+author, which cannot be paralleled elsewhere in _Beowulf_[277].
+
+Now a large number of instances like this last might afford basis for
+argument; but they must be in bulk in order to prove anything. By the laws
+of chance we might expect, in any passage of three hundred lines, taken at
+random anywhere in _Beowulf_, to find something which occurred only in one
+other passage elsewhere in the poem. We cannot forthwith declare the two
+passages to be the work of an interpolator. One swallow does not make a
+summer.
+
+And the arguments as to style are not helped by arguments as to matter.
+Even if it be granted--which I do not grant--that the long repetition
+narrating Beowulf's contest with Grendel and Grendel's mother is tedious,
+there is no reason why this tedious repetition should not as well be the
+work of the original poet as of a later reviser. Must we find many
+different authors for _The Ring and the Book_? It must be granted that
+there are details (such as the mention of Grendel's glove) found in the
+Grendel struggle as narrated in _Beowulf's Return_, but not found in the
+original account of the struggle. Obviously the object is to avoid
+monotony, by introducing a new feature: but this might as well have been
+aimed at by the old poet retelling the tale as by a new poet retelling it.
+
+To me, the fact that so careful and elaborate a study of the story of
+_Beowulf's Return_ fails to betray any satisfactory evidence of separate
+authorship, is a confirmation of the verdict of "not proven" against the
+"dividers[278]." But there can be no doubt that Schücking's method, his
+attempt to prove differences in treatment, grammar, and style, is the right
+one. If any satisfactory results are to be attained, it must be in this
+way.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{121}
+
+SECTION IV. ARE THE CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE REST OF THE
+POEM?
+
+Later students (like the man in Dante, placed between two equally enticing
+dishes) have been unable to decide in favour of either of the rival
+theories of Müllenhoff and ten Brink, and consequently the unity of the
+poem, which always had its champions, has of late years come to be
+maintained with increasing conviction and certainty.
+
+Yet many recent critics have followed Müllenhoff so far at least as to
+believe that the Christian passages are inconsistent with what they regard
+as the "essentially heathen" tone of the rest of the poem, and are
+therefore the work of an interpolator[279].
+
+Certainly no one can escape a feeling of incongruity, as he passes from
+ideas of which the home lies in the forests of ancient Germany, to others
+which come from the Holy Land. But that both sets of ideas could not have
+been cherished, in England, about the year 700, by one and the same poet,
+is an assumption which calls for examination.
+
+As Christianity swept northward, situations were created which to the
+modern student are incongruous. But the Teutonic chief often had a larger
+mind than the modern student: he needed to have, if he was to get the best
+at the same time both from his wild fighting men and from his Latin clerks.
+It is this which gives so remarkable a character to the great men of the
+early centuries of converted Teutonism: men, like Theodoric the Great or
+Charles the Great, who could perform simultaneously the duties of a
+Germanic king and of a Roman Emperor: kings like Alfred the Great or St
+Olaf, who combined the character of the tough fighting chieftain with that
+of the saintly churchman. I love to think of these incongruities: to
+remember that the warrior Alfred, surrounded by _thegn_ and _gesith_,
+listening to the "Saxon songs" which he loved, was yet the same Alfred who
+painfully translated Gregory's _Pastoral {122} Care_ under the direction of
+foreign clerics. It is well to remember that Charles the Great, the
+catholic and the orthodox, collected ancient lays which his successors
+thought too heathen to be tolerated; or that St Olaf (who was so holy that,
+having absent mindedly chipped shavings off a stick on Sunday, he burnt
+them, as penance, on his open hand) nevertheless allowed to be sung before
+him, on the morning of his last fight, one of the most wild and utterly
+heathen of all the old songs--the _Bjarkamál_.
+
+It has been claimed that the account of the funeral rites of Beowulf is
+such as "no Christian poet could or would have composed[280]." Lately this
+argument has been stated more at length:
+
+ "In the long account of Beowulf's obsequies--beginning with the dying
+ king's injunction to construct for him a lofty barrow on the edge of
+ the cliff, and ending with the scene of the twelve princes riding round
+ the barrow, proclaiming the dead man's exploits--we have the most
+ detailed description of an early Teutonic funeral which has come down
+ to us, and one of which the accuracy is confirmed in every point by
+ archaeological or contemporary literary evidence[281]. Such an account
+ must have been composed within living memory of a time when ceremonies
+ of this kind were still actually in use[282]."
+
+Owing to the standing of the scholar who urges it, this argument is coming
+to rank as a dogma[283], and needs therefore rather close examination.
+
+Professor Chadwick _may_ be right in urging that the custom of burning the
+dead had gone out of use in England even before Christianity was
+introduced[284]: anyhow it is certain that, wherever it survived, the
+practice was disapproved by ecclesiastics, and was, indeed, formally
+censured and suppressed by the church abroad.
+
+The church equally censured and endeavoured to suppress the ancient
+"heathen lays"; but without equal success. Now, in many of these lays the
+heathen rites of cremation must certainly have been depicted, and, in this
+way, the memory of the old funeral customs must have been kept fresh, long
+{123} after the last funeral pyre had died out in England. Of course there
+were then, as there have been ever since, puritanical people who objected
+that heathen lays and heathen ways were no fit concern for a Christian man.
+But the protests of such purists are just the strongest evidence that the
+average Christian did continue to take an interest in these things. We have
+seen that the very monks of Lindisfarne had to be warned by Alcuin. I
+cannot see that there is any such _a priori_ impossibility that a poet,
+though a sincere Christian enough, would have described a funeral in the
+old style, modelling his account upon older lays, or upon tradition derived
+from those lays.
+
+The church might disapprove of the practice of cremation, but we have no
+reason to suppose that mention of it was tabooed. And many of the old
+burial customs seem to have kept their hold, even upon the converted.
+Indeed, when the funeral of Attila is instanced as a type of the old
+heathen ceremony, it seems to be forgotten that those Gothic chieftains who
+rode their horses round the body of Attila were themselves probably Arian
+Christians, and that the historian who has preserved the account was an
+orthodox cleric.
+
+Saxo Grammaticus, ecclesiastic as he was, has left us several accounts[285]
+of cremations. He mentions the "pyre built of ships" and differs from the
+poet of _Beowulf_ chiefly because he allows those frankly heathen
+references to gods and offerings which the poet of _Beowulf_ excludes. Of
+course, Saxo was merely translating. One can quite believe that a Christian
+poet composing an account of a funeral in the old days, would have omitted
+the more frankly heathen features, as indeed the _Beowulf_ poet does. But
+Saxo shows us how far into Christian times the ancient funeral, in all its
+heathendom, was remembered; and how little compunction an ecclesiastic had
+in recording it. The assumption that no Christian poet would have composed
+the account of Beowulf's funeral or of Scyld's funeral ship, seems then to
+be quite unjustified.
+
+The further question remains: Granting that he _would_, could he? Is the
+account of Beowulf's funeral so true to old custom that it must have been
+composed by an eye-witness of {124} the rite of cremation? Is its "accuracy
+confirmed in every point by archaeological or contemporary literary
+evidence"?
+
+As to the archaeological evidence, the fact seems to be that the account is
+archaeologically so inexact that it has given great trouble to one eminent
+antiquary, Knut Stjerna. That the pyre should be hung with arms, which are
+_burnt_ with the hero (ll. 3139-40), and that then a second supply of
+unburnt treasures should be _buried_ with the cremated bones (ll. 3163-8),
+is regarded by Stjerna as extraordinary[286].
+
+Surely, any such inexactitude is what we should expect in a late poet,
+drawing upon tradition. He would know that in heathen times bodies were
+burnt, and that weapons were buried; and he might well combine both. It is
+not necessary to suppose, as Stjerna does, that the poet has combined two
+separate accounts of Beowulf's funeral, given in older lays, in one of
+which the hero was burnt, and in the other buried. But the fact that an
+archaeological specialist finds the account of Beowulf's funeral so inexact
+that he has to assume a confused and composite source, surely disposes of
+the argument that it is so exact that it must date back to heathen times.
+
+As to confirmation from literary documents, the only one instanced by
+Chadwick is the account of the funeral of Attila. The parallel here is by
+no means so close as has been asserted. The features of Attila's funeral
+are: the lying in state, during which the chosen horsemen of the nation
+rode round the body singing the dead king's praises; the funeral feast; and
+the burial (not burning) of the body. Now the only feature which recurs in
+_Beowulf_ is the praise of the dead man by the mounted thanes. Even here
+there is an essential difference. Attila's men rode round the dead body of
+their lord _before_ his funeral. Beowulf's retainers ride and utter their
+lament around (not the body but) the grave mound of their lord, ten days
+after the cremation.
+
+And this is perhaps no accidental discrepancy: it may well correspond to a
+real difference in practice between the Gothic custom of the time of the
+migrations and the Anglo-Saxon {125} practice as it prevailed in Christian
+times[287]. For many documents, including the _Dream of the Rood_, tend to
+show that the _sorhl[=e]oð_, the lament of the retainers for their dead
+lord, survived into Christian times, but as a ceremony which was subsequent
+not merely to the funeral, but even to the building of the tomb.
+
+So that, here again, so far from the archaeological accuracy of the account
+of Beowulf's funeral being confirmed by the account of that of Attila, we
+find a discrepancy such as we might expect if a Christian poet, in later
+times, had tried to describe a funeral of the old heathen type.
+
+Of course, the evidence is far too scanty to allow of much positive
+argument. Still, _so far as it goes_, and that is not far, it rather tends
+to show that the account of the funeral customs is not quite accurate,
+representing what later Christian times knew by tradition of the rite of
+cremation, rather than showing the observation of that rite by an
+eye-witness.
+
+We must turn, then, to some other argument, if we wish to prove that the
+Christian element is inconsistent with other parts of the poem.
+
+A second argument that _Beowulf_ must belong either to heathen times, or to
+the very earliest Christian period in England, has been found in the
+character of the Christian allusions: they contain no "reference to Christ,
+to the Cross, to the Virgin or the Saints, to any doctrine of the church in
+regard to the Trinity, the Atonement, _etc._[288]" "A pious Jew would have
+no difficulty in assenting to them all[289]." Hence it has been argued[290]
+that they are the work of an interpolator who, working upon a poem
+"essentially heathen," was not able to impose upon it more than this "vague
+and colourless Christianity." I cannot see this. If passages had to be
+rewritten at all, it was just as easy to rewrite them in a tone
+emphatically Christian as in a tone mildly so. The difficulties which the
+interpolator would meet in removing a heathen phrase, and composing a
+Christian half-line in substitution, would be metrical, rather than
+theological. For example, in a second {126} half-line the interpolator
+could have written _ond h[=a]lig Crist_ or _ylda nergend_ just as easily as
+_ond h[=a]lig god_, or _ylda waldend_: he could have put in an allusion to
+the Trinity or to the Cross as easily as to the Lord of Hosts or the King
+of Glory. It would depend upon the alliteration which was the more
+convenient. And surely, if he was a monk deliberately sitting down to turn
+a heathen into a Christian poem, he would, of two alternatives, have
+favoured the more dogmatically Christian.
+
+The vagueness which is so characteristic of the Christian references in
+_Beowulf_ can then hardly be due to the poem having originally been a
+heathen one, worked over by a Christian.
+
+Others have seen in this vagueness a proof "that the minstrels who
+introduced the Christian element had but a vague knowledge of the new
+faith[291]": or that the poem was the work of "a man who, without having,
+or wanting to have, much definite instruction, had become Christian because
+the Court had newly become Christian[292]." But, vague as it is, does the
+Christianity of _Beowulf_ justify such a judgment as this? Do not the
+characters of Hrothgar or of Beowulf, of Hygd or of Wealhtheow, show a
+Christian influence which, however little dogmatic, is anything but
+superficial? This is a matter where individual feeling rather than argument
+must weigh: but the _Beowulf_ does not seem to me the work of a man whose
+adherence to Christianity is merely nominal[293].
+
+And, so far as the absence of dogma goes, it seems to have been overlooked
+that the Christian references in the _Battle of Maldon_, written when
+England had been Christian for over three centuries, are precisely of the
+same vague character as those in _Beowulf_.
+
+Surely the explanation is that to a devout, but not {127}
+theologically-minded poet, writing battle poetry, references to God as the
+Lord of Hosts or the Giver of Victory came naturally--references to the
+Trinity or the Atonement did not. This seems quite a sufficient
+explanation; though it may be that in _Beowulf_ the poet has consciously
+avoided dogmatic references, because he realized that the characters in his
+story were not Christians[294]. That, at the same time, he allows those
+characters with whom he sympathizes to speak in a Christian spirit is only
+what we should expect. Just so Chaucer allows his pagans--Theseus for
+instance--to use Christian expressions about God or the soul, whilst
+avoiding anything strikingly doctrinal.
+
+Finally I cannot admit that the Christian passages are "poetically of no
+value[295]." The description of Grendel nearing Heorot is good:
+
+ Ð[=a] c[=o]m of m[=o]re under mist-hleoþum
+ Grendel gongan--
+
+but it is heightened when the poet adds:
+
+ Godes yrre bær.
+
+Yet here again it is impossible to argue: it is a matter of individual
+feeling.
+
+When, however, we come to the further statement of Dr Bradley, that the
+Christian passages are not only interpolations poetically worthless, but
+"may be of any date down to that of the extant MS" (i.e. about the year
+1000 A.D.), we have reached ground where argument _is_ possible, and where
+definite results can be attained. For Dr Bradley, at the same time that he
+makes this statement about the character of the Christian passages, also
+quotes the archaic syntax of _Beowulf_ as proving an early date[296]. _But
+this archaic syntax is just as prominent a feature of the Christian
+passages as of any other parts of the poem._ If these Christian passages
+are really the work of a "monkish copyist, whose piety exceeded his poetic
+powers[297]," how do they come to show an antique syntax and a strict
+technique surpassing those of Cynewulf or the _Dream {128} of the Rood_?
+Why do they not betray their origin by metrical inaccuracies such as we
+find in poems undoubtedly interpolated, like _Widsith_ or the _Seafarer_?
+
+Dr Bradley is "our chief English seer in these matters," as Dr Furnivall
+said long ago; and it is only with the greatest circumspection that one
+should differ from any of his conclusions. Nevertheless, I feel that,
+before we can regard any portion of _Beowulf_ as later than the rest,
+discrepancies need to be demonstrated.
+
+Until such discrepancies between the different parts of _Beowulf_ can be
+demonstrated, we are justified in regarding the poem as homogeneous: as a
+production of the Germanic world enlightened by the new faith. Whether
+through external violence or internal decay, this world was fated to rapid
+change, and perished with its promise unfulfilled. The great merit of
+_Beowulf_ as a historic document is that it shows us a picture of a period
+in which the virtues of the heathen "Heroic Age" were tempered by the
+gentleness of the new belief; an age warlike, yet Christian: devout, yet
+tolerant.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{129}
+
+PART II
+
+DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATING THE STORIES IN _BEOWULF_, AND THE _OFFA_-SAGA.
+
+A. THE EARLY KINGS OF THE DANES ACCORDING TO SAXO GRAMMATICUS
+
+Saxo, Book I, ed. Ascensius, fol. iii b; ed. Holder, p. 10, l. 25.
+
+ Uerum a Dan, ut fert antiquitas, regum nostrorum stemmata, ceu quodam
+ deriuata principio, splendido successionis ordine profluxerunt. Huic
+ filii Humblus et Lotherus fuere, ex Grytha, summæ inter Teutones
+ dignitatis matrona, suscepti.
+
+ Lecturi regem ueteres affixis humo saxis insistere, suffragiaque
+ promere consueuerant, subiectorum lapidum firmitate facti constantiam
+ ominaturi. Quo ritu Humblus, decedente patre, nouo patriæ beneficio rex
+ creatus, sequentis fortunæ malignitate, ex rege priuatus euasit. Bello
+ siquidem a Lothero captus, regni depositione spiritum mercatus est; hæc
+ sola quippe uicto salutis conditio reddebatur. Ita fraternis iniuriis
+ imperium abdicare coactus, documentum hominibus præbuit, ut plus
+ splendoris, ita minus securitatis, aulis quam tuguriis inesse. Ceterum
+ iniuriæ tam patiens fuit, ut honoris damno tanquam beneficio gratulari
+ crederetur, sagaciter, ut puto, regiæ conditionis habitum contemplatus.
+ Sed nec Lotherus tolerabiliorem regem quam militem egit, ut prorsus
+ insolentia ac scelere regnum auspicari uideretur; siquidem
+ illustrissimum quemque uita aut opibus spoliare, patriamque bonis
+ ciuibus uacuefacere probitatis loco duxit, regni æmulos ratus, quos
+ nobilitate pares habuerat. Nec diu scelerum impunitus, patriæ
+ consternatione perimitur; eadem spiritum eripiente, quæ regnum largita
+ fuerat. {130}
+
+ Cuius filius Skyoldus naturam ab ipso, non mores sortitus, per summam
+ tenerioris ætatis industriam cuncta paternæ contagionis uestigia
+ ingeniti erroris deuio præteribat. Igitur ut a paternis uitiis
+ prudenter desciuit, ita auitis uirtutibus feliciter respondit,
+ remotiorem pariter ac præstantiorem hereditarii moris portionem
+ amplexus. Huius adolescentia inter paternos uenatores immanis beluæ
+ subactione insignis extitit, mirandoque rei euentu futuræ eius
+ fortitudinis habitum ominata est. Nam cum a tutoribus forte, quorum
+ summo studio educabatur, inspectandæ uenationis licentiam impetrasset,
+ obuium sibi insolitæ granditatis ursum, telo uacuus, cingulo, cuius
+ usum habebat, religandum curauit, necandumque comitibus præbuit. Sed et
+ complures spectatæ fortitudinis pugiles per idem tempus uiritim ab eo
+ superati produntur, e quibus Attalus et Scatus clari illustresque
+ fuere. Quindecim annos natus, inusitato corporis incremento
+ perfectissimum humani roboris specimen præferebat, tantaque indolis
+ eius experimenta fuere, ut ab ipso ceteri Danorum reges communi quodam
+ uocabulo Skioldungi nuncuparentur....
+
+Saxo then relates the adventures of Gram, Hadingus and Frotho, whom he
+represents as respectively son, grandson and great-grandson of Skioldus.
+That Gram and Hadingus are interpolated in the family is shewn by the fact
+that the pedigree of Sweyn Aageson passes direct from Skiold to his son
+Frothi.
+
+Saxo, Book II, ed. Ascensius, fol. xi b; ed. Holder, p. 38, l. 4.
+
+ Hadingo filius Frotho succedit, cuius uarii insignesque casus fuere.
+ Pubertatis annos emensus, iuuenilium præferebat complementa uirtutum,
+ quas ne desidiæ corrumpendas præberet, abstractum uoluptatibus animum
+ assidua armorum intentione torquebat. Qui cum, paterno thesauro
+ bellicis operibus absumpto, stipendiorum facultatem, qua militem
+ aleret, non haberet, attentiusque necessarii usus subsidia
+ circunspiceret, tali subeuntis indigenæ carmine concitatur:
+
+ Insula non longe est præmollibus edita cliuis,
+ Collibus æra tegens et opimæ conscia prædæ.
+ Hic tenet eximium, montis possessor, aceruum
+ {131}
+ Implicitus giris serpens crebrisque reflexus
+ Orbibus, et caudæ sinuosa uolumina ducens,
+ Multiplicesque agitans spiras, uirusque profundens.
+ Quem superare uolens clypeo, quo conuenit uti,
+ Taurinas intende cutes, corpusque bouinis
+ Tergoribus tegito, nec amaro nuda ueneno
+ Membra patere sinas; sanies, quod conspuit, urit.
+ Lingua trisulca micans patulo licet ore resultet,
+ Tristiaque horrifico minitetur uulnera rictu,
+ Intrepidum mentis habitum retinere memento.
+ Nec te permoueat spinosi dentis acumen,
+ Nec rigor, aut rapida iactatum fauce uenenum.
+ Tela licet temnat uis squamea, uentre sub imo
+ Esse locum scito, quo ferrum mergere fas est;
+ Hunc mucrone petens medium rimaberis anguem.
+ Hinc montem securus adi, pressoque ligone
+ Perfossos scrutare cauos; mox ære crumenas
+ Imbue, completamque reduc ad littora puppim.
+
+ Credulus Frotho solitarius in insulam traiicit: ne comitatior beluam
+ adoriretur, quam athletas aggredi moris fuerat. Quæ cum aquis pota
+ specum repeteret, impactum Frothonis ferrum aspero cutis horrore
+ contempsit. Sed et spicula, quæ in eam coniecta fuerant, eluso
+ mittentis conatu læsionis irrita resultabant. At ubi nil tergi duritia
+ cessit, uentris curiosius annotati mollities ferro patuit. Quæ se morsu
+ ulcisci cupiens, clypeo duntaxat spinosum oris acumen impegit. Crebris
+ deinde linguam micatibus ducens, uitam pariter ac uirus efflauit.
+
+ Repertæ pecuniæ regem locupletem fecere....
+
+Saxo, Book II, ed. Ascensius, fol. xv b; ed. Holder, p. 51, l. 4.
+
+ His, uirtute paribus, æqua regnandi incessit auiditas. Imperii cuique
+ cura extitit; fraternus nullum respectus astrinxit. Quem enim nimia sui
+ caritas ceperit, aliena deserit: nee sibi quisquam ambitiose atque
+ aliis amice consulere potest. Horum maximus Haldanus, Roe et Scato
+ fratribus interfectis, naturam scelere polluit: regnum parricidio
+ carpsit. Et ne ullum crudelitatis exemplum omitteret, comprehensos
+ eorum fautores prius {132} uinculorum poena coercuit, mox suspendio
+ consumpsit. Cuius ex eo maxime fortuna ammirabilis fuit, quod, licet
+ omnia temporum momenta ad exercenda atrocitatis officia contulisset,
+ senectute uitam, non ferro, finierit.
+
+ Huius filii Roe et Helgo fuere. A Roe Roskildia condita memoratur: quam
+ postmodum Sueno, furcatæ barbæ cognomento clarus, ciuibus auxit,
+ amplitudine propagauit. Hic breui angustoque corpore fuit: Helgonem
+ habitus procerior cepit. Qui, diuiso cum fratre regno, maris
+ possessionem sortitus, regem Sclauiæ Scalcum maritimis copiis
+ lacessitum oppressit. Quam cum in prouinciam redegisset, uarios pelagi
+ recessus uago nauigationis genere perlustrabat.
+
+Saxo, Book II, ed. Ascensius, fol. xvi a; ed. Holder, p. 53, l. 16.
+
+ Huic filius Roluo succedit, uir corporis animique dotibus uenustus, qui
+ staturæ magnitudinem pari uirtutis habitu commendaret.
+
+_Ibid._, ed. Ascensius, fol. xvii a; ed. Holder, p. 55, l. 40.
+
+ Per idem tempus Agnerus quidam, Ingelli films, sororem Roluonis, Rutam
+ nomine, matrimonio ducturus, ingenti conuiuio nuptias instruit. In quo
+ cum pugiles, omni petulantiæ genere debacchantes, in Ialtonem quendam
+ nodosa passim ossa coniicerent, accidit, ut eius consessor, Biarco
+ nomine, iacientis errore uehementem capite ictum exciperet. Qui dolore
+ pariter ac ludibrio lacessitus, osse inuicem in iacientem remisso,
+ frontem eius in occuput reflexit, idemque loco frontis intorsit,
+ transuersum hominis animum uultus obliquitate mulctando. Ea res
+ contumeliosam ioci insolentiam temperauit, pugilesque regia abire
+ coegit. Qua conuiuii iniuria permotus, sponsus ferro cum Biarcone
+ decernere statuit, uiolatæ hilaritatis ultionem duelii nomine
+ quæsiturus. In cuius ingressu, utri prior feriendi copia deberetur
+ diutule certatum est. Non enim antiquitus in edendis agonibus crebræ
+ ictuum uicissitudines petebantur: sed erat cum interuallo temporis
+ etiam feriendi distincta successio; rarisque sed atrocibus plagis
+ certamina gerebantur, ut gloria potius percussionum magnitudini, quam
+ numero deferretur. Prælato ob generis dignitatem Agnero, tanta ui ictum
+ ab eo editum {133} constat, ut, prima cassidis parte conscissa,
+ supremam capitis cuticulam uulneraret, ferrumque mediis galeæ
+ interclusum foraminibus dimitteret. Tunc Biarco mutuo percussurus, quo
+ plenius ferrum libraret, pedem trunco annixus, medium Agneri corpus
+ præstantis acuminis mucrone transegit. Sunt qui asserant, morientem
+ Agnerum soluto in risum ore per summam doloris dissimulationem spiritum
+ reddidisse. Cuius ultionem pugiles auidius expetentes, simili per
+ Biarconem exitio mulctati sunt. Utebatur quippe præstantis acuminis
+ inusitatæque longitudinis gladio, quem Løui uocabat. Talibus operum
+ meritis exultanti nouam de se siluestris fera uictoriam præbuit. Ursum
+ quippe eximiæ magnitudinis obuium sibi inter dumeta factum iaculo
+ confecit: comitemque suum Ialtonem, quo uiribus maior euaderet,
+ applicato ore egestum belluæ cruorem haurire iussit. Creditum namque
+ erat, hoc potionis genere corporei roboris incrementa præstari. His
+ facinorum uirtutibus clarissimas optimatum familiaritates adeptus,
+ etiam regi percarus euasit; sororem eius Rutam uxorem asciuit, uictique
+ sponsam uictoriæ præmium habuit. Ab Atislo lacessiti Roluonis ultionem
+ armis exegit, eumque uictum hello prostrauit. Tunc Roluo magni acuminis
+ iuuenem Hiarthwarum nomine, sorore Sculda sibi in matrimonium data,
+ annuoque uectigali imposito, Suetiæ præfectum constituit, libertatis
+ iacturam affinitatis beneficio leniturus.
+
+ Hoc loci quiddam memoratu iucundum operi inseratur. Adolescens quidam
+ Wiggo nomine, corpoream Roluonis magnitudinem attentiori contemplatione
+ scrutatus, ingentique eiusdem admiratione captus, percontari per
+ ludibrium coepit, quisnam esset iste Krage, quem tanto staturæ fastigio
+ prodiga rerum natura ditasset; faceto cauillationis genere inusitatum
+ proceritatis habitum prosecutus. Dicitur enim lingua Danica 'krage'
+ truncus, cuius semicæsis ramis fastigia conscenduntur, ita ut pes,
+ præcisorum stipitum obsequio perinde ac scalæ beneficio nixus,
+ sensimque ad superiora prouectus, petitæ celsitudinis compendium
+ assequatur. Quern uocis iactum Roluo perinde ac inclytum sibi cognomen
+ amplexus, urbanitatem dicti ingentis armillæ dono prosequitur. Qua
+ Wiggo dexteram excultam extollens, læua per pudoris simulationem post
+ tergum {134} reflexa, ridiculum corporis incessum præbuit, præfatus,
+ exiguo lætari munere, quem sors diutinæ tenuisset inopiæ. Rogatus, cur
+ ita se gereret, inopem ornamenti manum nulloque cultus beneficio
+ gloriantem ad aspectum reliquæ uerecundo paupertatis rubore perfundi
+ dicebat. Cuius dicti calliditate consentaneum priori munus obtinuit.
+ Siquidem Roluo manum, quæ ab ipso occultabatur, exemplo reliquæ in
+ medium accersendam curauit. Nec Wiggoni rependendi beneficii cura
+ defuit. Siquidem arctissima uoti nuncupatione pollicitus est, si
+ Roluonem ferro perire contingeret, ultionem se ab eius interfectoribus
+ exacturum. Nec prætereundum, quod olim ingressuri curiam proceres
+ famulatus sui principia alicuius magnæ rei uoto principibus obligare
+ solebant, uirtute tirocinium auspicantes.
+
+ Interea Sculda, tributariæ solutionis pudore permota, diris animum
+ commentis applicans, maritum, exprobrata condicionis deformitate,
+ propulsandæ seruitutis monitu concitatum atque ad insidias Roluoni
+ nectendas perductum atrocissimis nouarum rerum consiliis imbuit, plus
+ unumquenque libertati quam necessitudini debere testata. Igitur crebras
+ armorum massas, diuersi generis tegminibus obuolutas, tributi more per
+ Hiarthwarum in Daniam perferri iubet, occidendi noctu regis materiam
+ præbituras. Refertis itaque falsa uectigalium mole nauigiis, Lethram
+ pergitur, quod oppidum, a Roluone constructum eximiisque regni opibus
+ illustratum, ceteris confinium prouinciarum urbibus regiæ fundationis
+ et sedis auctoritate præstabat. Rex aduentum Hiarthwari conuiualis
+ impensæ deliciis prosecutus ingenti se potione proluerat, hospitibus
+ præter morem ebrietatis intemperantiam formidantibus. Ceteris igitur
+ altiorem carpentibus somnum, Sueones, quibus scelesti libido propositi
+ communem quietis usum ademerat, cubiculis furtim delabi coepere.
+ Aperitur ilico telorum occlusa congeries, et sua sibi quisque tacitus
+ arma connectit. Deinde regiam petunt, irruptisque penetralibus in
+ dormientium corpora ferrum destringunt. Experrecti complures, quibus
+ non minus subitæ cladis horror quam somni stupor incesserat, dubio nisu
+ discrimini restitere, socii an hostes occurrerent, noctis errore
+ incertum reddente. Eiusdem forte silentio noctis Hialto, qui {135}
+ inter regios proceres spectatæ probitatis merito præeminebat, rus
+ egressus, scorti se complexibus dederat. Hic cum obortum pugnæ fragorem
+ stupida procul aure sensisset, fortitudinem luxuriæ prætulit, maluitque
+ funestum Martis discrimen appetere, quam blandis Veneris illecebris
+ indulgere. Quanta hunc militem regis caritate flagrasse putemus, qui,
+ cum ignorantiæ simulatione excusationem absentiæ præstare posset,
+ salutem suam manifesto periculo obicere, quam uoluptati seruare satius
+ existimauit? Discedentem pellex percunctari coepit, si ipso careat,
+ cuius ætatis uiro nubere debeat. Quam Hialto, perinde ac secretius
+ allocuturus, propius accedere iussam, indignatus amoris sibi
+ successorem requiri, præciso naso deformem reddidit, erubescendoque
+ uulnere libidinosæ percunctationis dictum mulctauit, mentis lasciuiam
+ oris iactura temperandam existimans. Quo facto, liberum quæsitæ rei
+ iudicium a se ei relinqui dixit. Post hæc, repetito ocius oppido,
+ confertissimis se globis immergit, aduersasque acies mutua uulnerum
+ inflictione prosternit. Cumque dormientis adhuc Biarconis cubiculum
+ præteriret, expergisci iussum, tali uoce compellat:
+
+Saxo's translation of the _Bjarkamál_ follows. The part which concerns
+students of _Beowulf_ most is the account of how Roluo deposed and slew
+Røricus.
+
+Saxo, Book II, ed. Ascensius, fol. xix a; ed. Holder, p. 62, l. 1.
+
+ At nos, qui regem uoto meliore ueremur,
+ Iungamus cuneos stabiles, tutisque phalangem
+ Ordinibus mensi, qua rex præcepit, eamus
+ Qui natum Bøki Røricum strauit auari,
+ Implicuitque uirum leto uirtute carentem.
+ Ille quidem præstans opibus, habituque fruendi
+ Pauper erat, probitate minus quam foenore pollens;
+ Aurum militia potius ratus, omnia lucro
+ Posthabuit, laudisque carens congessit aceruos
+ Æris, et ingenuis uti contempsit amicis.
+ Cumque lacessitus Roluonis classe fuisset,
+ Egestum cistis aurum deferre ministros
+ Iussit, et in primas urbis diffundere portas.
+ {136}
+ Dona magis quam bella parans, quia militis expers
+ Munere, non armis, tentandum credidit hostem;
+ Tanquam opibus solis bellum gesturus, et usu
+ Rerum, non hominum, Martem producere posset.
+ Ergo graues loculos et ditia claustra resoluit
+ Armillas teretes et onustas protulit arcas,
+ Exitii fomenta sui, ditissimus æris,
+ Bellatoris inops, hostique adimenda relinquens
+ Pignora, quæ patriis præbere pepercit amicis.
+ Annellos ultro metuens dare, maxima nolens
+ Pondera fudit opum, ueteris populator acerui.
+ Rex tamen hunc prudens, oblataque munera spreuit,
+ Rem pariter uitamque adimens; nec profuit hosti
+ Census iners, quem longo auidus cumulauerat æuo.
+ Hunc pius inuasit Roluo, summasque perempti
+ Cepit opes, inter dignos partitus amicos,
+ Quicquid auara manus tantis congesserat annis;
+ Irrumpensque opulenta magis quam fortia castra,
+ Præbuit eximiam sociis sine sanguine prædam.
+ Cui nil tam pulchrum fuit, ut non funderet illud,
+ Aut carum, quod non sociis daret, æra fauillis
+ Assimulans, famaque annos, non foenore mensus.
+ Unde liquet, regem claro iam funere functum
+ Præclaros egisse dies, speciosaque fati
+ Tempora, præteritos decorasse uiriliter annos.
+ Nam uirtute ardens, dum uiueret, omnia uicit,
+ Egregio dignas sortitus corpore uires.
+ Tam præceps in bella fuit, quam concitus amnis
+ In mare decurrit, pugnamque capessere promptus
+ Ut ceruus rapidum bifido pede tendere cursum.
+
+Saxo, Book II, ed. Ascensius, fol. xxi a; ed. Holder, p. 67, l. 1.
+
+ Hanc maxime exhortationum seriem idcirco metrica ratione compegerim,
+ quod earundem sententiarum intellectus Danici cuiusdam carminis
+ compendio digestus a compluribus antiquitatis peritis memoriter
+ usurpatur.
+
+ Contigit autem, potitis uictoria Gothis, omne Roluonis {137} agmen
+ occumbere, neminemque, excepto Wiggone, ex tanta iuuentute residuum
+ fore. Tantum enim excellentissimis regis meritis ea pugna a militibus
+ tributum est, ut ipsius cædes omnibus oppetendæ mortis cupiditatem
+ ingeneraret, eique morte iungi uita iucundius duceretur.
+
+ Lætus Hiartuarus prandendi gratia positis mensis conuiuium pugnæ
+ succedere iubet, uictoriam epulis prosecuturus. Quibus oneratus magnæ
+ sibi ammirationi esse dixit, quod ex tanta Roluonis militia nemo, qui
+ saluti fuga aut captione consuleret, repertus fuisset. Unde liquidum
+ fuisse quanto fidei studio regis sui caritatem coluerint, cui
+ superstites esse passi non fuerint. Fortunam quoque, quod sibi ne unius
+ quidem eorum obsequium superesse permiserit, causabatur, quam
+ libentissime se talium uirorum famulatu usurum testatus. Oblato Wiggone
+ perinde ac munere gratulatus, an sibi militare uellet, perquirit.
+ Annuenti destrictum gladium offert. Ille cuspidem refutans, capulum
+ petit, hunc morem Roluoni in porrigendo militibus ense extitisse
+ præfatus. Olim namque se regum clientelæ daturi, tacto gladii capulo
+ obsequium polliceri solebant. Quo pacto Wiggo capulum complexus,
+ cuspidem per Hiartuarum agit, ultionis compos, cuius Roluoni
+ ministerium pollicitus fuerat. Quo facto, ouans irruentibus in se
+ Hiartuari militibus cupidius corpus obtulit, plus uoluptatis se ex
+ tyranni nece quam amaritudinis ex propria sentire uociferans. Ita
+ conuiuio in exequias uerso, uictoriæ gaudium funeris luctus insequitur.
+ Clarum ac semper memorabilem uirum, qui, uoto fortiter expleto, mortem
+ sponte complexus suo ministerio mensas tyranni sanguine maculauit.
+ Neque enim occidentium manus uiuax animi uirtus expauit, cum prius a se
+ loca, quibus Roluo assueuerat, interfectoris eius cruore respersa
+ cognosceret. Eadem itaque dies Hiartuari regnum finiuit ac peperit.
+ Fraudulenter enim quæsitæ res eadem sorte defluunt, qua petuntur,
+ nullusque diuturnus est fructus, qui scelere ac perfidia partus fuerit.
+ Quo euenit ut Sueones, paulo ante Daniæ potitores, ne suæ quidem
+ salutis potientes existerent. Protinus enim a Syalandensibus deleti
+ læsis Roluonis manibus iusta exsoluere piacula. Adeo plerunque fortunæ
+ sæuitia ulciscitur, quod dolo ac fallacia patratur.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{138}
+
+B. HRÓLFS SAGA KRAKA, CAP. 23
+
+(ed. Finnur Jónsson, København, 1904, p. 65 ff.)
+
+Síðan fór B[o,]ðvarr leið sína til Hleiðargarðs. Hann kemr til konungs
+atsetu. B[o,]ðvarr leiðir síðan hest sinn á stall hjá konungs hestum hinum
+beztu ok spyrr engan at; gekk síðan inn í h[o,]llina, ok var þar fátt
+manna. Hann sez utarliga, ok sem hann hefir verit þar litla hríð, heyrir
+hann þrausk n[o,]kkut utar í hornit í einhverjum stað. B[o,]ðvarr lítr
+þangat ok sér, at mannsh[o,]nd kemr upp úr mikilli beinahrúgu, er þar lá;
+h[o,]ndin var sv[o,]rt mj[o,]k. B[o,]ðvarr gengr þangat til ok spyrr, hverr
+þar væri í beinahrúgunni; þá var honum svarat ok heldr óframliga: "H[o,]ttr
+heiti ek, Bokki sæll." "Hví ertu hér, segir B[o,]ðvarr, eða hvat gerir þú?"
+H[o,]ttr segir: "ek geri mér skjaldborg, Bokki sæll." B[o,]ðvarr sagði:
+"vesall ertu þinnar skjaldborgar." B[o,]ðvarr þrífr til hans ok hnykkir
+honum upp úr beinahrúgunni. H[o,]ttr kvað þá hátt við ok mælti: "nú viltu
+mér bana, ger eigi þetta, svá sem ek hefi nú vel um búiz áðr, en þú hefir
+nú rótat í sundr skjaldborg minni, ok hafða ek nú svá gert hana háva utan
+at mér, at hún hefir hlíft mér við [o,]llum h[o,]ggum ykkar, svá _at_ engi
+h[o,]gg hafa komit á mik lengi, en ekki var hún enn svá búin, sem ek ætlaði
+hún skyldi verða." B[o,]ðvarr mælti: "ekki muntu fá skjaldborgina lengr."
+H[o,]ttr mælti ok grét: "skaltu nú bana mér, Bokki sæll?" B[o,]ðvarr bað
+hann ekki hafa hátt, tók hann upp síðan ok bar hann út úr h[o,]llinni ok
+til vats n[o,]kkurs, sem þar var í nánd, ok gáfu fáir at þessu gaum, ok þó
+hann upp allan. Síðan gekk B[o,]ðvarr til þess rúms, sem hann hafði áðr
+tekit, ok leiddi eptir sér H[o,]tt ok þar setr hann H[o,]tt hjá sér, en
+hann er svá hræddr, at skelfr á honum leggr ok liðr, en þó þykkiz hann
+skilja, at þessi maðr vill hjálpa sér. Eptir þat kveldar ok drífa menn í
+h[o,]llina ok sjá Hrólfs kappar, at H[o,]ttr er settr á bekk upp, ok þykkir
+þeim sá maðr hafa gert sik ærit djarfan, er þetta hefir til tekit. Ilt
+tillit hefir H[o,]ttr, þá _er_ hann sér kunningja sína, því _at_ hann hefir
+ilt eitt af þeim reynt; hann vill lifa gjarnan ok fara aptr í beinahrúgu
+sína, en B[o,]ðvarr heldr honum, svá _at_ hann náir ekki í burtu at fara,
+því _at_ hann þóttiz ekki jafnberr fyrir h[o,]ggum þeira, ef hann næði
+þangat {139} at komaz sem hann er nú. Hirðmenn hafa nú sama vanda, ok kasta
+fyrst beinum smám um þvert gólfit til B[o,]ðvars ok Hattar. B[o,]ðvarr
+lætr, sem hann sjái eigi þetta. H[o,]ttr er svá hræddr, at hann tekr eigi
+mat né drukk, ok þykkir honum þá ok þá sem hann muni vera lostinn; ok nú
+mælti H[o,]ttr til B[o,]ðvars: "Bokki sæll, nú ferr at þér stór hnúta, ok
+mun þetta ætlat okkr til nauða." B[o,]ðvarr bað hann þegja; hann setr við
+holan lófann ok tekr svá við hnútunni; þar fylgir leggrinn með; B[o,]ðvarr
+sendi aptr hnútuna ok setr á þann, sem kastaði ok rétt framan í hann með
+svá harðri svipan, at hann fekk bana; sló þá miklum ótta yfir hirðmennina.
+Kemr nú þessi fregn fyrir Hrólf konung ok kappa hans upp í kastalann, at
+maðr mikilúðligr sé kominn til hallarinnar ok hafi drepit einn hirðmann
+hans, ok vildu þeir láta drepa manninn. Hrólfr konungr spurðiz eptir, hvárt
+hirðmaðrinn hefði verit saklauss drepinn. "Því var næsta," s[o,]gðu þeir.
+Kómuz þá fyrir Hrólf konung [o,]ll sannindi hér um. Hrólfr konungr sagði
+þat skyldu fjarri, at drepa skyldi manninn--"hafi þit hér illan vanda upp
+tekit, at berja saklausa menn beinum; er mér í því óvirðing, en yðr stór
+sk[o,]mm, at gera slíkt; hefi ek jafnan rætt um þetta áðr, ok hafi þit at
+þessu engan gaum gefit, ok hygg ek, at þessi maðr muni ekki alllítill fyrir
+sér, er þér hafið nú á leitat, ok kallið hann til mín, svá _at_ ek viti,
+hverr hann er." B[o,]ðvarr gengr fyrir konung ok kveðr hann kurteisliga.
+Konunga spyrr hann at nafni. "Hattargriða kalla mik hirðmenn yðar, en
+B[o,]ðvarr heiti ek." Konungr mælti: "hverjar bætr viltu bjóða mér fyrir
+hirðmann minn?" B[o,]ðvarr segir: "til þess gerði hann, sem hann fekk."
+Konungr mælti: "viltu vera minn maðr ok skipa rúm hans?" B[o,]ðvarr segir:
+"ekki neita ek, at vera yðarr maðr, ok munu vit ekki skiljaz svá búit, vit
+H[o,]ttr, ok dveljaz nær þér báðir, heldr en þessi hefir setit, elligar vit
+f[o,]rum burt báðir." Konungr mælti: "eigi sé ek at honum sæmd en ek spara
+ekki mat við hann." B[o,]ðvarr gengr nú til þess rúms, sem honum líkaði, en
+ekki vill hann þat skipa, sem hinn hafði áðr; hann kippir upp í einhverjum
+stað þremr m[o,]nnum, ok síðan settuz þeir H[o,]ttr þar niðr ok innar í
+h[o,]llinni en þeim var skipat. Heldr þótti m[o,]nnum ódælt við B[o,]ðvar,
+ok er þeim hinn mesti íhugi at honum. Ok sem leið at jólum, {140} gerðuz
+menn ókátir. B[o,]ðvarr spyrr H[o,]tt, hverju þetta sætti; hann segir
+honum, at dýr eitt hafi þar komit tvá vetr í samt, mikit ok ógurligt--"ok
+hefir vængi á bakinu ok flýgr þat jafnan; tvau haust hefir þat nú hingat
+vitjat ok gert mikinn skaða; á þat bíta ekki vápn, en kappar konungs koma
+ekki heim, þeir sem at eru einna mestir." B[o,]ðvarr mælti: "ekki er
+h[o,]llin svá vel skipuð, sem ek ætlaði, ef eitt dýr skal hér eyða ríki ok
+fé konungsins." H[o,]ttr sagði: "þat er ekki dýr, heldr er þat hit mesta
+tr[o,]ll." Nú kemr jólaaptann; þá mælti konungr: "nú vil ek, at menn sé
+kyrrir ok hljóðir í nótt, ok banna ek [o,]llum mínum m[o,]nnum at ganga í
+n[o,]kkurn háska við dýrit, en fé ferr eptir því sem auðnar; menn mína vil
+ek ekki missa." Allir heita hér góðu um, at gera eptir því, sem konungr
+bauð. B[o,]ðvarr leyndiz í burt um nóttina; hann lætr H[o,]tt fara með sér,
+ok gerir hann þat nauðugr ok kallaði hann sér stýrt til bana. B[o,]ðvarr
+segir, at betr mundi til takaz. Þeir ganga í burt frá h[o,]llinni, ok verðr
+B[o,]ðvarr at bera hann; svá er hann hræddr. Nú sjá þeir dýrit; ok því næst
+æpir H[o,]ttr slíkt, sem hann má, ok kvað dyrit mundu gleypa hann.
+B[o,]ðvarr bað bikkjuna hans þegja ok kastar honum niðr í mosann, ok þar
+liggr hann ok eigi með [o,]llu óhræddr; eigi þorir hann heim at fara heldr.
+Nú gengr B[o,]ðvarr móti dýrinu; þat hæfir honum, at sverðit er fast í
+umgj[o,]rðinni, er hann vildi bregða því. B[o,]ðvarr eggjar nú fast sverðit
+ok þá bragðar í umgj[o,]rðinni, ok nú fær hann brugðit umgj[o,]rðinni, svá
+_at_ sverðit gengr úr slíðrunum, ok leggr þegar undir bægi dýrsins ok svá
+fast, at stóð í hjartanu, ok datt þá dýrit til jarðar dautt niðr. Eptir þat
+ferr hann þangat sem H[o,]ttr liggr. B[o,]ðvarr tekr hann upp ok berr
+þangat, sem dýrit liggr dautt. H[o,]ttr skelfr ákaft. B[o,]ðvarr mælti: "nú
+skaltu drekka blóð dýrsins." Hann er lengi tregr, en þó þorir hann víst
+eigi annat. B[o,]ðvarr lætr hann drekka tvá, sopa stóra; hann lét hann ok
+eta n[o,]kkut af dýrshjartanu; eptir þetta tekr B[o,]ðvarr til hans, ok
+áttuz þeir við lengi. B[o,]ðvarr mælti: "helzt ertu nú sterkr orðinn, ok
+ekki vænti ek, et þú hræðiz nú hirðmenn Hrólfs konungs." H[o,]ttr sagði:
+"eigi mun ek þá hræðaz ok eigi þik upp frá þessu." "Vel er þá orðit,
+H[o,]ttr félagi; f[o,]ru vit nú til ok reisum upp dýrit ok búum svá um, at
+aðrir ætli at kvikt muni vera." {141} Þeir gera nú svá. Eptir þat fara þeir
+heim ok hafa kyrt um sik, ok veit engi maðr, hvat þeir hafa iðjat. Konungr
+spyrr um morguninn, hvat þeir viti til dýrsins, hvárt þat hafi n[o,]kkut
+þangat vitjat um nóttina; honum var sagt, at fé alt væri heilt í grindum ok
+ósakat. Konungr bað menn forvitnaz, hvárt engi sæi líkindi til, at þat
+hefði heim komit. Varðmenn gerðu svá ok kómu skjótt aptr ok s[o,]gðu
+konungi, at dýrit færi þar ok heldr geyst at borginni. Konungr bað hirðmenn
+vera hrausta ok duga nú hvern eptir því, sem hann hefði hug til, ok ráða af
+óvætt þenna; ok svá var gert, sem konungr bauð, at þeir bjuggu sik til
+þess. Konungr horfði á dýrit ok mælti síðan: "enga sé ek f[o,]r á dýrinu,
+en hverr vill nú taka kaup einn ok ganga í móti því?" B[o,]ðvarr mælti:
+"þat væri næsta hrausts manns forvitnisbót. H[o,]ttr félagi, rektu nú af
+þér illmælit þat, at menn láta, sem engi krellr né dugr muni í þer vera;
+far nú ok drep þú dýrit; máttu sjá, at engi er allfúss til annarra." "Já,"
+sagði H[o,]ttr, "ek mun til þessa ráðaz." Konungr mælti: "ekki veit ek,
+hvaðan þessi hreysti er at þér komin, H[o,]ttr, ok mikit hefir um þik
+skipaz á skammri stundu." H[o,]ttr mælti: "gef mér til sverðit
+Gullinhjalta, er þú heldr á, ok skal ek þá fella dýrit eða fá bana." Hrólf
+konungr mælti: "þetta sverð er ekki beranda nema þeim manni, sem bæði er
+góðr drengr ok hraustr." H[o,]ttr sagði: "svá skaltu til ætla, at mér sé
+svá háttat." Konungr mælti: "hvat má vita, nema fleira hafi skipz um hagi
+þína, en sjá þykkir, en fæstir menn þykkjaz þik kenna, at þú sér enn sami
+maðr; nú tak við sverðinu ok njót manna bezt, ef þetta er til unnit." Síðan
+gengr H[o,]ttr at dýrinu alldjarfliga ok høggr til þess, þá _er_ hann kemr
+í h[o,]ggfæri, ok dýrit fellr niðr dautt. B[o,]ðvarr mælti: "sjáið nú,
+herra, hvat hann hefir til unnit." Konungr segir: "víst hefir hann mikit
+skipaz, en ekki hefir H[o,]ttr einn dýrit drepit, heldr hefir þú þat gert."
+B[o,]ðvarr segir: "vera má, at svá sé." Konungr segir: "vissa ek, þá _er_
+þú komt hér, at fáir mundu þínir jafningjar vera, en þat þykki mér þó þitt
+verk frægiligast, at þú hefir gert hér annan kappa, þar _er_ H[o,]ttr er,
+ok óvænligr þótti til mikillar giptu; ok nú vil ek _at_ hann heiti eigi
+H[o,]ttr lengr ok skal hann heita Hjalti upp frá þessu; skaltu heita eptir
+sverðinu Gullinhjalta." {142}
+
+
+
+Then Bothvar went on his way to Leire, and came to the king's dwelling.
+
+Bothvar stabled his horse by the king's best horses, without asking leave;
+and then he went into the hall, and there were few men there. He took a
+seat near the door, and when he had been there a little time he heard a
+rummaging in a corner. Bothvar looked that way and saw that a man's hand
+came up out of a great heap of bones which lay there, and the hand was very
+black. Bothvar went thither and asked who was there in the heap of bones.
+
+Then an answer came, in a very weak voice, "Hott is my name, good fellow."
+
+"Why art thou here?" said Bothvar, "and what art thou doing?"
+
+Hott said, "I am making a shield-wall for myself, good fellow."
+
+Bothvar said, "Out on thee and thy shield-wall!" and gripped him and jerked
+him up out of the heap of bones.
+
+Then Hott cried out and said, "Now thou wilt be the death of me: do not do
+so. I had made it all so snug, and now thou hast scattered in pieces my
+shield-wall; and I had built it so high all round myself that it has
+protected me against all your blows, so that for long no blows have come
+upon me, and yet it was not so arranged as I meant it should be."
+
+Then Bothvar said, "Thou wilt not build thy shield-wall any longer."
+
+Hott said, weeping, "Wilt thou be the death of me, good fellow?" Bothvar
+told him not to make a noise, and then took him up and bore him out of the
+hall to some water which was close by, and washed him from head to foot.
+Few paid any heed to this.
+
+Then Bothvar went to the place which he had taken before, and led Hott with
+him, and set Hott by his side. But Hott was so afraid that he was trembling
+in every limb, and yet he seemed to know that this man would help him.
+
+After that it grew to evening, and men crowded into the hall: and Rolf's
+warriors saw that Hott was seated upon the bench. And it seemed to them
+that the man must be bold {143} enough, who had taken upon himself to put
+him there. Hott had an ill countenance when he saw his acquaintances, for
+he had received naught but evil from them. He wished to save his life and
+go back to his bone-heap, but Bothvar held him tightly so that he could not
+go away. For Hott thought that, if he could get back into his bone-heap, he
+would not be as much exposed to their blows as he was.
+
+Now the retainers did as before; and first of all they tossed small bones
+across the floor towards Bothvar and Hott. Bothvar pretended not to see
+this. Hott was so afraid that he neither ate nor drank; and every moment he
+thought he would be smitten.
+
+And now Hott said to Bothvar, "Good fellow, now a great knuckle bone is
+coming towards thee, aimed so as to do us sore injury." Bothvar told him to
+hold his tongue, and put up the hollow of his palm against the knuckle bone
+and caught it, and the leg bone was joined on to the knuckle bone. Then
+Bothvar sent the knuckle bone back, and hurled it straight at the man who
+had thrown it, with such a swift blow that it was the death of him. Then
+great fear came over the retainers.
+
+Now news came to King Rolf and his men up in the castle that a stately man
+had come to the hall and killed a retainer, and that the retainers wished
+to kill the man. King Rolf asked whether the retainer who had been killed
+had given any offence. "Next to none," they said: then all the truth of the
+matter came up before King Rolf.
+
+King Rolf said that it should be far from them to kill the man: "You have
+taken up an evil custom here in pelting men with bones without quarrel. It
+is a dishonour to me and a great shame to you to do so. I have spoken about
+it before, and you have paid no attention. I think that this man whom you
+have assailed must be a man of no small valour. Call him to me, so that I
+may know who he is."
+
+Bothvar went before the king and greeted him courteously. The king asked
+him his name. "Your retainers call me Hott's protector, but my name is
+Bothvar."
+
+The king said, "What compensation wilt thou offer me for my retainer?"
+{144}
+
+Bothvar said, "He only got what he asked for."
+
+The king said, "Wilt thou become my man and fill his place?"
+
+Bothvar said, "I do not refuse to be your man, but Hott and I must not part
+so. And we must sit nearer to thee than this man whom I have slain has sat;
+otherwise we will both depart together." The king said, "I do not see much
+credit in Hott, but I will not grudge him meat." Then Bothvar went to the
+seat that seemed good to him, and would not fill that which the other had
+before. He pulled up three men in one place, and then he and Hott sat down
+there higher in the hall than the place which had been given to them. The
+men thought Bothvar overbearing, and there was the greatest ill will among
+them concerning him.
+
+And when it drew near to Christmas, men became gloomy. Bothvar asked Hott
+the reason of this. Hott said to him that for two winters together a wild
+beast had come, great and awful, "And it has wings on its back, and flies.
+For two autumns it has attacked us here and done much damage. No weapon
+will wound it: and the champions of the king, those who are the greatest,
+come not back."
+
+Bothvar said, "This hall is not so well arrayed as I thought, if one beast
+can lay waste the kingdom and the cattle of the king." Hott said, "It is no
+beast: it is the greatest troll."
+
+Now Christmas-eve came; then said the king, "Now my will is that men
+to-night be still and quiet, and I forbid all my men to run into any peril
+with this beast. It must be with the cattle as fate will have it: but I do
+not wish to lose my men." All men promised to do as the king commanded. But
+Bothvar went out in secret that night; he caused Hott to go with him, but
+Hott did that only under compulsion, and said that it would be the death of
+him. Bothvar said that he hoped that it would be better than that. They
+went away from the hall, and Bothvar had to carry Hott, so frightened was
+he. Now they saw the beast; and thereupon Hott cried out as loud as he
+could, and said that the beast would swallow him. Bothvar said, "Be silent,
+thou dog," and threw him down in the mire. And there he lay in no small
+fear; but he did not dare to go home, any the more. {145}
+
+Now Bothvar went against the beast, and it happened that his sword was fast
+in his sheath when he wished to draw it. Bothvar now tugged at his sword,
+it moved, he wrenched the scabbard so that the sword came out. And at once
+he plunged it into the beast's shoulder so mightily that it pierced him to
+the heart, and the beast fell down dead to the earth. After that Bothvar
+went where Hott lay. Bothvar took him up and bore him to where the beast
+lay dead. Hott was trembling all over. Bothvar said, "Now must thou drink
+the blood of the beast." For long Hott was unwilling, and yet he did not
+dare to do anything else. Bothvar made him drink two great sups; also he
+made him eat somewhat of the heart of the beast.
+
+After that Bothvar turned to Hott, and they fought a long time.
+
+Bothvar said, "Thou hast now become very strong, and I do not believe that
+thou wilt now fear the retainers of King Rolf."
+
+Hott said, "I shall not fear them, nor thee either, from now on."
+
+"That is good, fellow Hott. Let us now go and raise up the beast, and so
+array him that others may think that he is still alive." And they did so.
+After that they went home, and were quiet, and no man knew what they had
+achieved.
+
+In the morning the king asked what news there was of the beast, and whether
+it had made any attack upon them in the night. And answer was made to the
+king, that all the cattle were safe and uninjured in their folds. The king
+bade his men examine whether any trace could be seen of the beast having
+visited them. The watchers did so, and came quickly back to the king with
+the news that the beast was making for the castle, and in great fury. The
+king bade his retainers be brave, and each play the man according as he had
+spirit, and do away with this monster. And they did as the king bade, and
+made them ready.
+
+Then the king faced towards the beast and said, "I see no sign of movement
+in the beast. Who now will undertake to go against it?"
+
+Bothvar said, "That would be an enterprise for a man of true valour. Fellow
+Hott, now clear thyself of that ill-repute, {146} in that men hold that
+there is no spirit or valour in thee. Go now and do thou kill the beast;
+thou canst see that there is no one else who is forward to do it."
+
+"Yea," said Hott, "I will undertake this."
+
+The king said, "I do not know whence this valour has come upon thee, Hott;
+and much has changed in thee in a short time."
+
+Hott said, "Give me the sword Goldenboss, Gullinhjalti, which thou dost
+wield, and I will fell the beast or take my death." Rolf the king said,
+"That sword cannot be borne except by a man who is both a good warrior and
+valiant." Hott said, "So shalt thou ween that I am a man of that kind." The
+king said, "How can one know that more has not changed in thy temper than
+can be seen? Few men would know thee for the same man. Now take the sword
+and have joy of it, if this deed is accomplished." Then Hott went boldly to
+the beast and smote at it when he came within reach, and the beast fell
+down dead. Bothvar said, "See now, my lord, what he has achieved." The king
+said, "Verily, he has altered much, but Hott has not killed the beast
+alone, rather hast thou done it." Bothvar said, "It may be that it is so."
+The king said, "I knew when thou didst come here that few would be thine
+equals. But this seems to me nevertheless thy most honourable work, that
+thou hast made here another warrior of Hott, who did not seem shaped for
+much luck. And now I will that he shall be called no longer Hott, but
+Hjalti from this time; thou shalt be called after the sword Gullinhjalti
+(Goldenboss)."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+C. EXTRACTS FROM GRETTIS SAGA
+
+(ed. G. Magnússon, 1853; R. C. Boer, 1900)
+
+(_a_) _Glam episode_ (caps. 32-35)
+
+Þórhallr hét maðr, er bjó á Þórhallsst[o,]ðum í Forsæludal. Forsæludalr er
+upp af Vatnsdal. Þórhallr var Grímsson, Þórhallssonar, Friðmundarsonar, er
+nam Forsæludal. Þórhallr átti þá konu, er Guðrún hét. Grímr hét sonr þeira,
+en Þuríðr dóttir; þau váru vel á legg komin. Þórhallr var vel auðigr {147}
+maðr, ok mest at kvikfé, svá at engi maðr átti jafnmart ganganda fé, sem
+hann. Ekki var hann h[o,]fðingi, en þó skilríkr bóndí. Þar var reimt
+mj[o,]k, ok fekk hann varla sauðamann, svá at honum þoetti duga. Hann
+leitaði ráðs við marga vitra menn, hvat hann skyldi til bragðs taka; en
+engi gat þat ráð til gefit, er dygði. Þórhallr reið til þings hvert sumar.
+Hann átti hesta góða. Þat var eitt sumar á alþingi, at Þórhallr gekk til
+búðar Skapta l[o,]gmanns, Þóroddssonar. Skapti var manna vitrastr, ok
+heilráðr, ef hann var beiddr. Þat skildi með þeim feðgum: Þóroddr var
+forspár ok kallaðr undirhyggjumaðr af sumum m[o,]nnum, en Skapti lagði þat
+til með hverjum manni, sem hann ætlaði at duga skyldi, ef eigi væri af því
+brugðit; því var hann kallaðr betrfeðrungr. Þórhallr gekk í búð Skapta;
+hann fagnaði vel Þórhalli, því hann vissi, at hann var ríkr maðr at fé, ok
+spurði hvat at tíðendum væri.
+
+Þórhallr mælti: "Heilræði vilda ek af yðr þiggja."
+
+"Í litlum foerum em ek til þess," sagði Skapti; "eða hvat stendr þik?"
+
+Þórhallr mælti: "Þat er svá háttat, at mér helz lítt á sauðam[o,]nnum.
+Verðr þeim heldr klakksárt, en sumir gera engar lyktir á. Vill nú engi til
+taka, sá er kunnigt er til, hvat fyrir býr."
+
+Skapti svarar: "Þar mun liggja meinvættr n[o,]kkur, er menn eru tregari til
+at geyma síðr þíns fjár en annarra manna. Nú fyrir því, at þú hefir at mér
+ráð sótt, þá skal ek fá þér sauðamann, þann er Glámr heitir, ættaðr ór
+Svíþjóð, ór Sylgsd[o,]lum, er út kom í fyrra sumar, mikill ok sterkr, ok
+ekki mj[o,]k við alþýðu skap."
+
+Þórhallr kvaz ekki um þat gefa, ef hann geymdi vel fjárins; Skapti sagði
+[o,]ðrum eigi vænt horfa, ef hann geymdi eigi fyrir afls sakir ok áræðis;
+Þórhallr gekk þá út. Þetta var at þinglausnum.
+
+Þórhalli var vant hesta tveggja ljósbleikra, ok fór sjálfr at leita; af því
+þykkjaz menn vita, at hann var ekki mikilmenni. Hann gekk upp undir Sleðás
+ok suðr með fjalli því, er Ármannsfell heitir. Þá sá hann, hvar maðr fór
+ofan ór Goðaskógi ok bar hrís á hesti. Brátt bar saman fund þeira; Þórhallr
+spurði hann at nafni, en hann kvez Glámr heita. Þessi maðr {148} var mikill
+vexti ok undarligr í yfirbragði, bláeygðr ok opineygðr, úlfgrár á hárslit.
+Þórhalli brá n[o,]kkut í brún, er hann sá þenna mann; en þó skildi hann, at
+honum mundi til þessa vísat.
+
+"Hvat er þér bezt hent at vinna?" segir Þórhallr.
+
+Glámr kvað sér vel hent at geyma sauðfjár á vetrum.
+
+"Viltu geyma sauðfjár míns?" segir Þórhallr; "gaf Skapti þik á mitt vald."
+
+"Svá mun þér hentust mín vist, at ek fari sjálfráðr; því ek em skapstyggr,
+ef mér líkar eigi vel," sagði Glámr.
+
+"Ekki mun mér mein at því," segir Þórhallr, "ok vil ek, at þú farir til
+mín."
+
+"Gera má ek þat," segir Glámr; "eða eru þar n[o,]kkur vandhoefi á?"
+
+"Reimt þykkir þar vera," sagði Þórhallr.
+
+"Ekki hræðumz ek flykur þær," sagði Glámr, "ok þykkir mér at
+ódauflig[r]a."
+
+"Þess muntu við þurfa," segir Þórhallr, "ok hentar þar betr, at vera eigi
+alllítill fyrir sér."
+
+Eptir þat kaupa þeir saman, ok skal Glámr koma at vetrnóttum. Siðan skildu
+þeir, ok fann Þórhallr hesta sína, þar sem hann hafði nýleitat. Reið
+Þórhallr heim, ok þakkaði Skapta sinn velgerning.
+
+Sumar leið af, ok frétti Þórhallr ekki til sauðamanns, ok engi kunni skyn á
+honum. En at ánefndum tíma kom hann á Þórhallsstaði. Tekr bóndi við honum
+vel, en [o,]llum [o,]ðrum gaz ekki at honum, en húsfreyju þó minst. Hann
+tók við fjárvarðveizlu, ok varð honum lítit fyrir því; hann var hljóðmikill
+ok dimmraddaðr, ok féit st[o,]kk allt saman, þegar hann hóaði. Kirkja var á
+Þórhallsst[o,]ðum; ekki vildi Glámr til hennar koma; hann var ós[o,]ngvinn
+ok trúlauss, stirfinn ok viðskotaillr; [o,]llum var hann hvimleiðr.
+
+Nú leið svá þar til er kemr atfangadagr jóla. Þá stóð Glámr snemma upp ok
+kallaði til matar síns.
+
+Húsfreyja svarar: "Ekki er þat háttr kristinna manna, at mataz þenna dag,
+þvíat á morgin er jóladagr hinn fyrsti," segir hon, "ok er því fyrst skylt
+at fasta í dag."
+
+Hann svarar: "Marga hindrvitni hafi þér, þá er ek sé til enskis koma. Veit
+ek eigi, at m[o,]nnum fari nú betr at, heldr {149} en þá, er menn fóru ekki
+með slíkt. Þótti mér þá betri siðr, er menn váru heiðnir kallaðir; ok vil
+ek mat minn en engar refjur."
+
+Húsfreyja mælti: "Víst veit ek, at þér mun illa faraz í dag, ef þú tekr
+þetta illbrigði til."
+
+Glámr bað hana taka mat í stað; kvað henni annat skyldu vera verra. Hon
+þorði eigi annat, en at gera, sem hann vildi. Ok er hann var mettr, gekk
+hann út, ok var heldr gustillr. Veðri var svá farit, at myrkt var um at
+litaz, ok fl[o,]graði ór drífa, ok gnýmikit, ok versnaði mj[o,]k sem á leið
+daginn. Heyrðu menn til sauðamanns [o,]ndverðan daginn, en miðr er á leið
+daginn. Tók þá at fjúka, ok gerði á hríð um kveldit; kómu menn til tíða, ok
+leið svá fram at dagsetri; eigi kom Glámr heim. Var þá um talat, hvárt hans
+skyldi eigi leita; en fyrir því, at hríð var á ok niðamyrkr, þá varð ekki
+af leitinni. Kom hann eigi heim jólanóttina; biðu menn svá fram um tíðir.
+At oernum degi fóru menn í leitina, ok fundu féit víða í f[o,]nnum, lamit
+af ofviðri eða hlaupit á fj[o,]ll upp. Þvínæst kómu þeir á traðk mikinn
+ofarliga í dalnum. Þótti þeim því líkt, sem þar hefði glímt verit heldr
+sterkliga, þvíat grjótit var víða upp leyst, ok svá j[o,]rðin. Þeir hugðu
+at vandliga ok sá, hvar Glámr lá, skamt á brott frá þeim. Hann var dauðr,
+ok blár sem Hel, en digr sem naut. Þeim bauð af honum óþekt mikla, ok hraus
+þeim mj[o,]k hugr við honum. En þó leituðu þeir við at foera hann til
+kirkju, ok gátu ekki komit honum, nema á einn gilsþr[o,]m þar skamt ofan
+frá sér; ok fóru heim við svá búit, ok s[o,]gðu bónda þenna atburð. Hann
+spurði, hvat Glámi mundi hafa at bana orðit. Þeir kváðuz rakit hafa spor
+svá stór, sem keraldsbotni væri niðr skelt þaðan frá, sem traðkrinn var, ok
+upp undir bj[o,]rg þau, er þar váru ofarliga í dalnum, ok fylgðu þar með
+blóðdrefjar miklar. Þat drógu menn saman, at sú meinvættr, er áðr hafði
+[þar] verit, mundi hafa deytt Glám; en hann mundi fengit hafa henni
+n[o,]kkurn áverka, þann er tekit hafi til fulls, þvíat við þá meinvætti
+hefir aldri vart orðit síðan. Annan jóladag var enn til farit at foera Glám
+til kirkju. Váru eykir fyrir beittir, ok gátu þeir hvergi foert hann, þegar
+sléttlendit var ok eigi var forbrekkis at fara. Gengu nú frá við svá búit.
+Hinn þriðja dag fór prestr með þeim, ok leituðu allan daginn, {150} ok
+Glámr fannz eigi. Eigi vildi prestr optar til fara; en sauðamaðr fannz,
+þegar prestr var eigi í ferð. Létu þeir þá fyrir vinnaz, at foera hann til
+kirkju; ok dysjuðu hann þar, sem þá var hann kominn. Lítlu síðar urðu menn
+varir við þat, at Glámr lá eigi kyrr. Varð m[o,]nnum at því mikit mein, svá
+at margir fellu í óvit, ef sá hann, en sumir heldu eigi vitinu. Þegar eptir
+jólin þóttuz menn sjá hann heima þar á boenum. Urðu menn ákafliga hræddir;
+stukku þá margir menn í brott. Þvinæst tók Glámr at ríða húsum á nætr, svá
+at lá við brotum. Gekk hann þá náliga nætr ok daga. Varla þorðu menn at
+fara upp í dalinn, þóat ætti nóg ørendi. Þótti m[o,]nnum þar í heraðinu
+mikit mein at þessu.
+
+Um várit fekk Þórhallr sér hjón ok gerði bú á j[o,]rðu sinni. Tók þá at
+minka aptrgangr, meðan sólargangr var mestr. Leið svá fram á miðsumar.
+Þetta sumar kom út skip í Húnavatni; þar var á sá maðr, er Þorgautr hét.
+Hann var útlendr at kyni, mikill ok sterkr; hann hafði tveggja manna afl;
+hann var lauss ok einn fyrir sér; hann vildi fá starfa n[o,]kkurn, því(at)
+hann var félauss. Þórhallr reið til skips ok fann Þorgaut; spurði ef hann
+vildi vinna fyrir honum; Þorgautr kvað þat vel mega vera, ok kvez eigi
+vanda þat.
+
+"Svá skaltu við búaz," segir Þórhallr, "sem þar sé ekki veslingsm[o,]nnum
+hent at vera, fyrir aptrg[o,]ngum þeim, er þar hafa verit um hríð, en ek
+vil ekki þik á tálar draga."
+
+Þorgautr svarar: "Eigi þykkjumz ek upp gefinn, þóat ek sjá smáváfur; mun þá
+eigi [o,]ðrum dælt, ef ek hræðumz; ok ekki bregð ek vist minni fyrir þat."
+
+Nú semr þeim vel kaupstefnan, ok skal Þorgautr gæta sauðfjár at vetri.
+
+Leið nú af sumarit. Tók Þorgautr við fénu at vetrnáttum. Vel líkaði
+[o,]llum við hann. Jafnan kom Glámr heim ok reið húsum. Þat þótti Þorgauti
+allkátligt, ok kvað, "þrælinn þurfa mundu nær at ganga, ef ek hræðumz."
+Þórhallr bað hann hafa fátt um; "er bezt, at þit reynið ekki með ykkr."
+
+Þorgautr mælti: "Sannliga er skekinn þróttr ór yðr; ok dett ek eigi niðr
+milli doegra við skraf þetta."
+
+Nú fór svá fram um vetrinn allt til jóla. Atfangakveld jóla fór sauðamaðr
+til fjár. {151}
+
+Þá mælti húsfreyja: "Þurfa þoetti mér, at nú foeri eigi at fornum
+br[o,]gðum."
+
+Hann svarar: "Ver eigi hrædd um þat, húsfreyja," sagði hann; "verða mun
+eitthvert s[o,]guligt, ef ek kem ekki aptr." Síðan gekk hann aptr til fjár
+síns. Veðr var heldr kalt, ok fjúk mikit. Því var Þorgautr vanr, at koma
+heim, þá er hálfrøkkvat var; en nú kom hann ekki heim í þat mund. Kómu
+tíðamenn, sem vant var. Þat þótti m[o,]nnum eigi ólíkt á horfaz sem fyrr.
+Bóndi vildi leita láta eptir sauðamanni, en tíðamenn t[o,]lduz undan, ok
+s[o,]gðuz eigi mundu hætta sér út í tr[o,]llahendr um nætr; ok treystiz
+bóndi eigi at fara, ok varð ekki af leitinni. Jóladag, er menn váru mettir,
+fóru menn til ok leituðu sauðamanns. Gengu þeir fyrst til dysjar Gláms,
+þvíat menn ætluðu af hans v[o,]ldum mundi orðit um hvarf sauðamanns. En er
+þeir kómu nær dysinni, sáu þeir þar mikil tíðendi, ok þar fundu þeir
+sauðamann, ok var hann brotinn á háls, ok lamit sundr hvert bein í honum.
+Síðan foerðu þeir hann til kirkju, ok varð engum manni mein at Þorgauti
+síðan. En Glámr tók at magnaz af nýju. Gerði hann nú svá mikit af sér, at
+menn allir stukku brott af Þórhallsst[o,]ðum, útan bóndi einn ok húsfreyja.
+Nautamaðr hafði þar verit lengi hinn sami. Vildi Þórhallr hann ekki lausan
+láta fyrir góðvilja sakir ok geymslu. Hann var mj[o,]k við aldr, ok þótti
+honum mikit fyrir, at fara á brott; sá hann ok, at allt fór at ónytju, þat
+er bóndi átti, ef engi geymdi. Ok einn tíma eptir miðjan vetr var þat einn
+morgin, at húsfreyja fór til fjóss, at mjólka kýr eptir tíma. Þá var
+alljóst, þvíat engi treystiz fyrr úti at vera annarr en nautamaðr; hann fór
+út, þegar lýsti. Hon heyrði brak mikit í fjósit, ok beljan [o,]skurliga;
+hon hljóp inn oepandi ok kvaz eigi vita, hver ódoemi um væri í fjósinu.
+Bóndi gekk út ok kom til nautanna, ok stangaði hvert annat. Þótti honum þar
+eigi gott, ok gekk innar at hl[o,]ðunni. Hann sá, hvar lá, nautamaðr, ok
+hafði h[o,]fuðit í [o,]ðrum bási en foetr í [o,]ðrum; hann lá á bak aptr.
+Bóndi gekk at honum ok þreifaði um hann; finnr brátt, at hann er dauðr ok
+sundr hryggrinn í honum. Var hann brotinn um báshelluna. Nú þótti bónda
+eigi vært, ok fór í brott af boenum með allt þat, sem hann mátti í brott
+flytja. En allt kvikfé þat, sem eptir var, deyddi Glámr. Ok þvinæst fór
+{152} hann um allan dalinn ok eyddi alla boei upp frá Tungu. Var Þórhallr
+þá með vinum sínum þat [sem] eptir var vetrarins. Engi maðr mátti fara upp
+í dalinn með hest eðr hund, þvíat þat var þegar drepit. En er váraði, ok
+sólargangr var sem mestr, létti heldr aptrg[o,]ngunum. Vildi Þórhallr nú
+fara aptr til lands síns. Urðu honum ekki auðfengin hjón, en þó gerði hann
+bú á Þórhallsst[o,]ðum. Fór allt á sama veg sem fyrr; þegar at haustaði,
+tóku at vaxa reimleikar. Var þá mest sótt at bóndadóttur; ok svá fór, at
+hon léz af því. Margra ráða var í leitat, ok varð ekki at g[o,]rt. Þótti
+m[o,]nnum til þess horfaz, at eyðaz mundi allr Vatnsdalr, ef eigi yrði
+boetr á ráðnar.
+
+Nú er þar til at taka, at Grettir Ásmundarson sat heima at Bjargi um
+haustit, síðan þeir Vígabarði skildu á Þóreyjargnúpi. Ok er mj[o,]k var
+komit at vetrnóttum, reið Grettir heiman norðr yfir hálsa til Víðidals, ok
+gisti á Auðunarst[o,]ðum. Sættuz þeir Auðunn til fulls, ok gaf Grettir
+honum øxi góða, ok mæltu til vináttu með sér. Auðunn bjó lengi á
+Auðunarst[o,]ðum ok var kynsæll maðr. Hans sonr var Egill, er átti
+Úlfheiði, dóttur Eyjólfs Guðmundarsonar, ok var þeira sonr Eyjólfr, er
+veginn var á alþingi. Hann var faðir Orms, kapiláns Þorláks biskups.
+Grettir reið norðr til Vatnsdals ok kom á kynnisleit í Tungu. Þar bjó þá
+J[o,]kull Bárðarson, móðurbróðir Grettis; J[o,]kull var mikill maðr ok
+sterkr ok hinn mesti ofsamaðr. Hann var siglingamaðr, ok mj[o,]k ódæll, en
+þó mikilhoefr maðr. Hann tók vel við Gretti, ok var hann þar þrjár nætr. Þá
+var svá mikit orð á aptrg[o,]ngum Gláms, at m[o,]nnum var ekki jafntíðroett
+sem þat. Grettir spurði inniliga at þeim atburðum, er h[o,]fðu orðit;
+J[o,]kull kvað þar ekki meira af sagt en til væri hoeft; "eða er þér
+forvitni á, frændi! at koma þar?"
+
+Grettir sagði, at þat var satt.
+
+J[o,]kull bað hann þat eigi gera, "því þat er gæfuraun mikil; en frændr
+þínir eiga mikit í hættu, þar sem þú ert," sagði hann; "þykkir oss nú engi
+slíkr af ungum m[o,]nnum sem þú; en illt mun af illum hljóta, þar sem Glámr
+er. Er ok miklu betra, at fáz við mennska menn en við óvættir slíkar."
+
+Grettir kvað sér hug á, at koma á Þórhallsstaði, ok sjá, hversu þar væri um
+gengit. {153}
+
+J[o,]kull mælti: "Sé ek nú, at eigi tjáir at letja þik; en satt er þat sem
+mælt er, at sitt er hvárt, gæfa eða gervigleikr."
+
+"Þá er [o,]ðrum vá fyrir dyrum, er [o,]ðrum er inn um komit; ok hygg at,
+hversu þér mun fara sjálfum, áðr lýkr," kvað Grettir.
+
+J[o,]kull svarar: "Vera kann, at vit sjáim báðir n[o,]kkut fram, en hvárrgi
+fái við g[o,]rt."
+
+Eptir þat skildu þeir, ok líkaði hvárigum annars spár.
+
+Grettir reið á Þórhallsstaði, ok fagnaði bóndi honum vel. Hann spurði,
+hvert Grettir ætlaði at fara; en hann segiz þar vilja vera um nóttina, ef
+bónda líkaði, at svá væri. Þórhallr kvaz þ[o,]kk fyrir kunna, at hann væri
+þar, "en fám þykkir sloegr til at gista hér um tíma; muntu hafa heyrt getit
+um, hvat hér er at væla. En ek vilda gjarna, at þú hlytir engi vandræði af
+mér. En þóat þú komiz heill á brott, þá veit ek fyrir víst, at þú missir
+hests þíns; því engi heldr hér heilum sínum fararskjóta, sá er kemr."
+
+Grettir kvað gott til hesta, hvat sem af þessum yrði.
+
+Þórhallr varð glaðr við, er Grettir vildi þar vera, ok tók við honum báðum
+h[o,]ndum. Var hestr Grettis læstr í húsi sterkliga. Þeir fóru til svefns,
+ok leið svá af nóttin, at ekki kom Glámr heim.
+
+Þá mælti Þórhallr: "Vel hefir brugðit við þína kvámu, þvíat hverja nótt er
+Glámr vanr at ríða húsum eða brjóta upp hurðir, sem þú mátt merki sjá."
+
+Grettir mælti: "Þá mun vera annathvárt, at hann mun ekki lengi á sér sitja,
+eða mun af venjaz meirr en eina nótt. Skal ek vera hér nótt aðra ok sjá,
+hversu ferr."
+
+Siðan gengu þeir til hests Grettis, ok var ekki við hann glez. Allt þótti
+bónda at einu fara. Nú er Grettir þar aðra nótt, ok kom ekki þrællinn heim.
+Þá þótti bónda mj[o,]k vænkaz. Fór hann þá, at sjá hest Grettis. Þá var upp
+brotit húsit, er bóndi kom til, en hestrinn dreginn til dyra útar, ok lamit
+í sundr í honum hvert bein.
+
+Þórhallr sagði Gretti, hvar þá var komit, ok bað hann forða sér: "þvíat
+víss er dauðinn, ef þú bíðr Gláms."
+
+Grettir svarar: "Eigi má ek minna hafa fyrir hest minn, en at sjá þrælinn."
+{154}
+
+Bóndi sagði, at þat var eigi bati, at sjá hann, "þvíat hann er ólíkr
+n[o,]kkurri mannligri mynd; en góð þykki mér hver sú stund, er þú vilt hér
+vera."
+
+Nú líðr dagrinn; ok er menn skyldu fara til svefns, vildi Grettir eigi fara
+af klæðum, ok lagðiz niðr í setit gegnt lokrekkju bónda. Hann hafði
+r[o,]ggvarfeld yfir sér, ok knepti annat skautit niðr undir foetr sér, en
+annat snaraði hann undir h[o,]fuð sér, ok sá út um h[o,]fuðsmáttina.
+Setstokkr var fyrir framan setit, mj[o,]k sterkr, ok spyrndi hann þar í.
+Dyraumbúningrinn allr var frá brotinn útidyrunum, en nú var þar fyrir
+bundinn hurðarflaki, ok óvendiliga um búit. Þverþilit var allt brotit frá
+skálanum, þat sem þar fyrir framan hafði verit, bæði fyrir ofan þvertréit
+ok neðan. Sængr allar váru ór stað foerðar. Heldr var þar óvistuligt. Ljós
+brann í skálanum um nóttina. Ok er af mundi þriðjungr af nótt, heyrði
+Grettir út dynur miklar. Var þá farit upp á húsin, ok riðit skálanum ok
+barit hælunum, svá at brakaði í hverju tré. Þvi gekk lengi; þá var farit
+ofan af húsunum ok til dyra gengit. Ok er upp var lokit hurðunni, sá
+Grettir, at þrællinn rétti inn h[o,]fuðit, ok sýndiz honum afskræmiliga
+mikit ok undarliga stórskorit. Glámr fór seint ok réttiz upp, er hann kom
+inn í dyrnar; hann gnæfaði ofarliga við ræfrinu; snýr at skálanum ok lagði
+handleggina upp á þvertréit, ok gægðiz inn yfir skálann. Ekki lét bóndi
+heyra til sín, þvíat honum þótti oerit um, er hann heyrði, hvat um var úti.
+Grettir lá kyrr ok hroerði sik hvergi. Glámr sá, at hrúga n[o,]kkur lá í
+setinu, ok réz nú innar eptir skálanum ok þreif í feldinn stundarfast.
+Grettir spyrndi í stokkinn, ok gekk því hvergi. Glámr hnykti í annat sinn
+miklu fastara, ok bifaðiz hvergi feldrinn. Í þriðja sinn þreif hann í með
+báðum h[o,]ndum svá fast, at hann rétti Gretti upp ór setinu; kiptu nú í
+sundr feldinum í millum sín. Glámr leit á slitrit, er hann helt á, ok
+undraðiz mj[o,]k, hverr svá, fast mundi togaz við hann. Ok í því hljóp
+Grettir undir hendr honum, ok þreif um hann miðjan, ok spenti á honum
+hrygginn sem fastast gat hann, ok ætlaði hann, at Glámr skyldi kikna við.
+En þrællinn lagði at handleggjum Grettis svá fast, at hann h[o,]rfaði allr
+fyrir orku sakir. Fór Grettir þá undan í ýms setin. Gengu þá frá
+stokkarnir, ok allt brotnaði, þat sem fyrir varð. Vildi {155} Glámr leita
+út, en Grettir foerði við foetr, hvar sem hann mátti. En þó gat Glámr
+dregit hann fram ór skálanum. Áttu þeir þá allharða sókn þvíat þrællinn
+ætlaði at koma honum út ór boenum; en svá illt sem var at eiga við Glám
+inni, þá sá Grettir, at þó var verra, at fáz við hann úti; ok því brauz
+hann í móti af [o,]llu afli at fara út. Glámr foerðiz í aukana, ok knepti
+hann at sér, er þeir kómu í anddyrit. Ok er Grettir sér, at hann fekk eigi
+við spornat, hefir hann allt eitt atriðit, at hann hleypr sem harðast í
+fang þrælnum ok spyrnir báðum fótum í jarðfastan stein, er stoð í dyrunum.
+Við þessu bjóz þrællinn eigi; hann hafði þá togaz við at draga Gretti at
+sér; ok því kiknaði Glámr á bak aptr, ok rauk [o,]fugr út á dyrnar, svá at
+herðarnar námu uppdyrit, ok ræfrit gekk í sundr, bæði viðirnir ok þekjan
+frerin; fell hann svá opinn ok [o,]fugr út ór húsunum, en Grettir á hann
+ofan. Tunglskin var mikit úti ok gluggaþykkn; hratt stundum fyrir, en
+stundum dró frá. Nú í því, er Glámr fell, rak skýit frá tunglinu, en Glámr
+hvesti augun upp í móti. Ok svá, hefir Grettir sagt sjálfr, at þá eina sýn
+hafi hann sét svá, at honum brygði við. Þá sigaði svá at honum af [o,]llu
+saman, moeði ok því, er hann sá at Glámr gaut sínum sjónum harðliga, at
+hann gat eigi brugðit saxinu, ok lá náliga í milli heims ok heljar. En því
+var meiri ófagnaðarkraptr með Glámi en flestum [o,]ðrum
+aptrg[o,]ngum[o,]nnum, at hann mælti þá á þessa leið: "Mikit kapp hefir þú
+á lagit, Grettir," sagði hann, "at finna mik. En þat mun eigi undarligt
+þykkja, þóat þú hljótir ekki mikit happ af mér. En þat má ek segja þér, at
+þú hefir nú fengit helming afls þess ok þroska, er þér var ætlaðr, ef þú
+hefðir mik ekki fundit. Nú fæ ek þat afl eigi af þér tekit, er þú hefir áðr
+hrept; en því má ek ráða, at þú verðr aldri sterkari en nú ertu, ok ertu þó
+nógu sterkr, ok at því mun m[o,]rgum verða. Þú hefir frægr orðit hér til af
+verkum þínum; en heðan af munu falla til þín sektir ok vígaferli, en flest
+[o,]ll verk þín snúaz þér til ógæfu ok hamingjuleysis. Þú munt verða útlægr
+g[o,]rr, ok hljóta jafnan úti at búa einn samt. Þá legg ek þat á við þik,
+at þessi augu sé þér jafnan fyrir sjónum, sem ek ber eptir; ok mun þér
+erfitt þykkja, einum at vera; ok þat mun þér til dauða draga."
+
+Ok sem þrællinn hafði þetta mælt, þá rann af Gretti ómegin, {156} þat sem á
+honum hafði verit. Brá hann þá saxinu ok hjó h[o,]fuð af Glámi ok setti þat
+við þjó honum. Bóndi kom þá út, ok hafði klæz, á meðan Glámr lét ganga
+t[o,]luna; en hvergi þorði hann nær at koma, fyrr en Glámr var fallinn.
+Þórhallr lofaði guð fyrir, ok þakkaði vel Gretti, er hann hafði unnit þenna
+óhreina anda. Fóru þeir þá til, ok brendu Glám at k[o,]ldum kolum. Eptir
+þat [báru þeir [o,]sku hans í eina hít ok] grófu þar niðr, sem sízt váru
+fjárhagar eða mannavegir. Gengu heim eptir þat, ok var þá mj[o,]k komit at
+degi. Lagðiz Grettir niðr, þvíat hann var stirðr mj[o,]k. Þórhallr sendi
+menn á næstu boei eptir m[o,]nnum; sýndi ok sagði, hversu farit hafði.
+[O,]llum þótti mikils um vert um þetta verk, þeim er heyrðu. Var þat þá
+almælt, at engi væri þvílíkr maðr á [o,]llu landinu fyrir afls sakir ok
+hreysti ok allrar atgervi, sem Grettir Ásmundarson.
+
+Þórhallr leysti Gretti vel af garði ok gaf honum góðan hest ok klæði
+soemilig, því[at] þau váru [o,]ll sundr leyst, er hann hafði áðr borit.
+Skildu þeir með vináttu. Reið Grettir þaðan í Ás í Vatnsdal, ok tók
+Þorvaldr við honum vel ok spurði inniliga at sameign þeira Gláms; en
+Grettir segir honum viðskipti þeira, ok kvaz aldri í þvílíka aflraun komit
+hafa, svá langa viðreign sem þeir h[o,]fðu saman átt.
+
+Þorvaldr bað hann hafa sik spakan, "ok mun þá vel duga, en ella mun þér
+slysgjarnt verða."
+
+Grettir kvað ekki batnat hafa um lyndisbragðit, ok sagðiz nú miklu verr
+stiltr en áðr, ok allar mótgerðir verri þykkja. Á því fann hann mikla muni,
+at hann var orðinn maðr svá myrkfælinn, at hann þorði hvergi at fara einn
+saman, þegar myrkva tók. Sýndiz honum þá hvers kyns skrípi; ok þat er haft
+síðan fyrir orðtoeki, at þeim ljái Glámr augna eðr gefi glámsýni, er
+mj[o,]k sýniz annan veg, en er. Grettir reið heim til Bjargs, er hann hafði
+g[o,]rt ørendi sín, ok sat heima um vetrinn.
+
+(_b_) _Sandhaugar episode_ (caps. 64-66)
+
+Steinn hét prestr, er bjó at Eyjardalsá í Bárðardal. Hann var búþegn góðr
+ok ríkr at fé. Kjartan hét son hans, r[o,]skr maðr ok vel á legg kominn.
+Þorsteinn hvíti hét maðr, er {157} bjó at Sandhaugum, suðr frá Eyjardalsá.
+Steinv[o,]r hét kona hans, ung ok glaðlát. Þau áttu b[o,]rn, ok váru þau
+ung í þenna tíma. Þar þótti m[o,]nnum reimt mj[o,]k sakir tr[o,]llagangs.
+Þat bar til, tveim vetrum fyrr en Grettir kom norðr í sveitir, at
+Steinv[o,]r húsfreyja at Sandhaugum fór til jólatíða til Eyjardalsár eptir
+vana, en bóndi var heima. L[o,]gðuz menn niðr til svefns um kveldit; ok um
+nóttina heyrðu menn brak mikit í skálann, ok til sængr bónda. Engi þorði
+upp at standa at forvitnaz um, þvíat þar var fáment mj[o,]k. Húsfreyja kom
+heim um morguninn, ok var bóndi horfinn, ok vissi engi, hvat af honum var
+orðit. Liðu svá hin næstu misseri. En annan vetr eptir, vildi húsfreyja
+fara til tíða; bað hon húskarl sinn heima vera. Hann var tregr til; en bað
+hana ráða. Fór þar allt á s[o,]mu leið, sem fyrr, at húskarl var horfinn.
+Þetta þótti m[o,]nnum undarligt. Sáu menn þá blóðdrefjar n[o,]kkurar í
+útidyrum. Þóttuz menn þat vita, at óvættir mundu hafa tekit þá báða. Þetta
+fréttiz víða um sveitir. Grettir hafði spurn af þessu. Ok með því at honum
+var mj[o,]k lagit at koma af reimleikum eða aptrg[o,]ngum, þá gerði hann
+ferð sína til Bárðardals, ok kom atfangadag jóla til Sandha[u]ga. Hann
+duldiz ok nefndiz Gestr. Húsfreyja sá, at hann var furðu mikill vexti, en
+heimafólk var furðu hrætt við hann. Hann beiddiz þar gistingar. Húsfreyja
+kvað honum mat til reiðu, "en ábyrgz þik sjálfr."
+
+Hann kvað svá vera skyldu. "Mun ek vera heima," segir hann, "en þú far til
+tíða, ef þú vilt."
+
+Hon svarar: "Mér þykkir þú hraustr, ef þú þorir heima at vera."
+
+"Eigi læt ek mér at einu getit," sagði hann.
+
+"Illt þykkir mér heima at vera," segir hon, "en ekki komumz ek yfir ána."
+
+"Ek skal fylgja þér yfir," segir Gestr.
+
+Síðan bjóz hon til tiða, ok dóttir hennar með henni, lítil vexti. Hláka
+mikil var úti, ok áin í leysingum; var á henni jakaf[o,]r.
+
+Þá mælti húsfreyja: "Ófoert er yfir ána, bæði m[o,]nnum ok hestum."
+
+"V[o,]ð munu á vera," kvað Gestr; "ok verið eigi hræddar." {158}
+
+"Ber þú fyrst meyna," kvað húsfreyja, "hon er léttari."
+
+"Ekki nenni ek at gera tvær ferðir at þessu," segir Gestr, "ok mun ek bera
+þik á handlegg mér."
+
+Hon signdi sik ok mælti: "Þetta er ófoera; eða hvat gerir þú þá af
+meyjunni?"
+
+"Sjá mun ek ráð til þess," segir hann; ok greip þær upp báðar ok setti hina
+yngri í kné móður sinnar, ok bar þær svá á vinstra armlegg sér; en hafði
+lausa hina hoegri h[o,]nd ok óð svá, út á vaðit. Eigi þorðu þær at oepa,
+svá váru þær hræddar. En áin skall þegar upp á brjósti honum. Þá rak at
+honum jaka mikinn; en hann skaut við hendi þeiri, er laus var, ok hratt frá
+sér. Gerði þá svá djúpt, at strauminn braut á [o,]xlinni. Óð hann
+sterkliga, þar til er hann kom at bakkanum [o,]ðrum megin, ok fleygir þeim
+á land. Síðan sneri hann aptr, ok var þá hálfrøkkvit, er hann kom heim til
+Sandhauga; ok kallaði til matar. Ok er hann var mettr, bað hann heimafólk
+fara innar í stofu. Hann tók þá borð ok lausa viðu, ok rak um þvera
+stofuna, ok gerði bálk mikinn, svá at engi heimamaðr komz fram yfir. Engi
+þorði í móti honum at mæla, ok í engum skyldi kretta. Gengit var í
+hliðvegginn stofunnar inn við gaflhlaðit; ok þar þverpallr hjá. Þar lagðiz
+Gestr niðr ok fór ekki af klæðunum. Ljós brann í stofunni gegnt dyrum.
+Liggr Gestr svá fram á nóttina.
+
+Húsfreyja kom til Eyjardalsár til tíða, ok undruðu menn um ferðir hennar
+yfir ána. Hon sagðiz eigi vita, hvárt hana hefði yfir flutt maðr eða
+tr[o,]ll. Prestr kvað mann víst vera mundu, þóat fárra maki sé; "ok látum
+hljótt yfir," sagði hann; "má vera, at hann sé ætlaðr til at vinna bót á
+vandræðum þínum." Var húsfreyja þar um nóttina.
+
+Nú er frá Gretti þat at segja, at þá er dró at miðri nótt, heyrði hann út
+dynur miklar. Þvínæst kom inn í stofuna tr[o,]llkona mikil. Hon hafði í
+hendi trog, en annarri skálm, heldr mikla. Hon litaz um, er hon kom inn, ok
+sá, hvar Gestr lá, ok hljóp at honum, en hann upp í móti, ok réðuz á
+grimmliga ok sóttuz lengi í stofunni. Hon var sterkari, en hann fór undan
+koenliga. En allt þat, sem fyrir þeim varð, brutu þau, jafnvel þverþilit
+undan stofunni. Hon dró hann fram yfir dyrnar, ok svá í anddyrit; þar tók
+hann fast í móti. Hon {159} vildi draga hann út ór boenum, en þat varð eigi
+fyrr en þau leystu frá allan útidyraumbúninginn ok báru hann út á herðum
+sér. Þoefði hon þá ofan til árinnar ok allt fram at gljúfrum. Þá var Gestr
+ákafliga móðr, en þó varð annathvárt at gera: at herða sik, ella mundi hon
+steypa honum í gljúfrin. Alla nóttina sóttuz þau. Eigi þóttiz hann hafa
+fengiz við þvílíkan ófagnað fyrir afls sakir. Hon hafði haldit honum svá
+fast at sér, at hann mátti hvárigri hendi taka til n[o,]kkurs, útan hann
+helt um hana miðja k[ett]una. Ok er þau kómu á árgljufrit, bregðr hann
+flagðkonunni til sveiflu. Í því varð honum laus hin hoegri h[o,]ndin. Hann
+þreif þá skjótt til saxins, er hann var gyrðr með, ok bregðr því; høggr þá
+á [o,]xl tr[o,]llinu, svá at af tók h[o,]ndina hoegri, ok svá, varð hann
+lauss. En hon steyptiz í gljúfrin ok svá í fossinn. Gestr var þá bæði
+stirðr ok móðr, ok lá þar lengi á hamrinum. Gekk hann þá heim, er lýsa tók,
+ok lagðiz í rekkju. Hann var allr þrútinn ok blár.
+
+Ok er húsfreyja kom frá tíðum, þótti henni heldr raskat um hýbýli sín. Gekk
+hon þá til Gests ok spurði, hvat til hefði borit, er allt var brotit ok
+boelt. Hann sagði allt, sem farit hafði. Henni þótti mikils um vert, ok
+spurði, hverr hann var. Hann sagði þá til hit sanna, ok bað soekja prest ok
+kvaz vildu finna hann. Var ok svá g[o,]rt. En er Steinn prestr kom til
+Sandhauga, varð hann brátt þess víss, at þar var kominn Grettir
+Ásmundarson, er Gestr nefndiz. Prestr spurði, hvat hann ætlaði af þeim
+m[o,]nnum mundi vera orðit, er þar h[o,]fðu horfit. Grettir kvaz ætla, at í
+gljúfrin mundu þeir hafa horfit. Prestr kvaz eigi kunna at leggja trúnað á
+sagnir hans, ef engi merki mætti til sjá. Grettir segir, at sífðar vissi
+þeir þat gørr. Fór prestr heim. Grettir lá í rekkju margar nætr. Húsfreyja
+gerði við hann harðla vel; ok leið svá af jólin. Þetta er s[o,]gn Grettis,
+at tr[o,]llkonan steypðiz í gljúfrin við, er hon fekk sárit; en
+Bárðardalsmenn segja, at hana dagaði uppi, þá er þau glímdu, ok spryngi, þá
+er hann hjó af henni h[o,]ndina, ok standi þar enn í konu líking á
+bjarginu. Þeir dalbúarnir leyndu þar Gretti.
+
+Um vetrinn eptir jól var þat einn dag, at Grettir fór til Eyjardalsár. Ok
+er þeir Grettir funduz ok prestr, mælti Grettir: "Sé ek þat, prestr," segir
+hann, "at þú leggr lítinn {160} trúnað á sagnir mínar. Nú vil ek at þú
+farir með mér til árinnar, ok sjáir, hver líkendi þér þykkir á vera."
+
+Prestr gerði svá. En er þeir kómu til fossins, sáu þeir skúta upp undir
+bergit; þat var meitilberg svá mikit, at hvergi mátti upp komaz, ok nær tíu
+faðma ofan at vatninu. Þeir h[o,]fðu festi með sér.
+
+Þá mælti prestr: "Langt um ófoert sýniz mér þér niðr at fara."
+
+Grettir svarar: "Foert er víst; en þeim mun bezt þar, sem ágætismenn eru.
+Mun ek forvitnaz, hvat í fossinum er, en þú skalt geyma festar."
+
+Prestr bað hann ráða, ok keyrði niðr hæl á berginu, ok bar at grjót, [ok
+sat þar hjá].
+
+Nú er frá Gretti at segja, at hann lét stein í festaraugat ok lét svá síga
+ofan at vatninu.
+
+"Hvern veg ætlar þú nú," segir prestr, "at fara?"
+
+"Ekki vil ek vera bundinn," segir Grettir, "þá er ek kem í fossinn; svá
+boðar mér hugr um."
+
+Eptir þat bjó hann sik til ferðar, ok var fáklæddr, ok gyrði sik með
+saxinu, en hafði ekki fleiri vápn. Síðan hljóp hann af bjarginu ok niðr í
+fossinn. Sá prestr í iljar honum, ok vissi síðan aldri, hvat af honum varð.
+Grettir kafaði undir fossinn, ok var þat torvelt, þvíat iða var mikil, ok
+varð hann allt til grunns at kafa, áðr en hann koemiz upp undir fossinn.
+Þar var forberg n[o,]kkut, ok komz hann inn þar upp á. Þar var hellir
+mikill undir fossinum, ok fell áin fram af berginu. Gekk hann þá inn í
+hellinn, ok var þar eldr mikill á br[o,]ndum. Grettir sá, at þar sat
+j[o,]tunn [o,]gurliga mikill; hann var hræðiligr at sjá. En er Grettir kom
+at honum, hljóp j[o,]tunninn upp ok greip flein einn ok hjó til þess, er
+kominn var, þvíat bæði mátti h[o,]ggva ok leggja með [honum]. Tréskapt var
+í; þat k[o,]lluðu menn þá heptisax, er þannveg var g[o,]rt. Grettir hjó á
+móti með saxinu, ok kom á skaptit, svá at í sundr tók. J[o,]tunninn vildi
+þá seilaz á bak sér aptr til sverðs, er þar hekk í hellinum. Í því hjó
+Grettir framan á brjóstit, svá at náliga tók af alla bringspelina ok
+kviðinn, svá at iðrin steyptuz ór honum ofan í ána, ok keyrði þau ofan
+eptir ánni. Ok er prestr sat við festina, sá hann, at slyðrur n[o,]kkurar
+rak ofan eptir strengnum blóðugar {161} allar. Hann varð þá lauss á velli,
+ok þóttiz nú vita, at Grettir mundi dauðr vera. Hljóp hann þá frá
+festarhaldinu ok fór heim. Var þá komit at kveldi, ok sagði prestr vísliga,
+at Grettir væri dauðr; ok sagði, at mikill skaði væri eptir þvílíkan mann.
+
+Nú er frá Gretti at segja; hann lét skamt h[o,]ggva í milli, þar til er
+j[o,]tunninn dó. Gekk Grettir þá innar eptir hellinum. Hann kveikti ljós ok
+kannaði hellinn. Ekki er frá því sagt, hversu mikit fé hann fekk í
+hellinum; en þat ætla menn, at verit hafi n[o,]kkut. Dvaldiz honum þar fram
+á nóttina. Hann fann þar tveggja manna bein, ok bar þau í belg einn.
+Leitaði hann þá ór hellinum ok lagðiz til festarinnar, ok hristi hana, ok
+ætlaði, at prestr mundi þar vera. En er hann vissi, at prestr var heim
+farinn, varð hann þá at handstyrkja upp festina, ok komz hann svá upp á
+bjargit. Fór hann þá heim til Eyjardalsár ok kom í forkirkju belginum þeim,
+sem beinin váru í, ok þar með rúnakefli því, er vísur þessar váru
+forkunnliga vel á ristnar:
+
+ "Gekk ek í gljúfr et d[o,]kkva
+ gein veltiflug steina,
+ viþ hj[o,]rgæþi hríþar
+ hlunns úrsv[o,]lum munni,
+ fast lá framm á brjósti
+ flugstraumr í sal naumu
+ heldr kom á herþar skáldi
+ h[o,]rþ fjón Braga kvónar."
+
+Ok en þessi:
+
+ "Ljótr kom mér í móti
+ mellu vinr ór helli;
+ hann fekz, heldr at s[o,]nnu
+ harþfengr, viþ mik lengi;
+ harþeggjat lét ek h[o,]ggvit
+ heptisax af skepti;
+ Gangs klauf brjóst ok bringu
+ bjartr gunnlogi svarta[298]."
+
+{162}
+
+Þar sagði svá, at Grettir hafi bein þessi ór hellinum haft. En er prestr
+kom til kirkju um morgininn, fann hann keflit ok þat sem fylgdi, ok las
+rúnarnar. En Grettir hafði farit heim til Sandhauga.
+
+En þá er prestr fann Gretti, spurði hann inniliga eptir atburðum; en hann
+sagði alla s[o,]gu um ferð sína, ok kvað prest ótrúliga hafa haldit
+festinni. Prestr lét þat á sannaz. Þóttuz menn þat vita, at þessar óvættir
+mundu valdit hafa mannahv[o,]rfum þar í dalnum. Varð ok aldri mein af
+aptrg[o,]ngum eða reimleikum þar í dalnum síðan. Þótti Grettir þar g[o,]rt
+hafa mikla landhreinsan. Prestr jarðaði bein þessi í kirkjugarði.
+
+TRANSLATION OF EXTRACTS FROM GRETTIS SAGA
+
+ The _Grettis saga_ was first printed in the middle of the eighteenth
+ century, in Iceland (Marcússon, _Nockrer Marg-frooder Sogu-þatter_,
+ 1756, pp. 81-163). It was edited by Magnússon and Thordarson,
+ Copenhagen, 1853, with a Danish translation, and again by Boer
+ (_Altnordische Saga-bibliothek_, Halle, 1900). An edition was also
+ printed at Reykjavik in 1900, edited by V. Ásmundarson.
+
+ There are over forty MSS of the saga: _Cod. Arn. Mag. 551 a_ (quoted in
+ the notes below as A) forms the basis of all three modern editions.
+ Boer has investigated the relationship of the MSS (_Die
+ handschriftliche überlieferung der Grettissaga, Z.f.d.Ph._ XXXI,
+ 40-60), and has published, in an appendix to his edition, the readings
+ of five of the more important, in so far as he considers that they can
+ be utilized to amend the text supplied by A.
+
+ The reader who consults the editions of both Magnússon and Boer will be
+ struck by the differences in the text, although both are following the
+ same MS. Many of these differences are, of course, due to the fact that
+ the editors are normalizing the spelling, but on different principles:
+ many others, however, are due to the extraordinary difficulty of the MS
+ itself. Mr Sigfús Blöndal, of the Royal Library of Copenhagen, has
+ examined _Cod. Arn. Mag. 551 a_ for me, and he writes:
+
+ "It is the very worst MS I have ever met with. The writing is
+ small, almost every word is abbreviated, and, worst of all, the
+ writing is in many places effaced, partly by smoke (I suppose the
+ MS needs must have been lying for years in some smoky and damp
+ _baðstofa_) rendering the parchment almost as black as
+ shoe-leather, but still more owing to the use of chemicals, which
+ modern editors have been obliged to use, to make sure of what there
+ really was in the text. By the use of much patience and a lens, one
+ can read it, though, in most places. Unfortunately, this does not
+ apply to the _Glámur_ episode, a big portion of which belongs to
+ the very worst part of the MS, and the readings of that portion are
+ therefore rather uncertain."
+
+ The Icelandic text given above agrees in the main with that in the
+ excellent edition of Boer, to whom, in common with all students of the
+ {163} _Grettis saga_, I am much indebted: but I have frequently adopted
+ in preference a spelling or wording nearer to that of Magnússon. In
+ several of these instances (notably the spelling of the verses
+ attributed to Grettir) I think Prof. Boer would probably himself agree.
+
+ The words or letters placed between square brackets are those which are
+ not to be found in _Cod. Arn. Mag. 551 a_.
+
+ To Mr Blöndal, who has been at the labour of collating with the MS, for
+ my benefit, both the passages given above, my grateful thanks are due.
+
+ There are English translations of the _Grettis saga_ by Morris and E.
+ Magnússon (1869, and in Morris' _Works_, 1911, vol. VII) and by G. A.
+ Hight (_Everyman's Library_, 1914).
+
+ For a discussion of the relationship of the _Grettis saga_ to other
+ stories, see also Boer, _Zur Grettissaga_, in _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXX, 1-71.
+
+(_a_) _Glam episode_ (p. 146 above)
+
+There was a man called Thorhall, who lived at Thorhall's Farm in
+Shadow-dale. Shadow-dale runs up from Water-dale. Thorhall was son of Grim,
+son of Thorhall, son of Frithmund, who settled Shadow-dale. Thorhall's wife
+was called Guthrun: their son was Grim, and Thurith their daughter--they
+were grown up.
+
+[Sidenote: p. 147]
+
+Thorhall was a wealthy man, and especially in cattle, so that no man had as
+much live stock as he. He was not a chief, yet a substantial yeoman. The
+place was much haunted, and he found it hard to get a shepherd to suit him.
+He sought counsel of many wise men, what device he should follow, but he
+got no counsel which was of use to him. Thorhall rode each summer to the
+All-Thing; he had good horses. That was one summer at the All-Thing, that
+Thorhall went to the booth of Skapti Thoroddsson, the Law-man.
+
+Skapti was the wisest of men, and gave good advice if he was asked. There
+was this difference between Skapti and his father Thorodd: Thorodd had
+second sight, and some men called him underhanded; but Skapti gave to every
+man that advice which he believed would avail, if it were kept to: so he
+was called 'Better than his father.' Thorhall went to the booth of Skapti.
+Skapti greeted Thorhall well, for he knew that he was a prosperous man, and
+asked what news he had.
+
+Thorhall said, "I should like good counsel from thee." "I am little use at
+that," said Skapti. "But what is thy need?" {164}
+
+Thorhall said, "It happens so, that it is difficult for me to keep my
+shepherds: they easily get hurt, and some will not serve their time. And
+now no one will take on the task, who knows what is before him."
+
+Skapti answered, "There must be some evil being about, if men are more
+unwilling to look after thy sheep than those of other folk. Now because
+thou hast sought counsel of me, I will find thee a shepherd, who is named
+Glam, a Swede, from Sylgsdale, who came out to Iceland last summer. He is
+great and strong, but not much to everybody's taste."
+
+Thorhall said that he would not mind that, if he guarded the sheep well.
+Skapti said that if Glam had not the strength and courage to do that, there
+was no hope of anyone else. Then Thorhall went out; this was when the
+All-Thing was nearly ending.
+
+Thorhall missed two light bay horses, and he went himself to look for
+them--so it seems that he was not a great man. He went up under Sledge-hill
+and south along the mountain called Armannsfell.
+
+Then he saw where a man came down from Gothashaw, bearing faggots on a
+horse. They soon met, and Thorhall asked him his name, and he said he was
+called Glam. Glam [Sidenote: p. 148] was tall and strange in bearing, with
+blue[299] and glaring eyes, and wolf-grey hair. Thorhall opened his eyes
+when he saw him, but yet he discerned that this was he to whom he had been
+sent.
+
+"What work art thou best fitted for?" said Thorhall.
+
+Glam said he was well fitted to watch sheep in the winter.
+
+"Wilt thou watch my sheep?" said Thorhall. "Skapti gave thee into my hand."
+
+"You will have least trouble with me in your house if I go my own way, for
+I am hard of temper if I am not pleased," said Glam.
+
+"That will not matter to me," said Thorhall, "and I wish that thou shouldst
+go to my house."
+
+"That may I well do," said Glam, "but are there any difficulties?"
+
+{165}
+
+"It is thought to be haunted," said Thorhall.
+
+"I am not afraid of such phantoms," said Glam, "and it seems to me all the
+less dull."
+
+"Thou wilt need such a spirit," said Thorhall, "and it is better that the
+man there should not be a coward."
+
+After that they struck their bargain, and Glam was to come at the
+winter-nights [14th-16th of October]. Then they parted, and Thorhall found
+his horses where he had just been searching. Thorhall rode home and thanked
+Skapti for his good deed.
+
+Summer passed, and Thorhall heard nothing of his shepherd, and no one knew
+anything of him; but at the time appointed he came to Thorhall's Farm. The
+yeoman greeted him well, but all the others could not abide him, and
+Thorhall's wife least of all. Glam undertook the watching of the sheep, and
+it gave him little trouble. He had a great deep voice, and the sheep came
+together as soon as he called them. There was a church at Thorhall's Farm,
+but Glam would not go to it. He would have nothing to do with the service,
+and was godless; he was obstinate and surly and abhorred by all.
+
+Now time went on till it came to Yule eve. Then Glam rose early and called
+for meat. The yeoman's wife answered, "That is not the custom of Christian
+men to eat meat today, because tomorrow is the first day of Yule," said
+she, "and therefore it is right that we should first fast today."
+
+He answered, "Ye have many superstitions which I see are good for nothing.
+I do not know that men fare better now [Sidenote: p. 149] than before, when
+they had nought to do with such things. It seemed to me a better way when
+men were called heathen; and I want my meat and no tricks."
+
+The yeoman's wife said, "I know for a certainty that it will fare ill with
+thee today, if thou dost this evil thing."
+
+Glam bade her bring the meat at once, else he said it should be worse for
+her. She dared not do otherwise than he willed, and when he had eaten he
+went out, foul-mouthed.
+
+Now it had gone so with the weather that it was heavy all round, and
+snow-flakes were falling, and it was blowing loud, and grew much worse as
+the day went on. The shepherd {166} was heard early in the day, but less
+later. Then wind began to drive the snow, and towards evening it became a
+tempest. Then men came to the service, and so it went on to nightfall. Glam
+did not come home. Then there was talk whether search ought not to be made
+for him, but because there was a tempest and it was pitch dark, no search
+was attempted. That Yule night he did not come home, and so men waited till
+after the service [next, i.e. Christmas, morning]. But when it was full
+day, men went to search, and found the sheep scattered in the
+snow-drifts[300], battered by the tempest, or strayed up into the
+mountains. Then they came on a great space beaten down, high up in the
+valley. It looked to them as if there had been somewhat violent wrestling
+there, because the stones had been torn up for a distance around, and the
+earth likewise. They looked closely and saw where Glam lay a little
+distance away. He was dead, and blue like Hel and swollen like an ox. They
+had great loathing of him, and their souls shuddered at him. Nevertheless
+they strove to bring him to the church, but they could get him no further
+than the edge of a ravine a little below, and they went home leaving
+matters so, and told the yeoman what had happened. He asked what appeared
+to have been the death of Glam. They said that, from the trodden spot, up
+to a place beneath the rocks high in the valley, they had tracked marks as
+big as if a cask-bottom had been stamped down, and great drops of blood
+with them. So men concluded from this, that the evil thing which had been
+there before must have killed Glam, but Glam must have done it damage which
+had been enough, in that nought has ever happened since from that evil
+thing.
+
+The second day of Yule it was again essayed to bring Glam to the church.
+
+Beasts of draught were harnessed, but they could not move him where it was
+level ground and not down hill, so they departed, leaving matters so.
+
+The third day the priest went with them, and they searched [Sidenote: p.
+150] all day, but Glam could not be found. The priest would go no {167}
+more, but Glam was found when the priest was not in the company. Then they
+gave up trying to carry him to the church, and buried him where he was,
+under a cairn.
+
+A little later men became aware that Glam was not lying quiet. Great harm
+came to men from this, so that many fell into a swoon when they saw him,
+and some could not keep their wits. Just after Yule, men thought they saw
+him at home at the farm. They were exceedingly afraid, and many fled away.
+Thereupon Glam took to riding the house-roofs at nights, so that he nearly
+broke them in. He walked almost night and day. Men hardly dared to go up
+into the dale, even though they had business enough. Men in that
+country-side thought great harm of this.
+
+In the spring Thorhall got farm-hands together and set up house on his
+land. Then the apparition began to grow less frequent whilst the sun's
+course was at its height; and so it went on till midsummer. That summer a
+ship came out to Hunawater. On it was a man called Thorgaut. He was an
+outlander by race, big and powerful; he had the strength of two men. He was
+in no man's service, and alone, and he wished to take up some work, since
+he had no money. Thorhall rode to the ship, and met Thorgaut. He asked him
+if he would work for him. Thorgaut said that might well be, and that he
+would make no difficulties.
+
+"But thou must be prepared," said Thorhall, "that it is no place for
+weaklings, by reason of the hauntings which have been going on for a while,
+for I will not let thee into a trap."
+
+Thorgaut answered, "It does not seem to me that I am undone, even though I
+were to see some little ghosts. It must be no easy matter for others if I
+am frightened, and I will not give up my place for that."
+
+So now they agreed well, and Thorgaut was to watch the sheep when winter
+came.
+
+Now the summer passed on. Thorgaut took charge of the sheep at the
+winter-nights. He was well-pleasing to all. Glam ever came home and rode on
+the roofs. Thorgaut thought it sporting, and said that the thrall would
+have to come nearer {168} in order to scare him. But Thorhall bade him keep
+quiet: "It is best that ye should not try your strength together." Thorgaut
+said, "Verily, your courage is shaken out of you: I shall not drop down
+with fear between day and night over such talk."
+
+Now things went on through the winter up to Yule-tide. On Yule evening the
+shepherd went out to his sheep. Then [Sidenote: p. 151] the yeoman's wife
+said, "It is to be hoped that now things will not go in the old way."
+
+He answered, "Be not afraid of that, mistress; something worth telling will
+have happened if I do not come back."
+
+Then he went to his sheep. The weather was cold, and it snowed much.
+Thorgaut was wont to come home when it was twilight, but now he did not
+come at that time. Men came to the service, as was the custom. It seemed to
+people that things were going as they had before. The yeoman wished to have
+search made for the shepherd, but the church-goers excused themselves, and
+said they would not risk themselves out in the hands of the trolls by
+night. And the yeoman did not dare to go, so the search came to nothing.
+
+On Yule-day, when men had eaten, they went and searched for the shepherd.
+They went first to Glam's cairn, because men thought that the shepherd's
+disappearance must have been through his bringing-about. But when they came
+near the cairn they saw great things, for there they found the shepherd
+with his neck broken and not a bone in him whole. Then they carried him to
+the church, and no harm happened to any man from Thorgaut afterwards; but
+Glam began to increase in strength anew. He did so much that all men fled
+away from Thorhall's Farm, except only the yeoman and his wife.
+
+Now the same cattle-herd had been there a long time. Thorhall would not let
+him go, because of his good-will and good service. He was far gone in age
+and was very unwilling to leave: he saw that everything went to waste which
+the yeoman had, if no one looked after it. And once after mid-winter it
+happened one morning that the yeoman's wife went to the byre to milk the
+cows as usual. It was quite light, because no one dared to go out before,
+except the cattle-herd: he went {169} out as soon as it dawned. She heard
+great cracking in the byre and a hideous bellowing. She ran back, crying
+out, and said she did not know what devilry was going on in the byre.
+
+The yeoman went out, and came to the cattle, and they were goring each
+other. It seemed to him no good to stay there, and he went further into the
+hay-barn. He saw where the cattle-herd lay, and he had his head in one
+stall and his feet in the next. He lay on his back. The yeoman went to him
+and felt him. He soon found that he was dead, and his back-bone broken in
+two; it had been broken over the partition slab.
+
+Now it seemed no longer bearable to Thorhall, and he left his farm with all
+that he could carry away; but all the live-stock [Sidenote: p. 152] left
+behind Glam killed. After that he went through all the dale and laid waste
+all the farms up from Tongue. Thorhall spent what was left of the winter
+with his friends. No man could go up into the dale with horse or hound,
+because it was slain forthwith. But when spring came, and the course of the
+sun was highest, the apparitions abated somewhat. Now Thorhall wished to go
+back to his land. It was not easy for him to get servants, but still he set
+up house at Thorhall's Farm.
+
+All went the same way as before. When autumn came on the hauntings began to
+increase. The yeoman's daughter was most attacked, and it fared so that she
+died. Many counsels were taken, but nothing was done. Things seemed to men
+to be looking as if all Water-dale must be laid waste, unless some remedies
+could be found.
+
+
+
+Now the story must be taken up about Grettir, how he sat at home at Bjarg
+that autumn, after he had parted from Barthi-of-the-Slayings at Thorey's
+Peak. And when it had almost come to the winter-nights, Grettir rode from
+home, north over the neck to Willow-dale, and was a guest at Authun's Farm.
+He was fully reconciled to Authun, and gave him a good axe, and they spake
+of their wish for friendship one with the other. (Authun dwelt long at
+Authun's Farm, and much goodly offspring had he. Egil was his son, who
+wedded Ulfheith, daughter of Eyjolf Guthmundson; and their son was Eyjolf,
+who was slain at the All-Thing. He was father of Orm, chaplain to {170}
+Bishop Thorlak.) Grettir rode north to Water-dale and came on a visit to
+Tongue. At that time Jokul Barthson lived there, Grettir's uncle. Jokul was
+a man great and strong and very proud. He was a seafaring man, and very
+over-bearing, yet of great account. He received Grettir well, and Grettir
+was there three nights.
+
+There was so much said about the apparitions of Glam that nothing was
+spoken of by men equally with that. Grettir inquired exactly about the
+events which had happened. Jokul said that nothing more had been spoken
+than had verily occurred. "But art thou anxious, kinsman, to go there?"
+
+Grettir said that that was the truth. Jokul begged him not to do so, "For
+that is a great risk of thy luck, and thy kinsmen have much at stake where
+thou art," said he, "for none of the young men seems to us to be equal to
+thee; but ill will come of ill where Glam is, and it is much better to have
+to do with mortal men than with evil creatures like that."
+
+Grettir said he was minded to go to Thorhall's Farm and [Sidenote: p. 153]
+see how things had fared there. Jokul said, "I see now that it is of no
+avail to stop thee, but true it is what men say, that good-luck is one
+thing, and goodliness another."
+
+"Woe is before one man's door when it is come into another's house. Think
+how it may fare with thee thyself before the end," said Grettir.
+
+Jokul answered, "It may be that both of us can see somewhat into the
+future, but neither can do aught in the matter."
+
+After that they parted, and neither was pleased with the other's
+foreboding.
+
+
+
+Grettir rode to Thorhall's Farm, and the yeoman greeted him well. He asked
+whither Grettir meant to go, but Grettir said he would stay there over the
+night if the yeoman would have it so. Thorhall said he owed him thanks for
+being there, "But few men find it a profit to stay here for any time. Thou
+must have heard what the dealings are here, and I would fain that thou
+shouldst have no troubles on my account; but though thou shouldst come
+whole away, I know for certain that thou {171} wilt lose thy steed, for no
+one who comes here keeps his horse whole."
+
+Grettir said there were plenty of horses, whatever should become of this
+one.
+
+Thorhall was glad that Grettir would stay there, and welcomed him
+exceedingly.
+
+Grettir's horse was strongly locked in an out-house. They went to sleep,
+and so the night passed without Glam coming home. Then Thorhall said,
+"Things have taken a good turn against thy coming, for every night Glam has
+been wont to ride the roofs or break up the doors, even as thou canst see."
+
+Grettir said, "Then must one of two things happen. Either he will not long
+hold himself in, or the wonted haunting will cease for more than one night.
+I will stay here another night and see how it goes."
+
+Then they went to Grettir's horse, and he had not been attacked. Then
+everything seemed to the yeoman to be going one way. Now Grettir stayed for
+another night, and the thrall did not come home. Then things seemed to the
+yeoman to be taking a very hopeful turn. He went to look after Grettir's
+horse. When he came there, the stable was broken into, and the horse
+dragged out to the door, and every bone in him broken asunder.
+
+Thorhall told Grettir what had happened, and bade him save his own
+life--"For thy death is sure if thou waitest for Glam."
+
+Grettir answered, "The least I must have in exchange for my horse is to see
+the thrall."
+
+The yeoman said that there was no good in seeing him: [Sidenote: p. 154]
+"For he is unlike any shape of man; but every hour that thou wilt stay here
+seems good to me."
+
+Now the day went on, and when bed-time came Grettir would not put off his
+clothes, but lay down in the seat over against the yeoman's
+sleeping-chamber. He had a shaggy cloak over him, and wrapped one corner of
+it down under his feet, and twisted the other under his head and looked out
+through the head-opening. There was a great and strong partition beam in
+front of the seat, and he put his feet against it. The {172} doorframe was
+all broken away from the outer door, but now boards, fastened together
+carelessly anyhow, had been tied in front. The panelling which had been in
+front was all broken away from the hall, both above and below the
+cross-beam; the beds were all torn out of their places, and everything was
+very wretched[301].
+
+A light burned in the hall during the night: and when a third part of the
+night was past, Grettir heard a great noise outside. Some creature had
+mounted upon the buildings and was riding upon the hall and beating it with
+its heels, so that it cracked in every rafter. This went on a long time.
+Then the creature came down from the buildings and went to the door. When
+the door was opened Grettir saw that the thrall had stretched in his head,
+and it seemed to him monstrously great and wonderfully huge. Glam went
+slowly and stretched himself up when he came inside the door. He towered up
+to the roof. He turned and laid his arm upon the cross-beam and glared in
+upon the hall. The yeoman did not let himself be heard, because the noise
+he heard outside seemed to him enough. Grettir lay quiet and did not move.
+
+Glam saw that a heap lay upon the seat, and he stalked in up the hall and
+gripped the cloak wondrous fast. Grettir pressed his feet against the post
+and gave not at all. Glam pulled a second time much more violently, and the
+cloak did not move. A third time he gripped with both hands so mightily
+that he pulled Grettir up from the seat, and now the cloak was torn asunder
+between them.
+
+Glam gazed at the portion which he held, and wondered much who could have
+pulled so hard against him; and at that moment Grettir leapt under his arms
+and grasped him round {173} the middle, and bent his back as mightily as he
+could, reckoning that Glam would sink to his knees at his attack. But the
+thrall laid such a grip on Grettir's arm that he recoiled at the might of
+it. Then Grettir gave way from one seat to another. The beams[302] started,
+and all that came in their way was broken. [Sidenote: p. 155] Glam wished
+to get out, but Grettir set his feet against any support he could find;
+nevertheless Glam dragged him forward out of the hall. And there they had a
+sore wrestling, in that the thrall meant to drag him right out of the
+building; but ill as it was to have to do with Glam inside, Grettir saw
+that it would be yet worse without, and so he struggled with all his might
+against going out. Glam put forth all his strength, and dragged Grettir
+towards himself when they came to the porch. And when Grettir saw that he
+could not resist, then all at once he flung himself against the breast of
+the thrall, as powerfully as he could, and pressed forward with both his
+feet against a stone which stood fast in the earth at the entrance. The
+thrall was not ready for this, he had been pulling to drag Grettir towards
+himself; and thereupon he stumbled on his back out of doors, so that his
+shoulders smote against the cross-piece of the door, and the roof clave
+asunder, both wood and frozen thatch. So Glam fell backwards out of the
+house and Grettir on top of him. There was bright moonshine and broken
+clouds without. At times they drifted in front of the moon and at times
+away. Now at the moment when Glam fell, the clouds cleared from before the
+moon, and Glam rolled up his eyes; and Grettir himself has said that that
+was the one sight he had seen which struck fear into him. Then such a
+sinking came over Grettir, from his weariness and from that sight of Glam
+rolling his eyes, that he had no strength to draw his knife and lay almost
+between life and death.
+
+{174}
+
+But in this was there more power for evil in Glam than in most other
+apparitions, in that he spake thus: "Much eagerness hast thou shown,
+Grettir," said he, "to meet with me. But no wonder will it seem if thou
+hast no good luck from me. And this can I tell thee, that thou hast now
+achieved one half of the power and might which was fated for thee if thou
+hadst not met with me. Now no power have I to take that might from thee to
+which thou hast attained. But in this may I have my way, that thou shalt
+never become stronger than now thou art, and yet art thou strong enough, as
+many a one shall find to his cost. Famous hast thou been till now for thy
+deeds, but from now on shall exiles and manslaughters fall to thy lot, and
+almost all of thy labours shall turn to ill-luck and unhappiness. Thou
+shalt be outlawed and doomed ever to dwell alone, away from men; and then
+lay I this fate on thee, that these eyes of mine be ever before thy sight,
+and it shall seem grievous unto thee to be alone, and that shall drag thee
+to thy death."
+
+And when the thrall had said this, the swoon which had [Sidenote: p. 156]
+fallen upon Grettir passed from him. Then he drew his sword and smote off
+Glam's head, and placed it by his thigh.
+
+Then the yeoman came out: he had clad himself whilst Glam was uttering his
+curse, but he dare in no wise come near before Glam had fallen. Thorhall
+praised God for it, and thanked Grettir well for having vanquished the
+unclean spirit.
+
+Then they set to work and burned Glam to cold cinders. After, they put the
+ashes in a skin-bag and buried them as far as possible from the ways of man
+or beast. After that they went home, and by that time it was well on to
+day. Grettir lay down, for he was very stiff. Thorhall sent people to the
+next farm for men, and showed to them what had happened. To all those who
+heard of it, it seemed a work of great account; and that was then spoken by
+all, that no man in all the land was equal to Grettir Asmundarson for might
+and valour and all prowess. Thorhall sent Grettir from his house with
+honour, and gave him a good horse and fit clothing; for all the clothes
+which he had worn before were torn asunder. They parted great friends.
+Grettir rode thence to Ridge in Water-dale, and Thorvald greeted him well,
+and asked closely as to his meeting {175} with Glam. Grettir told him of
+their dealings, and said that never had he had such a trial of strength, so
+long a struggle had theirs been together.
+
+Thorvald bade him keep quiet, "and then all will be well, otherwise there
+are bound to be troubles for thee."
+
+Grettir said that his temper had not bettered, and that he was now more
+unruly than before, and all offences seemed worse to him. And in that he
+found a great difference, that he had become so afraid of the dark that he
+did not dare to go anywhere alone after night had fallen. All kinds of
+horrors appeared to him then. And that has since passed into a proverb,
+that Glam gives eyes, or gives "glam-sight" to those to whom things seem
+quite other than they are. Grettir rode home to Bjarg when he had done his
+errand, and remained at home during the winter.
+
+(_b_) _Sandhaugar episode_ (p. 156 above)
+
+There was a priest called Stein who lived at Eyjardalsá (Isledale River) in
+Barthardal. He was a good husbandman and rich in cattle. His son was
+Kjartan, a doughty man and well grown. There was a man called Thorstein the
+White who [Sidenote: p. 157] lived at Sandhaugar (Sandheaps), south of
+Isledale river; his wife was called Steinvor, and she was young and merry.
+They had children, who were young then.
+
+People thought the place was much haunted by reason of the visitation of
+trolls. It happened, two winters before Grettir came North into those
+districts, that the good-wife Steinvor at Sandhaugar went to a Christmas
+service, according to her custom, at Isledale river, but her husband
+remained at home. In the evening men went to bed, and during the night they
+heard a great rummage in the hall, and by the good-man's bed. No one dared
+to get up to look to it, because there were very few men about. The
+good-wife came home in the morning, but her husband had vanished, and no
+one knew what had become of him.
+
+The next year passed away. But the winter after, the good-wife wished again
+to go to the church-service, and she bade her {176} manservant remain at
+home. He was unwilling, but said she must have her own way. All went in the
+same manner as before, and the servant vanished. People thought that
+strange. They saw some splashes of blood on the outer door, and men thought
+that evil beings must have taken away both the good-man and the servant.
+
+The news of this spread wide throughout the country. Grettir heard of it;
+and because it was his fortune to get rid of hauntings and spirit-walkings,
+he took his way to Barthardal, and came to Sandhaugar on Yule eve. He
+disguised himself[303], and said his name was Guest. The good-wife saw that
+he was great of stature; and the farm-folk were much afraid of him. He
+asked for quarters for the night. The good-wife said that he could have
+meat forthwith, but "You must look after your own safety."
+
+He said it should be so. "I will be at home," said he, "and you can go to
+the service if you will."
+
+She answered, "You are a brave man, it seems to me, if you dare to remain
+at home."
+
+"I do not care to have things all one way[304]," said he.
+
+"It seems ill to me to be at home," said she, "but I cannot get over the
+river."
+
+"I will see you over," said Guest.
+
+Then she got ready to go to the service, and her small daughter with her.
+It was thawing, the river was in flood, and there were ice-floes in it.
+Then the good-wife said, "It is impossible for man or horse to get across
+the river."
+
+"There must be fords in it," said Guest, "do not be afraid."
+
+[Sidenote: p. 158]
+
+"Do you carry the child first," said the good-wife, "she is the lighter."
+
+"I do not care to make two journeys of it," said Guest, "and I will carry
+thee on my arm."
+
+She crossed herself and said, "That is an impossible way; what will you do
+with the child?"
+
+{177}
+
+"I will see a way for that," said he; and then he took them both up, and
+set the child on her mother's knee and so bore them both on his left arm.
+But he had his right hand free, and thus he waded out into the ford.
+
+They did not dare to cry out, so much afraid were they. The river washed at
+once up against his breast; then it tossed a great icefloe against him, but
+he put out the hand that was free and pushed it from him. Then it grew so
+deep that the river dashed over his shoulder; but he waded stoutly on,
+until he came to the bank on the other side, and threw Steinvor and her
+daughter on the land.
+
+Then he turned back, and it was half dark when he came to Sandhaugar and
+called for meat; and when he had eaten, he bade the farm folk go to the far
+side of the room. Then he took boards and loose timber which he dragged
+across the room, and made a great barrier so that none of the farm folk
+could come over it. No one dared to say anything against him or to murmur
+in any wise. The entrance was in the side wall of the chamber by the
+gable-end, and there was a dais there. Guest lay down there, but did not
+take off his clothes: a light was burning in the room over against the
+door: Guest lay there far into the night.
+
+
+
+The good-wife came to Isledale river to the service, and men wondered how
+she had crossed the river. She said she did not know whether it was a man
+or a troll who had carried her over. The priest said, "It must surely be a
+man, although there are few like him. And let us say nothing about it,"
+said he, "it may be that he is destined to work a remedy for your evils."
+The good-wife remained there through the night.
+
+
+
+Now it is to be told concerning Grettir that when it drew towards midnight
+he heard great noises outside. Thereupon there came into the room a great
+giantess. She had in one hand a trough and in the other a short-sword,
+rather a big one. She looked round when she came in, and saw where Guest
+lay, and sprang at him; but he sprang up against her, and they struggled
+fiercely and wrestled for a long time in the room. She was the {178}
+stronger, but he gave way warily; and they broke all that was before them,
+as well as the panelling of the room. She dragged him forward through the
+door and so[305] into the porch, and he [Sidenote: p. 159] struggled hard
+against her. She wished to drag him out of the house, but that did not
+happen until they had broken all the fittings of the outer doorway and
+forced them out on their shoulders. Then she dragged him slowly down
+towards the river and right along to the gorge.
+
+By that time Guest was exceedingly weary, but yet, one or other it had to
+be, either he had to gather his strength together, or else she would have
+hurled him down into the gorge. All night they struggled. He thought that
+he had never grappled with such a devil in the matter of strength. She had
+got such a grip upon him that he could do nothing with either hand, except
+to hold the witch by the middle; but when they came to the gorge of the
+river he swung the giantess round, and thereupon got his right hand free.
+Then quickly he gripped his knife that he wore in his girdle and drew it,
+and smote the shoulder of the giantess so that he cut off her right arm. So
+he got free: but she fell into the gorge, and so into the rapids below.
+
+Guest was then both stiff and tired, and lay long on the rocks; then he
+went home when it began to grow light, and lay down in bed. He was all
+swollen black and blue.
+
+And when the good-wife came from the service, it seemed to her that things
+had been somewhat disarranged in her house. Then she went to Guest and
+asked him what had happened, that all was broken and destroyed[306]. He
+told her all that had taken place. She thought it very wonderful, and asked
+who he was. He told her the truth, and asked her to send for the priest,
+and said he wished to meet him; and so it was done.
+
+Then when Stein the priest came to Sandhaugar, he knew soon that it was
+Grettir Asmundarson who had come there, and who had called himself Guest.
+
+The priest asked Grettir what he thought must have become of those men who
+had vanished. Grettir said he thought they {179} must have vanished into
+the gorge. The priest said that he could not believe Grettir's saying, if
+no signs of it were to be seen. Grettir said that they would know more
+accurately about it later. Then the priest went home. Grettir lay many days
+in bed. The good-wife looked after him well, and so the Christmas-time
+passed.
+
+Grettir's account was that the giantess fell into the gulf when she got her
+wound; but the men of Barthardal say that day came upon her whilst they
+wrestled, and that she burst when he smote her hand off, and that she
+stands there on the cliff yet, a rock in the likeness of a woman[307].
+
+The dwellers in the dale kept Grettir in hiding there. But after Christmas
+time, one day that winter, Grettir went to Isledale river. And when Grettir
+and the priest met, Grettir [Sidenote: p. 160] said "I see, priest, that
+you place little belief in my words. Now will I that you go with me to the
+river and see what the likelihood seems to you to be."
+
+The priest did so. But when they came to the waterfall they saw that the
+sides of the gorge hung over[308]: it was a sheer cliff so great that one
+could in nowise come up, and it was nearly ten fathoms[309] from the top to
+the water below. They had a rope with them. Then the priest said, "It seems
+to me quite impossible for thee to get down."
+
+Grettir said, "Assuredly it is possible, but best for those who are men of
+valour. I will examine what is in the waterfall, and thou shalt watch the
+rope."
+
+{180}
+
+The priest said it should be as he wished, drove a peg into the cliff,
+piled stones against it, and sat by it[310].
+
+Now it must be told concerning Grettir that he knotted a stone into the
+rope, and so let it down to the water.
+
+"What way," said the priest, "do you mean to go?"
+
+"I will not be bound," said Grettir, "when I go into the water, so much my
+mind forebodes me."
+
+After that he got ready for his exploit, and had little on; he girded
+himself with his short sword, and had no other weapon.
+
+Then he plunged from the cliff down into the waterfall. The priest saw the
+soles of his feet, and knew no more what had become of him. Grettir dived
+under the waterfall, and that was difficult because there was a great eddy,
+and he had to dive right to the bottom before he could come up behind the
+waterfall. There was a jutting rock and he climbed upon it. There was a
+great cave behind the waterfall, and the river fell in front of it from the
+precipice. He went into the cave, and there was a big fire burning. Grettir
+saw that there sat a giant of frightful size. He was terrible to look upon:
+but when Grettir came to him, the giant leapt up and seized a pike, and
+hewed at the new-comer: for with the pike he could both cut and stab. It
+had a handle of wood: men at that time called a weapon made in such a way a
+_heptisax_. Grettir smote against it with his short sword, and struck the
+handle so that he cut it asunder. Then the giant tried to reach back for a
+sword which hung behind him in the cave. Thereupon Grettir smote him in the
+breast, and struck off almost all the lower part of his chest and his
+belly, so that the entrails gushed out of him down into the river, and were
+swept along the current.
+
+And as the priest sat by the rope he saw some lumps, clotted [Sidenote: p.
+161] with blood, carried down stream. Then he became unsteady, and thought
+that now he knew that Grettir must be dead: and he ran from keeping the
+rope and went home. It was then evening, and the priest said for certain
+that Grettir was dead, and added that it was a great loss of such a man.
+
+Now the tale must be told concerning Grettir. He let little space go
+between his blows till the giant was dead. Then he {181} went further into
+the cave; he kindled a light and examined it. It is not said how much
+wealth he took in the cave, but men think that there was something. He
+stayed there far into the night. He found there the bones of two men, and
+put them into a bag. Then he left the cave and swam to the rope and shook
+it, for he thought that the priest must be there. But when he knew that the
+priest had gone home, then he had to draw himself up, hand over hand, and
+so he came up on to the cliff.
+
+Then he went home to Isledale river, and came to the church porch, with the
+bag that the bones were in, and with a rune-staff, on which these verses
+were exceedingly well cut:
+
+ There into gloomy gulf I passed,
+ O'er which from the rock's throat is cast
+ The swirling rush of waters wan,
+ To meet the sword-player feared of man.
+ By giant's hall the strong stream pressed
+ Cold hands against the singer's breast;
+ Huge weight upon him there did hurl
+ The swallower of the changing whirl[311].
+
+And this rhyme too:
+
+ The dreadful dweller of the cave
+ Great strokes and many 'gainst me drave;
+ Full hard he had to strive for it,
+ But toiling long he wan no whit;
+ For from its mighty shaft of tree
+ The heft-sax smote I speedily;
+ And dulled the flashing war-flame fair
+ In the black breast that met me there.
+
+[Sidenote: p. 162]
+
+These verses told also that Grettir had taken these bones out of the cave.
+But when the priest came to the church in the morning he found the staff,
+and what was with it, and read the runes; but Grettir had gone home to
+Sandhaugar.
+
+But when the priest met Grettir he asked him closely as to what had
+happened: and Grettir told him all the story of his journey. And he added
+that the priest had not watched the rope faithfully. The priest said that
+that was true enough.
+
+Men thought for certain that these monsters must have caused the loss of
+men there in the dale; and there was never any loss from hauntings or
+spirit-walkings there afterwards.
+
+{182} Grettir was thought to have caused a great purging of the land. The
+priest buried these bones in the churchyard.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+D. EXTRACTS FROM BJARKA RÍMUR
+
+(_Hrólfs saga Kraka og Bjarkarímur_ udgivne ved F. Jónsson, København,
+1904)
+
+ 58. Flestir [o,]muðu Hetti heldr,
+ hann var ekki í máli sneldr,
+ einn dag fóru þeir út af h[o,]ll,
+ svó ekki vissi hirðin [o,]ll.
+
+ 59. Hjalti talar er felmtinn fær,
+ "f[o,]rum við ekki skógi nær,
+ hér er sú ylgr sem etr upp menn,
+ okkr drepr hún báða senn."
+
+ 60. Ylgrin hljóp úr einum runn,
+ ógurlig með gapanda munn,
+ h[o,]rmuligt varð Hjalta viðr,
+ á honum skalf bæði leggr og liðr.
+
+ 61. Ótæpt Bjarki að henni gengr,
+ ekki dvelr hann við það lengr,
+ h[o,]ggur svó að í hamri stóð,
+ hljóp úr henni ferligt blóð.
+
+ 62. "Kjóstu Hjalti um kosti tvó,"
+ kappinn B[o,]ðvar talaði svó,
+ "drekk nú blóð eða drep eg þig hér,
+ dugrinn líz mér engi í þér."
+
+ 63. Ansar Hjalti af ærnum móð,
+ "ekki þori eg að drekka blóð,
+ nýtir flest ef nauðigr skal,
+ nú er ekki á betra val."
+
+ 64. Hjalti gj[o,]rir sem B[o,]ðvar biðr,
+ að blóði frá eg hann lagðist niðr,
+ drekkur síðan drykki þrjá,
+ duga mun honum við einn að rjá.
+ IV, 58-64.
+
+ {183}
+ 4. Hann hefr fengið hjartað snjalt
+ af h[o,]rðum móði,
+ fekk hann huginn og aflið alt
+ af ylgjar blóði.
+
+ 5. Í grindur vandist grábj[o,]rn einn
+ í garðinn Hleiðar,
+ var sá margur vargrinn beinn
+ og víða sveiðar.
+
+ 6. Bjarka er kent, að hjarðarhunda
+ hafi hann drepna,
+ ekki er hónum allvel hent
+ við ýta kepna.
+
+ 7. Hrólfur býst og hirð hans [o,]ll
+ að húna stýri,
+ "Sá skal mestr í minni h[o,]ll
+ er mætir dýri."
+
+ 8. Beljandi hljóp bj[o,]rninn framm
+ úr bóli krukku,
+ veifar sínum vónda hramm,
+ svó virðar hrukku.
+
+ 9. Hjalti sér og horfir þá á,
+ er hafin er róma,
+ hafði hann ekki í h[o,]ndum þá
+ nema hnefana tóma.
+
+ 10. Hrólfur fleygði að Hjalta þá
+ þeim hildar vendi,
+ kappinn móti krummu brá
+ og klótið hendi.
+
+ 11. Lagði hann síðan bj[o,]rninn brátt
+ við bóginn hægra,
+ bessi fell í brúðar átt
+ og bar sig lægra.
+
+ 12. Vann hann það til frægða fyst
+ og fleira síðar,
+ hans var lundin l[o,]ngum byst
+ í leiki gríðar.
+ {184}
+
+ 13. Hér með fekk hann Hjalta nafn
+ hins hjartaprúða,
+ Bjarki var eigi betri en jafn
+ við býti skrúða.
+ V, 4-13.
+
+ 23. Aðals var glaðr afreksmaðr,
+ austur þangað kómu,
+ fyrðar þeir með fránan geir
+ flengja þegar til rómu.
+
+ 24. Ýtar býta engum frið,
+ unnu vel til mála,
+ þar fell Áli og alt hans lið
+ ungr í leiki stála.
+
+ 25. Hestrinn beztur Hrafn er kendr,
+ hafa þeir tekið af Ála,
+ Hildisvín er hjálmrinn vendr,
+ hann kaus Bjarki í mála.
+
+ 26. [O,]ðling bað þá eigi drafl
+ eiga um n[o,]kkur skipti,
+ það mun kosta kóngligt afl,
+ hann kappann gripunum svipti.
+
+ 27. Ekki þótti B[o,]ðvar betr,
+ í burtu fóru þeir Hjalti,
+ létust áðr en liðinn er vetr
+ leita að Fróða malti.
+
+ 28. Síðan ríða seggir heim
+ og s[o,]gðu kóngi þetta,
+ hann kveðst mundu handa þeim
+ heimta slíkt af létta.
+ VIII, 23-28.
+
+TRANSLATION OF EXTRACTS FROM BJARKA RÍMUR
+
+58. Most [of Rolf's retainers] much tormented Hott [Hjalti]; he was not
+cunning in speech. One day Hjalti and Bothvar went out of the hall, in such
+wise that none of the retainers knew thereof. {185}
+
+59. Hjalti spake in great terror, "Let us not go near the wood; here is the
+she-wolf who eats up men; she will kill us both together."
+
+60. The she-wolf leapt from a thicket, dread, with gaping jaws. A great
+terror was it to Hjalti, and he trembled in every limb.
+
+61. Without delay or hesitation went Bjarki towards her, and hewed at her
+so that the axe went deep; a monstrous stream of blood gushed from her.
+
+62. "Choose now, Hjalti, of two things"--so spake Bothvar the
+champion--"Drink now the blood, or I slay thee here; it seems unto me that
+there is no valour in thee."
+
+63. Hjalti replied stoutly enough, "I cannot bring myself to drink blood;
+but if I needs must, it avails most [to submit], and now is there no better
+choice."
+
+64. Hjalti did as Bothvar bade: he stooped down to the blood; then drank he
+three sups: that will suffice him to wrestle with one man.
+
+IV, 58-64.
+
+4. He [Hjalti] has gained good courage and keen spirit; he got strength and
+all valour from the she-wolf's blood.
+
+5. A grey bear visited the folds at Hleithargarth; many such a ravager was
+there far and wide throughout the country.
+
+6. The blame was laid upon Bjarki, because he had slain the herdsmen's
+dogs; it was not so suited for him to have to strive with men[312].
+
+7. Rolf and all his household prepared to hunt the bear; "He who faces the
+beast shall be greatest in my hall."
+
+8. Roaring did the bear leap forth from out its den, swinging its evil
+claws, so that men shrank back.
+
+9. Hjalti saw, he turned and gazed where the battle began; nought had he
+then in his hands--his empty fists alone.
+
+{186}
+
+10. Rolf tossed then to Hjalti his wand of war [his sword]; the warrior put
+forth his hand towards it, and grasped the pommel.
+
+11. Quickly then he smote the bear in the right shoulder; Bruin fell to the
+earth, and bore himself in more lowly wise.
+
+12. That was the beginning of his exploits: many followed later; his spirit
+was ever excellent amid the play of battle.
+
+13. Herefrom he got the name of Hjalti the stout-hearted: Bjarki was no
+more than his equal.
+
+V, 4-13.
+
+23. Joyful was the valiant Athils when they [Bjarki and Rolf's champions]
+came east to that place [Lake Wener]; troops with flashing spears rode
+quickly forthwith to the battle.
+
+24. No truce gave they to their foes: well they earned their pay; there
+fell Ali and all his host, young in the game of swords.
+
+25. The best of horses, Hrafn by name, they took from Ali; Bjarki chose for
+his reward the helm Hildisvin.
+
+26. The prince [Athils] bade them have no talk about the business; he
+deprived the champions[313] of their treasures--that will be a test of his
+power.
+
+27. Ill-pleased was Bothvar: he and Hjalti departed; they declared that
+before the winter was gone they would seek for the treasure [the malt of
+Frothi].
+
+28. Then they rode home and told it to the king [Rolf]; he said it was
+their business to claim their due outright.
+
+VIII, 23-28.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+E. EXTRACT FROM ÞÁTTR ORMS STÓRÓLFSSONAR
+
+(_Fornmanna S[o,]gur_, Copenhagen, 1827, III. 204 _etc._; _Flateyarbók_,
+Christiania, 1859-68, I. 527 _etc._)
+
+7. Litlu síðarr enn þeir Ormr ok Ásbj[o,]rn h[o,]fðu skilit, fýstist
+Ásbj[o,]rn norðr í Sauðeyjar, fór hann við 4 menn ok 20 á skipi, heldr
+norðr fyrir Mæri, ok leggr seint dags at Sauðey {187} hinni ytri, gánga á
+land ok reisa tjald, eru þar um nóttina, ok verða við ekki varir; um
+morgininn árla rís Ásbj[o,]rn upp, klæðir sik, ok tekr vópn sín, ok gengr
+uppá land, en biðr menn sína bíða sín; en er nokkut svá var liðit frá því,
+er Ásbj[o,]rn hafði í brott gengit, verða þeir við þat varir, at ketta
+ógrlig var komin í tjaldsdyrnar, hon var kolsv[o,]rt at lit ok heldr
+grimmlig, þvíat eldr þótti brenna or n[o,]sum hennar ok munni, eigi var hon
+ok vel eyg; þeim brá mj[o,]k við þessa sýn, ok urðu óttafullir. Ketta
+hleypr þá innar at þeim, ok grípr hvern at [o,]ðrum, ok svá er sagt at suma
+gleypti hon, en suma rifi hon til dauðs með klóm ok t[o,]nnum, 20 menn drap
+hon þar á lítilli stundu, en 3 kvómust út ok undan ok á skip, ok héldu
+þegar undan landi; en Ásbj[o,]rn gengr þar til, er hann kemr at hellinum
+Brúsa, ok snarar þegar inn í; honum varð nokkut dimt fyrir augum, en
+skuggamikit var í hellinum; hann verðr eigi fyrr var við, enn hann er
+þrifinn álopt, ok færðr niðr svá hart, at Ásbirni þótti furða í, verðr hann
+þess þá varr, at þar er kominn Brúsi j[o,]tun, ok sýndist heldr mikiligr.
+Brúsi mælti þá: þó lagðir þú mikit kapp á at sækja híngat; skaltu nú ok
+eyrindi hafa, þvíat þú skalt hér lífit láta með svá miklum harmkvælum, at
+þat skal aðra letja at sækja mik heim með ófriði; fletti hann þá Ásbj[o,]rn
+klæðum, þvíat svá, var þeirra mikill afla munr, at j[o,]tuninn varð einn at
+ráða þeirra í milli; bálk mikinn sá Ásbj[o,]rn standa um þveran hellinn ok
+stórt gat á miðjum bálkinum; járnsúla stór stóð nokkut svá fyrir framan
+bálkinn. Nú skal prófa þat, segir Brúsi, hvárt þú ert nokkut harðari enn
+aðrir menn. Lítit mun þat at reyna, segir Ásbj[o,]rn....
+
+Síðan lét Ásbj[o,]rn líf sitt með mikilli hreysti ok dreingskap.
+
+8. Þat er at segja at þeir þrír menn, er undan kómust, sóttu knáliga róðr,
+ok léttu eigi fyrr enn þeir kómu at landi, s[o,]gðu þau tíðindi er gerzt
+h[o,]fðu í þeirra f[o,]rum, kvóðust ætla Ásbj[o,]rn dauðan, en kunnu ekki
+frá at segja, hversu at hefði borizt um hans líflát; kvómu þeir sér i skip
+með kaupm[o,]nnum, ok fluttust svá suðr til Danmerkr; spurðust nú þessi
+tíðindi víða, ok þóttu mikil. Þa var orðit h[o,]fðíngja skipti í Noregi,
+Hakon jarl dauðr, en Ólafr Tryggvason í land kominn, ok bauð [o,]llum rétta
+trú. Ormr Stórólfsson spurði út til Íslands um {188} farar ok líflát
+Ásbjarnar, er m[o,]nnum þótti sem vera mundi; þótti honum þat allmikill
+skaði, ok undi eigi lengr á Íslandi, ok tók sér far í Reyðarfirði, ok fór
+þar utan; þeir kvómu norðarliga við Noreg, ok sat hann um vetrinn í
+Þrándheimi; þá hafði Ólafr ráðit 3 vetr Noregi. Um vórit bjóst Ormr at fara
+til Sauðeya, þeir vóru því nærr margir á skipi, sem þeir Ásbj[o,]rn h[,]fðu
+verit; þeir l[o,]gðu at minni Sauðey síð um kveldit, ok tj[o,]lduðu á
+landi, ok lágu þar um náttina....
+
+9. Nú gengr Ormr þar til er hann kemr at hellinum, sér hann nú bjargit þat
+stóra, ok leizt úmátuligt nokkurum manni þat í brott at færa; þó dregr hann
+á sik glófana Menglaðarnauta, tekr síðan á bjarginu ok færir þat burt or
+dyrunum, ok þikist Ormr þá aflraun mesta sýnt hafa; hann gekk þá inní
+hellinn, ok lagði málajárn í dyrnar, en er hann var inn kominn, sá hann
+hvar kettan hljóp með gapanda ginit. Ormr hafði boga ok [o,]rvamæli, lagði
+hann þá [o,]r á streing, ok skaut at kettunni þremr [o,]rum, en hon hendi
+allar með hvoptunum, ok beit í sundr, hefir hon sik þá at Ormi, ok rekr
+klærnar framan í fángit, svá at Ormr kiknar við, en klærnar gengu í gegnum
+klæðin svá at í beini stóð; hon ætlar þá at bíta í andlit Ormi, finnr hann
+þá at honum mun eigi veita, heitir þá á sjálfan guð ok hinn heilaga Petrum
+postula, at gánga til Róms, ef hann ynni kettuna ok Brúsa, son hennar;
+síðan fann Ormr at mínkaðist afl kettunnar, tekr hann þá annarri hendi um
+kverkr henni, en annarri um hrygg, ok gengr hana á bak, ok brýtr ísundr í
+henni hrygginn, ok gengr svá af henni dauðri. Ormr sá þá, hvar bálkr stórr
+var um þveran hellinn; hann gengr þá innar at, en er hann kemr þar, sér
+hann at fleinn mikill kemr utar í gegnum bálkinn, hann var bæði digr ok
+lángr; Ormr grípr þá í móti fleininum, ok leggr af út; Brúsi kippir þá at
+sér fleininum ok var hann fastr svá at hvergi gekk; þat undraðist Brúsi, ok
+gægdist upp yfir bálkinn, en er Ormr sér þat, þrífr hann í skeggit á Brúsa
+báðum h[o,]ndum, en Brúsi bregzt við í [o,]ðrum stað, sviptast þeir þá fast
+um bálkinn. Ormr hafði vafit skegginu um h[o,]nd sér, ok rykkir til svá
+fast, at hann rífr af Brúsa allan skeggstaðinn, h[o,]kuna, kjaptana báða,
+vángafyllurnar upp alt at eyrum, gekk hér með holdit niðr at beini. Brúsi
+lét þá {189} síga brýnnar, ok grettist heldr greppiliga. Ormr st[o,]kkr þá
+innar yfir bálkinn, grípast þeir þá til ok glíma lengi, mæddi Brúsa þá fast
+blóðrás, tekr hann þá heldr at gángast fyrir, gefr Ormr þá á, ok rekr Brúsa
+at bálkinum ok brýtr hann þar um á bak aptr. Snemma sagði mér þat hugr,
+sagði Brúsi, at ek munda af þér nokkut erfitt fá, þegar ek heyrða þín
+getit, enda er þat nú fram komit, muntu nú vinna skjótt um, ok h[o,]ggva
+h[o,]fuð af mér, en þat var satt, at mj[o,]k pínda ek Ásbj[o,]rn prúða, þá
+er ek rakta or honum alla þarmana, ok gaf hann sik ekki við, fyrrenn hann
+dó. Illa gerðir þú þat, segir Ormr, at pína hann svá mj[o,]k jafnr[o,]skvan
+mann, skaltu ok hafa þess nokkurar menjar. Hann brá þá saxi ok reist
+blóð[o,]rn á baki honum, ok skar [o,]ll rifin frá hryggnum, ok dró þar út
+lúngun; lét Brúsi svá líf sitt með litlum dreingskap; síðan bar Ormr eld
+at, ok brendi upp til [o,]sku bæði Brúsa ok kettuna, ok er hann hafði þetta
+starfat, fór hann burt or hellinum með kistur tvær fullar af gulli ok
+silfri, en þat sem meira var fémætt, gaf hann í vald Menglaðar, ok svá
+eyna; skildu þau með mikilli vináttu, kom Ormr til manna sinna í nefndan
+tíma, héldu síðan til meginlands. Sat Ormr í Þrándheimi vetr annan.
+
+TRANSLATION OF EXTRACT FROM ÞÁTTR ORMS STÓRÓLFSSONAR
+
+7.
+
+A little after Orm and Asbiorn had parted, Asbiorn wished to go north to
+Sandeyar[314]; he went aboard with twenty-four men, went north past Mæri,
+and landed late in the day at the outermost of the Sandeyar[314]. They
+landed and pitched a tent, and spent the night there, and met with nothing.
+
+Early in the morning Asbiorn arose, clothed himself, took his arms, went
+inland, and bade his men wait for him.
+
+But when some time had passed from Asbiorn's having gone away, they were
+aware that a monstrous[315] cat had come to the {190} door of the tent: she
+was coal-black in colour and very fierce, for it seemed as if fire was
+burning from her nostrils and mouth, and her eyes were nothing fair: they
+were much startled at this sight, and full of fear. Then the cat leapt
+within the tent upon them, and gripped one after the other, and so it is
+said that some she swallowed and some she tore to death with claws and
+teeth. Twenty men she killed in a short time, and three escaped aboard
+ship, and stood away from the shore.
+
+But Asbiorn went till he came to the cave of Brusi, and hastened in
+forthwith. It was dim before his eyes, and very shadowy in the cave, and
+before he was aware of it, he was caught off his feet, and thrown down so
+violently that it seemed strange to him. Then was he aware that there was
+come the giant Brusi, and he seemed to him a great one.
+
+Then said Brusi, "Thou didst seek with great eagerness to come hither--now
+shalt thou have business, in that thou shalt here leave thy life with so
+great torments that that shall stay others from attacking me in my lair."
+
+Then he stripped Asbiorn of his clothes, forasmuch as so great was their
+difference in strength that the giant could do as he wished. Asbiorn saw a
+great barrier standing across the cave, and a mighty opening in the midst
+of it; a great iron column stood somewhat in front of the barrier. "Now it
+must be tried," said Brusi, "whether thou art somewhat hardier than other
+men." "Little will that be to test," said Asbiorn....
+
+ [Asbiorn then recites ten stanzas, Brusi tormenting him the while. The
+ first stanza is almost identical with No. 50 in the _Grettis saga_.]
+
+Then Asbiorn left his life with great valour and hardihood.
+
+8.
+
+Now it must be told concerning the three men who escaped; they rowed
+strongly, and stopped not until they came to land. They told the tidings of
+what had happened in their journey, and said that they thought that Asbiorn
+was dead, but that they could not tell how matters had happened concerning
+his death. They took ship with merchants, and so went south to {191}
+Denmark: now these tidings were spread far and wide, and seemed weighty.
+
+There had been a change of rulers in Norway: jarl Hakon was dead, and Olaf
+Tryggvason come to land: and he proclaimed the true faith to all. Orm
+Storolfson heard, out in Iceland, about the expedition of Asbiorn, and the
+death which it seemed to men must have come upon him. It seemed to him a
+great loss, and he cared no longer to be in Iceland, and took passage at
+Reytharfirth and went abroad. They reached Norway far to the north, and he
+stayed the winter at Thrandheim: Olaf at that time had reigned three years
+in Norway.
+
+In the spring Orm made ready for his journey to Sandeyar, and there were
+nearly as many in the ship as the company of Asbiorn had been.
+
+They landed at Little Sandey late in the evening, and pitched a tent on the
+land, and lay there the night....
+
+9.
+
+Now Orm went till he came to the cave. He saw the great rock, and thought
+it was impossible for any man to move it. Then he drew on the gloves that
+Menglath had given him, and grasped the rock and moved it away from the
+door; this is reckoned Orm's great feat of strength. Then he went into the
+cave, and thrust his weapon against the door. When he came in, he saw a
+giantess (she-cat) springing towards him with gaping jaws. Orm had a bow
+and quiver; he put the arrow on the string, and shot thrice at the
+giantess. But she seized all the arrows in her mouth, and bit them asunder.
+Then she flung herself upon Orm, and thrust her claws into his breast, so
+that Orm stumbled, and her claws went through his clothes and pierced him
+to the bone. She tried then to bite his face, and Orm found himself in
+straits: he promised then to God, and the holy apostle Peter, to go to
+Rome, if he conquered the giantess and Brusi her son. Then Orm felt the
+power of the giantess diminishing: he placed one hand round her throat, and
+the other round her back, and bent it till he broke it in two, and so left
+her dead.
+
+Then Orm saw where a great barrier ran across the cave: he went further in,
+and when he came to it he saw a great shaft {192} coming out through the
+barrier, both long and thick. Orm gripped the shaft and drew it away; Brusi
+pulled it towards himself, but it did not yield. Then Brusi wondered, and
+peeped up over the barrier. But when Orm saw that, he gripped Brusi by the
+beard with both hands, but Brusi pulled away, and so they tugged across the
+barrier. Orm twisted the beard round his hand, and tugged so violently that
+he pulled the flesh of Brusi away from the bone--from chin, jaws, cheeks,
+right up to the ears. Brusi knitted his brows and made a hideous face. Then
+Orm leapt in over the barrier, and they grappled and wrestled for a long
+time. But loss of blood wearied Brusi, and he began to fail in strength.
+Orm pressed on, pushed Brusi to the barrier, and broke his back across it.
+"Right early did my mind misgive me," said Brusi, "even so soon as I heard
+of thee, that I should have trouble from thee: and now has that come to
+pass. But now make quick work, and hew off my head. And true it is that
+much did I torture the gallant Asbiorn, in that I tore out all his
+entrails--yet did he not give in, before he died." "Ill didst thou do,"
+said Orm, "to torture him, so fine a man as he was, and thou shalt have
+something in memory thereof." Then he drew his knife, and cut the "blood
+eagle" in the back of Brusi, shore off his ribs and drew out his lungs. So
+Brusi died in cowardly wise. Then Orm took fire, and burned to ashes both
+Brusi and the giantess. And when he had done that, he left the cave, with
+two chests full of gold and silver.
+
+And all that was most of value he gave to Menglath, and the island
+likewise. So they parted with great friendship, and Orm came to his men at
+the time appointed, and then they sailed to the mainland. Orm remained a
+second winter at Thrandheim.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+F. A DANISH DRAGON-SLAYING OF THE BEOWULF-TYPE
+
+Paa den Tid, da kong Gram Guldkølve regierede i Leire, vare der ved Hoffet
+to Ministre, Bessus og Henrik. Og da der paa samme Tid indkom idelige
+klager fra Indbyggerne i Vendsyssel, at et grueligt Udyr, som Bønderne
+kaldte Lindorm, ødelagde baade Mennesker og Kreaturer, gav Bessus det Raad,
+at Kongen skulde sende Henrik did hen, efterdi ingen i det ganske Rige
+kunde maale sig med ham in Tapperhed og Mod. Da svarede {193} Henrik, at
+han vel vilde paatage sig dette, dog tilføiede han, at han ansaae det for
+umuligt at slippe fra saadan Kamp med Livet. Og belavede han sig da strax
+til Reisen, tog rørende Afsked med sin Herre og Konge og sagde iblandt
+andet: "Herre! om jeg ikke kommer tilbage, da sørg for min kone og for mine
+Børn!" Da han derefter var kommen over til Vendsyssel, lod han sig af
+Bønderne vise det Sted, hvor Uhyret havde sit Leie, og fik da at vide, at
+Ormen endnu den samme Dag havde været ude af Hulen og borttaget en Hyrde og
+en Oxe, og at den efter Sædvane nu ikke vilde komme ud, førend om tre
+Timer, naar den skulde ned til Vandet for at drikke efter Maaltidet. Henrik
+iførte sig da sin fulde Rustning, og eftersom Ingen vovede at staae ham bi
+i dette Arbeide, lagde han sig ganske alene ved Vandet, dog saaledes, at
+Vinden ikke bar fra ham henimod Dyret. Da udsendte han først en vældig Piil
+fra sin Bue, men uagtet den rammede nøie det sted, hvortil han havde
+sigtet, tørnede den dog tilbage fra Ormens haarde Skæl. Herover blev Uhyret
+saa optændt af Vrede, at det strax gik henimod ham, agtende ham kun et
+ringe Maaltid; men Henrik havde iforveien hos en Smed ladet sig giøre en
+stor Krog med Gjenhold, hvilken han jog ind i Beestets aabne Gab, saa at
+det ikke kunde blive den qvit, ihvormeget det end arbeidede, og ihvorvel
+Jernstangen brast i Henriks Hænder. Da slog det ham med sin vældige Hale
+til Jorden, og skiøndt han havde fuldkommen Jernrustning paa, kradsede det
+dog med sine forfærdelige Kløer saa at han, næsten dødeligt saaret, faldt i
+Besvimelse. Men da han, efterat Ormen i nogen Tid havde haft ham liggende
+under sin Bug, endelig kom lidt til sin Samling igien, greb han af yderste
+Evne en Daggert, af hvilke han førte flere med sig i sit Bælte, og stak
+Dyret dermed i underlivet, hvor Sksællene vare blødest, saa at det tilsidst
+maate udpuste sin giftige Aande, medens han selv laae halv knust under dens
+Byrde. Da Bønderne i Vendsyssel som stode i nogen Afstand, under megen
+Frygt og lidet Haab omsider mærkede, at Striden sagtnede, og at begge
+Parter holdte sig rolige, nærmede de sig og fandt Hr. Henrik næsten livløs
+under det dræbte Udyr. Og efterat de i nogen Tid havde givet ham god Pleie,
+vendte han tilbage for at dø hos sin Konge, til hvem han gientagende
+anbefalede sin {194} Slægt. Fra ham nedstammer Familien Lindenroth, som til
+Minde om denne vældige Strid fører en Lindorm i sit Vaaben.
+
+_MS_ 222. 4^o. Stamme och Slectebog over den høiadelige Familie af
+Lindenroth, in _Danmarks Folkesagn_, samlede af J. M. Thiele, 1843, I,
+125-7.
+
+A DANISH DRAGON-SLAYING OF THE BEOWULF-TYPE.
+
+_Translation._
+
+In the days when King Gram Guldkølve ruled in Leire, there were two
+ministers at court, Bessus and Henry. And at that time constant complaints
+came to the court from the inhabitants of Vendsyssel, that a dread monster,
+which the peasants called a Drake, was destroying both man and beast. So
+Bessus gave counsel, that the king should send Henry against the dragon,
+seeing that no one in the whole kingdom was his equal in valour and
+courage. Henry answered that assuredly he would undertake it; but he added
+that he thought it impossible to escape from such a struggle with his life.
+And he made himself ready forthwith for the expedition, took a touching
+farewell of his lord and king, and said among other things: "My lord, if I
+come not back, care thou for my wife and my children."
+
+Afterwards, when he crossed over to Vendsyssel, he caused the peasants to
+show him the place where the monster had its lair, and learnt how that very
+day the drake had been out of its den, and had carried off a herdsman and
+an ox; how, according to its wont, it would now not come out for three
+hours, when it would want to go down to the water to drink after its meal.
+Henry clothed himself in full armour, and inasmuch as no one dared to stand
+by him in that task, he lay down all alone by the water, but in such wise
+that the wind did not blow from him toward the monster. First of all he
+sent a mighty arrow from his bow: but, although it exactly hit the spot at
+which he had aimed, it darted back from the dragon's hard scales. At this
+the monster was so maddened, that it attacked him forthwith, reckoning him
+but a little meal. But Henry had had a mighty barbed crook prepared by a
+smith beforehand, which he thrust into the beast's open mouth, so that it
+could {195} not get rid of it, however much it strove, although the iron
+rod broke in Henry's hands. Then it smote him to the ground with its mighty
+tail, and although he was in complete armour, clutched at him with its
+dread claws, so that he fell in a swoon, wounded almost to death. But when
+he came somewhat to his senses again, after the drake for some time had had
+him lying under its belly, he rallied his last strength and grasped a
+dagger, of which he carried several with him in his belt, and smote it
+therewith in the belly, where the scales were weakest. So the monster at
+last breathed out its poisoned breath, whilst he himself lay half crushed
+under its weight. When the Vendsyssel peasants, who stood some distance
+away, in great fear and little hope, at last noticed that the battle had
+slackened, and that both combatants were still, they drew near and found
+Henry almost lifeless under the slain monster. And after they for some time
+had tended him well, he returned to die by his king, to whom he again
+commended his offspring. From him descends the family Lindenroth, which in
+memory of this mighty contest carries a drake on its coat of arms.
+
+ This story resembles the dragon fight in _Beowulf_, in that the hero
+ faces the dragon as protector of the land, with forebodings, and after
+ taking farewell; he attacks the dragon in its lair, single-handed; his
+ first attack is frustrated by the dragon's scales; in spite of
+ apparatus specially prepared, he is wounded and stunned by the dragon,
+ but nevertheless smites the dragon in the soft parts and slays him; the
+ watchers draw near when the fight is over. Yet these things merely
+ prove that the two stories are of the same type; there is no evidence
+ that this story is descended from _Beowulf_.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+G. THE OLD ENGLISH GENEALOGIES.
+
+I. _THE MERCIAN GENEALOGY_.
+
+Of the Old English Genealogies, the only one which, in its stages _below_
+Woden, immediately concerns the student of _Beowulf_ is the Mercian. This
+contains three names which also occur in _Beowulf_, though two of them in a
+corrupt form--Offa, Wermund (Garmund, _Beowulf_), and Eomær (Geomor,
+_Beowulf_).
+
+This Mercian pedigree is found in its best form in _MS Cotton Vesp. B. VI_,
+fol. 109 _b_,[316] and in the sister MS at Corpus Christi College,
+Cambridge (_C.C.C.C._ 183)[317]. Both these MSS are of {196} the 9th
+century. They contain lists of popes and bishops, and pedigrees of kings.
+By noting where these lists stop, we get a limit for the final compilation
+of the document. It must have been drawn up in its present form between 811
+and 814[318]. But it was obviously compiled from lists already existing,
+and some of them were even at that date old. For the genealogy of the
+Mercian kings, from Woden, is not traced directly down to this period
+811-814, but in the first place only as far as Æthelred (reigning 675-704),
+son of Penda: that is to say, it stops considerably more than a century
+before the date of the document in which it appears. Additional pedigrees
+are then appended which show the subsequent stages down to and including
+Cenwulf, king of Mercia (reigning 796-821). It is difficult to account for
+such an arrangement except on the hypothesis that the genealogy was
+committed to writing in the reign of Æthelred, the monarch with whose name
+it terminates in its first form, and was then brought up to date by the
+addition of the supplementary names ending with Cenwulf. This is confirmed
+when we find that precisely the same arrangement holds good for the
+accompanying Northumbrian pedigree, which terminates with Ecgfrith
+(670-685), the contemporary of Æthelred of Mercia, and is then brought up
+to date by additional names.
+
+Genealogies which draw from the same source as the _Vespasian_ genealogies,
+and show the same peculiarities, are found in the _Historia Brittonum_ (§§
+57-61). They show, even more emphatically than do the _Vespasian_ lists,
+traces of having been originally drawn up in the time of Æthelred of Mercia
+(675-704) or possibly of his father Penda, and of having then been brought
+up to date in subsequent revisions[319].
+
+One such revision must have been made about 796[320]: it is a {197}
+modification of this revision which is found in the _Historia Brittonum_.
+Another was that which, as we have seen, must have been made between
+811-814, and in this form is found in _MS Cotton Vespasian B. VI_, _MS
+C.C.C.C._ 183, both of the 9th century, and in the (much later) _MS Cotton
+Tiberius B. V_.
+
+The genealogy up to Penda is also found in the _A.-S. Chronicle_ under the
+year 626 (accession of Penda).
+
+This Mercian list, together with the Northumbrian and other pedigrees which
+accompany it, can claim to be the earliest extant English historical
+document, having been written down in the 7th century, and recording
+historic names which (allowing thirty years for a generation) cannot be
+later than the 4th century A.D. In most similar pedigrees the earliest
+names are meaningless to us. But the Mercian pedigree differs from the
+rest, in that we are able from _Beowulf_, _Widsith_, Saxo Grammaticus,
+Sweyn Aageson and the _Vitae Offarum_, to attach stories to the names of
+Wermund and Offa. How much of these stories is history, and how much
+fiction, it is difficult to say--but, with them, extant English history and
+English poetry and English fiction alike have their beginning.
+
+ MS Cotton Vesp. B. VI. MS C.C.C.C. 183.
+
+ Aeðilred Peding Æðelred Pending
+ Penda Pypbing Penda Pybbing
+ Pypba Crioding Pybba Creoding
+ Crioda Cynewalding Creoda Cynewalding
+ Cynewald Cnebbing Cynewald Cnebbing
+ Cnebba Icling Cnebba Icling
+ Icil Eamering Icel Eomæring
+ Eamer Angengeoting Eomær Angengeoting
+ Angengeot Offing Angengiot Offing
+ Offa Uærmunding Offa Wærmunding
+ Uermund Uihtlaeging Wærmund Wihtlæging
+ Uihtlaeg Wioðulgeoting Wihtlæg Wioþolgeoting
+ Weoðulgeot Wodning Weoþolgiot Wodning
+ Woden Frealafing Woden Frealafing
+
+
+
+{198}
+
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ _Historia Brittonum_[321]. _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle._
+ MS Harl 3859. MSS Cotton Tib. A. VI. and B.I.[322]
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Penda Penda Pybbing
+ Pubba Pybba Creoding
+ Creoda Cynewalding
+ Cynewald Cnebbing
+ Cnebba Iceling
+ Icel Eomæring
+ Eamer Eomær Angelþeowing
+ Ongen Angelþeow Offing
+ Offa Offa Wærmunding
+ Guerdmund Wærmund Wihtlæging
+ Guithleg Wihtlæg Wodening
+ Gueagon
+ Guedolgeat
+ [U]Uoden
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+II. _THE STAGES ABOVE WODEN._
+
+(1) _WODEN TO GEAT._
+
+The stages above Woden are found in two forms: a short list which traces
+the line from Woden up to Geat: and a longer list which carries the line
+from Geat to Sceaf and through Noah to Adam.
+
+The line from Woden to Geat is found in the _Historia Brittonum_, not with
+the other genealogies, but in § 31, where the pedigree of the Kentish royal
+family is given, when the arrival of Hengest in Britain is recounted.
+Notwithstanding the dispute regarding the origin and date of the _Historia
+Brittonum_, there is a pretty general agreement that this _Woden to Geat_
+pedigree is one of the more primitive elements, and is not likely to be
+much later than the end of the 7th century[323]. The original nucleus of
+the _Historia Brittonum_ was revised by {199} Nennius in the 9th century,
+or possibly at the end of the 8th[324]. The earliest MS of the _Historia_,
+that of Chartres, belongs to the 9th or 10th century--this is fragmentary
+and already interpolated; the received text is based upon _MS Harleian_
+3859, dating from the end of the 11th century[325], or possibly somewhat
+later.
+
+I give the pedigree in four forms:
+
+A. The critical text of the _Historia Brittonum_ as edited by Th. Mommsen
+(_Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auct. Antiq., Chronica Minora_, III,
+Berolini, 1898, p. 171).
+
+B. _MS Harl._ 3859, upon which Mommsen's text is based, fol. 180.
+
+C. The _Chartres MS._
+
+D. Mommsen's critical text of the later revision, _Nennius interpretatus_,
+which he gives parallel to the _Historia Brittonum_.
+
+ A B C D
+
+ Hors et Hengist Hors & Hengist Cors et Haecgens Hors et Hengist
+ filii Guictgils filii Guictgils filii Guictils filii Guictgils
+ Guigta Guitta Guicta Guigta
+ Guectha Guectha Gueta Guectha
+ VVoden VVoden VVoden Voden
+ Frealaf Frealaf Frelab Frealaf
+ Fredulf Fredulf Freudulf Fredolf
+ Finn Finn Fran Finn
+ Frenn
+ Fodepald Fodepald Folcpald Folcvald
+ Geta Geta G[e]uta Gaeta
+ qui fuit, qui fuit, qui sunt [_sic_], Vanli
+ ut aiunt, ut aiunt, ut aiunt, Saxi
+ filius dei filius dei filius dei Negua
+
+_MS Cotton Vespasian B. VI_ (9th century) contains a number of Anglo-Saxon
+genealogies and other lists revised up to the period 811-14[326]. The
+genealogy of the kings of Lindsey in this list has the stages from Woden to
+Geat. This genealogy is also found in the sister list in the 9th century MS
+at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (_MS C.C.C.C._ 183).
+
+{200}
+
+A similar list is to be found in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ (entered under
+the year 547). But there it is appended to the genealogy of the
+Northumbrian kings. This genealogy has been erased in the oldest MS
+(Parker, end of the 9th century) to make room for later additions, but is
+found in _MSS Cotton Tiberius A. VI_ and _B. I._
+
+ _Cotton (Vespasian) _Corpus MS._ _A.-S. Chronicle_
+ MS._
+ UUoden Frealafing Woden Frealafing Woden Freoþolafing
+ Frealaf Frioðulfing Frealaf Frioþowulsing (sic) Freoþelaf Freoþulfing
+ Frioðulf Finning Freoþowulf Godwulfing Friþulf Finning
+ Finn Goduulfing Finn Godulfing
+ Godulf Geoting Godwulf Geating Godulf Geating
+
+The _Fodepald_ or _Folcpald_ who, in the _Historia Brittonum_, appears as
+the father of Finn, is clearly the _Folcwalda_ who appears as Finn's father
+in _Beowulf_ and _Widsith_. The Old English _w_ ([wynn]) has been mistaken
+for _p_, just as in _Pinefred_ for _Winefred_ in the _Life of Offa II_. In
+the _Vespasian MS_ and in other genealogies Godwulf is Finn's father. It
+has been very generally held that Finn and his father Godwulf are mythical
+heroes, quite distinct from the presumably historic Finn, son of Folcwalda,
+mentioned in _Beowulf_ and _Widsith_: and that by confusion _Folcwald_ came
+to be written instead of _Godwulf_ in the genealogy, as given in the
+_Historia Brittonum_. I doubt whether there is sufficient justification for
+this distinction between a presumed historic Finn Folcwalding and a
+mythical Finn Godwulfing. Is it not possible that Godwulf was a
+traditional, probably historic, king of the Frisians, father of Finn, and
+that _Folcwalda_[327] was a _title_ which, since it alliterated
+conveniently, in the end supplanted the proper name in epic poetry?
+
+III. _THE STAGES ABOVE WODEN._
+
+(2) _WODEN TO SCEAF._
+
+The stages above Geat are found in the genealogy of the West-Saxon kings
+only[328]. This is recorded in the _Chronicle_ {201} under the year 855
+(notice concerning Æthelwulf) and it was probably drawn up at the court of
+that king. Though it doubtless contains ancient names, it is apparently not
+so ancient as the _Woden-Geat_ list. It became very well known, and is also
+found in Asser and the _Textus Roffensis_. It was copied by later
+historians such as William of Malmesbury, and by the Icelandic
+genealogists[329].
+
+The principal versions of this pedigree are given in tabular form below
+(pp. 202-3); omitting the merely second-hand reproductions, such as those
+of Florence of Worcester.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+H. EXTRACT FROM THE CHRONICLE ROLL.
+
+This roll was drawn up in the reign of Henry VI, and its compiler must have
+had access to a document now lost.
+
+There are many copies of the roll extant--the "Moseley" Roll at University
+College, London (formerly in the Phillipps collection); at Corpus Christi
+College, Cambridge (No. 98 A); at Trinity College, Cambridge; and in the
+Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris[330]; and one which recently came into the
+market in London.
+
+ Steph
+ |
+ Steldius
+ |
+ Boerinus
+ |
+ -------------------------------------------------------------------
+ | | | | | | | | |
+Cinrinicius Gothus Iutus Wandalus Gethius Fresus Suethedus Dacus Geate
+{202}
+
+
+
+WEST-SAXON GENEALOGY--STAGES ABOVE WODEN
+
+ /------------------------------------------------\
+ CHRONICLE
+ PARKER MS ASSER TEXTUS ROFFENSIS I
+
+ Woden Fribowalding Uuoden Woden
+ Friþuwald Freawining Frithowald Friþewold
+ Frealaf Friþuwulfing Frealaf Frealaf
+ Friþuwulf Finning Frithuwulf Friþewulf
+ Fin Godwulfing Fingodwulf Finn
+ Godwulf Geating Godwulf
+ Geat Tætwaing Geata* ... Geata* ...
+ Tætwa Beawing Caetuua Teþwa
+ Beaw Sceldwaing Beauu Beaw
+ Sceldwea Heremoding Sceldwea Scaldwa
+ Heremod Itermoning Heremod Heremod
+ Itermon Hraþraing Itermod Iterman
+ Hathra Haþra
+ Huala Hwala
+ Beduuig Bedwig
+ se wæs geboren in þære Seth Scyf, se wæs in
+ earce Noe etc. Noe, etc. ðam arken geboran
+ [but son
+ of Sem, not Noe]
+
+ * quem Getam *ðene ða hæþena
+ iamdudum pagani wuþedon for god
+ pro deo
+ venerabantur
+
+ CHRONICLE
+ ETHELWERD MSS COTT. TIB. A. VI [& B. I]
+
+ Uuothen Woden Frealafing
+ Frithouuald
+ Frealaf
+ Frithouulf Frealaf Fin[n]ing
+ Fin Finn Godwulfing [Godulfing]
+ Goduulfe Godulf Geat[t]ing
+ Geat Geata [Geatt] Tætwaing
+ Tetuua Tætwa Beawing
+ Beo Beaw Sceldweaing [Scealdwaing]
+ Scyld Scyldwa [Scealdwa] Heremoding
+ Heremod Itermoning
+ Itermon Haðraing
+ Haðra Hwalaing
+ Hwala Bedwiging
+ Bedwig Sceafing, [i]d est filius Nóe, se
+ Scef. Ipse Scef cum uno wæs geboren on þære earce Nóes
+ dromone advectus est in
+ insula oceani quae dicitur Scani, armis circundatus, eratque valde
+ recens puer, et ab incolis illius terrae ignotus; attamen ab eis
+ suscipitur et ut familiarem diligenti animo eum custodierunt et post
+ in regem eligunt; de cuius prosapia ordinem trahit Athulf [i.e.
+ Æthelwulf] rex.
+
+{203}
+
+
+
+
+ /--------------------------------------
+ Chronicle
+ MS Cott. Tib. B. IV Textus Roffensis II MS Cott. Tib. B. V
+
+ Woden Frealafing Woden Frealafing Woden Frealafing
+
+ Frealaf Finning Frealaf Finning Frealaf Finning
+ Fin Godulfing Finn Godulfing Finn Godulfing
+ Godulf Gating Godulf Eating Godulf Eating
+ Geat Tætwaing Eata Teþwafing Eat Beawing
+ Tætwa Beawing Teþwa Beawing
+ Beaw Scealdwaing Beaw Scealdwaging Beaw Scealdwaging
+ Scealdhwa Heremoding Scealwa Heremoding Scealwa Heremoding
+ Heremod Itermoning Heremod Hermanning Heremod Itermanning
+ Itermon Haðrahing Herman Haþraing Iterman Haðraing
+ Haþra Haðra Hwalaing Haðra Bedwiging
+ Hwala Beowung Hwala Bedwining
+ Beowi Sceafing, id est Beadwig Sceafing Bedwig Sceafing
+ filius Noe, se wæs Se Scef wæs Noes sunu se Scef wæs Nóes sunu
+ geboren on þære arce and he wæs innan ðære and he wæs innan
+ Nones ... earce geboren þære earce geboren
+
+ ----------------------------------\
+ Langfeðgatal Flateyarbók
+ Langebek, 1, 3 Christiania, 1860, 1, 27
+
+ Voden Voden, _er ver_
+ þan kollvm ver _kollum_ Odinn
+ Oden
+ Frealaf Frilafr, _e.v.k._ Bors
+ Finn Burri, _e.v.k._ Finn
+ Godvlfi Godolfr
+ Eat
+
+ Beaf Beaf, _e.v.k._ Biar
+ Scealdna Skialldin, _e.v.k._ Skiolld
+ Heremotr Heremoth, _e.v.k._ Hermod
+ Itermann Trinaan
+ Athra Atra
+
+ Bedvig Beduigg
+ Seskef vel Seseph
+ Sescef
+
+
+
+William of Malmesbury. Wodenius fuit filius Fridewaldi, Fridewaldus
+Frelafii, Frelafius Finni, Finnus Godulfi, Godulfus Getii, Getius Tetii,
+Tetius Beowii, Beowius Sceldii, Sceldius Sceaf. Iste, ut ferunt, in quandam
+insulam Germaniae Scandzam ... appulsus, navi sine remige, puerulus, posito
+ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens, ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus, ab
+hominibus regionis illius pro miraculo exceptus et sedulo nutritus, adulta
+aetate regnavit in oppido quod tunc Slaswic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur
+... Sceaf fuit filius Heremodii, Heremodius Stermonii, Stermonius Hadrae,
+Hadra Gwalae, Gwala Bedwigii, Bedwegius Strephii; hic, ut dicitur, fuit
+filius Noae in arca natus. {204}
+
+The following marginal note occurs:
+
+ Iste Steldius p_r_im_us_ inhabitator Germanie fuit. Que Germania sic
+ dicta erat, quia instar ramor_um_ germina_n_ciu_m_ ab arbore, sic
+ nome_n_ regnaq_ue_ germania nuncupa_n_tur. In nouem filiis diuisa a
+ radice Boerini geminaueru_n_t. Ab istis nouem filiis Boerini
+ descenderu_n_t nouem gentes septentrionalem p_ar_tem inhabitantes, qui
+ quondam regnu_m_ Brita_n_nie inuaseru_n_t et optinueru_n_t, videlicet
+ Saxones, Angli, Iuthi, Daci, Norwagences, Gothi, Wandali, Geathi et
+ Fresi[331].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I. EXTRACT FROM THE LITTLE CHRONICLE OF THE KINGS OF LEIRE
+
+ From the _Annales Lundenses_. These Annals are comparatively late,
+ going up to the year 1307; but the short _Chronicle of the Kings of
+ Leire_, which is incorporated in them, is supposed to date from the
+ latter half of the 12th century. The text is given in Langebek,
+ _Scriptores Rerum Danicarum_, _I_, 224-6 (under the name of _Annales
+ Esromenses_) from _Cod. Arn. Mag._ 841. There is a critical edition by
+ Gertz, _Scriptores Minores historiæ Danicæ_, Copenhagen, 1917, based
+ upon _Cod. Arn. Mag._ 843. The text given below is mainly that of
+ Langebek, with corrections from Gertz's fine edition. See below, p.
+ 216.
+
+Erat ergo Dan rex in Dacia[332] per triennium. Anno tandem tertio cognouit
+uxorem suam Daniam, genuitque ex ea filium nomine Ro. Qui post patris
+obitum hereditarie possidebat regnum. Patrem uero suum Dan colle apud
+Lethram tumulauit Sialandiæ, ubi sedem regni pro eo pater constituit, quam
+ipse post eum diuitiis multiplicibus ditauit. Tempore illo ciuitas magna
+erat in medio Sialandiæ, ubi adhuc mons desertus est, nomine Hekebiarch,
+ubi sita erat ciuitas quæ Høkekoping nuncupata est; ad quam ut mox Ro rex
+uidit, quod mercatores a nauibus in uia currus conducentes multum
+expenderent, a loco illo ciuitatem amoueri jussit ad portum, ubi tenditur
+Isæfiorth, et circa fontem pulcherrimum domos disponere. Ædificauit ibi Ro
+ciuitatem honestam, cui nomen partitiuum imposuit post se et Fontem, partem
+capiens fontis partemque sui, Roskildam Danice uocans, quæ hoc nomine
+uoca[bi]tur[333] in æternum. Uixit autem rex Ro ita pacifice, ut nullus ei
+aciem opponeret, nec ipse usquam expeditionem direxit[334]. Erat autem uxor
+eius {205} fecunda sobole, ex qua genuit duos filios, nomen primi Helhgi et
+secundi Haldan[335]. Cumque cepissent pueri robore confortari et crescere,
+obiit pater eorum Ro, et sepultus est tumulo quodam Læthræ, post cuius
+obitum partiti sunt regnum filii, quod in duas partes diuidentes, alter
+terras, alter mare possidebat. Rexit itaque terras Haldanus, et genuit
+filium nomine Siwardum, cognomine Album, qui patrem suum Haldanum Læthræ
+tumulauit mortuum. Helgi autem rex erat marinus, et multos ad se traxit
+malificos, nauali bello bene adeptus diuersas partes, quasdam pace, quasdam
+cum piratica classe[336] petisse perhibetur....
+
+
+
+The Chronicle then tells how Rolf was born, the son of Helgi and Yrse or
+Ursula: also of the death and burial of Helgi.
+
+
+
+Filius autem eius et Ursulæ puer crescebat Rolf et fortitudine uigebat.
+Mater uero eius Ursula, uelo uiduitatis deposito, data est regi Suethiæ
+Athislo, qui ex ea filiam sibi genuit, Rolf uero ex matre eius sororem
+nomine Skuld. Interea dum hæc de rege marino Helgi agerentur, frater eius,
+rex Daciæ, mortuus est Haldanus. Post quem[337] rex Sweciæ Athisl a Danis
+suscepit tributum.
+
+
+
+Interea ... confortabatur filius Helgi, Rolff, cognomine Krake. Quem post
+mortem Snyo[338] Dani [in][339] regem assumpserunt. Qui Sialandiæ apud
+Lethram, sicut antecessores sui, sæpissime moratus est. Sororem suam nomine
+Sculd secum habuit, Athisli regis filiam, et suæ matris Ursulæ, de qua
+superius dictum est; quam fraterno amore dilexit. Cui provinciam
+Hornshæræth Sialandiæ ad pascendas puellas suas in expensam dedit, in qua
+uillam ædificauit, nomine Sculdelef, unde nomen suscepit. Hoc tempore erat
+quidam Comes Scaniæ, nomine Hiarwarth, Teotonicus genere, Rolf tributarius,
+qui ad eum procos misit, ut {206} sororem suam Sculd Hiarwardo daret
+uxorem. Quo nolente, propria ipsius uoluntate puellæ clanculo eam raptam
+sociauit sibi. Unde conspirauerunt inter se deliberantes Hiarwart et Sculd,
+quomodo Rolf interficeretur, et Hiarwardus superstes regni heres
+efficeretur. Non post multum vero temporis animosus ad uxoris exhortationem
+Hiarwart Sialandiam classe petiit. Genero suo Rolff tributum attulisse
+simulauit. Die quadam dilucescente ad Læthram misit, ut uideret tributum,
+Rolff nunciauit. Qui cum uidisset non tributum sed exercitum armatum,
+uallatus est Rolff militibus, et a Hyarwardo interfectus est. Hyarwardum
+autem Syalandenses et Scanienses, qui cum eo erant, in regem assumpserunt.
+Qui breui tempore, a mane usque ad primam, regali nomine potitus est. Tunc
+uenit Haky, frater Haghbardi, filius Hamundi; Hyarwardum interfecit et
+Danorum rex effectus est. Quo regnante, uenit quidam nomine Fritleff a
+partibus Septentrionalibus et filiam sibi desponsauit Rolff Crake, ex qua
+filium nomine Frothe genuit, cognomine Largus.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+K. THE STORY OF OFFA IN SAXO GRAMMATICUS
+
+Book IV, ed. Ascensius, fol. xxxii b; ed. Holder, pp. 106-7.
+
+Cui filius Wermundus succedit. Hic prolixis tranquillitatis otiis
+felicissima temporum quiete decursis, diutinam domesticæ pacis constantiam
+inconcussa rerum securitate tractabat. Idem prolis expers iuuentam exegit;
+senior uero filium Uffonem sero fortunæ munere suscitauit, cum nullam ei
+sobolem elapsa tot annorum curricula peperissent. Hic Uffo coæuos quosque
+corporis habitu supergressus, adeo hebetis ineptique animi principio
+iuuentæ existimatus est, ut priuatis ac publicis rebus inutilis uideretur.
+Siquidem ab ineunte ætate nunquam Iusus aut ioci consuetudinem præbuit;
+adeoque humanæ delectationis uacuus fuit, ut labiorum continentiam iugi
+silentio premeret, et seueritatem oris a ridendi prorsus officio
+temperaret. Uerum ut incunabula stoliditatis opinione referta habuit, ita
+post modum conditionis contemptum claritate mutauit; et quantum inertiæ
+spectaculum fuit, tantum prudentiæ et fortitudinis exemplum euasit.
+
+{207}
+
+Book IV, ed. Ascensius, fol. xxxiv b; ed. Holder, pp. 113-7.
+
+Cumque Wermundus ætatis uitio oculis orbaretur, Saxoniæ rex, Daniam duce
+uacuam ratus, ei per legatos mandat, regnum, quod præter ætatis debitum
+teneat, sibi procurandum committat, ne nimis longa imperii auiditate
+patriam legibus armisque destituat. Qualiter enim regem censeri posse, cui
+senectus animum, cæcitas oculum pari caliginis horrore fuscauerit? Quod si
+abnuat, filiumque habeat, qui cum suo ex prouocatione confligere audeat,
+uictorem regno potiri permittat. Si neutrum probet, armis secum, non
+monitis agendum cognoscat, ut tandem inuitus præbeat, quod ultroneus
+exhibere contemnat. Ad hæc Wermundus, altioribus suspiriis fractus,
+impudentius se ætatis exprobratione lacerari respondit, quem non ideo huc
+infelicitatis senectus prouexerit, quod pugnæ parcus timidius iuuentam
+exegerit. Nec aptius sibi cæcitatis uitium obiectari, quod plerunque talem
+ætatis habitum talis iactura consequi soleat, potiusque condolendum
+calamitati quam insultandum uideatur. Iustius autem Saxoniæ regi
+impatientiæ notam afferri posse, quem potius senis fatum operiri, quam
+imperium poscere decuisset, quod aliquanto præstet defuncto succedere, quam
+uiuum spoliare. Se tamen, ne tanquam delirus priscæ libertatis titulos
+externo uideatur mancipare dominio, propria manu prouocationi pariturum. Ad
+hæc legati, scire se inquiunt, regem suum conserendæ cum cæco manus
+ludibrium perhorrere, quod tam ridiculum decernendi genus rubori quam
+honestati propinquius habeatur. Aptius uero per utriusque pignus et
+sanguinem amborum negotio consuli. Ad hæc obstupefactis animo Danis,
+subitaque responsi ignorantia perculsis, Uffo, qui forte cum ceteris
+aderat, responsionis a patre licentiam flagitabat, subitoque uelut ex muto
+uocalis euasit. Cumque Wermundus, quisnam talem a se loquendi copiam
+postularet, inquireret, ministrique eum ab Uffone rogari dixissent, satis
+esse perhibuit, ut infelicitatis suæ uulneribus alienorum fastus illuderet,
+ne etiam a domesticis simili insultationis petulantia uexaretur. Sed
+satellitibus Uffonem hunc esse pertinaci affirmatione testantibus, "Liberum
+ei sit," inquit, "quisquis est, cogitata profari." Tum Uffo, frustra ab
+eorum rege regnum appeti, inquit, quod tam proprii rectoris officio quam
+{208} fortissimorum procerum armis industriaque niteretur: præterea, nec
+regi filium nec regno successorem deesse. Sciantque, se non solum regis
+eorum filium, sed etiam quemcunque ex gentis suæ fortissimis secum
+adsciuerit, simul pugna aggredi constituisse. Quo audito legati risere,
+uanam dicti animositatem existimantes. Nec mora, condicitur pugnæ locus,
+eidemque stata temporis meta præfigitur. Tantum autem stuporis Uffo
+loquendi ac prouocandi nouitate præsentibus iniecit, ut, utrum uoci eius an
+fiduciæ plus admirationis tributum sit, incertum extiterit.
+
+Abeuntibus autem legatis, Wermundus, responsionis auctore laudato, quod
+uirtutis fiduciam non in unius, sed duorum prouocatione statuerit, potius
+se ei, quicunque sit, quam superbo hosti regno cessurum perhibuit.
+Uniuersis autem filium eius esse testantibus, qui legatorum fastum fiduciæ
+sublimitate contempserit, propius eum accedere iubet: quod oculis nequeat,
+manibus experturus. Corpore deinde eius curiosius contrectato, cum ex
+artuum granditate lineamentisque filium esse cognosset, fidem assertoribus
+habere coepit, percontarique eum, cur suauissimum uocis habitum summo
+dissimulationis studio tegendum curauerit, tantoque ætatis spatio sine uoce
+et cunctis loquendi commerciis degere sustinuerit, ut se linguæ prorsus
+officio defectum natiuæque taciturnitatis uitio obsitum credi permitteret?
+Qui respondit, se paterna hactenus defensione contentum, non prius uocis
+officio opus habuisse, quam domesticam prudentiam externa loquacitate
+pressam animaduerteret. Rogatus item ab eo, cur duos quam unum prouocare
+maluit, hunc iccirco dimicationis modum a se exoptatum respondit, ut
+Athisli regis oppressio, quæ, quod a duobus gesta fuerat, Danis opprobrio
+extabat, unius facinore pensaretur, nouumque uirtutis specimen prisca
+ruboris monumenta conuelleret. Ita antiquæ crimen infamiæ recentis famæ
+litura respergendum dicebat. Quem Wermundus iustam omnium æstimationem
+fecisse testatus, armorum usum, quod eis parum assueuisset, prædiscere
+iubet. Quibus Uffo oblatis, magnitudine pectoris angustos loricarum nexus
+explicuit; nec erat ullam reperire, quæ eum iusto capacitatis spatio
+contineret. Maiore siquidem corpore erat, quam ut alienis armis uti posset.
+Ad ultimum, cum paternam quoque {209} loricam uiolenta corporis astrictione
+dissolueret, Wermundus eam a læuo latere dissecari, fibulaque sarciri
+præcepit, partem, quæ clypei præsidio muniatur, ferro patere parui
+existimans. Sed et gladium, quo tuto uti possit, summa ab eo cura conscisci
+iussit. Oblatis compluribus, Uffo manu capulum stringens, frustatim
+singulos agitando comminuit; nec erat quisquam ex eis tanti rigoris
+gladius, quem non ad primæ concussionis motum crebra partium fractione
+dissolueret. Erat autem regi inusitati acuminis gladius, Skrep dictus, qui
+quodlibet obstaculi genus uno ferientis ictu medium penetrando diffinderet,
+nec adeo quicquam prædurum foret, ut adactam eius aciem remorari potuisset.
+Quem ne posteris fruendum relinqueret, per summam alienæ commoditatis
+inuidiam in profunda defoderat, utilitatem ferri, quod filii incrementis
+diffideret, ceteris negaturus. Interrogatus autem, an dignum Uffonis robore
+ferrum haberet, habere se dixit, quod, si pridem a se terræ traditum
+recognito locorum habitu reperire potuisset, aptum corporis eius uiribus
+exhiberet. In campum deinde perduci se iubens, cum, interrogatis per omnia
+comitibus, defossionis locum acceptis signorum indiciis comperisset,
+extractum cauo gladium filio porrigit. Quem Uffo nimia uetustate fragilem
+exesumque conspiciens, feriendi diffidentia percontatur, an hunc quoque
+priorum exemplo probare debeat, prius habitum eius, quam rem ferro geri
+oporteat, explorandum testatus. Refert Wermundus, si præsens ferrum ab ipso
+uentilando collideretur, non superesse, quod uirium eius habitui
+responderet. Abstinendum itaque facto, cuius in dubio exitus maneat.
+
+Igitur ex pacto pugnæ locus expetitur. Hunc fluuius Eidorus ita aquarum
+ambitu uallat, ut earum interstitio repugnante, nauigii duntaxat aditus
+pateat. Quem Uffone sine comite petente, Saxoniæ regis filium insignis
+uiribus athleta consequitur, crebris utrinque turbis alternos riparum
+anfractus spectandi auiditate complentibus. Cunctis igitur huic spectaculo
+oculos inferentibus, Wermundus in extrema pontis parte se collocat, si
+filium uinci contigisset, flumine periturus. Maluit enim sanguinis sui
+ruinam comitari, quam patriæ interitum plenis doloris sensibus intueri.
+Uerum Uffo, geminis iuuenum congressibus lacessitus, gladii diffidentia
+amborum ictus umbone {210} uitabat, patientius experiri constituens, quem e
+duobus attentius cauere debuisset, ut hunc saltem uno ferri impulsu
+contingeret. Quem Wermundus imbecillitatis uitio tantam recipiendorum
+ictuum patientiam præstare existimans, paulatim in occiduam pontis oram
+mortis cupiditate se protrahit, si de filio actum foret, fatum precipitio
+petiturus. Tanta sanguinis caritate flagrantem senem fortuna protexit. Uffo
+siquidem filium regis ad secum auidius decernendum hortatus, claritatem
+generis ab ipso conspicuo fortitudinis opere æquari iubet, ne rege ortum
+plebeius comes uirtute præstare uideatur. Athletam deinde, explorandæ eius
+fortitudinis gratia, ne domini sui terga timidius subsequeretur, admonitum
+fiduciam a regis filio in se repositam egregiis dimicationis operibus
+pensare præcepit, cuius delectu unicus pugnæ comes adscitus fuerit.
+Obtemperantem illum propiusque congredi rubore compulsum, primo ferri ictu
+medium dissecat. Quo sono recreatus Wermundus, filii ferrum audire se
+dixit, rogatque, cui potissimum parti ictum inflixerit. Referentibus deinde
+ministris, eum non unam corporis partem, sed totam hominis transegisse
+compagem, abstractum præcipitio corpus ponti restituit, eodem studio lucem
+expetens, quo fatum optauerat. Tum Uffo, reliquum hostem prioris exemplo
+consumere cupiens, regis filium ad ultionem interfecti pro se satellitis
+manibus parentationis loco erogandam impensioribus uerbis sollicitat. Quem
+propius accedere sua adhortatione coactum, infligendi ictus loco curiosius
+denotato, gladioque, quod tenuem eius laminam suis imparem uiribus
+formidaret, in aciem alteram uerso, penetrabili corporis sectione
+transuerberat. Quo audito Wermundus Screp gladii sonum secundo suis auribus
+incessisse perhibuit. Affirmantibus deinde arbitris, utrunque hostem ab
+eius filio consumptum, nimietate gaudii uultum fletu soluit. Ita genas,
+quas dolor madidare non poterat, lætitia rigauit. Saxonibus igitur pudore
+moestis, pugilumque funus summa cum ruboris acerbitate ducentibus, Uffonem
+Dani iocundis excepere tripudiis. Quieuit tum Athislanæ cædis infamia,
+Saxonumque obprobriis expirauit.
+
+Ita Saxoniæ regnum ad Danos translatum, post patrem Uffo regendum suscepit,
+utriusque imperii procurator effectus, {211} qui ne unum quidem rite
+moderaturus credebatur. Hic a compluribus Olauus est dictus, atque ob animi
+moderationem Mansueti cognomine donatus. Cuius sequentes actus uetustatis
+uitio solennem fefellere notitiam. Sed credi potest, gloriosos eorum
+processus extitisse, quorum tam plena laudis principia fuerint.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+L. FROM SKIOLD TO OFFA IN SWEYN AAGESON
+
+In Langebek, _Scriptores_, i, 44-7; Gertz, I, 97.
+
+CAP. I.
+
+De primo Rege Danorum.
+
+Skiold Danis primum didici præfuisse. Et ut eius alludamus uocabulo,
+idcirco tali functus est nomine, quia uniuersos regni terminos regiæ
+defensionis patrocinio affatim egregie tuebatur. A quo primum, modis
+Islandensibus, "Skioldunger" sunt reges nuncupati. Qui regni post se
+reliquit hæredes, Frothi uidelicet et Haldanum. Successu temporum fratribus
+super regni ambitione inter se decertantibus, Haldan, fratre suo
+interempto, regni monarchiam obtinuit. Hic filium, scilicet Helghi, regni
+procreauit hæredem, qui ob eximiam uirtutum strenuitatem, pyraticam semper
+exercuit. Qui cum uniuersorum circumiacentium regnorum fines maritimos
+classe pyratica depopulatus, suo subiugasset imperio, "Rex maris" est
+cognominatus. Huic in regno successit filius Rolf Kraki, patria virtute
+pollens, occisus in Lethra, quæ tunc famosissima Regis extitit curia, nunc
+autem Roskildensi uicina ciuitati, inter abiectissima ferme uix colitur
+oppida. Post quem regnauit filius eius Rökil cognomento dictus
+"Slaghenback." Cui successit in regno hæres, agilitatis strenuitate
+cognominatus, quem nostro uulgari "Frothi hin Frökni" nominabant. Huius
+filius et hæres regni extitit Wermundus, qui adeo prudentiæ pollebat
+uirtute, ut inde nomen consequeretur. Unde et "Prudens" dictus est. Hic
+filium genuit Uffi nomine, qui usque ad tricesimum ætatis suæ annum fandi
+possibilitatem cohibuit, propter enormitatem opprobrii, quod tunc temporis
+Danis ingruerat, eo quod in {212} ultionem patris duo Dani in Sueciam
+profecti, patricidam suum una interemerunt. Nam et tunc temporis
+ignominiosum extitit improperium, si solum duo iugularent; præsertim cum
+soli strenuitati tunc superstitiosa gentilitas operam satagebat impendere.
+Præfatus itaque Wermundus usque ad senium regni sui gubernabat imperium;
+adeo tandem ætate consumptus, ut oculi eius præ senio caligarent. Cuius
+debilitatis fama cum apud transalpinas[340] partes percrebuisset, elationis
+turgiditate Teotonica intumuit superbia, utpote suis nunquam contenta
+terminis. Hinc furoris sui rabiem in Danos exacuit Imperator, se iam
+Danorum regno conquisito sceptrum nancisci augustius conspicatus.
+Delegantur itaque spiculatores, qui turgidi principis jussa reportent
+præfato Danorum regi, scilicet Wermundo, duarum rerum præfigentes
+electionem, quarum pars tamen neutra extitit eligenda. Aut enim regnum
+jussit Romano resignare imperio, et tributum soluere, aut athletam
+inuestigare, qui cum Imperatoris campione monomachiam committere auderet.
+Quo audito, regis extitit mens consternata; totiusque regni procerum
+legione corrogata, quid facto opus sit, diligenti inquisitione
+percontabatur. Perplexam se namque regis autumabat autoritas, utpote cui et
+ius incumbebat decertandi, et qui regno patrocinari tenebatur. Uultum
+coecitas obnubilauerat, et regni heres elinguis factus, desidia torpuerat,
+ita ut in eo, communi assertione, nulla prorsus species salutis existeret.
+Nam ab infantia præfatus Uffo uentris indulgebat ingluuiei, et Epicuræorum
+more, coquinæ et cellario alternum officiose impendebat obsequium.
+Corrogato itaque coetu procerum, totiusque regni placito[341] celebrato,
+Alamannorum regis ambitionem explicuit, quid in hac optione haud eligenda
+facturus sit, indagatione cumulata senior sciscitatur. Et dum uniuersorum
+mens consternaretur angustia, cunctique indulgerent silentio, præfatus Uffo
+in media concione surrexit. Quem cum cohors uniuersa conspexisset, satis
+nequibat admirari, ut quid elinguis uelut orationi gestus informaret. Et
+quia omne rarum dignum nouimus admiratione, omnium in se duxit intuitum.
+Tandem sic orsus coepit: "Non nos minæ moueant lacessentium, cum {213} ea
+Teotonicæ turgiditati innata sit conditio, ut uerborum ampullositate
+glorientur, minarumque uentositate pusillanimes et imbecilles calleant
+comminatione consternare. Me etenim unicum et uerum regni natura produxit
+heredem, cui profecto nouistis incumbere, ut monomachiæ me discrimini
+audacter obiiciam, quatenus uel pro regno solus occumbam, uel pro patria
+solus uictoriam obtineam. Ut ergo minarum cassetur ampullositas, hæc
+Imperatori referant mandata, ut Imperatoris filius et heres imperii, cum
+athleta præstantissimo, mihi soli non formidet occurrere." Dixit, et hæc
+verba dictauit voce superba. Qui dum orationem complesset, a collateralibus
+senior sciscitabatur, cuiusnam hæc fuisset oratio? Cum autem a
+circumstantibus intellexisset, quod filius suus, prius veluti mutus, hunc
+effudisset sermonem, palpandum eum jussit accersiri. Et cum humeros
+lacertosque, et clunes, suras atque tibias, cæteraque membra organica
+crebro palpasset: "Talem," ait, "me memini in flore extitisse iuuentutis."
+Quid multa? Terminus pugnæ constituitur et locus. Talique responso
+percepto, ad propria legati repedabant.
+
+CAP. II.
+
+De duello Uffonis.
+
+Superest ergo, ut arma nouo militi congrua corrogentur. Allatisque ensibus,
+quos in regno præstantiores rex poterat inuestigare, Uffo singulos dextra
+uibrans, in partes confregit minutissimas. "Hæccine arma sunt," inquit,
+"quibus et uitam et regni tuebor honorem?" Cuius cum pater uiuidam
+experiretur uirtutem, "Unicum adhuc," ait, "et regni et uitæ nostræ
+superest asylum." Ad tumulum itaque ducatum postulauit, in quo prius
+mucronem experientissimum occultauerat. Et mox intersigniis per petrarum
+notas edoctus, gladium jussit effodi præstantissimum. Quem illico dextra
+corripiens, "Hic est," ait, "fili, quo numerose triumphaui, et qui mihi
+infallibile semper tutamen extitit." Et hæc dicens, eundem filio
+contradidit. Nec mora; terminus ecce congressioni præfixus arctius {214}
+instabat. Tandem, confluentibus undique phalangis innumerabilibus, in
+Egdoræ fluminis mediamne[342] locus pugnæ constituitur: ut ita pugnatores
+ab utriusque coetus adminiculo segregati nullius opitulatione fungerentur.
+Teotonicis ergo ultra fluminis ripam in Holsatia considentibus, Danis uero
+citra amnem dispositis, rex pontis in medio sedem elegit, quatenus, si
+unigenitus occumberet, in fluminis se gurgitem præcipitaret, ne pariter
+nato orbatus et regno cum dolore superstes canos deduceret ad inferos.
+Deinde emissis utrinque pugilibus, in medio amne conuenerunt. Ast ubi miles
+noster egregius Uffo, duos sibi conspexit occurrere, tanquam leo pectore
+robusto infremuit, animoque constanti duobus electis audacter se opponere
+non detrectauit, illo cinctus mucrone, quem patrem supra meminimus
+occuluisse, et alterum dextra strictum gestans. Quos cum primum obuios
+habuisset, sic singillatim utrumque alloquitur, et quod raro legitur
+accidisse, athleta noster elegantissimus, cuius memoria in æternum non
+delebitur, ita aduersarios animabat ad pugnam: "Si te," inquit, "regni
+nostri stimulat ambitio, ut nostræ opis, potentiæque, opumque capessere
+uelis opulentias, comminus te clientem decet præcedere, ut et regni tui
+terminos amplifices, et militibus tuis conspicientibus, strenuitatis nomen
+nanciscaris." Campionem uero hunc in modum alloquitur: "Uirtutis tuæ
+experientiam jam locus est propagare, si comminus accesseris, et eam, quam
+pridem Alamannis gloriam ostendisti, Danis quoque propalare non cuncteris.
+Nunc ergo famam tuæ strenuitatis poteris ampliare, et egregiæ munificentiæ
+dono ditari, si et dominum præcedas, et clypeo defensionis eum tuearis.
+Studeat, quæso, Teotonicis experta strenuitas variis artis pugillatoriæ
+modis Danos instruere, ut tandem optata potitus uictoria, cum triumphi
+ualeas exultatione ad propria remeare." Quam quum complesset exhortationem,
+pugilis cassidem toto percussit conamine, ita ut, quo feriebat, gladius in
+duo dissiliret. Cuius fragor per uniuersum intonuit exercitum. Unde cohors
+Teotonicorum exultatione perstrepebat: sed contra Dani desperationis
+consternati tristitia, gemebundi murmurabant. Rex uero, ut audiuit, quod
+filii ensis dissiliuisset, in margine se pontis jussit {215} locari. Uerum
+Uffo, subito exempto, quo cinctus erat, gladio, pugilis illico coxam
+cruentauit, nec mora, et caput pariter amputauit. Sic ergo ludus fortunæ ad
+instar lunæ uarius, nunc his, nunc illis successibus illudebat, et quibus
+iamiam exultatione fauebat ingenti, eos nouercali mox uultu, toruoque
+conspexit intuitu. Hoc cognito, senior jam confidentius priori se jussit
+sede locari. Nec jam anceps diu extitit uictoria. Siquidem Uffo ualide
+instans, ad ripam amnis pepulit hæredem imperii, ibique eum haud
+difficulter gladio iugulauit. Sicque duorum solus uictor existens, Danis
+irrogatam multis retro temporibus infamiam gloriosa uirtute magnifice satis
+aboleuit. Atque ita Alamannis cum improperii uerecundia, cassatisque
+minarum ampullositatibus, cum probris ad propria remeantibus, postmodum in
+pacis tranquillitate præcluis Uffo regni sui regebat imperium.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+M. NOTE ON THE DANISH CHRONICLES
+
+The text of Saxo Grammaticus, given above, is based upon the magnificent
+first edition printed by Badius Ascensius (Paris, 1514). Even at the time
+when this edition was printed, manuscripts of Saxo had become exceedingly
+scarce, and we have now only odd leaves of MS remaining. One fragment,
+however, discovered at Angers, and now in the Royal Library at Copenhagen,
+comes from a MS which had apparently received additions from Saxo himself,
+and therefore affords evidence as to his spelling.
+
+Holder's edition (Strassburg, 1886) whilst following in the main the 1514
+text of Badius Ascensius, is accordingly revised to comply with the
+spelling of the Copenhagen fragments, and with any other traces of MS
+authority extant. I doubt the necessity for such revision. If the text were
+extant in MS, one might feel bound to follow the spelling of the MS, as in
+the case of the old English MSS of the _Vitae Offarum_ below: but seeing
+that Saxo, with the exception of a few pages, is extant only in a 16th
+century printed copy, the spelling of which is almost identical with that
+now current in Latin text books, it seems a pity to restore conjecturally
+mediæval spellings likely {216} to worry a student. Accordingly I have
+followed the printed text of 1514, modernizing a very few odd spellings,
+and correcting some obvious printers errors[343].
+
+A translation of the first nine books of Saxo by Prof. O. Elton has been
+published by the Folk-Lore Society (No. XXXIII, 1893).
+
+Saxo completed his history in the early years of the 13th century. His
+elder contemporary, Sweyn Aageson, had already written a _Brief History of
+the Kings of Denmark_. Sweyn's _History_ must have been completed not long
+after 1185, to which date belongs the last event he records. The extracts
+given from it (pp. 211-15) are taken from Langebek's collection, with
+modifications of spelling. Langebek follows the first edition (Stephanius,
+1642); the MS used in this edition had been destroyed in 1728. _Cod. Arn.
+Mag. 33_, recently printed by Gertz, although very corrupt, is supposed to
+give the text of Sweyn's _History_ in a form less sophisticated than that
+of the received text (see Gertz, _Scriptores Minores Historiæ Danicæ_,
+1917, p. 62). The _Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire_ is probably
+earlier than Sweyn's _History_. Gertz dates it c. 1170, and thinks it was
+written by someone connected with the church at Roskilde. It covers only
+the early traditional history. See above, pp. 17, 204.
+
+For comparison, the following lists, as given in the roll of kings known as
+_Langfeðgatal_, in the _Little Chronicle_, in Sweyn, and in Saxo may be
+useful:
+
+ | _Little_ | | |Names as given
+ _Langfeðgatal_ |_Chronicle_ |_Sweyn_ | _Saxo_ | in _Beowulf_
+ | Dan | | Dan |
+ | | | {Humblus |
+ | | | {Lotherus | ? = Heremod
+ Skioldr ... | | Skiold | Skioldus | Scyld
+ {217}
+ | | | Gram |
+ | | | Hadingus |
+ | | {Frothi | Frotho I | ?= Beowulf I
+ Halfdan | | {Haldanus | {Haldanus I | Healfdene
+ | Ro | | {Roe I |
+ | | | {Scato |
+ {Hroar | {Haldan | | {Roe II | Hrothgar
+ {Helgi | {Helgi | Helghi | {Helgo | Halga
+ Rolf Kraki | Rolf Krake | Rolf Kraki | Roluo Krage | Hrothulf
+ | Hiarwarth | | Hiarthuarus | Heoroweard
+ | | | . . . . |
+ Hrærekr | | Rökil | Røricus | Hrethric
+
+ * * * * *
+
+N. THE LIFE OF OFFA I, WITH EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF OFFA II. EDITED FROM
+TWO MSS IN THE COTTONIAN COLLECTION
+
+The text is given from _MS Cotton Nero D. I_ (quoted in the footnotes as
+A), collated with _MS Claudius E. IV_ (quoted as B). Minor variations of B
+are not usually noted. The two MSS agree closely.
+
+The _Nero_ MS is the more elaborate of the two, and is adorned with very
+fine drawings. _Claudius_, however, offers occasionally a better text; it
+has been read by a corrector whose alterations--contrary to what is so
+often the ease in mediæval MSS--seem to be authoritative.
+
+The _Lives of the Offas_ were printed by Wats in his edition of Matthew
+Paris (1639-40) from MS A. Miss Rickert has printed extracts from the two
+lives, in _Mod. Phil._ II, 14 _etc._, following MS A, "as Wats sometimes
+takes liberties with the text."
+
+INCIPIT HISTORIA DE OFFA PRIMO Q_U_I STRENUITATE SUA S_IB_I ANGLIE
+MAXIMA_M_ P_AR_TE_M_ S_U_BEG_I_T. CUI SIMILLIM_US_ FUIT S_E_C_UN_D_U_S
+OFFA[344].
+
+[Sidenote: Fol. 2 _a_]
+
+Inter occidentalium Anglorum reges illustrissimos, precipua
+co_m_mendac_i_onis laude celebratur Rex Warmundus, ab hiis qui historias
+Angloru_m_ no_n_ solum relatu proferre, set eciam scriptis inserere
+consueuerant. Is fundator erat cui_us_dam urbis a seip_s_o denominate, que
+lingua Anglicana Warwic, id est curia Warmundi, nuncupatur. Qui usq_ue_ ad
+annos seniles absq_ue_ liberis extitit, pret_er_ unicum filiu_m_; q_ue_m,
+ut estimabat, regni sui heredem _et_ successorem puerilis debilitatis
+incomodo labora_n_tem, constituere non ualebat. Licet enim idem unic_us_
+filius eius, Offa uel Offanus no_m_i_n_e, statura fuisset procer_us_, {218}
+corpore integer, _et_ elegantissime forme iuuenis existeret, perma_n_sit
+t_ame_n a natiuitate uisu priuatus usq_ue_ ad annu_m_ septimu_m_, mutus
+autem _et_ u_er_ba humana n_on_ proferens usq_ue_ ad annu_m_ etatis sue
+tricesimum. Huius debilitatis incomodum no_n_ solum rex, s_ed_ eciam regni
+proceres, supra q_u_am dici potest moleste sustinuerunt. Cum eni_m_
+imineret p_at_ri etas senilis, _et_ ignoraret diem mortis sue, nesciebat
+q_ue_m alium sibi[345] _con_stitueret heredem _et_ regni successore_m_.
+Quidam au_tem_ p_r_imari_us_ regni, cui nomen Riganus[346], cu_m_ quoda_m_
+suo co_m_plice Mitunno no_m_i_n_e, ambic_i_osus cu_m_ ambic_i_oso, seductor
+cu_m_ proditore uidens regem decrepitu_m_, _et_ sine spe prolis procreande
+senio fatiscente_m_, de se p_re_sumens, cepit ad regie dignitatis culmen
+aspirare, conte_m_ptis aliis regni primatib_us_, se solum p_re_ cet_er_is
+ad h_oc_ dignu_m_ reputando.
+
+Iccirco diebus singulis regi molestus nimis, proterue eum aggreditur, ut se
+h_er_edis loco adoptaret. Aliq_u_ando cor regis blande alliciens, interi_m_
+aspere minis _et_ terroribus prouocans, persuadere no_n_ cessat regi q_uo_d
+optabat[347]. Suggerebat eciam regi per uiros potentes, _com_plices
+cupiditatis _et_ malicie sue, se regni sui su_m_mu_m_ apice_m_, uiolentia
+_et_ terrorib_us_ et ui extorquere, nisi arbitrio uoluntatis sue rex ip_s_e
+pareret, faciendo uirtute_m_ de necessitate. Super h_oc_ itaq_ue et_ aliis
+regni negociis, euocato semel concilio, proteruus ille a rege reprobatus
+discessit a curie p_re_sentia, iracundie calore freme_n_s in semetip_s_o,
+pro repulsa q_u_am sustinuit.
+
+[Illustration: Riganus (or Aliel) comes before King Warmundus to claim that
+he should be made King in place of the incompetent Offa
+
+_From MS Cotton Nero D. I, fol. 2 a._ ]
+
+{219} [Sidenote: Fol. 2 _b_] Nec mora, accitis m_u_ltis qui cont_r_a regis
+i_m_p_er_ium parte_m_ sua_m_ _con_fouebant, infra paucos dies, copiosum
+i_m_mo infinitu_m_ exc_er_citu_m_ _con_gregauit: _et_ sub spe uictorie
+uirilit_e_r optinende, regem _et_ suos ad hostile p_re_lium prouocauit. Rex
+au_tem_ confectus senio, time_n_s rebellare, declinauit aliquocie_n_s
+impet_us_ adu_er_sarior_um_. Tandem uero, co_n_uocatis i_n_ unum
+p_r_incipib_us_ _et_ magnatib_us_ suis, delib_er_are cep_i_t q_u_o
+f_a_c_t_o opus h_abe_ret. Dum igit_ur_ t_r_actarent i_n_ co_m_mune per
+aliq_u_ot dies, secu_m_ deliberantes instantissime nec_es_citatis
+articulu_m_, affuit int_er_ _ser_moci|nantes natus _et_ unigenitus regis,
+eo usq_ue_ elinguis _et_ absq_ue_ sermone, s_ed_ aure purgata, singulorum
+uerba discernens. Cum aute_m_ p_at_ris seniu_m_, _et_ se ip_su_m ad regni
+negocia q_u_asi inutilem _et_ min_us_ efficacem despici _et_ reprobari ab
+om_n_ib_us_ perpenderet, contritus est _et_ humiliatus in semetip_s_o,
+usq_ue_ in lac_r_imarum aduberem profusionem. _Et_ exitus aq_u_arum
+dedux_er_unt oculi eius; _et_ estuabat dolore cordis intrinsecus
+amarissimo. Et q_u_a_m_ u_er_bis no_n_ pot_er_at, deo aff_e_c_t_u
+int_r_inseco p_re_cordial_it_er suggerebat, ingemiscens, repone_n_sq_ue_
+lac_r_imabilem q_ue_relam coram ip_s_o, orabat ut a spiritu s_an_c_t_o
+reciperet consolac_i_on_em_, a p_at_re luminu_m_ fortitudinem, _et_ a filio
+p_at_ris unigenito sapi_enci_e salutaris donatiuum. In breui igitur,
+_con_t_r_iti cordis uota prospiciens, is, cui nuda _et_ aperta sunt omnia,
+resoluit os adolescentis in u_er_ba discreta _et_ manifeste articulata.
+Sicq_ue_ de regni principatu tumide _et_ minaciter contra se _et_ p_at_rem
+suu_m_ perstrepentes, subito _et_ ex insp_er_ato alloquitur: "Quid adhuc me
+_et_ p_at_re meo sup_er_stite contra leges _et_ iura uobis uendicatis regni
+iudicium enormiter cont_re_ctare: _et_ me excluso, herede geneali, alium
+degen_er_em facinorosu_m_ _ec_iam in minas _et_ diffiduciac_i_onem
+sup_er_be nimis prorumpente_m_, subrogare ut uos no_n_ immerito iniquitatis
+_et_ prodic_i_onis arguere valeam_us_. Quid, inq_u_am, ext_er_i, q_u_id
+ex_tr_anei cont_ra_ nos agere debeant, cu_m_ nos affines _et_ domestici
+n_ost_ri a p_at_ria q_u_am hactenus gen_er_is n_ost_ri successio iure
+possedit hereditario, uelitis expellere?" Et dum hec Offanus uel Offa (hoc
+eni_m_ nomen adolescentulo erat) qui ia_m_ n_un_c primo et_er_no nomine
+cu_m_ b_e_n_e_d[_i_]c[_i_]onis memoria meruit intitulari, ore facundo,
+s_er_mone rethorico, uultu sereno prosequeret_ur_, omniu_m_ audientium plus
+q_u_am dici potest attonitoru_m_ oculos facies _et_ corda in se
+conu_er_tit. Et prosequens inceptum s_er_mone_m_, _con_tinuando r_ati_onem,
+ait (intuens ad superna): "Deum testor, om_ne_sq_ue_ celestis curie
+primates, quod tanti sceleris _et_ discidii incentores, (n_is_i qui
+cep_er_int titubare, uiriliter eriganter in uirtute_m_ p_r_istinam
+roborati) inde_m_pnes (pro ut desides _et_ formidolosi promerueru_n_t) ac
+impunitos, no_n_ paciar. Fideles autem, ac strenuos, omni honore
+proseq_u_ar [et] co_n_fouebo."
+
+Audito _i_gi_tur_ adolescentis sermone, q_ue_m mutum estimabant vanu_m_
+_et_ inutilem, _con_st_er_nati admodum _et_ conterriti, ab ei_us_ {220}
+p_re_sencia discesseru_n_t, q_u_i cont_r_a p_at_rem suu_m_ _et_ ip_su_m,
+mota sedic_i_one, ausu temerario co_n_spirau_er_ant. Rigan_us_ t_ame_n,
+co_n_tumax _et_ superbus, comitante Mittunno cu_m_ aliis complicibus suis,
+qui iam iram in odium _con_u_er_t_er_ant, minas minis recessit cumulando,
+rege_m_q_ue_ delirum cu_m_ filio suo inutili ac vano murione, frontose
+diffiduciauit. Econt_r_a, naturales ac fideles regis, ipsius minas
+paruipende_n_tes, i_m_mo [Sidenote: Fol. 3 _a_] | uilipendentes,
+inestimabili gaudio perfusi, regis _et_ filii sui pedibus incuruati, sua
+suor_um_q_ue_ corpora ad uindicandam regis iniuriam exponunt gratanter
+uniu_er_si. Nec mora, rex in sua _et_ filii sui presentia generali edicto
+eos qui parti sue fauebant iubet assistere, uolens co_m_muni eor_um_
+consilio edoceri, q_u_aliter in agendis suis procedere _et_ negocia sua
+exequi habeat conuenienter. Qui super hiis diebus aliquot deliberantes,
+inprimis consulu_n_t regi ut filium suu_m_ morib_us_ _et_ etate ad h_oc_
+maturu_m_, militari cingulo faciat insigniri: vt ad bellum procedens,
+hostibus suis horrori fieret _et_ formidini. Rex aute_m_ sano et salubri
+co_n_silio suoru_m_ obtemperans, celebri[348] ad hoc co_n_dicto die, cu_m_
+solle_m_pni _et_ regia pompa, gladio filium suum accinxit; adiunctis
+tirocinio suo strenuis adolescentib_us_ gen_er_osis, quos rex ad dec_us_
+_et_ gloriam filii sui militarib_us_ indui fecit, _et_ honorari.
+
+Cum aute_m_ post h_ec_[349], aliq_u_andiu cu_m_ sociis suis decertans,
+instrumenta tiro Offanus experiretur, omnes eum strenuissimu_m_ _et_
+singulos sup_er_ante_m_ uehement_er_[350] admirabant_ur_. Rex igit_ur_
+in_de_ maiore_m_ assumens audaciam, _et_ in spem erectus alacriorem,
+co_m_municato cu_m_ suis consilio, co_n_t_r_a hostes regni sui
+insidiatores, i_m_mo iam manifeste _contr_a regnu_m_ suu_m_ insurgentes,
+_et_ inito c_er_tami_n_e adu_er_santes, resu_m_pto sp_irit_u bellum
+instaurari p_re_cep_i_t. Potentissim_us_ aut_em_ ille, q_u_i regnu_m_ sibi
+usurpare moliebatur, cu_m_ filiis suis iuuenib_us_ duob_us_, uidelicet
+tironib_us_ strenuissimis Otta _et_ Milione nominatis, ascita quoq_ue_
+no_n_ minima multitudine, n_ich_ilomin_us_ audact_er_ ad rebellandum, se
+suosq_ue_ p_re_munire cepit, alacer _et_ imp_er_t_er_rit_us_. Et preliandi
+diem _et_ locum, hinc in_de_ rex _et_ eius emulus det_er_minarunt.
+
+Congregato itaq_ue_ ut_r_obiq_ue_ copiosissimo _et_ formidabili nimis
+exc_er_citu, parati ad congressum, fixerunt tentoria e regione, nichilq_ue_
+int_er_erat nisi fluui_us_ torrens in medio, qui {221} utrumq_ue_
+exc_er_citu_m_ sequestrabat. Et aliq_u_andiu hinc in_de_ meticulosi _et_
+co_n_sternati, rapidi fluminis alueum int_er_positu_m_ (qui uix erat homini
+uel equo t_r_ansmeabil_is_) transire distulerunt. Tela tamen sola, cu_m_
+crebris co_m_minac_i_onibus _et_ conuiciis, transuolarunt. Tande_m_
+indignatus Offa _et_ egre ferens probrose more dispendia, electis de
+exc_er_citu suo robustiorib_us_ _et_ bello magis strenuis, q_u_os _eciam_
+credebat fideliores, subitus _et_ improuisus flumen raptim p_er_transiens,
+f_a_c_t_o impetu uehementi[351] _et_ repentino, hostes ei obuiam
+occurre_n_tes, preocupatos t_ame_n circa ripam flum_in_is, plurimos de
+adu_er_sarior_um_ exc_er_citu cont_r_iuit, _et_ i_n_ ore gladii trucidauit.
+Primosq_ue_ om_ne_s t_r_ibunos _et_ p_r_imicerios potenter dissipauit.
+Cu_m_ t_ame_n sui co_m_militones, forte uolentes p_re_scire in Offa
+p_re_uio Martis fortuna_m_, segnit_er_ amne_m_ t_r_ansmearent, q_u_i latus
+suu_m_ tenebantur suffulcire, _et_[352] pocius [Sidenote: Fol. 3 _b_] |
+circumuallando roborare, et resu_m_pto sp_irit_u uiuidiore, reliquos
+om_ne_s, hinc in_de_ ad modu_m_ nauis uelificantis _et_ equora uelocit_er_
+sulcantis, impetuosissime diuisit, ense t_er_ribilit_er_ fulminante, _et_
+hostiu_m_ cruore sepius inebriato, don_e_c sue om_ne_s acies ad ip_su_m
+illese _et_ inde_m_pnes t_r_ansmear_en_t. Quo cu_m_ p_er_uenirent sui
+co_m_militones, congregati ci_r_ca ip_su_m do_mi_n_u_m suu_m_,
+exc_er_citu_m_ magnu_m_ et fortem co_n_flau_er_unt. Duces aute_m_
+_con_t_r_arii exc_er_citus, sese densis agminib_us_ _et_ consertis aciebus,
+uiolent_er_ opponu_n_t aduentantib_us_. Et congressu inito cruentissimo,
+acclamatu_m_ _est_ utrobiq_ue_ et exhortatu_m_, ut res agatur pro capite,
+_et_ c_er_tamen pro sua _et_ uxoru_m_ suar_um_, _et_ lib_er_or_um_
+suor_um_, _et_ possessionu_m_ lib_er_ac_i_one, i_n_ea_n_t iustissimu_m_,
+auxilio diuino p_ro_tegente. P_er_strepunt igitur tube cu_m_ lituis, clamor
+exhortantiu_m_, equor_um_ hinnit_us_, morientiu_m_ _et_ uulnerator_um_
+gemitus, fragor lancearum, gladioru_m_ tinnit_us_, ictuu_m_ tumultus, aera
+p_er_t_ur_bare uidebant_ur_. Adu_er_sarii tandem Offe legiones deiciunt,
+_et_ i_n_ fugam dissipatas _con_u_er_tunt.
+
+Quod cum videret Offa strenuissim_us_, _et_ ex hostiu_m_ cede cruent_us_,
+hausto sp_irit_u alac_r_iori, in hostes, more leonis _et_ leene sublatis
+catulis, irruit truculent_er_, gladiu_m_ suu_m_ cruore hostili inebriando.
+Quod cu_m_ uiderent t_r_ucida_n_di, fugitiui _et_ meticulosi pudore
+confusi, reuersi su_n_t sup_er_ hostes, et ut famam redim_er_ent,
+ferociores in obstantes fulminant _et_ debacant_ur_.
+
+{222}
+
+Multoq_ue_ temp_or_e t_r_uculent_er_ nimis dec_er_tatu_m_ est, _et_
+utrobiq_ue_ suspensa est uictoria; tandem p_ost_ multor_um_ ruinam, hostes
+fatigati pedem retulerunt, ut respirarent _et_ pausare_n_t p_ost_
+co_n_flictu_m_.
+
+Similit_er eciam et_ exc_er_citus Offani. Quod t_ame_n moleste nimis tulit
+Offan_us_, cui_us_ sanguis in ulc_i_one_m_ estuabat, _et_ i_n_defessus
+propugnator cessare erubescebat. Hic casu Offe obuiant duo filii diuitis
+illi_us_, qui regnu_m_ p_at_ris ei_us_ sibi atte_m_ptauit usurpare. Nomen
+p_r_imogenito Brutus [sive Hildebrandus][353] _et_ iuniori Sueno. Hii
+probra _et_ u_er_ba turpia in Offam irreu_er_enter ingesserunt, _et_ iuueni
+pudorato i_n_ _con_sp_ec_tu exc_er_cituum, no_n_ min_us_ s_er_monib_us_
+q_u_am armis, molesti extit_er_unt. Offa igit_ur_, mag_is_ lacessitus, _et_
+calore audacie scintillans, _et_ iracundia us_que_ ad fremitu_m_ succensus,
+in impetu sp_iritu_s sui i_n_ eosde_m_ audact_er_ irruit. Et eor_um_
+alteru_m_, videlic_et_ Brutu_m_, unico gladii ictu percussit, amputatoq_ue_
+galee cono, craneu_m_ usq_ue_ ad cerebri medulla_m_ p_er_forauit, _et_ i_n_
+morte singultante_m_ sub eq_u_inis pedib_us_ pot_e_nt_er_ p_re_cipitauit.
+Alteru_m_ u_er_o, qui h_oc_ uiso fugam iniit, repentin_us_ inseq_ue_ns,
+uuln_er_e letali sauciatu_m_, _con_te_m_psit _et_ prostratu_m_. Post
+h_ec_[354] deseuie_n_s in cet_er_os _con_t_r_arii exc_er_citus duces,
+gladi_us_ Offe q_u_icq_u_id obuiam h_ab_uit prost_er_nendo deuorauit,
+exc_er_citu ip_s_i_us_ tali exemplo recenci_us_ i_n_ hostes insurgente,
+_et_ iam gloriosius t_r_iu_m_phante.
+
+[Sidenote: Fol. 4 _a_]
+
+Pat_er_, uero, p_re_d_i_c_t_or_um_ iuuenu_m_, pert_er_rit_us_ _et_ dolore
+i_n_t_r_inseco sauciatus, subt_er_fugiens amne_m_ oppositu_m_, nitebat_ur_|
+pert_r_ansire: s_ed_ interf_e_c_t_oru_m_ sanguine torre_n_s fluuius, eum
+loricatu_m_ _et_ armor_um_ pond_er_e grauatu_m_ _et_ multipl_icite_r
+fatigatum, cum multis de suo excercitu simili incomodo p_re_peditis, ad ima
+subm_er_sit, _et_ sine uuln_er_ib_us_, miseras animas exalarunt proditores,
+toti posteritati sue probra relinq_ue_ntes. Amnis aute_m_ a Rigano ibi
+subm_er_so sorciebatur uocabulum, _et_ Riganburne, vt f_act_i uiuat
+perpetuo memoria, nuncupat_ur_. [Hiic alio no_m_i_n_e Auene
+dicit_ur_.][355]
+
+Reliqui aute_m_ om_ne_s de exc_er_citu Rigani [qui _et_ Aliel
+dicebatur][355] qui sub ducatu Mitunni regebantur, in abissu_m_
+desperac_i_onis dem_er_si, _et_ timore effeminati, cum eorum duce i_n_
+q_u_o {223} magis Rigan_us_ confidebat, in noctis crepusculo trucidati,
+cu_m_ uictoria gloriosa campu_m_ Offe strenuissimo (i_n_ nulla parte
+corporis sui deformit_er_ mutilato, nec _eciam_ uel letaliter uel
+periculose uuln_er_ato, licet ea die multis se letiferis opposuiss_et_
+p_er_iculis) reliquerunt[356].
+
+Sicq_ue_ Offe circa iuuentutis sue primicias, a Domino data est uictoria in
+bello nimis ancipiti, ac cruentissimo, _et_ int_er_ alienigenas uirtutis
+_et_ indust_r_ie sue nomen celebre ipsius uentilatum, _et_ odor longe
+lateq_ue_ bonitatis ac ciuilitatis, n_e_c no_n_ _et_ st_r_enuitatis ei_us_
+circumfusus, nomen ei_us_ ad sidera subleuauit.
+
+Porro in crastinu_m_ post uictoria_m_, hostiu_m_ spolia int_er_fector_um_
+_et_ fugitiuor_um_ magnifice co_n_te_m_pnens, n_e_c sibi uolens
+aliq_u_atenus usurpare, ne q_u_omodolib_et_ auaricie turpit_er_
+redargueretur, militibus suis stipendiariis, _et_ naturalib_us_ suis
+hominib_us_ (p_re_cipue[357] hiis quos nou_er_at indigere) liberalit_er_
+dereliq_u_it. Solos t_ame_n magnates, quos ip_s_emet i_n_ prelio cep_er_at,
+sibi retinuit incarc_er_andos, redime_n_dos, u_e_l iudicialiter puniendos.
+Iussitq_ue_ ut int_er_fector_um_ duces _et_ p_r_incipes, quor_um_ fama
+titulos magnificauit, _et_ p_re_cipue eor_um_ qui in p_re_lio magnifice ac
+fidelit_er_ se habuerant (licet ei[358] adu_er_sarentur) seorsum honorifice
+i_n_tumulare_n_t_u_r, f_a_c_t_is eis obsequiis, cu_m_ lamentac_i_onib_us_.
+Exc_er_citus au_tem_ popularis cadau_er_a, in arduo _et_ eminenti loco, ad
+post_er_itatis memoriam, t_r_adi iussit sepulture ignobiliori. Vnde locus
+ille hoc no_m_i_n_e Anglico Q_u_almhul[359], a strage uidelicet _et_
+sepultura interfectorum m_er_ito meruit intitulari.
+
+Multor_um_ eciam et magnor_um_ lapidum super eos struem excercitus Offe,
+uoce p_re_conia iussus, congessit eminentem. Totaq_ue_ circumiacens
+planicies[360] ab ip_s_o cruentissimo c_er_tamine _et_ notabili sepultura
+nomen _et_ titulum indelebilem est sortita, et Blodiweld[361] a sa_n_guine
+int_er_fector_um_ deno_m_i_n_abat_ur_.
+
+Deletis igitur _et_ confusis hostib_us_, Offa cum ingenti t_r_iumpho ac
+tripudio _et_ gloria reu_er_tit_ur_ ad propria. Pater uero Warmu_n_d_us_,
+q_u_i sese recep_er_at in locis tucioribus rei euentu_m_ exp_e_ctans, s_ed_
+iam fausto nuncio c_er_tificatus, comperiensq_ue_ _et_ securus de carissimi
+filii sui uictoria, cu_m_ ingenti leticia ei {224} procedit obuius[362]: et
+in a_m_plexus eius diutissime _com_moratus, _con_ceptu_m_ [Sidenote: Fol. 4
+_b_] | interius de filii sui palma gaudium teg_er_e non uolens set n_e_c
+ualens, hui_us_ cum lac_ri_mis exultac_i_onis prorupit in vocem: "Euge fili
+dulcissime, quo affectu, quaue mentis leticia, laudes tuas prout dignu_m_
+est prosequar? Tu eni_m_ es spes mea _et_ subditor_um_ iubilus ex
+i_n_sp_er_ato _et_ exultac_i_o. In te spes inopinata meis reuixit
+temporibus; in sinu tuo leticia mea, i_m_mo spes pocius toci_us_ regni est
+reposita. Tu pop_u_li toci_us_ firmamentum, tu pacis _et_ lib_er_tatis mee
+basis _et_ stabile, deo aspirante, fundamentum. Tibi debetur ruina
+prot_e_rui proditoris illi_us_, q_u_ondam publici hostis n_ost_ri, qui
+regni fastigium quod m_ih_i _et_ de genere meo propagatis iure debetur
+h_er_editario, tam impudent_er_ q_u_am imprudenter, cont_r_a leges _et_ ius
+gentium usurpare moliebatur. S_ed_ uultus d_omi_ni super eu_m_ _et_
+co_m_plices suos facientes mala, ut perderet de terra memoriam eoru_m_,
+Deus ulcionu_m_ Domin_us_ dissipau_i_t consilium ipsius. Ip_su_m q_u_o_que_
+Riganu_m_ in sup_er_bia rigente_m_, _et_ i_m_mite_m_ Mitunnu_m_
+_com_militone_m_ ipsius, cum exc_er_citu eor_um_ proiecit in flumen
+rapacissimu_m_. Descendunt q_u_asi plu_m_bum i_n_ aq_u_is uehem_en_tib_us_;
+deuorauit gladi_us_ tuus hostes n_ost_ros fulmina_n_s _et_ cruentat_us_,
+hostili sanguine magnifice i_n_ebriatus; non degen_er_ es fili mi genealis,
+s_ed_ pat_r_issans, patrum tuor_um_ uestigia seq_ue_ris magnificorum.
+Sepult_us_ i_n_ inf_er_no n_oste_r hostis _et_ adu_er_sarius, fructus
+viarum suaru_m_ condignos iam colligit, quos uiu_us_ promerebatur. Luctum
+_et_ miseriam q_u_am senectuti mee malignus ille inf_er_re disposuerat,
+u_er_sa uice, clementia diuina conuertit in tripudium[363]. Quamobre_m_ in
+p_re_senti accipe, quod tuis m_er_itis exigentib_us_ debetur, eciam si
+filius meus non esses, _et_ si m_ih_i iure h_er_editario non succederes;
+ecce iam, cedo, _et_ regnu_m_ Anglor_um_ uoluntatis tue arbitrio deinceps
+committo; etas enim mea fragilis _et_ iam decrepita, regni ceptrum ulterius
+sustinere no_n_ sufficit. Iccirco te fili desid_er_atissime, uicem meam
+supplere te co_n_uenit, _et_ corpus meu_m_ senio _con_fectum, donec
+morientis oculos clauseris, quieti t_r_ad_er_e liberiori, vt a curis _et_
+secularib_us_ sollicitudinibus, quib_us_ discerpor lib_er_atus, p_re_cibus
+uacem _et_ _con_te_m_plac_i_oni. Armis hucusq_ue_ mat_er_ialib_us_
+dimicaui: restat {225} ut de cet_er_o uita mea q_ue_ sup_er_est, militia
+sit sup_er_ t_er_ram _con_t_r_a hostes sp_irit_uales.
+
+"Ego u_er_o pro incolumitate tua _et_ regni statu, q_uo_d strenuitati tue,
+O anime mee dimidiu_m_, ia_m_ _com_misi, preces quales mea, sci[t][364]
+simplicitas _et_ potest i_m_becillitas, Deo fundam indefessas. S_ed_ q_uia_
+temp_us_ perbreue amodo m_ih_i restat, _et_ corpori meo solum s_upe_rest
+sepulchru_m_, aure_m_ benigna_m_ meis accomoda salutaribus consiliis, _et_
+cor credulu_m_ meis monitis i_n_clina magnificis. Uerum ip_s_os qui
+nobiscum c_ontr_a hostes publicos, Riganu_m_ videlicet _et_ Mitunnu_m_
+[Sidenote: Fol. 5 _a_] | _et_ eor_um_ complices emulos n_ost_ros
+fidelit_er_ steter_un_t, _et_ periculoso discrimini pro nobis se
+opposuer_un_t, p_ate_rno amore t_ib_i co_m_mendo, diligendos, honorandos,
+promouendos. Eos aute_m_ qui dec_r_epite sen_e_ctutis mee membra[365]
+debilia _con_te_m_ptui h_abe_re ausi s_un_t, asserentes u_er_ba mea _et_
+regalia p_re_cepta e_ss_e sinilia delirame_n_ta, p_re_sumentes tem_er_e
+apice regali me priuato te exheredare, susp_e_ctos habe _et_
+co_n_te_m_ptibiles, si qui sint elapsi ab hoc bello, _et_ a tuo gladio
+deuorante, eciam cu_m_ eor_um_ post_er_itate: ne cu_m_ in ramusculos
+uir_us_ pullulet, a radice aliquid _con_simile t_ib_i gen_er_etur in
+posteru_m_. No_n_ eni_m_ recolo me talem eor_um_ promeruisse, q_u_i me _et_
+te filiu_m_ meu_m_ gratis oderunt, persecuc_i_one_m_. Similit_er_ eos, quos
+d_i_c_t_i proditores pro eo q_uo_d nobis fideliter adhes_er_ant, exulare
+coeg_er_unt, u_e_l qui impote_n_tes rabiem eor_um_ fugiendo resist_er_e, ad
+horam declinau_er_unt, cu_m_ omni mansuetudi_n_e studeas reuocare, _et_
+honores eor_um_ cu_m_ possessionib_us_ ex innata t_ib_i regali
+munific_e_ntia, graci_us_ ampliare. Laus industrie tue _et_ fame
+p_re_conia, _et_ strenuitatis tue titulus, q_ue_ adolesc_e_nciam tuam
+diuinit_us_ illustraru_n_t, in posterum de te maiora p_ro_m_i_ttu_n_t.
+Desid_er_anti animo sicient_er_ affecto, ip_su_mq_ue_ Deu_m_, qui te
+t_ib_i, sua mera gr_aci_a reddidit _et_ restaurauit, dep_re_cor affectuose,
+vt has iuuentutis tue primicias, h_oc_ i_n_opinato t_r_iumpho subarratas,
+melior semp_er_ ac splendidior op_er_um gl_ori_a subseq_u_atur. Et procul
+dubio post morte_m_ meam (que non longe abest, iubente D_omi_no) fame tue
+magnitudo per orbem uniu_er_su_m_ dilatabitur, _et_ felix suscipiet
+inc_r_ementu_m_. Et q_ue_ D_e_o placita sunt, opere felici consumabis,
+q_ue_ diuinitus p_ro_sp_er_abunt_ur_."
+
+{226}
+
+Hec aute_m_ filius deuotus _et_ mansuet_us_, licet magnific_us_
+t_r_iumphator exaudiss_et_ _et_ intenta aure intellexiss_et_, flexis
+genib_us_ _et_ iunctis manib_us_, _et_ exundantib_us_ oculis, p_at_ri suo
+grates[366] rettulit accumulatas. Rex itaq_ue_ per fines Anglie missis
+nunciis expeditissimis, q_u_i ma_n_data regia detuler_un_t, tocius dicionis
+sue conuocat nobilitatem. Que conuocata ex reg_is_ precepto, _et_
+persuasione, Offano filio suo unigenito ligiam fecerunt fidelitatem _et_
+homagiu_m_ in p_at_ris presencia. Quod _et_ om_ne_s, animo uolenti, i_m_mo
+gaudenti, co_m_munit_er_ perfec_er_unt.
+
+Rex igitur q_ue_m pocius prona voluntas, q_u_a_m_ uigor prouexit
+corporalis, per climata regni sui proficiscitur secur_us_ _et_ letabundus,
+nullo _contr_adicente, u_e_l impediente, ut regni munic_i_o_ne_s _et_
+varias possessiones, diu per inimicos suos alienatas _et_ iniuste ac
+uiolent_er_ possessas, ad sue dic_i_onis reacciperet iure potestate_m_. Que
+o_mn_ia sibi sunt s_i_n_e_ difficultate u_e_l more dispendio restituta.
+Statimq_ue_ p_ate_r filium eoru_m_ possessionib_us_ corporaliter
+inuestiuit; _et_ p_ate_rno contulit aff_e_c_t_u ac gratuito, proc_er_ib_us_
+[Sidenote: Fol. 5 _b_] co_n_gaude_n_|tib_us_ super hoc uniuersis. Post hec
+autem, Rex filio suo Offano erarium suum adaperiens, auru_m_ suu_m_ _et_
+argentu_m_, uasa co_n_cupiscibilia, gemmas, oloserica omnia, sue subdidit
+potestati. Sicq_ue_ subactis _et_ subt_r_actis hostibus[367] cunctis,
+aliquandiu per uniu_er_sum regnu_m_ uiguit pax _et_ securitas diu
+desiderabilis.
+
+Rex igitur filii sui prosperitate gauisus, qui _eciam_ diatim de bono i_n_
+melius gradatim ascendit, aliquo tempore uite sue metas distulit naturales:
+iubilus quoq_ue_ in corde senis conceptus languores seniles plurimu_m_
+mitigauit. Tandem Rex plenus dierum, cu_m_ b_e_n_e_dicc_i_one omniu_m_, qui
+ip_su_m _eciam_ a remotis[368] partib_us_ p_er_ fama_m_ cognou_er_unt[369],
+nature debita persoluens decessit. Et decedens, filio suo apice_m_ regni
+sui pacatum _et_ quietu_m_ reliquit: Offan_us_ aute_m_ oculos p_at_ris sui
+pie claudens, lamentaciones mensurnas cum magnis eiulatibus, lac_r_imis
+_et_ specialib_us_ planctib_us_ (prout moris t_un_c erat principibus
+magnificis) lugubriter pro tanto funere continuauit. Obsequiisq_ue_ cu_m_
+exequiis, magnifice tam in ecc_lesi_a q_u_am in locis forinsecis conpletis,
+apparatu regio _et_ loco celeberrimo _et_ nominatissimo.
+
+{227} regibus _con_digno, videlicet i_n_ eminenc_i_ori ecc_lesi_a penes
+Glou_er_nia_m_ urbem egregiam, eidem exhiberi iubet sepulturam. Offanus
+aute_m_ cu_m_ morib_us_ o_mn_ibus foret redimitus, elegans corp_or_e, armis
+strenuus, munificus _et_ benignus, post obitum p_at_ris sui magnifici
+Warmundi[370], cui_us_ mores tractatus exigit speciales, plenarie
+o_mn_iu_m_ p_r_incipum Regni d_omi_nium suscipit, _et_ debitu_m_ cum omni
+deuoc_i_one, _et_ mera uoluntate, famulatu_m_. Cum igitur cui_us_dam
+sole_m_pnitatis arrid_er_et serenitas, Offanus cu_m_ solle_m_pni t_r_ipudio
+o_mn_ib_us_ applaudentibus _et_ faustum omen acclama_n_tibus, Anglie
+diademate feliciter est i_n_signit_us_.
+
+Adquiescens _i_gi_tur_ senior_um_ co_n_siliis _et_ sapientum
+persuasionib_us_, cepit tocius regni irrep_re_h_e_nsibil_ite_r, immo
+laudabiliter, habenas[371] modernanter _et_ sapient_er_ gubernare. Sic
+igitur, subactis hostib_us_ regni uniu_er_sis, uiguit pax secura _et_
+firmata i_n_ finib_us_ Anglor_um_, p_er_ te_m_pora longa; precipue t_ame_n
+p_er_ spaciu_m_ temp_or_is qui_n_q_ue_nnale. Erat au_tem_ iam t_r_iginta
+q_u_atuor annos etatis attingens, annis prospere pubescentib_us_.
+
+Et cum Rex, more iuuenili, venatus gr_aci_a per nemora frequent_er_, cu_m_
+suis ad h_oc_ conuocatis uenatorib_us_ _et_ canibus sagacib_us_, expeditus
+peragrasset, contigit die quada_m_ quod aere turbato, longe a suor_um_
+cat_er_ua semotus, solus p_er_ nemoris opaca penitus ipsoru_m_ locor_um_,
+n_e_cnon _et_ fortune ignar_us_, casu deambulabat. Du_m_ aute_m_ sic per
+ignota diu_er_ticula i_n_caucius oberraret, _et_ per inuia, uocem
+lac_r_imabilem _et_ miserabiliter q_ue_rulam haut longe a se audiuit.
+Cui_us_ sonitu_m_ secutus, int_er_ densos frutices [Sidenote: Fol. 6 _a_] |
+virginem singularis forme _et_ regii apparat_us_, s_ed_ decore
+uenustissimam, ex insperato repperit. Rex uero rei euentu_m_ admirans, que
+ibi ageret et querele causas, eam blande alloq_ue_ns, cepit sciscitari. Que
+ex imo pectoris flebilia t_r_ahens suspiria, regi respondit (neq_u_aq_u_am
+in auctorem s_ed_ in seip_s_am reatum retorquens): "Peccatis meis" inquit
+"exigentib_us_ infortunii hui_us_ calamitas m_ih_i accidit." Erat aute_m_
+reguli cui_us_dam filia q_u_i Eboracensibus preerat. Hui_us_
+inco_m_parabilis pulchritudinis singulare_m_ eminentiam p_ate_r admirans,
+amatorio demone seductus, cep_i_t ea_m_ incestu libidinoso concupisc_er_e,
+_et_ ad amorem illicitu_m_ sepe sollicitare ipsam puellam, {228} minis,
+pollicitis, blanditiis, atq_ue_ mun_er_ibus adolescentule temptans emollire
+_con_stantiam. Illa autem op_er_i nephario nullatenus adquiescens, cum
+p_ate_r t_ame_n minas minis exaggeraret[372], _et_ promissa promissis
+accumularet, mun_er_a mun_er_ib_us_ adaugeret, iuxta illud poeticu_m_:
+
+Imperium, promissa, preces, confudit in unu_m_:
+
+elegit magis incidere i_n_ manus ho_m_i_n_u_m_, _et_ eciam ferarum
+qualiumcunq_ue_, vel gladii subire sent_e_ntiam, q_u_am D_e_i offensam
+incurrere, p_ro_ tam g_r_aui culpa manifestam. Pater itaq_ue_ ipsam sibi
+parere _con_stanter renuentem, euocatis quibusdam maligne me_n_tis
+hominib_us_ quos ad hoc elegerat, p_re_cepit eam i_n_ desertum solitudinis
+remote duci, u_e_l pocius t_r_ahi, _et_ crudelissima morte
+conde_m_pnata_m_, bestiis i_b_id_em_ d_e_relinq_u_i. Qui cum in locu_m_
+horroris _et_ vaste solitudinis p_er_uenissent, trahentes eam seductores
+illi, Deo ut creditur inspirante, miserti pulch_r_itudinis[373] illius eam
+ibidem sine t_r_ucidac_i_one _et_ me_m_b_r_or_um_ mutilac_i_one, uiuam,
+s_ed_ t_ame_n sine aliquoru_m_ uictualiu_m_ alimento (exceptis talib_us_
+qui de radicibus _et_ frondib_us_ uel h_er_bis colligi, urgente ultima
+fame, possunt) dimiserunt.
+
+Cum hac rex aliq_u_andiu habens sermonem, comitem itineris sui illam
+habuit, don_e_c solitarii cui_us_da_m_ habitac_i_one_m_ reperissent, ubi
+nocte s_upe_rueniente quiescentes pernoctau_er_unt. In c_r_astinu_m_ autem
+solitarius ille uiarum _et_ semitaru_m_ peritus, regem cu_m_ comite sua
+usq_ue_ ad fines domesticos, _et_ loca regi no_n_ ignota[374] conduxit. Ad
+suos itaq_ue_ rex rediens, desolate illius q_u_am nup_er_ inuenerat curam
+gerens, familiarib_us_ _et_ domesticis generis sui sub diligenti custodia
+co_m_misit.
+
+Post hec aliq_u_ot annis elapsis, cu_m_ rex celibem age_n_s uitam, mente
+castus _et_ corpore perseueraret, proceres dic_i_onis sue, no_n_ solum de
+tunc p_re_senti, s_ed_ de fut_ur_o sibi periculo precauentes, _et_
+nimiru_m_ multum solliciti, d_omi_n_u_m suum de uxore ducenda unanimiter
+_con_uenerunt: ne sibi _et_ regno successorem _et_ heredem no_n_ habens,
+post obitum ipsi_us_ iminens p_er_iculum generaret. Etatis eni_m_ iuuenilis
+pubertas, moru_m_ maturitas, _et_ urgens regni necessitas, n_e_cno_n_ _et_
+honoris dignitas, itide_m_ postularu_n_t. [Sidenote: Fol. 6 _b_] | Et cum
+super hoc negocio, sepius regem {229} sollicitarentur, _et_ alloquerentur,
+ipse multociens ioculando, _et_ talia u_er_ba asserendo int_er_ludia fuisse
+uanitatis, procerum suoru_m_ constantiam dissimulando differendoq_ue_
+delusit. Quod quidam adu_er_tentes, co_m_municato cu_m_ aliis consilio,
+regem ad nubendu_m_ incuntabiliter urgere ceperunt. Rex uero more optimi
+principis, cui_us_ primordia iam bene subarrauerat, nolens uoluntati
+magnatu_m_ suor_um_ resistere, diu secum de thori socia, libra profunde
+r_ati_onis, studiose cepit deliberare. Cu_m_q_ue_ hoc in mente sua
+sollicicius tractaret, uen_i_t forte i_n_ mente_m_ suam illius iuuencule
+memoria, q_u_am dudum inter uenandum i_n_uenit uagabundam, solam, feris
+_et_ predonibus miserabiliter expositam: quam ad tuciora ducens,
+familiaribus gen_er_is sui co_m_mis_er_at alendam, ac carius custodiendam.
+Que, ut rex audiuit, morib_us_ laudabiliter redimita, decoris existens
+exp_ec_tabilis, omnibus sibi cognitis amabilem exhibuit _et_ laudabilem;
+hec igit_ur_ sola, relictis multis, _eciam_ regalis stematis sibi oblatis,
+complacuit; illamq_ue_ solam i_n_ matrimoniu_m_ sibi adoptauit.
+
+Cum aute_m_ eam duxisset in uxorem, non int_er_ueniente m_u_lta mora,
+elegantissime forme utriusq_ue_ sexus liberos ex eadem procreauit. Itaq_ue_
+cum p_r_ius e_ss_et rex propria seueritate subditis suis formidabilis,
+magnates eius, n_e_cnon _et_ populus eius uniu_er_sus, heredum _et_
+successor_um_ apparentia animati, regni robur _et_ leticiam geminar_un_t.
+Rex q_u_o_que_ ab uniu_er_sis suis, _et_ no_n_ solum prope positis, i_m_mo
+alienigenis _et_ remotis, extit_i_t honori, uen_er_ac_i_oni, ac
+dilecc_i_oni. Et cu_m_ inter se in Britannia, (q_ue_ tunc temporis in
+plurima regna multiphariam diuisa fuisset) reg_u_li sibi finitimi
+hostilit_er_ se impet_er_ent, solus Rex Offa pace regni sui potitus
+felicit_er_, se sibiq_ue_ s_u_bditos in pace regebat _et_ lib_er_tate. Unde
+_et_ adiacencium prouinciarum reges ei_us_ mendicabant auxilium, _et_ i_n_
+necc_ess_itatis articulo, consiliu_m_.
+
+Rex itaq_ue_ Northamhi_m_bror_um_, a barbara Scotor_um_ gente, _et eciam_
+aliquib_us_ suor_um_, _gr_auit_er_ _et_ usq_ue_ f_er_me ad
+int_er_nec_i_onem percussus, _et_ proprie defensionis auxilio destitutus,
+ad Offam regem potentem legatos destinat; _et_ pacificum supplicans, ut
+p_re_sidii eius solacio cont_r_a hostes suos roboretur. Tali mediante
+_con_dic_i_one, ut Offe filiam sibi matrimonio copularet, _et_ non se
+proprii regni, _sed_ Offam, primarium ac {230} principem preferr_et_, _et_
+se cu_m_ suis om_n_ib_us_ ip_s_i subiugaret. Nichil itaq_ue_ dotis cum Offe
+filia rogitauit, hoc sane contentus premio, ut a regni sui finibus barbaros
+illos potenter _et_ frequenter experta fugaret strenuitate.
+
+Cum autem legatorum uerba rex Offa succepisset, consilio suorum fretus
+[Sidenote: Fol. 7 _a_] sup|plicantis uoluntati ac precibus adquieuit si
+t_ame_n rex ille pactum huiusmodi, tactis sac_ro_s_an_c_t_is
+euuangeliis[375], _et_ obsidum tradic_i_one, fideliter tenendum
+confirmaret. Sic igitur Rex Offa, super hiis condic_i_onib_us_ sub c_er_ta
+forma co_n_firmatus, _et_ ad plenum certificatus, in partes illas cu_m_
+equitum numerosa multitudine proficiscitur. Cum autem illuc perueniss_et_,
+timore eius consternata pars aduersa cessit, fuge presidio se saluando.
+Quam t_ame_n rex Offa audacter prosecutus, non prius destitit fugare
+fugientem, donec eam ex integro contriuisset; s_ed_ nec eo contentus,
+ulteri_us_ progreditur, barbaros expugnaturus. Int_er_ea ad patriam suam
+nunciu_m_ i_m_p_er_itu_m_ destinau_i_t, ad primates et precipuos regni sui,
+quib_us_ tocius dic_i_onis sue regimen commendau_er_at, et lit_er_as regii
+sigilli sui munimine co_n_signatas[376], eidem nunc_i_o commisit,
+deferendas. Q_u_i autem destinatus fuit, iter arripiens u_er_sus Offe
+regnum, ut casu accidit int_er_ eundu_m_, hospitandi gr_aci_a aulam regiam
+introiuit illi_us_ regis, cuius filiam Offa sibi m_at_rimo_n_io
+copulau_er_at. Rex au_tem_ ille, cum de statu _et_ causa itineris sui
+subdole requirendo cognouisset, uultus sui serenitate animi u_er_suciam
+mentitus, specie ten_us_ illum amantissime suscepit: _et_ uelamen sceleris
+sui querens, a conspectu publico sub quodam dilecc_i_onis pretexu, ad regii
+thalami secreta penetralia ip_su_m nuncium nichil sinist_r_i suspicantem
+introduxit: magnoq_ue_ studio elaborauit, ut ip_su_m, uino estuanti
+madentem, redderet temulentum, et ip_s_o nuncio uel dormiente uel aliquo
+alio modo ignorante, mandata d_omi_ni sui regis Offe tacit_us_ ac subdolus
+apertis _et_ explicatis lit_er_is persc_r_utabatur; cepitq_ue_ perniciose
+immutare et p_er_uertere sub Offe nomine sigillu_m_ adultera_n_s,
+fallacesq_ue_ _et_ perniciosas literas loco inuentarum occultauit. Forma
+autem adulterinar_um_ [l_ite_rar_um_][377] hec est q_ue_ subscribitur[378]:
+
+{231}
+
+[379]"Rex Offa, maioribus et p_re_cipuis regni sui, salutis et
+prosperitatis augmentu_m_. Uniu_er_sitati u_est_re notum facio, i_n_
+itin_er_e quod arripui infortunia _et_ adu_er_sa plurima tam michi q_u_am
+subditis meis accidisse, _et_ maiores excercitus mei, non ignauia propria,
+u_e_l hostium oppugnantium uirtute, set pocius peccatis n_ost_ris iusto Dei
+iudicio interisse. Ego autem instantis periculi causam p_er_tracta_n_s,
+_et_ consciencie mee intima perscrutatus, i_n_ memetip_s_o nichil aliud
+conicio altissimo displicere, nisi quod perditam _et_ maleficam illa_m_
+absq_ue_ meorum consensu uxorem imperito _et_ infelici duxi matrimonio. Ut
+ergo de malefica memorata, uoluntati u_est_re ad plenum q_u_a_m_ temere
+offendi satisfiat, asportetur cum lib_er_is ex ea genitis ad loca deserta,
+ho_m_i_ni_b_us_ i_n_cognita[380], [Sidenote: Fol. 7 _b_] | feris _et_
+auib_us_ aut siluestribus predonibus frequentata: ubi cum pueris suis
+puerpera, truncata manus et pedes, exemplo pereat inaudito."
+
+Nuncius autem mane facto, uino quo maduerat digesto, co_m_pos iam sui
+effectus, discessit: et post aliquot dies perueniens ad propria,
+magnatib_us_ qui regno regis Offe p_re_erant literas do_mi_ni sui sigillo
+signatas exposuit. In quar_um_ auditu perlecta mandati serie, in stuporem
+_et_ uehementissimam admirac_i_one_m_ uniu_er_si, plus q_u_am dici possit,
+rapiuntur. Et super hiis, aliquot diebus co_m_municato cum magnatibus
+consilio deliberantes, periculosum ducebant[381] mandatis ac iussionib_us_
+regiis non obtemperare. Misera _i_gi_tur_ seducta, deducta est in
+remotissimu_m_ _et_ i_n_habitabilem locum horroris et uaste solitudinis:
+cu_m_ qua eciam liberi ei_us_ miseri _et_ miserabiles queruli _et_
+uagientes, absq_ue_ mi_sericordi_a, ut cu_m_ ea t_r_ahere_n_t_ur_
+occidendi, iudiciu_m_ acceperu_n_t.
+
+Nec mora, memorati apparitores matre_m_ cu_m_ pignorib_us_ suis in
+des_er_tu_m_ uastissimu_m_ t_r_aheba_n_t. Mat_r_i uero p_ro_pt_er_ ei_us_
+forma_m_ admirabile_m_ p_ar_ce_n_tes, lib_er_os ei_us_, n_e_c forme, n_e_c
+sexui, etati u_e_l _con_dic_i_oni p_ar_c_e_ntes, d_e_truncarunt menbratim,
+i_m_mo poci_us_ frustatim[382] crudeliter in bestialem feritate_m_
+seuientes. Completaq_ue_ tam crudeli sente_n_cia, cruenti apparitores ocius
+reuertunt_ur_. Nec mora, solitarius quidam uitam in omni s_an_c_t_itate,
+uigiliis assiduis, ieiuniis crebris, _et_ continuis {232} or_ati_onib_us_,
+ducens heremiticam, circa noctis crepusculum eo p_er_t_r_ansie_n_s,
+mulieris cuiusdam luctus lac_r_imabiles _et_ querelas usq_ue_ ad intima
+cordis _et_ ossuum[383] medullas penetratiuas, quas D_omi_n_u_s ex
+mortuorum corporib_us_ licet lac_er_atis elicuit, audiuit.
+Infantulorumq_ue_ uagitus lugubres nimis cu_m_ doloris ululatibus quasi in
+materno sinu audiendo similiter annotauit. Mis_er_icordia autem s_an_c_tus_
+Dei motus, usq_ue_ ad lacrimaru_m_ aduberem effusionem, quo ipsa uox
+ip_su_m uocabat, Domino ducente peruenit. Et cu_m_ illuc peruenisset, nec
+aliud q_u_am corp_or_a humana in frusta detruncata reperisset,
+cognouit[384] in sp_irit_u ip_s_a alicuius innocentis corp_us_, uel
+aliquorum i_n_nocentiu_m_ corpuscula extitisse, que tam inhumanam
+sentenciam subierunt. Nec sine martirii palma, ipsos quorum hee fuerunt
+exuuie, ab h_oc_[385] sec_u_lo t_r_ansmigrasse suspicabatur. Auxiliu_m_
+t_ame_n pro D_e_i amore _et_ caritatis intuitu postulatu_m_ non denegans,
+se pro illorum reparac_i_one prostrauit in deuotissima_m_ cum lacrimis
+or_aci_onem, maxime propter uocem celitus emissam, quam profecto
+cognou_i_t[384] p_er_ D_eu_m li_n_g_u_as cadau_er_u_m_ p_ro_tulisse. Piis
+_i_gi_tur_ s_an_c_tu_s _com_mot_us_ uisc_er_ib_us_, igneq_ue_ succe_n_s_us_
+caritatis, ex cognic_i_one[386] ei_us_, q_u_am, ut ia_m_ d_i_c_tu_m,
+dudu_m_ uiderat, h_ab_uit, f_a_c_tus_ hilarior, pro ipsis [Sidenote: Fol. 8
+_a_] | flexis genib_us_, inundantibus oculis, iunctisq_ue_ palmis orauit,
+dicens: "D_omi_ne Jesu Ch_rist_e, q_u_i Lazarum quatriduanu_m_ ac fetidum
+resuscitasti, immo qui omniu_m_ n_ostro_r_u_m corpora i_n_ ext_r_emo
+examine suscitabis, u_est_ram oro mis_er_icordiam, ut non habens ad me
+peccatorem, s_ed_ ad horum innocentum pressuras respectu_m_ piissimu_m_,
+corpuscula h_ec_ iubeas resuscitari, ad laudem _et_ gloriam tuam i_n_
+se_m_pit_er_nu_m_, vt om_ne_s qui mortis horum causam _et_ forma_m_
+audierint, te glorificent Deum _et_ Dominum mundi Saluatorem."
+
+Sic igitur s_an_c_tu_s iste, D_omi_ni de fidei sue[387] uirtute i_n_ Domino
+presumens _et_ co_n_fidens, int_er_ orandum, membra p_re_cisa
+recollige_n_s, _et_ sibi particulas adaptans _et_ coniungens, _et_ i_n_
+q_u_antum potuit redintegrans, in parciu_m_ q_u_amplurimu_m_, set in
+integritate_m_ pocius delectat_us_, Domino rei consummac_i_onem q_u_i
+mortificat _et_ uiuificat co_m_mendauit. Coniuncta igitur corpora, signo
+crucis triumphali consignauit. Mira fidei uirtus et {233} efficacia, signo
+c_r_ucis uiuifice et or_ati_onis ac fidei serui D_e_i uirtute, no_n_
+solu_m_ m_at_ris orbate anim_us_ reparat_ur_, s_ed_ _et_ filior_um_
+corp_us_cula in pristinu_m_ _et_ integrum nature sunt reformata decorem,
+necnon _et_ anime mortuor_um_ ad sua pristina domicilia sunt reuerse. Ad
+mansiuncule igitur sue septa (a qua elongatus fuerat, gr_aci_a lignor_um_
+ad pulmentaria deq_u_oquenda colligendor_um_) ip_s_e senex: qui prius
+detruncati fuerant, Domino iubente integ_r_i uiui _et_ alacres sunt
+reuersi, ducem s_an_c_tu_m suum sequentes pedetentim. Ubi more patris,
+ip_s_am desolatam cum liberis sibi ip_s_is restitutis, alimentis quibus
+potuit, _et_ q_ue_ ad manum habuit, pie ac misericordit_er_ _con_fouebat.
+
+Nesciens _er_go quo migraret regina, cu_m_ suis infantulis intra
+uastissimam heremum cum memorato solitario, diu moram ibidem
+or_ati_onib_us_, uigiliis, ac aliis s_an_c_ti_s operibus eius intenta _et_
+iamiam conuenienter informata, _et_ edulio siluestri sustentata,
+co_n_tinuabat. Post duoru_m_ uero mensium curricula, Rex Offa
+uictoriosissimus domu_m_ let_us_ remeauit, spolia deuictorum suis
+magnatib_us_ regali munificentia gloriose distribuendo; uerunt_ame_n, ne
+lacrime gaudia regis, _et_ eoru_m_ q_u_i cum eo aduen_er_ant,
+miserabilit_er_ int_er_rump_er_ent, consiliarii regii q_u_e de regina _et_
+lib_er_is ei_us_ accid_er_a_n_t, diu sub silenc_i_o caute dissimulando,
+_et_ causas absencie eius fictas annectendo, _con_celabant. Tandem cu_m_
+rex uehement_er_ admiraretur ubinam regina delituisset, q_ue_ ip_s_i regi
+ab ancipiti bello reu_er_tenti occurrisse gaudenter teneretur, _et_ in
+oscul_is_ _et_ amplexib_us_ ceteris gaudentius t_r_iumphatore_m_
+aduentante_m_ suscepisse, sciscitabatur instanti_us_, _et_ toruius _et_
+p_ro_t_er_uius, quid de ip_s_a fieret uel euenisset. Suspicabatur eni_m_
+eam morbo detenta_m_, ipsa_m_q_ue_ cu_m_ lib_er_is [Sidenote: Fol. 8 _b_] |
+suis, regis _et_ aliorum hominu_m_, ut quieti uacaret, frequentiam
+declinasse. Tande_m_ cum iratus nullatenus se uelle ampli_us_ ignorare,
+cu_m_ iuramento, q_u_id de uxore sua _et_ lib_er_is euenisset, uultu toruo
+asseruisset, unus ex edituis omnia q_ue_ accid_er_ant, de tirannico ei_us_
+mandato, _et_ mandati plenaria execuc_i_one, seriatim enarrauit.
+
+Hiis auditis, risus in luctu_m_, gaudium i_n_ lamenta, iubilus in singultus
+flebilit_er_ conu_er_tuntur, totaq_ue_ regia ululatibus personuit _et_
+merorib_us_. Lugensq_ue_ rex diu ta_m_ i_m_mane infortuniu_m_, induit se
+sacco cilicino, aspersum cin_er_e, ac multiplicit_er_ {234} deformatum.
+Tandem monitu suorum, qui dicebant n_on_ uiror_um_ magnificor_um_ s_ed_
+pocius effeminator_um_, dolorem int_er_iecto solacio nolle temperare[388],
+e_ss_e propriu_m_ _et_ _con_suetudine_m_, rex cepit respirare, _et_ dolori
+modu_m_ imponere. Consilio igitur p_er_itorum, qui nouerant regem
+libent_er_ i_n_ te_m_pore p_ro_sp_er_o in studio uenatico plurimu_m_
+delectari, conuocantur uenatores, ut rex spaciaturus uenando, dolorem
+suu_m_ diminueret _et_ luctu_m_ solacio demulceret. Qui int_er_ uenandum
+dum p_er_ siluaru_m_ abdita, Deo misericordiaru_m_ _et_ toci_us_
+co_n_solac[_i_]onis ducente, felicit_er_ solus per inuia oberrauit, _et_
+tandem ad heremitoriu_m_ memorati h_er_emite directe peruenit, eiusq_ue_
+exiguu_m_ domicilium subintrans, humaniss[_im_]e _et_ cu_m_ su_m_mo gaudio
+receptus _est_. Et cu_m_ humili residens sedili, membra[389] fatigata
+quieti daret ad horam, recolens qual_ite_r uxore_m_ sua_m_ ibidem quonda_m_
+diuinitus reperisset, _et_ feliciter educasset, _et_ educatam duxisset i_n_
+uxorem, _et_ q_u_am elegantem ex ea prolem p_ro_tulisset, eruperunt lacrime
+cu_m_ gemitibus, _et_ in querelas lugubres ora resoluens, hospiti suo
+sinistru_m_ de uxore sua q_u_i[390] infausto sidere nup_er_ euen_er_at
+qua_m_ _et_ ip_s_e q_u_onda_m_ viderat, enarrauit. At senex sereno uultu,
+factus ex intrinsecus concepto gaudio alacrior, consolatus est regem, et in
+uocem exultac_i_o_n_is eminus prorumpens: "Eia d_omi_ne mi rex, eia, ait;
+uere Deus misericordiar_um_, D_omi_n_u_s, famulos suos quasi p_ate_r filios
+in omni t_r_ibulacione p_ost_ pressuras consolatur, percutit _et_ medetur,
+deicit ut gloriosius eleuet pregrauatum. Uiuit uxor tua, cum lib_er_is tuis
+in o_mn_i sospitate restauratis: non meis m_er_itis, s_ed_ poci_us_ tuis,
+integritati, sanitati _et_ leticie pleni_us_ qui trucidabantur
+restituunt_ur_. Recognosce[391] q_u_anta fecit t_ib_i D_omi_n_u_s, _et_ in
+laudes et gr_aci_ar_um_ acciones tot_us_ exurge." Tunc prosiliens
+s_an_c_tu_s pre gaudio, euocauit reginam, que in int_er_iori diu_er_ticulo,
+pueros suos balneo micius m_ate_rno studio _con_fouebat. Que cu_m_ ad regem
+int_r_oisset, uix se [Sidenote: Fol. 9 _a_] | gaudio capiens, pedibus
+mariti sui p_ro_uoluta, in lacrimis exultac_i_onis inundauit. In cuius
+amplexus desid_er_atissimos rue_n_s rex, ipsam in maius q_u_am dici possit
+gaudiu_m_ suscepit. Interi_m_ senex, pueros elegantissimos _et_ ex
+abluc_i_one elegantiores, uestit, comit, _et_ p_ate_rno more _et_
+aff_e_c_t_u componit, _et_ ad p_re_sentiam p_at_ris _et_ matris
+int_r_oducit. Quos p_ate_r int_r_a {235} b_r_achia suscipiens, _et_ ad
+pectus arctiorib_us_ amplexib_us_ applicans, roseis uultib_us_ infantu_m_
+oscula i_m_p_r_imit m_u_ltiplicata; quos t_ame_n rore lac_r_imarum, p_re_
+nimia mentis exultac_i_one, madefecit. Et cu_m_ diucius eor_um_ colloquiis
+pasceret_ur_, co_n_u_er_sus rex ad senem, ait: "O p_ate_r s_anct_e, p_ate_r
+dulcissime[392], me_n_tis mee reparator, _et_ gaudii cordis mei
+restaurator, qua merita u_est_ra, caritatis officia, pietatisq_ue_
+beneficia, p_ro_seq_u_ar remun_er_ac[_i_]one? Accipe _er_go, licet m_u_lto
+maiora exigant m_er_ita tua, q_u_icq_u_id erarium meu_m_ ualet effund_er_e;
+me, meos, et mea, tue expono uoluntati." At s_anctu_s, "D_omi_ne mi rex,
+non decet me peccatore_m_ conu_er_su_m_ ad Do_mi_n_u_m, ad insanias quas
+reliqui falsas respicere. Tu uero pocius pro a_n_i_m_ab_us_ p_at_ris tui
+_et_ matris tue, quib_us_ q_u_andoq_ue_ car_us_ fuera_m_ ac familiaris,
+_et_ tua, _et_ uxoris tue, _et_ lib_er_or_um_ tuor_um_ corporali sanitate,
+_et_ salute sp_irit_uali, regni tui soliditate, _et_ successor_um_ tuor_um_
+p_ro_sp_er_itate, Deo gratus, qui tot in te congessit beneficia, cenobium
+quodda_m_ fundare, u_e_l aliquod dirutu_m_ studeas restaurare: in quo digne
+_et_ laudabiliter Deo in perpetuum s_er_uiatur; _et_ tui memoria cu_m_
+p_re_cib_us_ ad D_omi_n_u_m fusis, cu_m_ b_e_n_e_diccionib_us_ semp_er_
+recenter recolatur." Et _con_u_er_sus ad reginam, ait, "Et tu, filia,
+q_u_amuis mulier, no_n_ t_ame_n muliebrit_er_, ad hoc regem accendas _et_
+admoneas diligenter, filiosq_ue_ tuos instrui facias, ut[393] _et_
+D_omi_n_u_m D_eu_m, qui eos uite reparauit, studeant g_r_atant_er_
+honorare, _et_ eidem fidelit_er_ famulando fundandi cenobii possessiones
+ampliare, _et_ tueri libertates."
+
+Desc_e_nsus ad sec_un_d_u_m Offa_m_.
+
+Sanctus autem ad cellam reu_er_sus, post paucu_m_ temporis ab i_n_colatu
+h_uiu_s mundi migrauit ad D_omi_n_u_m, m_er_cedem et_er_nam pro labore
+temporali recepturus. Rex au_tem_, cito monita ipsius salubria da_n_s
+obliuioni _et_ incurie, ex tunc ocio ac paci uacauit: prolemq_ue_ copiosam
+utriusq_ue_ sexus expectabilis pulch_r_itudinis procreauit. Unde semen
+regium a latere _et_ descensu felix suscepit incrementu_m_. Qui co_m_pleto
+vite sue tempore, post etatem bonam q_u_ieuit in pace, _et_ regaliter
+sepultus, appositus _est_ ad patres suos; in eo multu_m_ redarguend_us_,
+quod cenobium[394] uotiuo aff_ect_u repromissu_m_, thesauris parcendo no_n_
+construxit. Post {236} uictorias eni_m_ a D_omin_o[395] sibi collatas,
+amplexib_us_ _et_ ignauie n_e_cno_n_ auaricie plus equo indulsit.
+P_ro_speritas eni_m_ secularis, animos, licet [Sidenote: Fol. 9 _b_]
+uir|iles, solet frequenter effeminare. Ueru_n_tamen hoc onus humeris filii
+sui moritu_r_us apposuit: qui cum deuota assercione, illud sibi suscepit.
+S_ed_ nec ipse Deo auerso pollicita, prout p_at_ri suo promiserat,
+compleuit; set filio suo huius uoti obligac_i_onem i_n_ fine uite sue
+dereliquit. Et sic memorati uoti uinculum, sine efficacia complementi de
+p_at_re in filium descendens, usq_ue_ ad temp_or_a Pineredi filii Tuinfreth
+suspendebatur. Quibus pro pena negligentie, tale euenit i_n_fortuniu_m_, ut
+om_ne_s principes, quos Offa magnificus edomuerat, a subiecc_i_one ipsius
+Offe _et_ posteritatis sue procaciter recesseru_n_t, _et_ ip_su_m
+moriente_m_ despexerunt. Quia ut p_re_d_i_c_tu_m est, ad morte_m_
+u_er_gens, deliciis _et_ senii ualitudine marcuit eneruatus.
+
+De ortu secundi Offe.
+
+Natus est igitur memorato Tuinfred[o][396] (_et_ qui de stemate regum
+fuit) filius, videlicet Pineredus, usq_ue_ ad annos adolescentie
+i_n_utilis, poplitib_us_ cont_r_actis, qui n_e_c oculor_um_ uel aurium
+plene officio naturali fung_er_et_ur_. Unde p_at_ri suo Tuin_fredo_ _et_
+m_at_ri sue Marcelline, oneri fuit no_n_ honori, _con_fusioni _et_ n_on_
+exultac_i_oni. Et licet unic_us_ eis fuisset, mallent prole caruisse,
+q_u_a_m_ talem habuisse. Uer_un_t_ame_n memorie reducentes euentu_m_ Offe
+magni, qui in ten_er_a etate penitus erat inutilis, _et_ postea, Deo
+propicio, penit_us_ sibi restitutus, mirabili strenuitate om_ne_s suos
+edomuit adu_er_sarios, _et_ bello p_re_pote_n_s, gloriose multociens de
+magnis hostib_us_ t_r_iu_m_phauit: spem conceperunt, quod eodem medico
+medente (Chr_ist_o uidelicet, qui _eciam_ mortuos suscitat, p_ro_piciatus)
+posset similiter uisitari _et_ sibi restitui. Pater igitur ei_us_ _et_
+m_ate_r ip_s_um pueru_m_ inito salubri consilio, i_n_ templo presentaru_n_t
+Domino, votiua deuoc_i_one firmit_er_ promitte_n_tes: "Ut si ip_su_m Deus
+restauraret, q_uo_d parentes eius negligenter omiserunt, ip_s_e puer cu_m_
+se facultas offerret fidelit_er_ adimpleret": videl_icet_ de cenobio[397],
+cui_us_ mencio p_re_libata est, honorifice construendo: uel de diruto
+restaurando. Et cum h_ec_ tam puer q_u_am p_ate_r _et_ m_ate_r deuotissime
+postularent, exaudita est or_ati_o eorum a Deo, qui se nu_n_q_u_am
+difficilem exhibet precib_us_ iustis supplicantium, hoc modo.
+
+{237}
+
+Q_u_om_od_o p_ro_sp_er_abat_ur_.
+
+Erat in eadem regione (Mercior_um_ uidelic_et_) quidam tirannus, pocius
+dest_r_uens _et_ dissipans regni nobilitatem, q_u_a_m_ rege_n_s, no_m_i_n_e
+Beormredus[398]. Hic gen_er_osos, quos regius sanguis preclaros
+[fecerat][399], usq_ue_ ad int_er_necionem subdole perseq_ue_batur,
+relegauit, _et_ occulta nece p_er_didit iugulandos. Sciebat eni_m_, q_uo_d
+uniu_er_sis de regno m_er_ito extitit odiosus; et ne aliq_u_is loco ipsius
+subrogaret_ur_ (_et_ p_re_s_er_tim de sang_u_ine regio propagatus)
+uehementer formidabat. Tetendit insuper laq_ue_os Tuinfredo _et_ uxori
+eius, ut ip_s_os de t_er_ra expelleret, u_e_l poci_us_ p_er_d_er_et
+t_r_ucidatos. [Sidenote: Fol. 10 _a_] | Puerum autem Pinefredum[400]
+spreuit, n_e_c ip_su_m querere ad perdendum dignabatur; reputa_n_s eu_m_
+inutilem _et_ ualitudinariu_m_. Fugientes igitur memorat_us_ T_uinfredus_
+_et_ uxor ei_us_ _et_ familia a facie p_er_seq_ue_ntis, sese in locis
+tucioribus receperunt, ne gen_er_ali calu_m_pnie inuolu_er_entur. Quod
+comp_er_iens Pinefredus adolescens, q_u_asi a g_r_aui so_m_pno
+expergefactus, erexit se: _et_ co_m_pagib_us_ neruor_um_ laxatis, _et_
+miraculose prot_e_nsis, sese de longa desidia redarguens, fecit alices,
+b_r_achia, crura, pedes, extendendo. Et aliquocie_n_s oscitans, cum loqui
+conaretur, solutum _est_ uinculum lingue eius, _et_ loquebatur recte,
+u_er_ba proferens ore facundo pro_m_pci_us_ articulata. Quid plura? de
+cont_r_acto, muto, _et_ ceco, fit elegans corpore, eloquens s_er_mone, acie
+p_er_spicax oculor_um_. Qui temp_or_e modico in tantam floruit ac uiguit
+strenuitatem, ut null_us_ in regno M_er_cior_um_, ip_s_i in morib_us_ _et_
+probitate m_u_ltiplici ualuit co_m_parari, unde ip_s_i Mercii,
+s_e_c_un_d_u_m Offam, _et_ n_on_ Pinefredu_m_, iam no_m_i_n_antes (q_uia_ a
+Deo respectus _et_ electus fuisset, eode_m_ m_od_o quo _et_ rex Offa filius
+regis Warmundi) cep_er_unt ip_s_i quasi D_omi_no uniu_er_salit_er_
+adherere; ip_su_mq_ue_ ia_m_ f_a_c_tu_m milite_m_, _contra_ regem
+Beormredu_m_ _et_ eius insidias, potenter ac prudent_er_ protegere, dantes
+ei dextras, _et_ fed_us_ cu_m_ ip_s_o, prestitis iuramentis, ineuntes. Quod
+audiens Beormredus, doluit, _et_ dolens timuit sibi vehement_er_.
+Penituitq_ue_ eu_m_ amarissime, ip_su_m Pinefredum[400] (qui iam Offa
+nominabat_ur_) cum cet_er_is fraudulenter no_n_ int_er_emisse....
+
+{238}
+
+[Sidenote: Fol. 11 _a_]
+
+Qualiter Offa rex uxore_m_ dux_er_it.
+
+Diebus itaq_ue_ sub eisde_m_, regnante in Francia Karolo rege magno ac
+uictoriosissimo, queda_m_ puella, facie uenusta, s_ed_ mente nimis
+i_n_honesta, ip_s_i regi co_n_sanguinea, pro quoda_m_ q_u_od pat_r_au_er_at
+c_r_imine flagiciosissimo, addicta est iudicialiter morti ignominiose;
+ueru_m_, ob regie dignitatis reuerentiam, igni uel ferro tradenda n_on_
+iudicatur, s_ed_ in nauicula armamentis carente, apposito uictu tenui,
+uentis _et_ mari, eor_um_q_ue_ ambiguis casib_us_ exponitur
+_con_de_m_pnata. Que diu uariis[401] p_ro_cellis exagitata, tande_m_
+fortuna trahente, litori Britonu_m_ est appulsa, et cu_m_ in t_er_ra
+subiecta potestati regis Offe memorata ci_m_ba applicuiss_et_,
+co_n_sp_e_ctui regis p_ro_tin__us__ p_re_sentat_ur_. Int_er_ogata au_tem_
+q_ue_nam e_ss_et, respondens, p_at_ria lingua affi_r_mauit, se Karolo regi
+F_r_ancor_um_ fuisse _con_sa_n_guinitate p_ro_pi_n_q_u_am, Dridamq_ue_
+no_m_i_n_ata_m_, s_ed_ p_er_ tirannide_m_ [Sidenote: Fol. 11 _b_] |
+quor_un_dam ignobiliu_m_ (quor_um_ nuptias ne degeneraret, spreuit) tali
+fuisse disc_r_imini adiudicatam, abortisq_ue_ lac_r_imis addidit dice_n_s,
+"Deus aute_m_ qui innocentes a laq_ue_is insidia_n_tiu_m_ lib_er_at, me
+captiuam ad alas tue p_ro_tec_i_onis, o regum serenissime, felicit_er_
+transmisit, vt meu_m_ infortuniu_m_, i_n_ auspicium fortunatu_m_
+t_r_ansmutet_ur_, _et_ beatior i_n_ exilio q_u_a_m_ in natali p_at_ria, ab
+o_mn_i p_re_dicer post_er_itate."
+
+Rex au_tem_ u_er_bor_um_ suor_um_ ornatu_m_ _et_ eloq_ue_ntiam, _et_
+corporis puellaris cultu_m_ _et_ elegantia_m_ considerans[402], motus
+pietate, precepit ut ad comitissa_m_ Marcellin[am][403] matre_m_ sua_m_
+tucius duceretur alenda, ac mitius sub tam honeste matrone custodia,
+don_e_c regiu_m_ mandatu_m_ audiret, co_n_fouenda. Puelle igitur infra
+paucos dies, macie _et_ pallore per alimenta depulsis, rediit decor
+pristinus, ita ut mulieru_m_ pulch_er_ima censeretur. S_ed_ cito in u_er_ba
+iactantie _et_ elac_i_onis (s_e_c_un_d_u_m p_at_rie sue co_n_suetudine_m_)
+proru_m_pens, d_omi_ne sue comitisse, q_ue_ m_ate_rno aff_e_c_t_u eam
+dulcit_er_ educau_er_at, molesta nimis fuit, ip_s_am procaciter
+conte_m_pnendo. S_ed_ comitissa, pro amore filii sui regis, o_mn_ia
+pacienter tolerauit: licet _et_ ip_s_a d_i_c_t_a puella, int_er_ comite_m_
+_et_ comitissam u_er_ba discordie seminasset. Una igitur dieru_m_, cu_m_
+rex ip_s_am causa uisitac_i_onis adiens, u_er_b_is_ _con_solatoriis {239}
+alloq_ue_retur, incidit i_n_ retia amoris illius; erat eni_m_ iam sp_eci_es
+illius co_n_cupiscibilis. Clandestino _i_gi_tur_ ac repentino m_at_rimonio
+ip_s_am sibi, i_ncon_sultis p_at_re _et_ m_at_re, n_e_cno_n_ _et_
+magnatib_us_ suis uniu_er_sis, copulauit. Unde ut_er_q_ue_ parentu_m_,
+dolore ac tedio i_n_ etate senili _con_tabescens, dies uite abreuiando, sue
+mortis horam lugubrit_er_ anticiparu_n_t; sciebant eni_m_ ipsam mulierculam
+fuisse _et_ regalibus amplexibus prorsus indignam; perpendebantq_ue_ iamiam
+ueracissime, n_on_ sine causa exilio lacrimabili, ipsam, ut pr_e_d_i_c_tu_m
+_est_, fuisse conde[_m_]pnatam. Cu_m_ aut_em_ annos longeue senectutis
+vixisset[404] comes T_uinfredus_, _et_ p_re_ senectute caligasse_n_t oculi
+ei_us_, data filio suo regi b_e_n_e_d_i_c_i_one, nature debita persoluit;
+cui_us_ corpus magnifice, p_ro_ut decuit, tradidit sepulture. Anno
+q_u_o_que_ sub eode_m_ uxor ei_us_ comitissa M_arcellina_, m_ate_r
+uidelic_et_ regis, valedicens filio, ab huius incolatu seculi feliciter
+tra_n_smigrauit....
+
+[Sidenote: Fol. 19_a_]
+
+De s_anct_o Ælb_er_to[405] cui t_er_cia filia regis Offe t_r_ad_e_nda fuit
+nuptui.
+
+Erat quoq_ue_ quida_m_ iuuenis, cui rex Offa regnu_m_ Orientalium
+Anglor_um_, q_uo_d eu_m_ iure sanguinis _con_ti_n_gebat, co_n_cesserat,
+no_m_i_n_e Ælbertus. De cui_us_ virtutibus[406] q_u_ida_m_ u_er_sificator,
+solitus regu_m_ laudes _et_ gesta describ_er_e, elegant_er_ ait;
+
+ Ælb_er_tus iuuenis fuerat rex, fortis ad arma,
+ Pace pius, pulch_er_ corpore, me_n_te sagax.
+
+Cu_m_q_ue_ Hu_m_b_er_t_us_ Archiep_is_c_opus_ Lichefeld_e_nsis, _et_ Vnwona
+Ep_is_c_opus_ Legrecestr_en_sis, uiri s_anct_i _et_ discreti, et de nobili
+stirpe M_er_cior_um_ oriundi, speciales essent regis _con_siliarii, _et_
+semp_er_ q_ue_ honesta era_n_t _et_ iusta atq_ue_ utilia, regi Offe
+suggessissent, i_n_uidebat eis regina uxor Offe, q_ue_ p_r_ius Drida,
+postea u_er_o Quendrida, id est regina Drida, q_uia_ regi ex insp_er_ato
+nupsit, est app_e_llata: sicut i_n_ p_re_cedentib_us_ pleni_us_
+enarrat_ur_. Mulier auara et subdola, sup_er_biens, eo q_uo_d ex stirpe
+Karoli origine_m_ duxerat, et i_n_exorabili odio uiros memoratos
+p_er_seq_ue_batur, tende_n_s eis muscipulas muliebres. Porro cu_m_ ip_s_i
+reges sup_r_ad_i_c_t_os regi Offe in sp_irit_u consilii salubrit_er_
+re_con_ciliassent, _et_ ut eide_m_ regi fed_er_e m_at_rimoniali
+speciali_us_ _con_iungerent_ur_, dilig_e_nt_er_ _et_ efficacit_er_
+p_ro_curassent, ip_s_a mulier f_a_c_t_a eor_um_ {240} nitebat_ur_ i_n_
+irritu_m_ reuocare, n_e_c pot_er_at, quib_us_ acriter inuidebat. Ip_s_as
+eni_m_ puellas filias suas, ultramarinis, alienigenis, in regis
+supplantac_i_one_m_ et regni M_er_c_i_or_um_ p_er_niciem, credidit
+t_r_adidisse marita_n_das. Cui_us_ rei p_re_scii d_i_c_t_i Ep_iscop_i,
+muliebre co_n_siliu_m_ prudencie repagulis impediebant. Uerum et adhuc
+tercia filia regis Offe i_n_ thalamo regine remansit maritanda, Ælfleda
+no_m_i_n_e. Procurantib_us_ _i_gi_tur_ sup_r_ad_i_c_t_is ep_iscop_is,
+inclinatu_m_ est[407] cor regis ad co_n_sensum, lic_et_ _contr_adic_er_et
+regina, ut _et_[408] h_ec_ regi Ælb_er_to nuptui trad_er_et_ur_: ut _et_
+sic speciali_us_ regi O_ffe_ teneretur i_n_ fidelitate dilec_i_onis
+obligatus. Uocat_us i_gi_tur_ rex Ælb_er_t_us_, a rege O_ffa_, ut filiam
+sua_m_ desponsaret, affuit festiu_us_ [Sidenote: Fol. 19_b_] | et gaudens,
+ob honorem sibi a tanto rege oblatum. Cui amicabiliter rex occurrens
+aduentanti, recepit ip_su_m in osculo _et_ p_ate_rno amplexu, dicens:
+"Prospere ueneris fili _et_ gen_er_, ex h_oc_, iuuenis amantissime, te in
+filiu_m_ adopto specialem." S_ed_ h_ec_ postq_u_am eff_er_ate regine
+plenius i_n_notuer_i_t[409], plus accensa est liuore ac furore, dole_n_s
+eu_m_ pietatis i_n_ manu[410] regis _et_ suor_um_ fidelium prosperari.
+Vide_n_sq_ue_ sue neq_u_icie argumenta minime p_re_ualere, n_e_c hanc
+salte_m_ t_er_ciam filiam sua_m_, ad uolu_n_tatem suam alic_u_i
+t_r_ansmarino amico suo, i_n_ regni subu_er_sione_m_ (q_uo_d c_er_tissime
+sperauerat) dare nuptui, cu_m_ n_on_ p_re_ualuisset i_n_ d_i_c_t_os
+ep_iscop_os h_uius_ rei auctores emin_us_ malignari, i_n_ Ælb_er_tu_m_
+regem uir_us_ sue malicie truculent_er_ euomuit, hoc m_od_o.
+
+Fraus mulieb_ri_s c_r_udelissima.
+
+Rex hui_us_ rei ignarus tanta_m_ latitasse fraude_m_ n_on_ credebat, i_m_mo
+poci_us_ credebat h_ec_ ip_s_i o_mn_ia placit_ur_a. Cu_m_ igit_ur_ rex
+piissim_us_ ipsa_m_ sup_er_ p_re_missis[411] secreci_us_ co_n_ueniret,
+_con_siliu_m_ q_ue_rens q_u_al_ite_r _et_ q_u_ando forent _com_plenda,
+h_ec_ respondit: "Ecce t_r_adidit D_eu_s hodie inimicu_m_ tuu_m_, t_ib_i
+caute, si sapis, t_r_ucidandu_m_, qui sub specie sup_er_ficiali, uenenu_m_
+prodic_i_o_n_is i_n_ te _et_ regnu_m_ tuu_m_ ex_er_cende, neq_u_it_er_, ut
+fertur, occultauit. Et te cupit iam senesc_e_nte_m_, cu_m_ sit iuuenis _et_
+elegans, de regno supplanta_n_do precipitare; _et_ posteru_m_ suor_um_,
+i_m_mo _et_ multoru_m_, ut iactitat, quos regnis _et_ possessionibus
+uiolent_er_ {241} _et_ iniuste spoliasti, iniurias ui_n_dicare. In cui_us_
+rei fidem, michi a meis amicis significatu_m_ est, quod regis Karoli multis
+mun_er_ibus _et_ nu_n_ciis ocultis int_er_meantib_us_, implorat ad h_oc_
+patrociniu_m_: se sponde_n_s ei fore tributariu_m_. Illo igitur, dum se
+t_ib_i fortuna p_re_bet fauorabile_m_, extincto latent_er_, regnu_m_ ei_us_
+in ius tuu_m_ _et_ successor_um_ tuor_um_ t_r_anseat in et_er_nu_m_."
+
+Cui rex mente nimiu_m_ p_er_turbatus, _et_ de u_er_bis quib_us_ credidit
+i_n_e_ss_e ueraciter falsitate_m_ _et_ fraude_m_, cu_m_ indignacione ipsam
+i_n_crepando, respondit: "Quasi una d_e_ stultis mulierib_us_ locuta es!
+Absit a me, absit, tam detestabile f_a_c_tu_m! Quo perpetrato, m_ih_i
+meisq_ue_ successorib_us_ foret obprobriu_m_ sempit_er_nu_m_, et
+p_e_cc_atu_m i_n_ gen_us_ meu_m_ c_um_ g_r_aui uind_i_c_t_a diuci_us_
+propagabile." Et hiis d_i_c_t_is, rex iratus ab ea recessit; detestans
+ta_n_tos ac tales occultos laq_ue_os in muliere latitasse.
+
+Interea mentis p_er_turbac_i_one paulati_m_ deposita, _et_ hiis ciuilit_er_
+dissimulatis, reges co_n_sederunt ad me_n_sam pransuri: ubi regalib_us_
+esculentis _et_ poculentis refecti, in ti_m_panis, citharis, _et_ choris,
+diem totu_m_ in i_n_genti gaudio expleu_er_unt. S_ed_ regina malefica,
+int_er_im a ferali p_ro_posito n_on_ recedens, iussit i_n_ dolo thalamu_m_
+more regio pallis sericis _et_ auleis solle_m_pnit_er_ adornari, i_n_ q_u_o
+rex Ælb_er_tus nocturnu_m_ caperet so_m_pnu_m_; iuxta stratu_m_ quoq_ue_
+regium sedile p_re_parari fecit, cultu nobilissimo ext_r_uctu_m_, _et_
+cortinis undiq_ue_ redimitu_m_. Sub q_u_o _eciam_ fossam p_re_parari fecit
+profunda_m_, [Sidenote: Fol. 20_a_] | ut nephandu_m_ propositu_m_
+perduc_er_et ad eff_e_c_tu_m.
+
+De martirio S_an_c_t_i Ælb_er_ti, regis innocentissimi.
+
+Regina uero uultu sereno _con_ceptu_m_ scelus pallians, intrauit i_n_
+palatiu_m_, ut tam regem Offanu_m_ q_u_am rege_m_ Ælb_er_tu_m_ exhilararet.
+Et int_er_ iocandu_m_, co_n_u_er_sa ad Ælb_er_tum, n_ih_il sinistri[412]
+suspicantem, ait, "Fili, ueni uisendi causa puellam t_ib_i nuptu
+copulanda_m_, te i_n_ thalamo meo sicient_er_ exp_e_ctante_m_, ut
+s_er_monib_us_ g_r_atissimis amores subarres profut_ur_os." Surge_n_s
+_i_gi_tur_ rex Ælb_er_tus, secut_us_ est regina_m_ i_n_ thalamu_m_
+i_n_grediente_m_: rege Offano remanente, q_u_i nil mali formidabat.
+Ingresso _i_gi_tur_ rege Æ_lberto_ cu_m_ regina, exclusi su_n_t om_ne_s qui
+eundem e uestigio seq_ue_bant_ur_ sui co_m_militones. Et cu_m_ puellam
+exp_e_ctasset, ait regina: "Sede fili du_m_ ueniat aduocata."
+
+{242} Et cu_m_ in memorato sedili residisset, cu_m_ ip_s_a sella in fosse
+corruit profunditate_m_. In q_u_a, subito a lictorib_us_ quos regina no_n_
+procul abscond_er_at, rex innocens suffocatus expirauit. Na_m_ ilico cu_m_
+corruisset, proiec_er_unt sup_er_ eu_m_ regina _et_ sui _com_plices
+nepha_n_dissimi puluinaria cu_m_ uestib_us_ _et_ cortinis, ne clamans ab
+aliq_u_ib_us_ audiret_ur_. Et sic elegantissimus iuuenis rex _et_ martir
+Æ_lbertus_, innoce_n_t_er_ _et_ sine noxa extinctus, accepit corona_m_
+uite, [q_ua_m][413] ad i_n_star Joh_ann_is Bapt_iste_ mulieris laq_ue_is
+irretitus, meruit optinere.
+
+Puella u_er_o regis filia Ælfleda ui_r_guncula uen_us_tissima, cu_m_ h_ec_
+audisset, no_n_ t_antu_m mat_r_is detestata facinora, s_ed_ toci_us_ seculi
+pomp_am_ relinq_ue_ns, h_ab_itu_m_ suscep_i_t religio_n_is, u_t_ ui_r_go
+martiris uestigia seq_ue_ret_ur_. [_P_]orro[414] ad augmentu_m_[415]
+muliebris tirannidis[416], decollatu_m_ _est_ corp_us_culu_m_ exanime
+q_uia_ adhuc palpitans uidebatur. Clam _i_gi_tur_ delatum est corpus cu_m_
+capite, usq_ue_ ad partes remociores ad occultandum sub profundo t_er_re,
+et dum spiculator c_r_uentus ista ferret, caput obiter amissu_m_ est
+feliciter: nox eni_m_ erat, _et_ festinabat lictor, _et_ ap_er_to ore
+sacci, caput cecidit euolutu_m_, ignorante h_oc_ portitore. Corpus au_tem_
+ab ip_s_o carnifice sine aliquo teste conscio ignobilit_er_ est humatu_m_.
+Contigit au_tem_, D_e_o sic disponente, u_t_ quida_m_ cecus eadem via
+g_r_aderetur, baculo semitam p_re_te_m_ptante. Habens au_tem_ caput
+memoratu_m_ pro pedu_m_ offendiculo, mirabatur q_u_idna_m_ esset: erat
+eni_m_ pes ei_us_ irretitus i_n_ cincinnis capitis flauis _et_ prolixis. Et
+palpans c_er_cius cognouit[417] e_ss_e caput hominis decollati. Et datu_m
+est_ ei i_n_ sp_irit_u intelligere, q_uo_d alicui_us_ s_an_c_t_i caput
+e_ss_et, ac iuuenis. Et cu_m_ maduissent man_us_ ei_us_ sanguine, apposuit
+_et_ sang_u_inem faciei sue: _et_ loco ubi q_ua_n_do_q_ue_ oculi ei_us_
+extit_er_ant, et ilico restitutus est ei uisus; et quod habuerat p_ro_
+pedum offendiculo, factum est ei felix luminis restitucio. S_ed_ et in
+eodem loco q_u_o caput s_an_c_tu_m iacuerat, fons erupit lucidissimus. Quod
+cum celebriter[418] fuerat diuulgatum, comp_er_tu_m_ _est_ hoc fuisse caput
+s_an_c_t_i adolescentis Æ_lberti_, q_ue_m regina i_n_ thalamo neq_u_iter
+fec_i_t sugillari ac decollari. Corp_us_ au_tem_ ubinam locorum
+occultatu_m_ fuerat, penit_us_ ignorat_ur_. H_oc_ cu_m_ _con_staret
+Hu_m_b_er_to Archiep_iscop_o, f_act_a capside ex auro _et_ argento, illud
+iussit in tesauro recondi p_re_c_i_oso in Ecc_lesi_a Herefordensi.
+
+[Illustration: Drida (Thryth) entraps Albertus (Æthelberht) of East Anglia,
+and causes him to be slain
+
+_From MS Cotton Nero D. I, fol. 19 b._
+
+
+
+ hraþe seoþðan wæs
+æfter mund-[gh]ripe m[=e]ce [gh]epin[gh]ed.
+(_Beowulf_, ll. 1937-8.) ]
+
+{243}
+
+De p_re_d_ict_i facinoris ul_ci_one.
+
+Cuius tande_m_ detestabilis sceleris a regina perpetrati, ad
+co_m_militonu_m_ b_eat_i re_gis_ _et_ Ma_rti_ris aures cum[419]
+p_er_ueniss_et_, fama celeri_us_ ante luce_m_ aurore diei seq_ue_ntis
+clanculo recesserunt, ne de ipsis simile fieret iudiciu_m_ metuentes. Unde
+dolens regina, in thalamo ficta i_n_firmitate decubans, q_u_asi uulpecula
+latitabat.
+
+Rex u_er_o Offa cu_m_ de co_m_misso facinore c_er_titudine_m_
+co_m_perisset, sese lugens, in cenac_u_lo int_er_iori recludens,
+pe[_r_][420] tres dies cibum penit_us_ no_n_ gustauit, anima_m_ sua_m_
+lac_r_imis, lamentac_i_o_n_ib_us_, _et_ ieiunio uehement_er_ affligens. Et
+execrans mulieris impietate_m_, eam iussit om_n_ib_us_ uite sue dieb_us_
+inclusam i_n_ loco remota_m_ secrec_i_ori pecc_at_a sua deplorare, si forte
+s_i_bi celitus collata gr_aci_a, penite_n_do tanti co_m_missi facinoris
+maculam posset abolere. Rex au_tem_ ip_s_am postea ut sociam lat_er_is in
+lecto suo dormire quasi susp_e_cta_m_ n_on_ p_er_misit[421].
+
+De morte illi_us_ facinorose regine.
+
+In loco igitur sibi d_e_putato, co_m_morante regina annis aliq_u_ot,
+insidiis latronu_m_ preuenta, auro _et_ argento quo multu_m_ habundabat
+spoliata[422], in puteo suo prop_r_io p_re_cipitata, spiritu_m_ exalauit;
+iusto d_e_i iudic_i_o sic _con_de_m_pnata, ut sicut regem Ælb_er_tu_m_
+innocente_m_ in foueam fecit p_re_cipitari, _et_ p_re_cipitatum suffocari,
+sic i_n_ putei profunditate s_u_bm_er_sa, uita_m_ mis_er_a_m_ t_er_minaret.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+O. _WIDSITH_, ll. 18, 24-49
+
+ 18. Ætla, w[=e]old H[=u]num, Eormanr[=i]c [GH]otum,
+ * * * * * *
+ Þ[=e]odr[=i]c w[=e]old Froncum, þyle Rondin[gh]u_m_,
+ 25. Breoca Brondin[gh]u_m_, Billin[gh] Wernum.
+ [=O]swine w[=e]old [=E]owum _ond_ [=Y]tum [GH]efwulf,
+ {244}
+ Fin Folcwaldin[gh] Fr[=e]sna cynne.
+ Si[gh]ehere len[gh]est S[=æ]-Denum w[=e]old,
+ Hnæf H[=o]cin[gh]um, Helm Wulfin[gh]u_m_,
+ 30. Wald W[=o]in[gh]um, W[=o]d Þyrin[gh]u_m_,
+ S[=æ]ferð Syc[gh]um, Sw[=e]om On[gh]endþ[=e]ow,
+ Sceafthere Ymbrum, Sc[=e]afa Lon[gh]-Beardu_m_,
+ H[=u]n Hætwerum, _ond_ Holen Wrosnum.
+ Hrin[gh]weald wæs h[=a]ten Herefarena cyning.
+ 35. Offa w[=e]old Ongle, Alew[=i]h Denu_m_:
+ s[=e] wæs þ[=a]ra manna m[=o]d[gh]ast ealra;
+ n[=o]hwæþre h[=e] ofer Offan eorlscype fremede,
+ ac Offa [gh]esl[=o][gh] [=æ]rest monna
+ cniht wesende cyner[=i]ca m[=æ]st;
+ 40. n[=æ]ni[gh] efen-eald him eorlscipe m[=a]ran
+ on [=o]rette [=a]ne sweorde:
+ merce [gh]em[=æ]rde wið Myr[gh]in[gh]u_m_
+ b[=i] F[=i]feldore; h[=e]oldon forð siþþan
+ En[gh]le _ond_ Sw[=æ]fe, sw[=a] hit Offa [gh]esl[=o][gh].
+ 45. Hr[=o]þwulf _ond_ Hr[=o]ð[gh][=a]r h[=e]oldon len[gh]est
+ sibbe ætsomne suhtorfædran,
+ siþþan h[=y] forwr[=æ]con w[=i]cin[gh]a cynn
+ _ond_ In[gh]eldes ord forb[=i][gh]dan,
+ forh[=e]owan æt Heorote Heaðo-Beardna þrym.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{245}
+
+PART III
+
+THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURG
+
+SECTION I. THE FINNSBURG FRAGMENT
+
+The _Finnsburg Fragment_ was discovered two centuries ago in the library of
+Lambeth Palace by George Hickes. It was written on a single leaf, which was
+transcribed and published by Hickes: but the leaf is not now to be found.
+This is to be regretted for reasons other than sentimental, since Hickes'
+transcript is far from accurate[423].
+
+The _Fragment_ begins and breaks off in the middle of a line: but possibly
+not much has been lost at the beginning. For the {246} first lines of the
+fragment, as preserved, reveal a well-loved opening motive--the call to
+arms within the hall, as the watcher sees the foes approach. It was with
+such a call that the _Bjarkamál_, the poem on the death of Rolf Kraki,
+began: "a good call to work" as a fighting king-saint thought it[424]. It
+is with a similar summons to business that the _Finnsburg Fragment_ begins.
+The watchman has warned the king within the hall that he sees lights
+approaching--so much we can gather from the two and a half words which are
+preserved from the watchman's speech, and from the reply made by the
+"war-young" king: "This is not the dawn which is rising, but dire deeds of
+woe; to arms, my men." And the defending warriors take their posts: at the
+one door Sigeferth and Eaha: at the other Ordlaf and Guthlaf, and Hengest
+himself[425].
+
+Then the poet turns to the foes, as they approach for the attack. The text
+as reported by Hickes is difficult: but it seems that Garulf[426] is the
+name of the warrior about to lead the assault on the hall. Another warrior,
+Guthere, whether a friend, kinsman, or retainer[427] we do not know, is
+dissuading him, urging him not to risk so precious a life in the first
+brunt. But Garulf pays no heed; he challenges the champion on guard: "Who
+is it who holds the door?"
+
+"Sigeferth is my name," comes the reply, "Prince I am of the Secgan: a
+wandering champion known far and wide: many a woe, many a hard fight have I
+endured: from me canst thou have what thou seekest."
+
+So the clash of arms begins: and the first to fall is Garulf, son of
+Guthlaf: and many a good man round him. "The swords flashed as if all
+Finnsburg were afire."
+
+{247}
+
+Never, we are told, was there a better defence than that of the sixty
+champions within the hall. "Never did retainers repay the sweet mead better
+than his bachelors did unto Hnæf. For five days they fought, so that none
+of the men at arms fell: but they held the doors." After a few more lines
+the piece breaks off.
+
+There are many textual difficulties here. But these, for the most part, do
+not affect the actual narrative, which is a story of clear and
+straightforward fighting. It is when we try to fit this narrative into
+relationship with the _Episode_ in _Beowulf_ that our troubles begin.
+Within the _Fragment_ itself one difficulty only need at present be
+mentioned. Guthlaf is one of the champions defending the hall. Yet the
+leader of the assault, Garulf, is spoken of as Guthlaf's son. Of course it
+is possible that we have here a tragic incident parallel to the story of
+Hildebrand and Hadubrand: father and son may have been separated through
+earlier misadventures, and now find themselves engaged on opposite sides.
+This would harmonize with the atmosphere of the _Finnsburg_ story, which is
+one of slaughter breaking out among men near of kin, so that afterwards an
+uncle and a nephew are burnt on the same pyre. And it has been noted[428]
+that Garulf rushes to the attack only after he has asked "Who holds the
+door?" and has learnt that it is Sigeferth: Guthlaf had gone to the
+opposite door. Can Garulf's question mean that he knows his father Guthlaf
+to be inside the hall, and wishes to avoid conflict with him? Possibly; but
+I do not think we can argue much from this double appearance of the name
+Guthlaf. It is possible that the occurrence of Guthlaf as Garulf's father
+is simply a scribal error. For, puzzling as the tradition of _Finnsburg_
+everywhere is, it is peculiarly puzzling in its proper names, which are
+mostly given in forms that seem to have undergone some alteration. And even
+if _G[=u]ðl[=a]fes sunu_ be correctly written, it is possible that the
+Guthlaf who is father of Garulf is not to be identified with the Guthlaf
+whom Garulf is besieging within the hall[429].
+
+{248}
+
+One or other of these rather unsatisfactory solutions must unfortunately be
+accepted. For no theory is possible which will save us from admitting that,
+according to the received text, Guthlaf is fighting on the one side, and a
+"son of Guthlaf" on the other.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION II. THE EPISODE IN BEOWULF
+
+Further details of the story we get in the _Episode_ of _Finnsburg_, as
+recorded in _Beowulf_ (ll. 1068-1159).
+
+Beowulf is being entertained in the court of the king of the Danes, and the
+king's harper tells the tale of Hengest and Finn. Only the main events are
+enumerated. There are none of the dramatic speeches which we find in the
+_Fragment_. It is evident that the tale has been reduced in scope, in order
+that it may be fitted into its place as an episode in the longer epic.
+
+The tone, too, is quite different. Whereas the _Fragment_ is inspired by
+the lust and joy of battle, the theme of the _Episode_, as told in
+_Beowulf_, is rather the pity of it all; the legacy of mourning and
+vengeance which is left to the survivors:
+
+ For never can true reconcilement grow
+ Where wounds of deadly hate have struck so deep.
+
+It is on this note that the _Episode_ in _Beowulf_ begins: with the tragic
+figure of Hildeburh. Hildeburh is closely related to both contending
+parties. She is sister to Hnæf, prince of the "Half-Danes," and she is
+wedded to Finn, king of the Frisians. Whatever may be obscure in the story,
+it is clear that a fight has taken place between the men of Hnæf and those
+of Finn, and that Hnæf has been slain: probably by Finn directly, though
+perhaps by his followers[430]. A son of Finn has also fallen.
+
+With regard to the peoples concerned there are difficulties. Finn's
+Frisians are presumably the main Frisian race, dwelling in and around the
+district still known as Friesland; for in the Catalogue of Kings in
+_Widsith_ it is said that "Finn Folcwalding {249} ruled the kin of the
+Frisians[431]." Hnæf and his people are called Half-Danes, Danes and
+Scyldings; Hnæf is therefore presumably related to the Danish royal house.
+But, in no account which has come down to us of that house, are Hnæf or his
+father Hoc ever mentioned as kings or princes of Denmark, and their
+connection with the family of Hrothgar, the great house of Scyldings who
+ruled Denmark from the capital of Leire, remains obscure. In _Widsith_, the
+people ruled over by Hnæf are called "children of Hoc" (_H[=o]cingum_), and
+are mentioned immediately after the "Sea-Danes[432]."
+
+Then there is a mysterious people called the _Eotens_, upon whom is placed
+the blame of the struggle: "Verily Hildeburh had little reason to praise
+the good faith of the Eotens." This is the typical understatement of Old
+English rhetoric: it can only point to deliberate treachery on the part of
+the Eotens. Our interpretation of the poem will therefore hinge largely
+upon our interpretation of this name. There have been two views as to the
+Eotens. The one view holds them to be Hnæf's Danes, and consequently places
+on Hnæf the responsibility for the aggression. This theory is, I think,
+quite wrong, and has been the cause of much confusion: but it has been held
+by scholars of great weight[433]. The other view regards the Eotens as
+subjects {250} of Finn and foes of Hnæf. This view has been more generally
+held, and it is, as I shall try to show, only along these lines that a
+satisfactory solution can be found.
+
+
+
+The poet continues of the woes of Hildeburh. "Guiltless, she lost at the
+war those whom she loved, child and brother. They fell as was fated,
+wounded by the spear, and a sad lady was she. Not for naught did the
+daughter of Hoc [i.e. Hildeburh] bewail her fate when morning came, when
+under the sky she could behold the murderous bale of her kinsfolk...."
+
+Then the poet turns to the figure of Finn, king of the Frisians. His cause
+for grief is as deep as that of Hildeburh. For he has lost that body of
+retainers which to a Germanic chief, even as to King Arthur, was dearer
+than a wife[434]. "War swept away all the retainers of Finn, except some
+few."
+
+What follows is obscure, but as to the general drift there is no doubt.
+After the death of their king Hnæf, the besieged Danes are led by Hengest.
+Hengest must be Hnæf's retainer, for he is expressly so called (_þ[=e]odnes
+þegn_) "the king's thegn." So able is the defence of Hengest, and so heavy
+the loss among Finn's men, that Finn has to come to terms. Peace is made
+between Finn and Hengest, and the terms are given fully in the _Episode_.
+Unfortunately, owing to the confusion of pronouns, we soon lose our way
+amidst the clauses of this treaty, and it becomes exceedingly difficult to
+say who are the people who are alluded to as "they." This is peculiarly
+unlucky because here again the critical word _Eotena_ occurs, but amid such
+a tangle of "thems" and "theys" that it is not easy to tell from this
+passage to which side the Eotens belong[435].
+
+But one thing in the treaty is indisputable. In the midst of these
+complicated clauses, it is said of the Danes, the retainers {251} of Hnæf,
+that they are not to be taunted with a certain fact: or perhaps it may be
+that they are not, when speaking amongst themselves, to remind each other
+of a certain fact. However that may be, what _is_ clear is the _fact_, the
+mention of which is barred. Nothing is to be said of it, even though "_they
+were following the slayer (bana) of their lord, being without a prince,
+since they were compelled so to do_." Here, at least, are two lines about
+the interpretation of which we can be certain: and I shall therefore return
+to them. We must be careful, however, to remember that the word _bana_,
+"slayer," conveys no idea of fault or criminality. It is a quite neutral
+word, although it has frequently been mistranslated "murderer," and has
+thus helped to encourage the belief that Finn slew Hnæf by treachery. Of
+course it conveys no such implication: _bana_ can be applied to one who
+slays another in self-defence: it implies neither the one thing nor the
+other.
+
+Then the poet turns to the funeral of the dead champions, who are burned on
+one pyre by the now reconciled foes. The bodies of Hnæf and of the son (or
+sons)[436] of Hildeburh are placed together, uncle and nephew side by side,
+whilst Hildeburh stands by lamenting.
+
+Then, we are told, the warriors, deprived of their friends, departed to
+Friesland, to their homes and to their high-city.
+
+Hengest still continued to dwell for the whole of that winter with Finn,
+and could not return home because of the winter storms. But when spring
+came and the bosom of the earth became fair, there came also the question
+of Hengest's departure: but he thought more of vengeance than of his
+sea-journey: "If he might bring about that hostile meeting which he kept in
+his mind concerning the child (or children) of the Eotens." Here again the
+word _Eotena_ is used ambiguously, but, I think, this time not without some
+indication of its meaning. It has indeed been urged that the child or
+children of the Eotens are Hnæf, and any other Danes who may have fallen
+with him, and that when it is said that Hengest keeps them in mind, it is
+meant that he is remembering his fallen comrades with a view to taking
+{252} vengeance for them. But this would be a queer way of speaking, as
+Hengest and his living comrades would on this theory be also themselves
+children of the Eotens[437]. We should therefore need the term to be
+further defined: "children of the Eotens _who fell at Finnsburg_." It seems
+far more likely, from the way in which the expression is used here, that
+the children of the Eotens are the people _upon_ whom Hengest intends to
+take vengeance.
+
+Then, we are further told, Hunlafing places in the bosom of Hengest a sword
+of which the edges were well known amongst the Eotens. Here again there has
+been ambiguity, dispute and doubt. Hunlafing has been even bisected into a
+chief "Hun," and a sword "Lafing" which "Hun" is supposed to have placed in
+the bosom of Hengest (or of someone else). Upon this act of "Hun" many an
+interpretation has been placed, and many a theory built. Fortunately it has
+become possible, by a series of rather extraordinary discoveries, such as
+we had little reason to hope for at this time of day, to put Hunlafing
+together again. We now know (and this I think should be regarded as outside
+the region of controversy) that the warrior who put the sword into
+Hengest's bosom _was_ Hunlafing. And about Hunlafing we gather, though very
+little, yet enough to help us. He is apparently a Dane, the son of Hunlaf,
+and Hunlaf is the brother of the two champions Guthlaf and Ordlaf[438]. Now
+Guthlaf and Ordlaf, as we know from the _Fragment_, were in the hall
+together {253} with Hengest: it was "Guthlaf, Ordlaf and Hengest himself"
+who undertook the defence of one of the doors against the assailants.
+Guthlaf and Ordlaf were apparently sons of the king of Denmark. As
+Scyldings they would be Hnæf's kinsmen, and accompanied him to his meeting
+with Finn. Hunlafing, then, is a nephew of two champions who were attacked
+in the hall, and it is possible, though we cannot prove this, that his
+father Hunlaf was himself also in the hall, and was slain in the
+struggle[439]. At any rate, when Hunlaf's son places a sword in the bosom
+of Hengest, this can only mean one thing. It means mischief. The placing of
+the sword, by a prince, in the bosom of another, is a symbol of
+war-service. It means that Hengest has accepted obligations to a Danish
+lord, a Scylding, a kinsman of the dead Hnæf, and consequently that he
+means to break the troth which he has sworn to Finn.
+
+Further, we are told concerning the sword, that its edges were well known
+amongst the Eotens. At first sight this might seem, and to many has seemed,
+an ambiguous phrase, for a sword may be well known amongst either friends
+or foes. The old poets loved nothing better than to dwell upon the
+adornments of a sword, to say how a man, by reason of a fine sword which
+had been given to him, was honoured amongst his associates at table[440].
+But if this had been the poet's meaning here, he would surely have dwelt,
+not upon the edges of the sword, but upon its gold-adorned hilt, or its
+jewelled pommel. When he says the _edges_ of the sword were well known
+amongst the Eotens, this seems to convey a hostile meaning. We know that
+the ill-faith of the Eotens was the cause of the trouble. The phrase about
+the sword seems therefore to mean that Hengest used this sword in order to
+take vengeance on the Eotens, presumably for their treachery.
+
+The _Eotenas_, therefore, far from being the men of Hnæf and Hengest, must
+have been their foes.
+
+Then the poet goes on to tell how "Dire sword-bale came upon the valiant
+Finn likewise." The Danes fell upon Finn at {254} his own home, reddened
+the floor of his hall with the life-blood of his men, slew him, plundered
+his town, and led his wife back to her own people.
+
+Here the _Episode_ ends.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION III. MÖLLER'S THEORY
+
+Now our first task is to find what is the relation between the events told
+in the _Fragment_ and the events told in the _Episode_ in _Beowulf_. It
+can, I think, be shown that the events of the _Fragment_ precede the events
+of the _Episode_ in _Beowulf_; that is to say that the fight in the hall,
+of which we are told in the _Fragment_, is the same fight which has taken
+place before the _Episode_ in _Beowulf_ begins, the fight which has
+resulted in the slaughter over which Hildeburh laments, and which
+necessitates the great funeral described in the first part of the _Episode_
+(ll. 1108-24).
+
+How necessary it is to place the _Fragment_ here, before the beginning of
+the _Episode_, will be best seen, I think, if we examine the theory which
+has tried to place it elsewhere.
+
+This is the theory, worked out elaborately and ingeniously by Möller[441],
+a theory which has had considerable vogue, and many of the assumptions of
+which have been widely accepted. According to Möller and his followers, the
+story ran something like this:
+
+ "Finn, king of the Frisians, had carried off Hildeburh, daughter of Hoc
+ (1076), probably with her consent. Her father Hoc seems to have pursued
+ the fugitives, and to have been slain in the fight which ensued on his
+ overtaking them. After the lapse of some twenty years, the brothers
+ Hnæf and Hengest, Hoc's sons, were old enough to undertake the duty of
+ avenging their father's death. They make an inroad into Finn's
+ country."
+
+Up to this, all is Möller's hypothesis, unsupported by any evidence, either
+in the _Fragment_ or the _Episode_. It is based, so far as it has any real
+foundation, upon a mythical interpretation of Finn, and upon parallels with
+the Hild-story, the Gudrun-story, and a North Frisian folk-tale[442]. Some
+of the {255} parallels are striking, but they are not sufficient to justify
+Möller's reconstruction. The authenticity of large portions of the
+folk-tale is open to doubt[443]: and these portions are vital to any
+parallel with the story of _Finnsburg_; whilst we have no right to read
+into the Finn story details from the Hild or Gudrun stories, unless we can
+show that they are really versions of the same tale: and this cannot be
+shown. Möller's suppositions as to the events before the _Episode_ in
+_Beowulf_ opens, must therefore be dismissed. Möller's reconstruction then
+gets into relation with the real story, as narrated in _Beowulf_:
+
+ "A battle takes place in which many warriors, among them Hnæf and a son
+ of Finn (1074, 1079, 1115), are killed. Peace is therefore solemnly
+ concluded, and the slain warriors are burnt (1068-1124).
+
+ As the year is too far advanced for Hengest to return home (ll. 1130
+ ff.), he and those of his men who survive remain for the winter in the
+ Frisian country with Finn. But Hengest's thoughts dwell constantly on
+ the death of his brother Hnæf, and he would gladly welcome any excuse
+ to break the peace which has been sworn by both parties. His
+ ill-concealed desire for revenge is noticed by the Frisians, who
+ anticipate it by themselves taking the initiative and attacking Hengest
+ and his men whilst they are sleeping in the hall. _This is the night
+ attack described in the Fragment._ It would seem that after a brave and
+ desperate resistance Hengest himself falls in this fight[444], but two
+ of his retainers, Guthlaf and Oslaf[444], succeed in cutting their way
+ through their enemies and in escaping to their own land. They return
+ with fresh troops, attack and slay Finn, and carry his queen Hildeburh
+ off with them (1125-1159)[445]."
+
+Now the difficulties of this theory will, I think, be found to be
+insuperable. Let us look at some of them.
+
+Möller's view rests upon his interpretation of the Eotens as the men of
+Hnæf[446]. Since the Eotens are the aggressors, he _has_ consequently to
+invent the opening, which makes Hnæf and Hengest the invaders of Finn's
+country: and he _has_ therefore to relegate the _Fragment_ (in which Hnæf's
+men are clearly not the attacking party but the attacked) to a later stage
+in the story. But we have already seen that this interpretation of the
+Eotens as the men of Hnæf is not the natural one.
+
+Further, the assumption that Hnæf and Hengest are brothers, though still
+frequently met with[447], is surely not justifiable. {256} There is nothing
+which demands any such relationship, and there is much which definitely
+excludes it. _After Hnæf's death_, Hengest is described as the thegn of
+Hnæf: an expression without parallel or explanation, if he was really his
+brother and successor. Again, we are expressly told in the _Episode_ that
+the Danish retainers make terms with Finn, _the slayer of their lord, being
+without a prince_. How could this be said, if Hengest was now their lord
+and prince? These lines are, as we have seen, one of the few clear and
+indisputable things in the poem. An interpretation which contradicts them
+flatly, by making Hengest the lord of the Danish retainers, seems
+self-condemned.
+
+Again, in _Beowulf_, the poet dwells upon the blameless sorrows of
+Hildeburh. We gather that she wakes up in the morning to find that the
+kinsfolk whom she loves have, during the night, come to blows. "Innocent,
+she lost son and brother[448]--a sad lady she." Are such expressions
+natural, if Hildeburh had eloped with Finn, and her father had in
+consequence been slain by him some twenty years before? If she has taken
+that calmly, and continued to live happily with Finn, would her equanimity
+be so seriously disturbed by the slaughter of a brother in addition?
+
+But these difficulties are nothing compared to the further difficulties
+which Möller's adherents have to face when they proceed to find a place for
+the night attack as told in the _Fragment_, in the middle of the _Episode_
+in _Beowulf_, i.e. between lines 1145 and 1146. In the first place we have
+no right to postulate that such important events could have been passed
+over in silence in the summary of the story as given in _Beowulf_. For
+Möller has to assume that after the reconciliation between Hengest and
+Finn, Finn broke his pledges, attacked Hengest by night, slew most of the
+men who were with him, including perhaps Hengest himself; and that the
+_Beowulf_-poet nevertheless omitted all reference to these events, though
+they occur in the midst of the story, and are essential to an understanding
+of it.
+
+But even apart from this initial difficulty, we find that by no process of
+explaining _can_ we make the night attack narrated {257} in the _Fragment_
+fit in at the point where Möller places it. In the night attack the men are
+called to arms by a "war-young king." This "war-young king" cannot be, as
+Möller supposes, Hengest, for the simple reason that Hengest, as I have
+tried to show above, far from being the brother of Hnæf, and his successor
+as king, is his servant and thegn. The king can only be Hnæf. But Hnæf has
+already been slain before the _Episode_ begins: and this makes it
+impossible to place the _Fragment_ (in which Hnæf appears) in the middle of
+the _Episode_. Further, it is said in the _Fragment_ that never did
+retainers repay a lord better than did his men repay Hnæf. Now these words
+would only be possible if the retainers were fighting for their lord; that
+is, either defending him alive or avenging him dead. But Möller's theory
+assumes that we are dealing with a period when the retainers have
+definitely left the service of their lord Hnæf, after his death, and have
+entered the service of his slayer, Finn. They have thus dissolved all bonds
+with their former lord: they have taken Finn's money and become _his_ men.
+If Finn then turns upon his new retainers and treacherously tries to slay
+them, it might be said that the retainers defended their own lives stoutly:
+but it would be far-fetched to say that in doing so they repaid their lord
+Hnæf. Their lord, according to Möller's view, is no longer Hnæf, but Finn,
+who is seeking their lives.
+
+Against such difficulties as these it is impossible to make headway, and we
+must therefore turn to some more possible view of the situation[449].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION IV. BUGGE'S THEORY
+
+Let us therefore examine the second theory, which is more particularly
+associated with the name of Bugge, though it was the current theory before
+his time, and has been generally accepted since.
+
+According to this view, the _Eotenas_ are the men of Finn, and since upon
+them is placed the blame for the trouble, it {258} must be Finn that makes
+a treacherous attack upon his wife's brother Hnæf, who is his guest in
+Finnsburg[450]. This is the fight of which the _Fragment_ gives us the
+beginning. Hnæf is slain, and then follow the events as narrated in the
+_Episode_: the treaty which Finn makes with Hengest, the leader of the
+survivors: and the ultimate vengeance taken upon Finn by these survivors.
+
+Here I think we are getting nearer to facts, nearer to a view which can
+command general acceptance: at any rate, in so far as the fight narrated in
+the _Fragment_ is placed before the beginning of the _Episode_ in
+_Beowulf_. Positive evidence that this is the right place for the
+_Fragment_ is scanty, yet not altogether lacking. After all, the fight in
+the _Fragment_ is a night attack, and the fight which precedes the
+_Episode_ in _Beowulf_, as I have tried to show, is a night attack[451].
+But our reason for putting the _Fragment_ before the commencement of the
+_Episode_ is mainly negative: it lies in the insuperable difficulties which
+meet us when we try to place it anywhere else.
+
+But, it will be objected, there are difficulties also in placing the
+_Fragment_ before the _Episode_. Perhaps: but I do not think these
+difficulties will be found to survive examination.
+
+The first objection to supposing that the _Fragment_ narrates the same
+fight as precedes the _Episode_ is, that the fight in the _Fragment_ takes
+place at Finnsburg[452], whilst the fight which precedes the _Episode_
+apparently takes place away from Finn's capital: for after the fighting is
+over, the dead burned, and the treaty made, the warriors depart "to see
+Friesland, their homes, and their high-town (_h[=e]a-burh_)[453]."
+
+{259}
+
+But I do not see that this involves us in any difficulty. It is surely
+quite reasonable that Finnsburg--Finn's castle--where the first fight takes
+place, is not, and was never meant to be, the same as Finn's capital, his
+_h[=e]aburh_, his "own home." After all, when a king's name is given to a
+town, the presumption is rather that the town is _not_ his capital, but
+some new settlement built in a newly acquired territory. _[=E]adwinesburh_
+was not the capital of King Eadwine: it was the stronghold which he held
+against the Picts on the outskirts of his realm. Aosta was not the capital
+of Augustus, nor Fort William of William III, nor Harounabad of Haroun al
+Raschid. So here: we know that the chief town of the Frisians was not
+Finnsburg, but Dorestad: "Dorostates of the Frisians[454]." The fight may
+have taken place at some outlying castle built by Finn, and named after him
+_Finnsburg_: then he returned, we are told, to his _h[=e]aburh_: and it is
+here, _æt his sylfes h[=a]m_, "in his own home" (the poet himself seems to
+emphasize a distinction) that destruction in the end comes upon him. There
+is surely no difficulty here.
+
+A second discrepancy has often been indicated. In the _Fragment_ the fight
+lasts five days before any one of the defenders fall: in the _Episode_ (it
+is argued) Hildeburh in the morning finds her brother slain[455]. Even were
+this so, I do not know that it need trouble us much. In a detail like this,
+which {260} does not go to the heart of the story, there might easily be a
+discrepancy between two versions[456].
+
+But the whole difficulty merely arises from reading more into the words of
+the _Episode_ than the text will warrant. It is not asserted in the
+_Episode_ that Hildeburh found her kinsfolk dead in the morning, but that
+in the morning she found "murderous bale amid her kinsfolk." Hildeburh woke
+up to find a fight in progress: how long it went on, the _Episode_ does not
+say: but that it was prolonged we gather from ll. 1080-5: and there is no
+reason why the deadly strife which Hildeburh found in the morning might not
+have lasted five days or more, before it culminated in the death of Hnæf.
+
+Thirdly, the commander in the _Fragment_ is called a "war-young king."
+This, it has been said, is inapplicable to Hnæf, since he is brother of
+Hildeburh, who is old enough to have a son slain in the combat.
+
+But an uncle may be very young. Beowulf speaks of his uncle Hygelac as
+young, even though he seems to imply that his own youth is partly
+past[457]. And no advantage, but the reverse, is gained, even in this
+point, if, following Möller's hypothesis, and assuming that the fight
+narrated in the _Fragment_ takes place after the treaty with Finn, we make
+the "war-young king" Hengest. For those who, with Möller, suppose Hengest
+to be brother of Hnæf, will have to admit the avuncular difficulty in him
+also.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION V. SOME DIFFICULTIES IN BUGGE'S THEORY
+
+We may then, I think, accept as certain, that first come the events
+narrated in the _Fragment_, then those told in the _Episode_ in _Beowulf_.
+But we are not out of our troubles yet. There are difficulties in Bugge's
+view which have still to be faced.
+
+The cause of the struggle, according to Bugge and his adherents, is a
+treacherous attack made by Finn upon his {261} brother-in-law Hnæf.
+According to the _Episode_, it is the Eotens who are treacherous; so Eotens
+must be another name for the Frisians.
+
+The word occurs three times in the genitive, _Eotena_; once in the dative,
+_Eotenum_: as a common noun it means "giant," "monster": earlier in
+_Beowulf_ it is applied to Grendel and to the other misbegotten creatures
+descended from Cain. But how "giant" can be applied to the Frisians, or to
+either of the contending parties in the Finnsburg fight, remains
+inexplicable[458]. _Eotena_ must rather be the name of some tribe. But what
+tribe? The only people of whom we know, possessing a name at all like this,
+are the people who colonized Kent, whom Bede calls Jutes, but whose name
+would in Anglian be in the genitive _[=E]otna_, but in the dative
+_[=E]otum_, or perhaps occasionally _[=E]otnum_, _[=E]otenum_[459]. Now a
+scribe transliterating a poem from an Anglian dialect into West-Saxon
+should, of course, have altered these forms into the corresponding
+West-Saxon forms _[=Y]tena_ and _[=Y]tum_. But nothing would have been more
+likely than that he would have misunderstood the tribal name as a common
+noun, and retained the Anglian forms (altering _eotum_ or _eotnum_ into
+_eotenum_) supposing the word to mean "giants." After all, the common noun
+_eotenum_, "giants," was quite as like the tribal name _[=E]otum_, which
+the scribe presumably had before him, as was the correct West-Saxon form of
+that name, _[=Y]tum_.
+
+It is difficult therefore to avoid the conclusion that the "Eotens" are
+Jutes: and this is confirmed by three other pieces of evidence, not
+convincing in themselves, but helpful as subsidiary arguments[460].
+
+{262}
+
+(1) We should gather from _Widsith_ that the Jutes were concerned in the
+_Finnsburg_ business. For in that poem generally (though not always) tribes
+connected in story are grouped together; and the Jutes and Frisians are so
+coupled:
+
+ [=Y]tum [weold] Gefwulf
+ Fin Folcwalding Fr[=e]sna cynne.
+
+(2) There is another passage in _Beowulf_ in which _Eotenas_ is possibly
+used in the sense of "Jutes."
+
+We have seen above[461] that according to a Scandinavian tradition Lotherus
+was exiled _in Jutiam_: and Heremod, who has been held to be the
+counterpart of Lotherus
+
+ _mid Eotenum_ wearð
+ on f[=e]onda geweald forð forl[=a]cen.
+
+But the identification of Lotherus and Heremod is too hypothetical to carry
+the weight of much argument.
+
+(3) Finn comes into many Old English pedigrees, which have doubtless
+borrowed from one another. But the earliest in which we find him, and the
+only one in which we find his father Folcwald, is that of the Jutish kings
+of Kent[462]. Here, too, the name Hengest meets us.
+
+The view that the name "Eoten" in the _Finnsburg_ story is a form of the
+word "Jute" is, then, one which is very difficult to reject. It is one
+which has in the past been held by many scholars and is, I think, held by
+all who have recently expressed any opinion on the subject[463]. But this
+renders very difficult the assumption of Bugge and his followers that the
+word "Eoten" is synonymous with "Frisian[464]." For Frisians were not
+Jutes. {263} The tribes were closely related; but the two words were not
+synonymous. The very lines in _Widsith_, which couple Jutes and Frisians
+together, as if they were related in story, show that the names were
+regarded as those of distinct tribes. And this evidence from _Widsith_ is
+very important, because the compiler of that list of names clearly knew the
+story of Finn and Hnæf.
+
+But this is not the only difficulty in Bugge's interpretation of the Eotens
+as Frisians. The outbreak of war, we are told, is due to the treachery of
+the Eotens. This Bugge and his followers interpret as meaning that Finn
+must have treacherously attacked Hnæf. Yet the poet speaks of "the warriors
+of Finn when the sudden danger fell upon them": _þ[=a] h[=i][=e] se f[=æ]r
+begeat_. It is essential to _f[=æ]r_ that it signifies a sudden and
+unexpected attack[465]: and the unexpected attack must have come, not upon
+the assailants but upon the assailed.
+
+Yet this difficulty, though it has been emphasized by Möller[466] and other
+opponents of Bugge's view, is not insuperable[467], and I hope to show
+below that there is no real difficulty. But it leads us to a problem not so
+easily surmounted. If Finn made a treacherous attack upon Hnæf, and slew
+him, how did it come that Hengest, and Hnæf's other men, made terms with
+their murderous host?
+
+In the primitive heathen days it had been a rule that the retainer must not
+survive his vanquished lord[468]. The ferocity of this rule was
+subsequently softened, and, in point of fact, we _do_ often hear, after
+some great leader has been slain, of his followers accepting quarter from a
+chivalrous foe, without being {264} therefore regarded as having acted
+disgracefully[469]. But, if Finn had invited Hnæf and Hnæf's retainers to
+be his guests, and had fallen upon them by treachery, the action of the
+retainers in coming to terms with Finn, in entering his service, and
+stipulating how much of his pay they shall receive, would be contrary to
+all standards of conduct as understood in the Heroic Age, and would deprive
+Hnæf's men of any sympathy the audience might feel for them. But Hnæf's men
+are not censured: they are in fact treated most sympathetically in the
+_Episode_, and in the _Fragment_, at an earlier point in the story, they
+are enthusiastically applauded[470].
+
+It is strange enough in any case that Hnæf's retainers should make terms
+with the slayer of their lord. But it is not merely strange, it is
+absolutely unintelligible, if we are to suppose that Finn has not merely
+slain Hnæf, but has lured him into his power, and then slain him while a
+guest.
+
+It is to the credit of Bugge that he felt this difficulty: but his attempt
+to explain it is hardly satisfactory. He fell back upon a parallel between
+the story of the death of Rolf Kraki and the story of _Finnsburg_. We have
+already seen that the resemblance is very close between the _Bjarkamál_,
+which narrates the death of Rolf, and the opening of the _Finnsburg
+Fragment_. The parallel which Bugge invoked comes from the sequel to the
+Rolf story[471] which tells how Hiarwarus, the murderer of Rolf Kraki,
+astonished by the devotion of Rolf's retainers, lamented their death, and
+said how gladly he would have given quarter to such men, and taken them
+into his service. Thereupon Wiggo, the one survivor, who had previously
+vowed to avenge his lord, and had concealed himself with that object, came
+forward and offered to accept these terms. Accordingly he placed his hand
+upon the hilt of his new master's drawn sword, as if about to swear fealty
+to him: but instead of swearing, he ran him through.
+
+"Glorious and ever memorable hero, who valiantly kept his vow," says
+Saxo[472]. Whether or no we share the exultation of {265} that excellent if
+somewhat bloodthirsty ecclesiastic, we must admit that Wiggo's methods were
+sensible and practical. If, singlehanded, he was to keep his vow, and
+avenge his lord, he could only hope to do it by some such stratagem.
+
+Bugge tries to explain Hengest's action on similar lines: "He does not
+hesitate to enter the service of Finn in order thereby to carry out his
+revenge[473]."
+
+But the circumstances are entirely different. Wiggo was left alone, the
+only survivor of Rolf's household, to face a whole army. But Hengest is no
+single survivor: he and his fellows have made so good a defence that Finn
+cannot overcome them by conflict on the _meðel-stede_. Not only so, but, if
+we accept the interpretation that almost every critic and editor has put
+upon the passage (ll. 1184-5), Hengest's position is even stronger. Finn
+has lost almost all his thegns; the usual interpretation puts him at the
+mercy of Hengest: at best it is a draw[474]. If, then, Hengest wants
+vengeance upon Finn, why does he not pursue it? Instead of which, according
+to Bugge, he enters Finn's service in order that he may get an opportunity
+for revenge.
+
+And note, that Wiggo did not swear the oath of fealty to the murderer of
+his master Rolf: he merely put himself in the posture to do so, and then,
+instead, ran the tyrant through forthwith. But Hengest _does_ swear the
+oath, and _does not_ forthwith slay the tyrant. He spends the winter with
+him, receives a sword from Hunlafing, after which his name does not occur
+again. Finn is ultimately slain, but the names which are found in that
+connection are those of Guthlaf and Oslaf [Ordlaf].
+
+So Bugge's explanation comes to this: Hengest is fighting with success
+against Finn, but he refrains from vengeance: instead, he treacherously
+enters his service in order that he may take an opportunity of vengeance,
+which opportunity, however, it is never made clear to us that he takes.
+
+Had Hengest been a man of that kind, he would not have been a hero of Old
+English heroic song.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{266}
+
+SECTION VI. RECENT ELUCIDATIONS. PROF. AYRES' COMMENTS
+
+It is one of the merits of Bugge's view--one of the proofs of its general
+soundness--that it admits of successive improvements at the hands of
+succeeding commentators. No one has done more in this way than has Prof.
+Ayres to clear up the story, particularly the latter part of the _Episode_.
+Ayres evolves unity out of what had been before "a rapid-fire of events
+that hit all around a central tragic situation and do not once touch it."
+Hengest does not, Ayres thinks, enter the service of Finn with any such
+well-formed plan of revenge as Bugge had attributed to him. Hengest was in
+a difficult situation. It is his mental conflict, "torn between his oath to
+Finn and his duty to the dead Hnæf," which gives unity to all that follows.
+It is a tragedy of Hengest, hesitating, like Shakespeare's Hamlet, over the
+duty of revenge. Prof. Ayres' statement here is too good to summarize; it
+must be quoted at length:
+
+ "How did he feel during that long, blood-stained winter? He naturally
+ thought about home (_eard gemunde_, 1129), but there was no question of
+ sailing then, no need yet of decision while the storm roared outside.
+ By and by spring came round, as it has a way of doing. How did he feel
+ then? Then, like any other Northerner, he wanted to put to sea:
+
+ fundode wrecca,
+ gist of geardum.
+
+ That is what he would naturally do. He would speak to Finn and be off;
+ in the spring his business was on the sea. That is all right as to
+ Finn, but as to the dead Hnæf it is very like running away; it is
+ postponing vengeance sadly. Will he prove so unpregnant of his cause as
+ that? No; though he would like to go to sea, he thought _rather_ of
+ vengeance, and staid in the hope of managing a successful surprise
+ against Finn and his people:
+
+ h[=e] t[=o] gyrn-wræce
+ sw[=i]ðor þ[=o]hte þonne t[=o] s[=æ]-l[=a]de,
+ gif h[=e] torn-gem[=o]t þurht[=e]on mihte,
+ þæt h[=e] Eotena b[=e]arn inne gemunde.
+
+ All this says clearly that Hengest was thinking things over, whether he
+ should or should not take vengeance upon Finn; it tells us also very
+ clearly, with characteristic anticipation of the outcome of the story,
+ that in the end desire for vengeance carried the day:
+
+ Sw[=a] h[=e] ne-forwyrnde worold-r[=æ]denne,
+
+ he did not _thus_ prove recreant to his duty. But we have not been told
+ the steps by which Hengest arrived at his decision. That seems {267} to
+ be what we should naturally want to know at this point, and that is
+ precisely what we are about to be told. Occasions gross as earth
+ informed against him[475]."
+
+Then Ayres goes on to explain the "egging," through the presentation of a
+sword by Hunlafing. This feature of the story is now pretty generally so
+understood; but Ayres has an interpretation of the part played by Guthlaf
+and Oslaf, which is new and enlightening.
+
+ "Hengest's almost blunted purpose was not whetted by Hunlafing alone.
+ The latter's uncles, Guðlaf and Oslaf [Ordlaf] took occasion to mention
+ to Hengest the fierce attack (the one, presumably, in which Hnæf had
+ fallen); cast up to him all the troubles that had befallen them ever
+ since their disastrous sea-journey to Finnsburg; they had plenty of
+ woes to twit him with:
+
+ siððan grimne gripe G[=u]ðl[=a]f and [=O]sl[=a]f
+ æfter s[=æ]-s[=i]ðe sorge m[=æ]ndon,
+ ætwiton w[=e]ana d[=æ]l.
+
+ The effect of all this on Hengest is cumulative. Where he was before in
+ perfect balance, he is now wrought to action by the words of his
+ followers; he can control himself no longer; the balance is destroyed.
+ The restless spirit (Hengest's in the first instance, but it may be
+ thought of as referring to the entire attacking party, now of one mind)
+ could no longer restrain itself within the breast:
+
+ ne meahte w[=æ]fre m[=o]d
+ forhabban in hreðre.
+
+ Vengeance wins the day[476]."
+
+By this interpretation Ayres has, as he claims, "sharpened some of the
+features" of the current interpretation of the Finn story. For, as he says,
+"in some respects the current version was very unsatisfactory; there seemed
+to be little relation between the presentation of the sword to Hengest and
+the spectacle of Guðlaf and Oslaf howling their complaints in the face of
+Finn."
+
+That Ayres' interpretation enhances the coherency of the story is beyond
+dispute: that it does so at the cost of putting some strain upon the text
+in one or two places may perhaps be urged[477]. But that in its main lines
+it is correct seems to me certain: the story of Finnsburg is the tragedy of
+Hengest--his hesitation and his revenge. Keeping this well in view, many of
+the difficulties disappear.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{268}
+
+SECTION VII. PROBLEMS STILL OUTSTANDING
+
+Many of the difficulties disappear: but the two big ones remain. Firstly,
+if "Eoten" means "Jute," as it is usually agreed that it does, why should
+the Frisians be called Jutes, seeing that a Frisian is not a Jute?
+Secondly, when Hengest and the other thegns of Hnæf enter the service of
+the slayer of their lord, they are not blamed for so doing, but rather
+excused, _þ[=a] him sw[=a] geþearfod wæs_. Such a situation is unusual; but
+it becomes incredible if that slayer, whose service they enter, had fallen
+upon and slain their lord by treachery, when his guest.
+
+It seems to me that neither of these difficulties is really inherent in the
+situation, but rather accidental, and owing to the way Bugge's theory,
+right enough in its main lines, has been presented both by Bugge and his
+followers. For it is not necessary to assume that Frisians _are_ called
+_Eotenas_ or Jutes. All that we are justified in deducing from the text is
+that Frisians and _Eotenas_ are both under the command of Finn. If we
+suppose what the text demands, _and no more_, we are at one stroke relieved
+of both our difficulties. Though "Jute" can hardly have been synonymous
+with "Frisian," nothing is more probable, as I shall try to show[478], than
+that a great Frisian king should have had a tribe of Jutes subject to him,
+or should have had in his pay a band of Jutish mercenaries. Now if the
+trouble was due to these "Eotens"--and we are told that it was[479]--our
+second difficulty is also solved. It would be much more natural for Hengest
+to come to terms with Finn, albeit the _bana_ of his lord, if Finn's
+conduct had not been stained by treachery, and if the blame for the
+original attack did not rest with him.
+
+And, as I have said, there is nothing in the text which justifies us in
+assuming that _Eotenas_ means "Frisians" and that therefore _Eotena
+tr[=e]owe_ refers to Finn's breach of faith. It has indeed been argued that
+_Eotenas_ and Frisians are synonymous, {269} because in the terms of peace,
+whilst it is stipulated that Hengest and his comrades are to have equal
+control with the _Eotena bearn_, it is further stipulated that Finn is to
+give Hengest's men gifts equal to those which he gives to the _Fr[=e]sena
+cynn_[480]. Here then _Eotena bearn_ and _Fr[=e]sena cynn_ are certainly
+parallel, and are both contrasted with Hengest and his troops. But surely
+this in no wise proves _Eotena bearn_ and _Fr[=e]sena cynn_ synonymous:
+they may equally well be different sections of Finn's host, just as in
+_Brunanburh_ the soldiers of Athelstan are spoken of first as _Westseaxe_,
+and then as _Myrce_. Are we to argue that West-Saxons are Mercians? So in
+the account of Hygelac's fatal expedition[481] the opponents are called
+Franks, Frisians, _H[=u]gas_, _Hetware_. A reader ignorant of the story
+might suppose these all synonymous terms for one tribe. But we know that
+they are not: the _Hetware_ were the people immediately attacked--the
+Frankish overlord hastened to the rescue, and was apparently helped by the
+neighbouring Frisians, who although frequently at this date opposed to the
+Franks, would naturally make common cause against the pirate from
+overseas[482].
+
+It was quite natural that the earlier students of the _Finnsburg Episode_,
+thinking of the two opposing forces as two homogeneous tribes, and finding
+mention of three tribal names, Danes, Eotens and Frisians, should have
+assumed that the Eotens must be exactly synonymous with _either_ Danes _or_
+Frisians. But it is now recognized that the conditions of the time
+postulate not so much tribes as groups of tribes[483]. In the _Fragment_ we
+have, on the side of the Danes, _Sigeferth_, prince of the _Secgan_. The
+_Secgan_ are not necessarily Danes, because their lord is fighting on the
+Danish side. Neither need the _Eotenas_ be Frisians, because they are
+fighting on the Frisian side.
+
+We cannot, then, argue that two tribes are identical, because engaged in
+fighting a common foe: still less, because they are {270} mentioned with a
+certain parallelism[484]. And anyway, it is impossible to find in the use
+of the expression _Eotena bearn_ in l. 1088 any support for the
+interpretation which makes _Eotena tr[=e]owe_ signify the treachery of Finn
+himself. For, assuredly, the proviso that Hengest and his fellows are to
+have half control as against the _Eotena bearn_ does not mean that they are
+to have half control as against Finn himself. For the very next lines make
+it clear that they are to enter Finn's service and become his retainers.
+That Hengest and his men are to have equal rights with Finn's Jutish
+followers (_Eotena bearn_) is reasonable enough: but they obviously have
+not equal rights with Finn, their lord whom they are now to follow. _Eotena
+bearn_ in l. 1088, then, does _not_ include Finn: how _can_ it then be used
+as an argument that _Eotena tr[=e]owe_ must refer to _Finn's_ faith and his
+breach of it?
+
+Finn, then, is the _bana_ of Hnæf, but there is nothing in the text which
+compels us to assume that he is the slayer of his guest.
+
+The reader may regard my zeal to clear the character of Finn as excessive.
+But it is always worth while to understand a good old tale. And it is only
+when we withdraw our unjust aspersions upon Finn's good faith that the tale
+becomes intelligible.
+
+This, I know, has been disputed, and by the scholars whose opinion I most
+respect.
+
+The poet tells us that Finn was the _bana_ of Hnæf, so, says Ayres, "it is
+hard to see how it helps matters[485]" to argue that Finn was not guilty of
+treachery. And Lawrence argues in the same way:
+
+ "How is it possible to shift the blame for the attack from Finn to the
+ Eotenas when Finn is called the _bana_ of Hnæf? It does not matter
+ whether he killed him with his own hands or not; he is clearly held
+ responsible; the lines tell us it was regarded as disgraceful for the
+ {271} Danes to have to follow him, and the revenge at the end falls
+ heavily upon him. The insult and hurt to Danish pride would be very
+ little lessened by the assumption that someone else started the
+ quarrel; and for this assumption, too, the lines give no warrant[486]."
+
+Let us take these objections in turn. I do not see how the fact that Finn
+is called the _bana_ of Hnæf can prove _anything_ as to "the blame for the
+attack." Of course the older editors may have thought so. Kemble translates
+_bana_ "slaughterer," which implies brutality, and perhaps culpability.
+Bosworth-Toller renders _bana_ "murderer," which certainly implies blame
+for attack. But we know that these are mere mistranslations. Nothing as to
+"blame for attack" is implied in the term _bana_: "_bana_ 'slayer' is a
+perfectly neutral word, and must not be translated by 'murderer,' or any
+word connoting criminality. A man who slays another in self-defence, or in
+righteous execution of the law, is still his 'bane'[487]." Everyone admits
+this to be true: and yet at the same time _bana_ is quoted to prove that
+Finn is to blame; because, for want of a better word, we half-consciously
+render _bana_ "murderer": and "murderer" _does_ imply blame. "Words," says
+Bacon, "as a Tartar's bow, do shoot back upon the understanding of the
+wisest."
+
+Lawrence continues: "The lines tell us that it was regarded as disgraceful
+for the Danes to have to follow him." But surely this is saying too much.
+That the Frisians are not to taunt the Danes with following the slayer of
+their lord is only one of two possible interpretations of the ll. 1101-3.
+And even if we accept this interpretation, it does not follow that the
+Danes are regarded as having done anything with which they can be _justly_
+taunted. It is part of the settlement between Gunnar and Njal, that Njal's
+sons are not to be taunted: if a man repeats the taunts he shall fall
+unavenged[488]. Surely a man may be touchy about being taunted, without
+being regarded as having done anything disgraceful. Indeed, in our case,
+the poet implies that taunts would _not_ be just, _þ[=a] him sw[=a]
+geþearfod wæs_. But, as I try to show below, no _þearf_ could have excused
+the submission of retainers to a foe who had just slain their lord by
+deliberate treachery.
+
+{272}
+
+"The revenge at the end falls heavily upon Finn." It does; as so often
+happens where the feud is temporarily patched up, it breaks out again, as
+in the stories of Alboin, Ingeld or Bolli. But this does not prove that the
+person upon whom the revenge ultimately falls heavily had been a
+guest-slayer. The possibility of even temporary reconciliation rather
+implies the reverse.
+
+"The insult and hurt to Danish pride would be very little lessened by the
+assumption that someone else [than Finn] started the quarrel; and for this
+assumption, too, the lines give no warrant." But they _do_: for they tell
+us that it was due to the bad faith of the Eotens. Commentators may argue,
+if they will, that "Eotens" means Finn. But the weight of proof lies on
+them, and they have not met it, or seriously attempted to meet it.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION VIII. THE WEIGHT OF PROOF: THE EOTENS
+
+Finn is surely entitled to be held innocent till he can be proved guilty.
+And the argument for his guilt comes to this: the trouble was due to the
+bad faith of the Eotens: "Eotens" means "Jutes": "Jutes" means "Frisians":
+"Frisians" means "Finn": therefore the trouble was due to the treachery of
+Finn.
+
+Now I agree that it is probable that _Eotenas_ means Jutes; and, as I have
+said, there is nothing improbable in a Frisian king having had a clan of
+Jutes, or a body of Jutish mercenaries, subject to him. But that the
+Frisians as a whole should be called Jutes is, _per se_, exceedingly
+improbable, and we have no shadow of evidence for it. Lawrence tries to
+justify it by the authority of Siebs:
+
+ "Siebs, perhaps the foremost authority on Frisian conditions,
+ conjectures that ... the occupation by the Frisians of Jutish territory
+ after the conquest of Britain assisted the confusion between the two
+ names."
+
+But _did_ the Frisians occupy Jutish territory? When we ask what is Siebs'
+authority for the hypothesis that Frisians occupied Jutish territory, we
+find it to be this: that because in _Beowulf_ "Jute" means "Frisian," some
+such event must have taken place to account for this nomenclature[489]. So
+it comes to this: the Frisians must have been called Jutes, because they
+occupied {273} Jutish territory: the Frisians must have occupied Jutish
+territory because they are called Jutes. I do not think we could have a
+better example of what Prof. Tupper calls "philological legend."
+
+Siebs rejects Bede's statement, which places the Jutes in what is now
+Jutland: he believes them to have been immediately adjacent to the
+Frisians. For this belief that the Jutes were immediate neighbours of the
+Frisians there is, of course, some support, though not of a very convincing
+kind: but the belief that the Frisians occupied the territory of these
+adjacent Jutes rests, so far as I know, solely upon this identification of
+the _Eotenas_-Jutes with the Frisians, which it is then in turn used to
+prove.
+
+But if by Jutes we understand (following Bede) a people dwelling north of
+the Angles, in or near the peninsula of Jutland, then it is of course true
+that (at a much later date) a colony of Frisians _did_ occupy territory
+which is near Jutland, and which is sometimes included in the name
+"Jutland." But, as I have tried to show above, this "North Frisian" colony
+belongs to a period much later than that of the Finn-story: we have no
+reason whatever to suppose that the Frisians of the Finn story are the
+North Frisians of Sylt and the adjoining islands and mainland--the
+_Frisiones qui habitabant Juthlandie_[490].
+
+And when we have assumed, without evidence, that, at the period with which
+we are dealing, Frisians had occupied Jutish territory, we are then further
+asked to assume that, from this settlement in Jutish territory, such
+Frisians came to be called Jutes. Now this is an hypothesis _per se_
+conceivable, but very improbable. Throughout the whole Heroic Age, for a
+thousand years after the time of Tacitus, Germanic tribes were moving, and
+occupying the territory of other people. During this period, how many
+instances can we find in which a tribe took the name of the people whose
+territory it occupied? Even where the name of the new home is adopted, the
+old tribal name is _not_ adopted. For instance, the Bavarians occupied the
+territory of the Celtic Boii, but they did not call themselves Boii, but
+Bai(haim)varii, "the dwellers in the land of the Boii"--a very {274}
+different thing. In the same way the Jutes who settled in the land of the
+Cantii did not call themselves _Kente_, but _Cantware_, "dwellers in
+Cantium." Of course, where the old name of a country survives, it does
+often _in the long run_ come to be applied to its new inhabitants; but this
+takes many ages. It was not till a good thousand years after the English
+had conquered the land of the Britons, that Englishmen began to speak and
+think of themselves as "Britons." In feudal or 18th century days all the
+subjects of the ruler of Britain, Prussia, Austria, may come to be called
+British, Prussians, Austrians. But this is no argument for the period with
+which we are dealing. The assumption, then, that a body of Frisians, simply
+because they inhabited land which had once been inhabited by Jutes, should
+have called themselves Jutes, is so contrary to all we know of tribal
+nomenclature at this date, that one could only accept it if compelled by
+very definite evidence to do so. And of such evidence there is no
+scrap[491]. Neither is there a scrap of evidence for the underlying
+hypothesis that any Frisians _were_ settled at this date in Jutish
+territory.
+
+And as if this were not hypothetical enough, a further hypothesis has then
+to be built upon it: viz., that this name "Jutes," belonging to such of the
+Frisians as had settled in Jutish territory, somehow became applicable to
+Frisians as a whole. Now this might conceivably have happened, but only as
+a result of certain political events. If the Jutish Frisians had become the
+governing element in Frisia, it would be conceivable. But after all, we
+know something about Frisian history, and I do not {275} think we are at
+liberty to assume any such changes as would have enabled the Frisian
+people, as a whole, to be called Jutes. How is it that we never get any
+hint anywhere of this Jutish preponderance and Jutish ascendancy?
+
+The argument that the "treachery of the Jutes" means the treachery of Finn,
+King of the Frisians, has, then, no support at all.
+
+
+
+One further argument there is, for attributing treason to Finn.
+
+It has been urged that in other stories a husband entraps and betrays the
+brother of his wife. But we are not justified in reading pieces of one
+story into another, unless we believe the two stories to be really
+connected. The Signy of the _V[o,]lsunga Saga_ has been quoted as a
+parallel to Hildeburh[492]. Signy leaves the home of her father Volsung and
+her brother Sigmund to wed King Siggeir. Siggeir invites the kin of his
+wife to visit him, and then slays Volsung and all his sons, save Sigmund.
+But it is the difference of the story, rather than its likeness, which is
+striking. No hint is ever made of any possibility of reconciliation between
+Siggeir and the kin of the men he has slain. The feud admits of no
+atonement, and is continued to the utterance. Siggeir's very wife helps her
+brother Sigmund to his revenge.
+
+How different from the attitude of Sigmund and Signy is the willingness of
+Hengest to come to terms, and the merely passive and elegiac bearing of
+Hildeburh! These things do not suggest that we ought to read a King Siggeir
+treachery into the story of Finn.
+
+Again, the fact that Atli entices the brother of his wife into his power,
+has been urged as a parallel. But surely it is rather unfair to erect this
+into a kind of standard of conduct for the early Germanic brother-in-law,
+and to assume as a matter of course that, because Finn is Hnæf's
+brother-in-law, therefore he must have sought to betray him. The whole
+atmosphere of the Finn-Hnæf story, with its attempted reconciliation, is as
+opposed to that of the story of Atli as it is to the story of Siggeir.
+
+{276}
+
+The only epithet applied to Finn is _ferhð-freca_, "valiant in soul."
+Though _freca_ is not necessarily a good word, and is applied to the dragon
+as well as to Beowulf, yet it denotes grim, fierce, almost reckless
+courage. It does not suggest a traitor who invites his foes to his house,
+and murders them by night.
+
+
+
+I interpret the lines, then, as meaning that the trouble arose from the
+Jutes, and, since the context shows that these Jutes were on Finn's side,
+and against the Danes, we must hold them to be a body of Jutes in the
+service of Finn[493].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION IX. ETHICS OF THE BLOOD FEUD
+
+But, as we have seen, it is objected that this interpretation of the
+situation, absolving Finn from any charge of treachery or aggression, does
+not "help matters[494]." Or, as Prof. Lawrence puts it, "the hurt to Danish
+pride [in entering the service of Finn] would be very little lessened by
+the assumption that someone else [than Finn] started the quarrel."
+
+These objections seem to me to be contrary to the whole spirit of the old
+heroic literature.
+
+I quite admit that there is a stage in primitive society when the act of
+slaying is everything, and the circumstances, or motives, do not count. In
+the Levitical Law, it is taken for granted that, if a man innocently causes
+the death of another, as for instance if his axe break, and the axe-head
+accidentally kill his comrade, then the avenger of blood will seek to slay
+the homicide, just as much as if he had been guilty of treacherous murder.
+To meet such cases the Cities of Refuge are established, where the homicide
+may flee till his case can be investigated; but even though found innocent,
+the homicide may be at once slain by the avenger, should he step outside
+the City of Refuge. And this "eye for eye" vengeance yields slowly: it took
+long to establish legally in our own country the distinction between murder
+and homicide.
+
+{277}
+
+For "The thought of man" it was held "shall not be tried: as the devil
+himself knoweth not the thought of man." Nevertheless, even the Germanic
+_wer-gild_ system permits consideration of circumstances: it often happens
+that no _wer-gild_ is to be paid because the slain man has been unjust, or
+the aggressor[495], or no _wer-gild_ will be accepted because the slaying
+was under circumstances making settlement impossible.
+
+Doubtless in Germanic barbarism there was once a stage similar to that
+which must have preceded the establishment of the Cities of Refuge in
+Israel[496]; but that stage had passed before the period with which we are
+dealing; in the Heroic Age the motive _did_ count for a very great deal.
+Not but what there were still the literal people who insisted upon "an eye
+for an eye," without looking at circumstances; and these people often had
+their way; but their view is seldom the one taken by the characters with
+whom the poet or the saga-man sympathises. These generally hold a more
+moderate creed. One may almost say that the leading motive in heroic
+literature is precisely this difference of opinion between the people who
+hold that under any circumstances it is shameful to come to an agreement
+with the _bana_ of one's lord or friend or kinsman, and the people who are
+willing _under certain circumstances_ to come to such an agreement.
+
+It happens not infrequently that after some battle in which a great chief
+has been killed, his retainers are offered quarter, and accept it; but I do
+not remember any instance of their doing this if, instead of an open
+battle, it is a case of a treacherous attack. The two most famous downfalls
+of Northern princes afford typical examples: after the battle of Svold,
+Kolbjorn Stallari accepts quarter from Eric, the chivalrous _bani_ of his
+lord Olaf[497]; but Rolf's men refuse quarter after the treacherous murder
+of their lord by Hiarwarus[498].
+
+{278}
+
+That men, after a fair fight, could take quarter from, or give it to, those
+who had slain their lord or closest kinsman, is shown by abundant
+references in the sagas and histories. For instance, when Eric, after the
+fight with the Jomsvikings, offers quarter to his prisoners, that quarter
+is accepted, even though their leaders, their nearest kin, and their
+friends have been slain. The first to receive quarter is young Sigurd,
+whose father Bui has just been killed: yet the writer obviously does not
+the less sympathize with Sigurd, or with the other Jomsviking survivors,
+and feels the action to be generous on the part of Eric, and in no wise
+base on the part of the Jomsvikings[499]. But this is natural, because the
+Jomsvikings have just been defeated by Eric in fair fight. It would be
+impossible, if Eric were represented as a traitor, slaying the Jomsvikings
+by a treacherous attack, whilst they were his guests. Is it to be supposed
+that Sigurd, under such circumstances, would have taken quarter from the
+slayer of Bui his father?
+
+In the _Laxdæla Saga_, Olaf the Peacock, in exacting vengeance for the
+slaying of his son Kjartan, shows no leniency towards the sons of Osvif, on
+whom the moral responsibility rests. But he accepts compensation in money
+from Bolli, who had been drawn into the feud against his will. Yet Bolli
+was the actual slayer of Kjartan, and he had taken the responsibility as
+such[500]. And Olaf is not held to have lowered himself by accepting a
+money payment as atonement from the slayer of his son--on the contrary "he
+was considered to have grown in reputation" from having thus spared Bolli.
+But after Olaf's death, the feud bursts out again, and revenge in the end
+falls heavily upon Bolli[501], as it does upon Finn.
+
+On this question a fairly uniform standard of feeling will be found from
+the sixth century to the thirteenth. That it _does_ make all the difference
+in composing a feud, whether the slaying from which the feud arises was
+treacherous or not, can be abundantly proved from many documents, from Paul
+the Deacon, and possibly earlier, to the Icelandic Sagas. Such composition
+of feuds may or may not be lasting; it may or may {279} not expose to taunt
+those who make it; but the questions which arise are precisely these: Who
+started the quarrel? Was the slaying fair or treacherous? Upon the answer
+depends the possibility of atonement. There may be some insult and hurt to
+a man's pride in accepting atonement, even in cases where the other side
+has much to say for itself. But if the slaying has been fair, composition
+is felt to be possible, though not without danger of the feud breaking out
+afresh.
+
+Prof. Lawrence has suggested that perhaps, in the original version of the
+_Finnsburg_ story, the Danes were reduced to greater straits than is
+represented to be the case in the extant _Beowulf Episode_. He thinks that
+it is "almost incomprehensible" that Hengest should make terms with Finn,
+if he had really reduced Finn and his thegns to such a degree of
+helplessness as the words of the _Episode_ state. It seems to me that the
+matter depends much more upon the treachery or the honesty of Finn. If Finn
+was guilty of treachery and slaughter of his guests, then it _is_
+"unintelligible" that Hengest should spare him: but if Finn was really a
+respectable character, then the fact that Hengest was making headway
+against him is rather a reason why Hengest should be moderate, than
+otherwise. To quote the _Laxdæla Saga_ again: though Olaf the Peacock lets
+off Bolli, the _bani_ of his son Kjartan, with a money payment, he makes it
+clear that he is master of the situation, before he shows this mercy.
+Paradoxical as it sounds, it was often easier for a man to show moderation
+in pursuing a blood feud, just _because_ he was in a strong position. It is
+so again in the _Saga of Thorstein the White_. But the adversary must be
+one who deserves to be treated with moderation.
+
+Of course it is quite possible that Prof. Lawrence is right, and that in
+some earlier and more correct version the Danes may have been represented
+as so outnumbered by the Frisians that they had no choice except to
+surrender to Finn, and enter his service, or else to be destroyed. But,
+whether this be so or no, all parallel incidents in the old literature show
+that their choice between these evil alternatives will depend upon whether
+Finn, the _bana_ of their lord, slew that lord by deliberate and
+premeditated treachery whilst he was his guest, or whether he {280} was
+embroiled with him through the fault of others, under circumstances which
+were perfectly honourable. If the latter is the case, then Hnæf's men
+_might_ accept quarter. Their position is comparable with that of Illugi at
+the end of the _Grettis Saga_[502]. Illugi is a prisoner in the hands of
+the slayers of Grettir and he charges them with having overcome Grettir,
+when already on the point of death from a mortifying wound, which they had
+inflicted on him by sorcery and enchantment. The slayers propose to Illugi
+terms parallel to those made to the retainers of Hnæf. "I will give thee
+thy life," says their leader, "if thou wilt swear to us an oath not to take
+vengeance on any of those who have been in this business."
+
+Now, note the answer of Illugi: "That might have seemed to me a matter to
+be discussed, if Grettir had been able to defend himself, and if ye had
+overcome him with valour and courage; but now it is not to be looked for
+that I will save my life by being such a coward as art thou. In a word, no
+man shall be more harmful to thee than I, if I live, _for never can I
+forget how it was that ye have vanquished Grettir_. Much rather, then, do I
+choose to die."
+
+Now of course it would have been an "insult and hurt" to the pride of
+Illugi, or of any other decent eleventh century Icelander, to have been
+compelled to swear an oath not to avenge his brother, even though that
+brother had been slain in the most chivalrous way possible; and it would
+doubtless have been a hard matter, even in such a case, for Illugi to have
+kept his oath, had he sworn it. But the treachery of the opponents puts an
+oath out of the question, just as it must have done in the case of the
+followers of King Cynewulf[503] or of Rolf Kraki, and as it must have done
+in the case of the followers of Hnæf, had the slaying of Hnæf been a
+premeditated act of treachery on the part of Finn.
+
+In the _Njáls Saga_, Flosi has to take up the feud for the slain Hauskuld.
+Flosi is a moderate and reasonable man, so the first thing he does is to
+enquire into the _circumstances_ under which Hauskuld was slain. Flosi
+finds that the circumstances, and the outrageous conduct of the slayers,
+give him no choice {281} but to prosecute the feud. So in the end he burns
+Njal's hall, and in it the child of Kari.
+
+Now to have burned a man's child to death might well seem a deed impossible
+of atonement. Yet in the end Flosi and Kari are reconciled by a full
+atonement, _the father of the slain child actually taking the first
+step_[504]. And all this is possible because Flosi and Kari recognise that
+each has been trying to play his part with justice and fairness, and that
+each is dragged into the feud through the fault of others. When Flosi has
+said of his enemy, "I would that I were altogether such a man as Kari is,"
+we feel that reconciliation is in sight.
+
+Very similar is the reconciliation between Alboin and Thurisind in
+Longobard story, but with this difference, that here it is Alboin who seeks
+reconciliation by going to the hall of the man whose son he has slain, thus
+reversing the parts of Flosi and Kari; and reconciliation is possible--just
+barely possible.
+
+Again, when Bothvar comes to the hall of Rolf, and slays one of Rolf's
+retainers, the other retainers naturally claim full vengeance. Rolf insists
+upon investigating the _circumstances_. When he learns that it was his own
+man who gave the provocation, he comes to terms with the slayer.
+
+Of course it was a difficult matter, and one involving a sacrifice of their
+pride, for the retainers of Hnæf to come to any composition with the _bana_
+of their lord; but it is not unthinkable, if the quarrel was started by
+Finn's subordinates without his consent, and if Finn himself fought fair.
+But had the slaying been an act of premeditated treachery on the part of
+Finn, the atonement would, I submit, have been not only difficult but
+impossible. If the retainers of Hnæf had had such success as our poem
+implies, then their action under such circumstances is, as Lawrence says,
+"almost incomprehensible." If they did it under compulsion, and fear of
+death, then their action would be contrary to all the ties of Germanic
+honour, and would entirely deprive them of any sympathy the audience might
+otherwise have felt for them. Yet it is quite obvious that the retainers of
+Hnæf are precisely the people with whom the audience is expected to
+sympathise[505].
+
+{282}
+
+In any case, the feud was likely enough to break out again as it did in the
+case of Alboin and Thurisind, and equally in that of Hrothgar and Ingeld.
+
+Indeed, the different versions of the story of the feud between the house
+of Hrothgar and the house of Froda are very much to the point.
+
+Much the oldest version--probably in its main lines quite historical--is
+the story as given in _Beowulf_. Froda has been slain by the Danes in
+pitched battle. Subsequently Hrothgar, upon whom, as King of the Danes, the
+responsibility for meeting the feud has devolved, tries to stave it off by
+wedding his daughter Freawaru to Ingeld, son of Froda. The sympathy of the
+poet is obviously with the luckless pair, Ingeld and Freawaru, involved as
+they are in ancient hatreds which are not of their making. For it is
+foreseen how some old warrior, who cannot forget his loyalty to his former
+king, will stir up the feud afresh.
+
+But Saxo Grammaticus tells the story differently. Froda (Frotho) is
+treacherously invited to a banquet, and then slain. By this treachery the
+whole atmosphere of the story is changed. Ingeld (Ingellus) marries the
+daughter of his father's slayer, and, for this, the old version reproduced
+by Saxo showers upon him literally scores of phrases of scorn and contempt.
+The whole interest of the story now centres not in the recreant Ingeld or
+his wife of treacherous race, but in the old warrior Starkad, whose spirit
+and eloquence is such that he can bring Ingeld to a sense of his "vast
+sin[506]," can burst the bonds of his iniquity, and at last compel him to
+take vengeance for his father.
+
+In the _Saga of Rolf Kraki_ the story of Froda is still further changed. It
+is a tale not only of treachery but also of slaying of kin. Consequently
+the idea of any kind of atonement, however temporary, has become
+impossible; there is no hint of it.
+
+Now the whole atmosphere of the Hengest-story in _Beowulf_ is parallel to
+that of the _Beowulf_ version of the Ingeld-story: agreement is possible,
+though it does not prove to be permanent. There is room for much hesitation
+in the minds of Hengest and of Ingeld: they remain the heroes of the story.
+But if Finn had, as is usually supposed, invited Hnæf to his fort and then
+{283} deliberately slain him by treachery, the whole atmosphere would have
+been different. Hengest could not then be the hero, but the foil: the
+example of a man whose spirit fails at the crisis, who does the utterly
+disgraceful thing, and enters the service of his lord's treacherous foe.
+The hero of the story would be some other character--possibly the young
+Hunlafing, who, loyal in spite of the treachery and cowardice of his leader
+Hengest, yet, remaining steadfast of soul, is able in the end to infuse his
+own courage into the heart of the recreant Hengest, and to inspire all the
+perjured Danish thegns to their final and triumphant revenge on Finn.
+
+But that is not how the story is presented.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION X. AN ATTEMPT AT RECONSTRUCTION
+
+The theory, then, which seems to fit in best with what we know of the
+historic conditions at the time when the story arose, and which fits in
+best with such details of the story as we have, is this:
+
+Finn, King of Frisia, has a stronghold, Finnsburg, outside the limits of
+Frisia proper. There several clans and chieftains are assembled[507]: Hnæf,
+Finn's brother-in-law, prince of the Hocings, the Eotens, and Sigeferth,
+prince of the Secgan; whether Sigeferth has his retinue with him or no is
+not clear.
+
+But the treachery of the Eotens causes trouble: they have some old feud
+with Hnæf and his Danes, and attack them by surprise in their hall. There
+is no proof that Finn has any share in this treason. It is therefore quite
+natural that in the _Episode_--although the treachery of the Eotens is
+censured--Finn is never blamed; and that in the _Fragment_, Finn has
+apparently no share in the attack on the hall, at any rate during those
+first five days to which the account in the _Fragment_ is limited.
+
+The attack is led by Garulf (_Fragment_, l. 20), presumably the prince of
+the Eotens: and some friend or kinsman is urging Garulf not to hazard so
+precious a life in the first attack. And {284} here, too, the situation now
+becomes clearer: if Garulf is the chief of the attacking people, we can
+understand one of his kinsmen or friends expostulating thus: but if he is
+merely one of a number of subordinates despatched by Finn to attack the
+hall, the position would not be so easily understood.
+
+Garulf, however, does not heed the warning, and falls, "first of all the
+dwellers in that land." The _Fragment_ breaks off, but the fight goes on:
+we can imagine that matters must have proceeded much as in the great attack
+upon the hall in the _Nibelungen lied_[508]. One man after another would be
+drawn in, by the duty of revenge, and Finn's own men would wake to find a
+battle in progress. "The sudden bale (_f[=æ]r_) came upon them." Finn's son
+joins in the attack, perhaps in order to avenge some young comrade in arms;
+and is slain, possibly by Hnæf. Then Finn _has_ to intervene, and Hnæf in
+turn is slain, possibly, though not certainly, by Finn himself. But
+Hengest, the thegn of Hnæf, puts up so stout a defence, that Finn is unable
+to take a full vengeance upon all the Danes. He offers them terms. What are
+Hengest and the thegns to do?
+
+Finn has slain their lord. But they are Finn's guests, and they have slain
+Finn's son in his own house. Finn himself is, I take it, blameless. _It is
+here that the tragic tension comes in._ We can understand how, even if
+Hengest had Finn in his power, he might well have stayed his hand. So peace
+is made, and all is to be forgotten: solemn oaths are sworn. And Finn keeps
+his promise honestly. He resumes his position of host, making no
+distinction between Eotens, Frisians and Danes, who are all, for the time
+at least, his followers.
+
+I think we have here a rational explanation of the action of Hengest and
+the other thegns of Hnæf, in following the slayer of their lord.
+
+The situation resembles that which takes place when Alboin seeks
+hospitality in the hall of the man whose son he has slain, or when Ingeld
+is reconciled to Hrothgar. Very similar, too, {285} is the temporary
+reconciliation often brought about in an Icelandic feud by the feeling that
+the other side has something to say for itself, and that both have suffered
+grievously. The death of Finn's son is a set off against the death of
+Hnæf[509]. But, as in the case of Alboin and of Ingeld, or of many an
+Icelandic Saga, the passion for revenge is too deep to be laid to rest
+permanently. This is what makes the figure of Hengest tragic, like the
+figure of Ingeld: both have plighted their word, but neither can keep it.
+
+The assembly breaks up. Finn and his men go back to Friesland, and Hengest
+accompanies them: of the other Danish survivors nothing is said for the
+moment: whatever longings they may have had for revenge, the poet
+concentrates all for the moment in the figure of Hengest.
+
+Hengest spends the winter with Finn, but he cannot quiet his conscience:
+and in the end, he accepts the gift of a sword from a young Danish prince
+Hunlafing, who is planning revenge. The uncles of Hunlafing, Guthlaf and
+Oslaf [Ordlaf], had been in the hall when it was attacked, and had
+survived. It is possible that the young prince's father, Hunlaf, was slain
+then, and that his son is therefore recognised as having the nominal
+leadership in the operations of vengeance[510]. Hengest, by accepting the
+sword, promises his services in the work of revenge, and makes a great
+slaughter of the treacherous Eotens. Perhaps he so far respects his oath
+that he leaves the simultaneous attack upon Finn to Guthlaf and Oslaf
+[Ordlaf]. Here we should have an explanation of _swylce_: "in like
+wise[511]"; and also an explanation of the omission of Hengest's name from
+the final act, the slaying of Finn himself. Hengest made the Eotens {286}
+feel the sharpness of his sword: and in like wise Guthlaf and Oslaf
+conducted their part of the campaign. Of course this is only a guess: but
+it is very much in the manner of the Heroic Age to get out of a difficulty
+by respecting the letter of an oath whilst breaking its spirit--just as
+Hogni and Gunnar arrange that the actual slaying of Sigurd shall be done by
+Guttorm, who had not personally sworn the oath, as they had.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION XI. GEFWULF, PRINCE OF THE JUTES
+
+Conclusive external evidence in favour of the view just put forward we can
+hardly hope for: for this reason, amongst others, that the names of the
+actors in the Finn tragedy are corrupted and obscured in the different
+versions. Hnæf and Hengest are too well known to be altered: but most of
+the other names mentioned in the _Fragment_ do not agree with the forms
+given in other documents. Sigeferth is the Sæferth of _Widsith_: the Ordlaf
+(correct) of the _Fragment_ is the Oslaf of the _Episode_. The first
+Guthlaf is confirmed by the Guthlaf of the _Episode_: the other names, the
+second Guthlaf, Eaha and Guthere, we cannot control from other sources: but
+they have all, on various grounds, been suspected.
+
+Tribal names are equally varied. Sigeferth's people, the Secgan, are called
+Sycgan in _Widsith_. And he would be a bold man who would deny (what almost
+all students of the subject hold) that _Eotena, Eotenum_ in the _Episode_
+is yet another scribal error: the copyist had before him the Anglian form,
+_eotna, eotnum_, and miswrote _eotena, eotenum_, when he should have
+written the West-Saxon equivalent of the tribal name, _[=Y]tena,
+[=Y]tum_--the name we get in _Widsith_:
+
+ [=Y]tum [weold] Gefwulf
+ Fin Folcwalding Fr[=e]sna cynne.
+
+But in _Widsith_ names of heroes and tribes are grouped together (often,
+but not invariably) according as they are related in story. Consequently
+Gefwulf is probably (not certainly) a hero of the Finn story. What part
+does he play? If, as I have been trying to show, the Jutes are the
+aggressors, then, as their chief, Gefwulf would probably be the leader of
+the attack upon the hall. {287}
+
+This part, in the _Fragment_, is played by Garulf.
+
+
+
+Now _G[=a]rulf_ is not _Gefwulf_, and I am not going to pretend that it is.
+But _G[=a]rulf_ is very near _Gefwulf_: and (what is important) more so in
+Old English script than in modern script[512]. It stands to _Gefwulf_ in
+exactly the same relation as _Hereg[=a]r_ to _Heorog[=a]r_ or _Sigeferð_ to
+_S[=æ]ferð_ or _Ordl[=a]f_ to _[=O]sl[=a]f_: that is to say the initial
+letter and the second element are identical. And no serious student, I
+think, doubts that _Hereg[=a]r_ and _Heorog[=a]r_, or _Sigeferð_ and
+_S[=æ]ferð_, or _Ordl[=a]f_ and _[=O]sl[=a]f_ are merely corruptions of one
+name. And if it be admitted to be probable that _Gefwulf_ is miswritten for
+_G[=a]rulf_, then the theory that Garulf was prince of the Jutes, and the
+original assailant of Hnæf, in addition to being the only theory which
+satisfactorily explains the internal evidence of the _Fragment_ and the
+_Episode_, has also powerful external support.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+SECTION XII. CONCLUSION
+
+But, apart from any such confirmation, I think that the theory offers an
+explanation of the known facts of the case, and that it is the only theory
+yet put forward which does. It enables us to solve many minor difficulties
+that hardly otherwise admit of solution. But, above all, it gives a tragic
+interest to the story by making the actions of the two main characters,
+Finn and Hengest, intelligible and human: they are both great chiefs,
+placed by circumstances in a cruel position. Finn is no longer a
+treacherous host, plotting the murder of his guests, without even having
+the courage personally to superintend the dirty work: and Hengest is not
+guilty of the shameful act of entering the service of a king who had slain
+his lord by treachery when a guest. The tale of _Finnsburg_ becomes one of
+tragic misfortune besetting great heroes--a tale of the same type as the
+stories of Thurisind or Ingeld, of Sigurd or Theodric.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{288}
+
+FRISIA IN THE HEROIC AGE
+
+It is now generally recognised that loose confederacies of tribes were, at
+the period with which we are dealing, very common. Lawrence says this
+expressly: "The actors in this drama are members of two North Sea tribes,
+or _rather groups of tribes_[513]"; and again[514]: "At the time when the
+present poem was put into shape, we surely have to assume for the Danes and
+Frisians, not compact and unified political units, but groups of tribes
+held somewhat loosely together, and sometimes known by tribal names."
+
+This seems to me a quite accurate view of the political situation in the
+later Heroic Age. The independent tribes, as they existed at the time of
+Tacitus, tended to coalesce, and from such coalition the nations of modern
+Europe are gradually evolved. In the seventh and eighth centuries a great
+king of Northumbria or Frisia is likely to be king, not of one only, but of
+many allied tribes. I cannot therefore quite understand why some scholars
+reject so immediately the idea that the Eotens are not necessarily
+Frisians, but rather a tribe in alliance with the Frisians. For if, as they
+admit, we are dealing not with two compact units, but with two groups of
+tribes, why must we assume, as earlier scholars have done, that _Eotenas_
+must be synonymous either with Frisians or Danes? That assumption is based
+upon the belief that we _are_ dealing with two compact units. It has no
+other foundation. I can quite understand Kemble and Ettmüller jumping at
+the conclusion that the Eotens _must_ be identical with the one side or the
+other. But once we have recognised that confederacies of tribes, rather
+than individual tribes, are to be expected in the period with which we are
+dealing, then surely no such assumption should be made.
+
+I think we shall be helped if we try to get some clear idea of the
+nationalities concerned in the struggle. For to judge by the analogy of
+other contemporary Germanic stories, there probably is some historic basis
+for the _Finnsburg_ story: and even if the fight is purely fictitious, and
+if Finn Folcwalding never existed, still the Old English poets would
+represent the fictitious Frisian king in the light of what they knew of
+contemporary kings.
+
+Now the Frisians were no insignificant tribe. They were a power,
+controlling the coasts of what was then called the "Frisian Sea[515]."
+Commerce was in Frisian hands. Archaeological evidence points to a lively
+trade between the Frisian districts and the coast of Norway[516]. From
+about the sixth century, when "Dorostates of the Frisians" is mentioned by
+the Geographer of Ravenna (or the source from which he drew) in a manner
+which shows it to have been known even in Italy as a place of peculiar
+{289} importance[517], to the ninth century, when it was destroyed by
+repeated attacks of the Vikings, the Frisian port of Dorestad[518] was one
+of the greatest trade centres of Northern Europe[519]. By the year 700 the
+Frisian power had suffered severely from the constant blows dealt to it by
+the Frankish Mayors of the Palace. Yet evidence seems to show that even at
+that date the Frisian king ruled all the coast which intervened between the
+borders of the Franks on the one side and of the Danes on the other[520].
+When a zealous missionary demonstrated the powerlessness of the heathen
+gods by baptizing three converts in the sacred spring of Fosetisland, he
+was carried before the King of Frisia for judgement[521].
+
+At a later date the "Danes" became the controlling power in the North Sea;
+but in the centuries before the Viking raids began, the Frisians appear to
+have had it all their own way.
+
+Finn, son of Folcwald, found his way into some English genealogies[522]
+just as the Roman Emperor did into others. This also seems to point to the
+Frisian power having made an impression on the nations around.
+
+We should expect all this to be reflected in the story of the great Frisian
+king. How then would a seventh or eighth century Englishman regard Finn and
+his father Folcwalda? Probably as paramount chiefs, holding authority over
+the tribes of the South and East coast of the North Sea, similar to that
+which, for example, a Northumbrian king held over the tribes settled along
+the British coast. Indeed, the whole story of the Northumbrian kings, as
+given in Bede, deserves comparison: the relation with the subordinate
+tribes, the alliances, the feuds, the attempted assassinations, the loyalty
+of the thegns--this is the atmosphere amid which the Finn story grew up in
+England, and if we want to understand the story we must begin by getting
+this point of view.
+
+But, if this be a correct estimate of tribal conditions at the time the
+_Finnsburg_ story took form, we no longer need far-fetched explanations to
+account for Finnsburg not being in Friesland. It is natural that it should
+not be, just as natural as that the contemporary Eadwinesburg should be
+outside the ancient limits of Deira. Nor do we need any far-fetched
+explanations why the Frisians should be called _Eotenas_. That the King of
+Frisia should have had Jutes under his rule is likely enough. And this is
+all that the words of the _Episode_ demand.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{290}
+
+{291}
+
+PART IV
+
+APPENDIX
+
+A. A POSTSCRIPT ON MYTHOLOGY IN _BEOWULF_
+
+(1) _Beowulf the Scylding and Beowulf son of Ecgtheow_
+
+It is now ten years since Prof. Lawrence attacked the mythological theories
+which, from the time when they were first enunciated by Kemble and
+elaborated by Müllenhoff, had wielded an authority over _Beowulf_ scholars
+which was only very rarely disputed[523].
+
+Whilst in the main I agree with Prof. Lawrence, I believe that there _is_
+an element of truth in the theories of Kemble. It would, indeed, be both
+astonishing and humiliating if we found that a view, accepted for
+three-quarters of a century by almost every student, had no foundation.
+What is really remarkable is, not that Kemble should have carried his
+mythological theory too far, but that, with the limited information at his
+disposal, he at once saw certain aspects of the truth so clearly.
+
+
+
+The mythological theories involve three propositions:
+
+(_a_) That some, or all, of the supernatural stories told of Beowulf the
+Geat, son of Ecgtheow (especially the Grendel-struggle and the
+dragon-struggle), were originally told of Beowulf the Dane, son of Scyld,
+who can be identified with the Beow or Beaw[524] of the genealogies.
+
+{292}
+
+(_b_) That this Beow was an ancient "god of agriculture and fertility."
+
+(_c_) That therefore we can allegorize Grendel and the dragon into
+culture-myths connected with the "god Beow."
+
+Now (_c_) would not necessarily follow, even granting (_a_) and (_b_); for
+though a hero of story be an ancient god, many of his most popular
+adventures may be later accretion. However, these two propositions (_a_)
+and (_b_) would, together, establish a very strong probability that the
+Grendel-story and the dragon-story were ancient culture-myths, and would
+entitle to a sympathetic hearing those who had such an interpretation of
+them to offer.
+
+
+
+That Beow is an ancient "god of agriculture and fertility," I believe to be
+substantially true. We shall see that a great deal of evidence, unknown to
+Kemble and Müllenhoff, is now forthcoming to show that there _was_ an
+ancient belief in a corn-spirit Beow: and this Beow, whom we find in the
+genealogies as son of Scyld or Sceldwa and descendant of Sceaf, is pretty
+obviously identical with Beowulf, son of Scyld Scefing, in the _Prologue_
+of _Beowulf_.
+
+So far as the _Prologue_ is concerned, there is, then, almost certainly a
+remote mythological background. But before we can claim that this
+background extends to the supernatural adventures attributed to Beowulf,
+son of Ecgtheow, we must prove our proposition (_a_): that these adventures
+were once told, not of Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow, but of Beowulf or Beow,
+son of Scyld.
+
+When it was first suggested, at the very beginning of _Beowulf_-criticism,
+that Beowulf was identical with the Beow of the genealogies, it had not
+been realized that there were in the poem _two_ persons named Beowulf: and
+thus an anonymous scholar in the _Monthly Review_ of 1816[525], not knowing
+that Beowulf the slayer of Grendel is (at any rate in the poem as it
+stands) distinct from Beowulf, son of Scyld, connected both with Beow, son
+of Scyld, so initiating a theory which, for almost a century, was accepted
+as ascertained fact.
+
+{293}
+
+Kemble's identification was probably made independently of the work of this
+early scholar. Unlike him, Kemble, of course, realized that in our poem
+Beowulf the Dane, son of Scyld, is a person distinct from, is in fact not
+related to, Beowulf son of Ecgtheow. But he deliberately identified the
+two: he thought that two distinct traditions concerning the same hero had
+been amalgamated: in one of these traditions Beowulf may have been
+represented as son of Scyld, in the other as son of Ecgtheow, precisely as
+the hero Gunnar or Gunter is in one tradition son of Gifica (Giuki), in
+another son of Dankrat.
+
+Of course such duplication as Kemble assumed is conceivable. Kemble might
+have instanced the way in which one and the same hero reappears in the
+pages of Saxo Grammaticus, with somewhat different parentage or
+surroundings, as if he were a quite different person. The _Lives of the Two
+Offas_ present another parallel: the adventures of the elder Offa have been
+transferred to the younger, so that, along with much that is historical or
+semi-historical, we have much in the _Life of Offa II_ that is simply
+borrowed from the story of Offa I. In the same way it is conceivable that
+reminiscences of the mythical adventures of the elder Beowulf (Beow) might
+have been mingled with the history of the acts of the younger Beowulf, king
+of the Geatas. A guarantee of the intrinsic reasonableness of this theory
+lies in the fact that recently it has been put forward again by Dr Henry
+Bradley. But it is not enough that a theory should be conceivable, and be
+supported by great names. I cannot see that there is any positive evidence
+for it at all.
+
+The arguments produced by Kemble are not such as to carry conviction at the
+present day. The fact that Beowulf the Geat, son of Ecgtheow, "is
+represented throughout as a protecting and redeeming being" does not
+necessarily mean that we must look for some god or demigod of the old
+mythology--Frey or Sceaf or Beow--with whom we can identify him. This
+characteristic is strongly present in many Old English monarchs and
+magnates of historic, Christian, times: Oswald or Alfred or Byrhtnoth.
+Indeed, it might with much plausibility be argued that we are to see in
+this "protecting" character {294} of the hero evidence of Christian rather
+than of heathen influence[526].
+
+Nor can we argue anything from the absence of any historic record of a king
+Beowulf of the Geatas; our records are too scanty to admit of argument from
+silence: and were such argument valid, it would only prove Beowulf
+fictitious, not mythological--no more necessarily an ancient god than Tom
+Jones or Mr Pickwick.
+
+
+
+There remains the argument of Dr Bradley. He points out that
+
+ "The poem is divided into numbered sections, the length of which was
+ probably determined by the size of the pieces of parchment of which an
+ earlier exemplar consisted. Now the first fifty-two lines, which are
+ concerned with Scyld and his son Beowulf, stand outside this numbering.
+ It may reasonably be inferred that there once existed a written text of
+ the poem that did not include these lines. Their substance, however, is
+ clearly ancient. Many difficulties will be obviated if we may suppose
+ that this passage is the beginning of a different poem, the hero of
+ which was not Beowulf the son of Ecgtheow, but his Danish
+ namesake[527]."
+
+In this Bradley sees support for the view that "there were circulated in
+England two rival poetic versions of the story of the encounters with
+supernatural beings: the one referring them to Beowulf the Dane" [of this
+the _Prologue_ to our extant poem would be the only surviving portion,
+whilst] "the other (represented by the existing poem) attached them to the
+legend of the son of Ecgtheow."
+
+But surely many objections have to be met. Firstly, as Dr Bradley admits,
+the mention of Beowulf the Dane is not confined to the _Prologue_; this
+earlier Beowulf "is mentioned at the beginning of the first numbered
+section" and consequently Dr Bradley has to suppose that "the opening lines
+of this section have undergone alteration in order to bring them into
+connection with the prefixed matter." And why should we assume that the
+"passus" of _Beowulf_ correspond to pieces of {295} parchment of various
+sizes of which an earlier exemplar consisted? These "passus" vary in length
+from 43 lines to 142, a disproportion by no means extraordinary for the
+sections of one and the same poem, but very awkward for the pages of one
+and the same book, however roughly constructed. One of the "passus" is just
+twice the average length, and 30 lines longer than the one which comes next
+to it in size. Ought we to assume that an artificer would have made his
+book clumsy by putting in this one disproportionate page, when, by cutting
+it in two, he could have got two pages of just about the size he wanted?
+Besides, the different "passus" do not seem to me to show signs of having
+been caused by such mechanical reasons as the dimensions of the parchment
+upon which they were written. On the contrary, the 42 places where sections
+begin and end almost all come where a reader might reasonably be expected
+to pause: 16 at the beginning or end of a speech: 18 others at a point
+where the narrative is resumed after some digression or general remark.
+Only eight remain, and even with these, there is generally some pause in
+the narrative at the point indicated. In only two instances does a "passus"
+end at a flagrantly inappropriate spot; in one of these there is strong
+reason to suppose that the scribe may have caused the trouble by beginning
+with a capital where he had no business to have done so[528]. Generally,
+there seems to be some principle governing the division of chapter from
+chapter, even though this be not made as a modern would have made it. But,
+if so, is there anything extraordinary in the first chapter, which deals
+with events three generations earlier than those of the body of the poem,
+being allowed to stand outside the numbering, as a kind of prologue?
+
+The idea of a preface or prologue was quite familiar in Old English times.
+The oldest MSS[529] of Bede's _History_ have, at the end of the preface,
+_Explicit praefatio incipiunt capitula_. So we have in one of the two
+oldest MSS[530] of the _Pastoral Care_ "Ðis is seo forespræc." On the other
+hand, the prologue or preface might be left without any heading or
+colophon, and the next {296} chapter begin as No. I. This is the case in
+the other MS of the _Pastoral Care_[531]. Is there, then, such difficulty
+in the dissertation on the glory of the ancient Danish kings being treated
+as what, in fact, it is: a prologue or preface; and being, as such, simply
+left outside the numbering?
+
+
+
+Still less can we argue for the identification of our hero, the son of
+Ecgtheow, with Frotho, and through him with Beow, from the supposed
+resemblances between the dragon fights of Beowulf and Frotho. Such
+resemblances have been divined by Sievers, but we have seen that it is the
+dissimilarity, not the resemblance, of the two dragon fights which is
+really noteworthy[532].
+
+
+
+To prove that Beow was the original antagonist of Grendel there remains,
+then, only the mention in the charter of a _Grendles mere_ near a
+_B[=e]owan hamm_[533]. Now this was not known to Kemble at the time when he
+formed his theory that the original slayer of Grendel was not Beowulf, but
+Beow. And if the arguments upon which Kemble based his theory had been at
+all substantial, this charter would have afforded really valuable support.
+But the fact that two names occur near each other in a charter cannot
+confirm any theory, unless that theory has already a real basis of its own.
+
+(2) _Beow_
+
+Therefore, until some further evidence be discovered, we must regard the
+belief that the Grendel and the dragon stories were originally myths of
+Beow, as a theory for which sufficient evidence is not forthcoming.
+
+But note where the theory breaks down. It seems indisputable that Beowulf
+the Dane, son of Scyld Scefing, is identical with Beo(w) of the
+genealogies: for Beo(w) is son of Scyld[534] or Sce(a)ldwa[535], who is a
+Scefing. But here we must stop. There is, as we have seen, no evidence that
+the Grendel or dragon adventures were transferred from him to their present
+hero, {297} Beowulf the Geat, son of Ecgtheow. It would, of course, be
+quite possible to accept such transference, and _still_ to reject the
+mythological interpretation of these adventures, just as it would be
+possible to believe that Gawain was originally a sun-hero, whilst rejecting
+the interpretation as a sun-myth of any particular adventure which could be
+proved to have been once told concerning Gawain. But I do not think we need
+even concede, as Boer[536] and Chadwick[537] do, that adventures have been
+transferred from Beowulf the Dane to Beowulf the Geat. We have seen that
+there is no evidence for such transference, however intrinsically likely it
+may be. Till evidence _is_ forthcoming, it is useless to build upon
+Kemble's conjecture that Beowulf the Scylding sank into Beowulf the
+Wægmunding[538].
+
+
+
+But it is due to Kemble to remember that, while he only put this forward as
+a tentative conjecture, what he _was_ certain about was the identity of
+Beowulf the Scylding with Beow, and the divinity of these figures. And here
+all the evidence seems to justify him.
+
+ "The divinity of the earlier Beówulf," Kemble wrote, "I hold for
+ indisputable.... Beo or Beow is ... in all probability a god of
+ agriculture and fertility.... It strengthens this view of the case that
+ he is the grandson of Sceáf, _manipulus frumenti_, with whom he is
+ perhaps in fact identical[539]."
+
+Whether or no Beow and Sceaf were ever identical, it is certain that Beow
+(grain) the descendant of Sceaf (sheaf) suggests a corn-myth, some survival
+from the ancient worship of a corn-spirit.
+
+Now _b[=e]ow_, 'grain, barley,' corresponds to Old Norse _bygg_, just as,
+corresponding to O.E. _tr[=i]ewe_, we have O.N. _tryggr_, or corresponding
+to O.E. _gl[=e]aw_, O.N. _gl[o,]ggr_. Corresponding to the O.E. proper name
+_B[=e]ow_, we might expect an O.N. name, the first letters in which would
+be _Bygg(v)-_.
+
+And pat he comes, like the catastrophe of the Old Comedy. When Loki strode
+into the Hall of Ægir, and assailed with clamour and scandal the assembled
+gods and goddesses, there were present, among the major gods, also Byggvir
+and his wife {298} Beyla, the servants of Frey, the god of agriculture and
+fertility. Loki reviles the gods, one after the other: at last he exchanges
+reproaches with Frey. To see his lord so taunted is more than Byggvir can
+endure, and he turns to Loki with the words:
+
+ Know thou, that were my race such as is that of Ingunar-Frey, and if I
+ had so goodly a seat, finer than marrow would I grind thee, thou crow
+ of ill-omen, and pound thee all to pieces[540].
+
+Byggvir is evidently no great hero: he draws his ideas from the grinding of
+the homely hand-mill, with which John Barleycorn has reason to be familiar:
+
+ A miller used him worst of all,
+ For he crushed him between two stones[541].
+
+Loki, who has addressed by name all the other gods, his acquaintances of
+old, professes not to know who is this insignificant being: but his
+reference to the hand-mill shows that in reality he knows quite well:
+
+ What is that little creature that I see, fawning and sneaking and
+ snuffling: ever wilt thou be at the ears of Frey, and chattering at the
+ quern[542].
+
+Byggvir replies with a dignity which reminds us of the traditional
+characteristics of Sir John Barleycorn, or Allan O'Maut. For:
+
+ Uskie-bae ne'er bure the bell
+ Sae bald as Allan bure himsel[543].
+
+{299} Byggvir adopts the same comic-heroic pose:
+
+ Byggvir am I named, and all gods and men call me hasty; proud am I, by
+ reason that all the children of Odin are drinking ale together[544].
+
+But any claims Byggvir may make to be a hero are promptly dismissed by
+Loki:
+
+ Hold thou silence, Byggvir, for never canst thou share food justly
+ among men: thou didst hide among the straw of the hall: they could not
+ find thee, when men were fighting[545].
+
+Now the taunts of Loki, though we must hope for the credit of Asgard that
+they are false, are never pointless. And such jibes as Loki addresses to
+Byggvir _would_ be pointless, if applied to one whom we could think of as
+in any way like our Beowulf. Later, Beyla, wife of Byggvir, speaks, and is
+silenced with the words "Hold thy peace--wife thou art of Byggvir." Byggvir
+must have been a recognized figure of the old mythology[546], but one
+differing from the monster-slaying Beow of Müllenhoff's imagination.
+
+
+
+Byggvir is a little creature (_et lítla_), and we have seen above[547] that
+Scandinavian scholars have thought that they have discovered this old god
+in the Pekko who "promoted the growth of barley" among the Finns in the
+sixteenth century, and who is still worshipped among the Esthonians on the
+opposite side of the gulf as a three year old child; the form _Pekko_ being
+derived, it is supposed, from the primitive Norse form *_Beggwuz_. This is
+a corner of a very big subject: the discovery, among the Lapps and Finns,
+of traces of the heathendom of the most {300} ancient Teutonic world, just
+as Thomsen has taught us to find in the Finnish language traces of Teutonic
+words in their most antique form.
+
+The Lappish field has proved the most successful hunting ground[548]: among
+the Finns, apart from the Thunder-god, connection with Norse beliefs is
+arguable mainly for a group of gods of fruitfulness[549]. The cult of
+these, it is suggested, comes from scattered Scandinavian settlers in
+Finland, among whom the Finns dwelt, and from whom they learnt the worship
+of the spirits of the seed and of the spring, just as they learnt more
+practical lessons. First and foremost among these stands Pekko, whom we
+know to have been especially the god of barley, and whose connection with
+Beow or Byggvir (*_Beggwuz_) is therefore a likely hypothesis enough[550].
+Much less certain is the connection of Sämpsä, the spirit of vegetation,
+with any Germanic prototype; he may have been a god of the rush-grass[551]
+(Germ. _simse_). Runkoteivas or Rukotivo was certainly the god of rye, and
+the temptation to derive his name from Old Norse (_rugr-tivorr_, "rye-god")
+is great[552]. But we have not evidence for {301} the worship among
+Germanic peoples of such a rye-god, as we have in the case of the
+barley-god Byggvir-Beow. These shadowy heathen gods, however, do give each
+other a certain measure of mutual support.
+
+And, whether or no Pekko be the same as Byggvir, his worship is interesting
+as showing how the spirit of vegetation may be honoured among primitive
+folk. His worshippers, the Setukese, although nominally members of the
+Greek Orthodox Church, speak their own dialect and often hardly understand
+that of their Russian priests, but keep their old epic and lyric traditions
+more than almost any other section of the Finnish-Esthonian race. Pekko,
+who was honoured among the Finns in the sixteenth century for "promoting
+the growth of barley," survives among the present-day peasantry around
+Pskoff, not only as a spirit to be worshipped, but as an actual idol,
+fashioned out of wax in the form of a child, sometimes of a three year old
+child. He lives in the corn-bin, but on certain occasions is carried out
+into the fields. Not everyone can afford the amount of wax necessary for a
+Pekko--in fact there is usually only one in a village: he lodges in turn
+with different members of his circle of worshippers. He holds two moveable
+feasts, on moonlight nights--one in spring, the other in autumn. The wax
+figure is brought into a lighted room draped in a sheet, there is feasting,
+with dancing hand in hand, and singing round Pekko. Then they go out to
+decide who shall keep Pekko for the next year--his host is entitled to
+special blessing and protection. Pekko is carried out into the field,
+especially to preside over the sowing[553].
+
+
+
+I doubt whether, in spite of the high authorities which support it, we can
+as yet feel at all certain about the identification of Beow and Pekko. But
+I think we can accept with fair certainty the identification of Beow and
+Byggvir. And we can at any rate use Pekko as a collateral example of the
+way in which a grain-spirit is regarded. Now in either case we find no
+support whatever for the supposition that the activities of {302} Beow, the
+spirit of the barley, could, or would, have been typified under the guise
+of battles such as those which Beowulf the Geat wages against Grendel,
+Grendel's mother, and the dragon. In Beowulf the Geat we find much that
+suggests the hero of folk-tale, overlaid with much that belongs to him as
+the hero of an heroic poem, but nothing suggestive of a corn-myth. On the
+other hand, so long as we confine ourselves to Beow and his ancestor Sceaf,
+we _are_ in touch with this type of myth, however remotely. The way that
+Sceaf comes over the sea, as recorded by William of Malmesbury, is
+characteristic. That "Sheaf" should be, in the language of Müllenhoff,
+"placed in a boat and committed to the winds and waves in the hope that he
+will return new-born in the spring" is exactly what we might expect, from
+the analogy of harvest customs and myths of the coming of spring.
+
+In Sætersdale, in Norway, when the ice broke up in the spring, and was
+driven ashore, the inhabitants used to welcome it by throwing their hats
+into the air, and shouting "Welcome, Corn-boat." It was a good omen if the
+"Corn-boats" were driven high and dry up on the land[554]. The floating of
+the sheaf on a shield down the Thames at Abingdon[555] reminds us of the
+Bulgarian custom, in accordance with which the venerated last sheaf of the
+harvest was floated down the river[556]. But every neighbourhood is not
+provided with convenient rivers, and in many places the last sheaf is
+merely drenched with water. This is an essential part of the custom of
+"crying the neck."
+
+The precise ritual of "crying the neck" or "crying the mare" was confined
+to the west and south-west of England[557]. But there is no such local
+limitation about the custom of drenching the {303} last sheaf, or its
+bearers and escort, with water. This has been recorded, among other places,
+at Hitchin in Hertfordshire[558], in Cambridgeshire[559],
+Nottinghamshire[560], Pembrokeshire[561], Wigtownshire[562] as well as in
+Holstein[563], Westphalia[564], Prussia[565], Galicia[566], Saxon
+Transsylvania[567], Roumania[568] and perhaps in ancient Phrygia[569].
+
+Now it is true that drenching the last sheaf with water, as a rain charm,
+is by no means the same thing as floating it down the river, in the
+expectation that it will come again in the spring. But it shows the same
+sense of the continued existence of the corn-spirit. That the _seed_, when
+sown, should be sprinkled with water as a rain charm (as is done in places)
+seems obvious and natural enough. But when the _last sheaf_ of the
+preceding harvest is thus sprinkled, to ensure plenteous rain upon the
+crops of next year, we detect the same idea of continuity which we find
+expressed when Sceaf comes to land from over the sea: the spirit embodied
+in the sheaf of last year's harvest returning, and bringing the renewed
+power of vegetation.
+
+
+
+The voyage of the Abingdonian sheaf on the Thames was conducted upon a
+shield, and it may be that the "vessel without a rower" in which "Sheaf"
+came to land was, in the original version, a shield. There would be
+precedent for this. The shield was known by the puzzling name of "Ull's
+ship" in Scaldic poetry, presumably because the god Ull used his shield as
+a boat. Anyway, Scyld came to be closely connected with Sceaf and Beow. In
+Ethelwerd he is son of the former and father of the latter: but in the
+_Chronicle_ genealogies five names intervene between Scyld and Sceaf, and
+the son of Sceaf is Bedwig, or as he is called in one version, Beowi.
+_Bedwig_ and _Beowi_ are probably derived from _Beowius_, the Latinized
+{304} form of _Beow_. A badly formed _o_ might easily be mistaken for a
+_d_, and indeed _Beowius_ appears in forms much more corrupt. In that case
+it would appear that while some genealogies made Beow the son of Scyld,
+others made him son of Sceaf, and that the compiler of the pedigree got
+over the difficulty in the usual way, by adding the one version to the
+other[570].
+
+But all this is very hypothetical; and how and when Scyld came to be
+connected with Sceaf and with Beow we cannot with any certainty say. At any
+rate we find no trace of such connection in Danish traditions of the
+primitive King Skjold of the Danes. But we can say, with some certainty,
+that in Beowulf the Dane, the son of Scyld Scefing, in our poem, we have a
+figure which is identical with Beow, son of Scyld or of Sceldwa and
+descendant of Sceaf, in the genealogies, and that this Beow is likely to
+have been an ancient corn-spirit, parallel to the Scandinavian Byggvir.
+That amount of mythology probably _does_ underlie the _Prologue_ to
+_Beowulf_, though the author would no doubt have been highly scandalized
+had he suspected that his pattern of a young prince was only a disguised
+heathen god. But I think that any further attempt to proceed, from this, to
+mythologize the deeds of Beowulf the Great, is pure conjecture, and
+probably quite fruitless conjecture.
+
+I ought not to conclude this note without reference to the admirable
+discussion of this subject by Prof. Björkman in _Englische Studien_[571].
+This, with the elucidation of other proper names in _Beowulf_, was destined
+to be the last big contribution to knowledge made by that ripe and good
+scholar, whose premature loss we all deplore; and it shows to the full
+those qualities of wide knowledge and balanced judgment which we have all
+learnt to admire in him.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+B. GRENDEL
+
+It may be helpful to examine the places where the name of Grendel occurs in
+English charters.
+
+{305}
+
+A.D. 708. Grant of land at Abbots Morton, near Alcester, co. Worcester, by
+Kenred, King of the Mercians, to Evesham (extant in a late copy).
+
+ _[=Æ]rest of grindeles pytt on w[=i]ðimære; of w[=i]ðimære on þæt
+ r[=e]ade sl[=o]h ... of ð[=e]re d[=i]ce on þene blace p[=o]l; of þ[=a]m
+ p[=o]le æfter long pidele in t[=o] þ[=a]m mersce; of þ[=a]m mersce
+ þ[=a] æft on grindeles pytt[572]._
+
+The valley of the Piddle Brook is about a mile wide, with hills rising on
+each side till they reach a height of a couple of hundred feet above the
+brook. The directions begin in the valley and run "From Grindel's 'pytt' to
+the willow-mere; from the willow-mere to the red morass"; then from the
+morass the directions take us up the hill and along the lea, where they
+continue among the downs till we again make our descent into the valley,
+"from the ditch to the black pool, from the pool along the Piddle brook to
+the marsh, and from the marsh back to Grindel's 'pytt.'" In modern English
+a "pit" is an artificial hole which is generally dry: but the word is
+simply Latin _puteus_, "a well," and is used in this sense in the Gospel
+translations. Here it is a hole, and we may be sure that, with the
+willow-mere and the red slough on the one side, and the black pool and the
+marsh on the other, the hole was full of water.
+
+A.D. 739. Grant of land at Creedy, co. Devon, by Æthelheard, King of
+Wessex, to Bishop Forthhere.
+
+ _of doddan hrycge on grendeles pyt; of grendeles pytte on ifigbearo_
+ (ivy-grove)...[573].
+
+The spot is near the junction of the rivers Exe and Creedy, with Dartmoor
+in the distance. The neighbourhood bears uncanny names, _C[=a]ines æcer,
+egesan tr[=e]ow_. If, as has been suggested by Napier and Stevenson, a
+trace of this pit still survives in the name Pitt farm, the mere must have
+been in the uplands, about 600 feet above sea level.
+
+{306}
+
+A.D. 931. Grant of land at Ham in Wiltshire by Athelstan to his thane
+Wulfgar. Quoted above, p. 43. It is in this charter that _on B[=e]owan
+hammes hecgan, on Grendles mere_[574] occur. "Grendel pits or meres" are in
+most other cases in low-lying marshy country: but this, like (perhaps) the
+preceding one, is in the uplands--it must have been a lonely mere among the
+hills, under Inkpen Beacon.
+
+_Circa_ A.D. 957. A list of boundaries near Battersea[575].
+
+ _Ðis synd ð[=a] landgem[=æ]re t[=o] Batriceseie. [=Æ]rst at h[=e]gefre;
+ fram h[=e]gefre to gætenesheale; fram gæteneshæle to gryndeles syllen;
+ fram gryndeles sylle to russemere; fram ryssemere to bælgenham...._
+
+All this is low-lying land, just south of the Thames. _H[=e]gefre_ is on
+the river; _Bælgenham_ is Balham, co. Surrey. "From Grendel's mire to the
+rushy mere" harmonizes excellently with what we know of the swampy nature
+of this district in early times.
+
+A.D. 958. Grant of land at Swinford, on the Stour, co. Stafford, by King
+Eadred to his thane Burhelm[576].
+
+ _Ondlong bæces wið neoþan eostacote; ondlong d[=i]ces in grendels-mere;
+ of grendels-mere in st[=a]nc[=o]fan; of st[=a]nc[=o]fan ondlong d[=u]ne
+ on stiran mere...._
+
+A.D. 972. Confirmation of lands to Pershore Abbey (Worcester) by King
+Edgar[577].
+
+ _of Grindles bece sw[=a] þæt gem[=æ]re ligð...._
+
+A.D. 972. Extract from an account of the descent of lands belonging to
+Westminster, quoting a grant of King Edgar[578].
+
+ _andlang hagan to grendeles gatan æfter kincges mearce innan
+ brægentan...._
+
+The property described is near Watling Street, between Edgware, Hendon, and
+the River Brent. It is a low-lying {307} district almost surrounded by the
+hills of Hampstead, Highgate, Barnet, Mill Hill, Elstree, Bushey Heath and
+Harrow. The bottom of the basin thus formed must have been a swamp[579].
+What the "gate" may have been it is difficult to say. A foreign scholar has
+suggested that it may have been a narrow mountain defile or possibly a
+cave[580]: but this suggestion could never have been made by anyone who
+knew the country. The "gate" is likely to have been a channel connecting
+two meres--or it might have been a narrow piece of land between them--one
+of those _enge [=a]npaðas_ which Grendel and his mother had to tread.
+Anyway, there is nothing exceptional in this use of "gate" in connection
+with a water-spirit. Necker, on the Continent, also had his "gates." Thus
+there is a "Neckersgate Mill" near Brussels, and the name "Neckersgate"
+used also to be applied to a group of houses near by, surrounded by
+water[581].
+
+All the other places clearly point to a water-spirit: two meres, two pits,
+a mire and a beck: for the most part situated in low-lying country which
+must in Anglo-Saxon times have been swampy. All this harmonizes excellently
+with the _fenfreoðo_ of _Beowulf_ (l. 851). Of course it does not in the
+least follow that these places were named after the Grendel of our poem. It
+may well be that there was in England a current belief in a creature
+Grendel, dwelling among the swamps. Von Sydow has compared the Yorkshire
+belief in Peg Powler, or the Lancashire Jenny Greenteeth. But these aquatic
+monsters are not exactly parallel; for they abide in the water, and are
+dangerous only to those who attempt to cross it, or at any rate venture too
+near the bank[582], whilst Grendel and even his mother are capable of
+excursions of some distance from their fastness amid the fens.
+
+{308}
+
+Of course the mere-haunting Grendel _may_ have been identified only at a
+comparatively late date with the spirit who struggles with the hero in the
+house, and flees below the earth in the folk-tale.
+
+At any rate belief in a Grendel, haunting mere and fen, is clearly
+demonstrable for England--at any rate for the south and west of England:
+for of these place-names two belong to the London district, one to
+Wiltshire, one to Devonshire, two to Worcester and one to Stafford. The
+place-name _Grendele_ in Yorkshire is too doubtful to be of much help.
+(_Domesday Book_, I, 302.) It is the modern village Grindale, four miles
+N.W. of Bridlington. From it, probably, is derived the surname _Grindle,
+Grindall_ (Bardsley).
+
+
+
+Abroad, the nearest parallel is to be found in Transsylvania, where there
+is a _Grändels môr_ among the Saxons of the Senndorf district, near
+Bistritz. The Saxons of Transsylvania are supposed to have emigrated from
+the neighbourhood of the lower Rhine and the Moselle, and there is a
+_Grindelbach_ in Luxemburg which may possibly be connected with the marsh
+demon[583].
+
+Most of the German names in _Grindel-_ or _Grendel-_ are connected with
+_grendel_, "a bar," and therefore do not come into consideration here[584]:
+but the Transsylvanian "Grendel's marsh[585]," anyway, reminds us of the
+English "Grendel's marsh" or "mere" or "pit." Nevertheless, the local story
+with which the Transsylvanian swamp is connected--that of a peasant who was
+ploughing with six oxen and was swallowed up in the earth--is such that it
+requires considerable ingenuity to see any connection between it and the
+_Beowulf-Grendel_-tale[586].
+
+{309}
+
+The Anglo-Saxon place-names may throw some light upon the meaning and
+etymology of "Grendel[587]." The name has generally been derived from
+_grindan_, "to grind"; either directly[588], because Grendel grinds the
+bones of those he devours, or indirectly, in the sense of "tormentor[589]."
+Others would connect with O.N. _grindill_, "storm," and perhaps with M.E.
+_gryndel_, "angry[590]."
+
+It has recently been proposed to connect the word with _grund_, "bottom":
+for Grendel lives in the _mere-grund_ or _grund-wong_ and his mother is the
+_grund-wyrgin_. Erik Rooth, who proposes this etymology, compares the
+Icelandic _grandi_, "a sandbank," and the common Low German dialect word
+_grand_, "coarse sand[591]." This brings us back to the root "to grind,"
+for _grand_, "sand" is simply the product of the grinding of the
+waves[592]. Indeed the same explanation has been given of the word
+"ground[593]."
+
+However this may be, the new etymology differs from the old in giving
+Grendel a name derived, not from his grinding or tormenting others, but
+from his dwelling at the bottom of the lake or marsh[594]. The name would
+have a parallel in the Modern English _grindle_, _grundel_, German
+_grundel_[595], a fish haunting the bottom of the water.
+
+The Old English place-names, associating Grendel as they do with meres and
+swamps, seem rather to support this.
+
+As to the Devonshire stream _Grendel_ (now the Grindle or Greendale Brook),
+it has been suggested that this name is also {310} connected with the root
+_grand_, "gravel," "sand." But, so far as I have been able to observe,
+there is no particular suggestion of sand or gravel about this modest
+little brook. If we follow the River Clyst from the point where the Grindle
+flows into it, through two miles of marshy land, to the estuary of the Exe,
+we shall there find plenty. But it is clear from the charter of 963 that
+the name was then, as now, restricted to the small brook. I cannot tell why
+the stream should bear the name, or what, if any, is the connection with
+the monster Grendel. We can only note that the name is again found attached
+to water, and, near the junction with the Clyst, to marshy ground.
+
+Anyone who will hunt Grendel through the shires, first on the 6-in.
+ordnance map, and later on foot, will probably have to agree with the Three
+Jovial Huntsmen
+
+ This huntin' doesn't pay,
+ But we'n powler't up an' down a bit, an' had a rattlin' day.
+
+But, if some conclusions, although scanty, can be drawn from place-names in
+which the word _grendel_ occurs, nothing can be got from the numerous
+place-names which have been thought to contain the name _B[=e]ow_. The
+clearest of these is the _on B[=e]owan hammes hecgan_, which occurs in the
+Wiltshire charter of 931. But we can learn nothing definite from it: and
+although there are other instances of strong and weak forms alternating, we
+cannot even be quite certain that the Beowa here is identical with the Beow
+of the genealogies[596].
+
+The other cases, many of which occur in _Domesday Book_ are worthless.
+Those which point to a weak form may often be derived from the weak noun
+_b[=e]o_, "bee": "The Anglo-Saxons set great store by their bees, honey and
+wax being indispensables to them[597]."
+
+_B[=e]as br[=o]c_, _B[=e]as feld_ (_Bewes feld_) occur in charters: but
+here a connection with _b[=e]aw_, "horsefly," is possible: for parallels,
+one has only to consider the long list of places enumerated by Björkman,
+the names of which are derived from those of beasts, {311} birds, or
+insects[598]. And in such a word as _B[=e]ol[=e]ah_, even if the first
+element be _b[=e]ow_, why may it not be the common noun "barley," and not
+the name of the hero at all?
+
+No argument can therefore be drawn from such a conjecture as that of Olrik,
+that _B[=e]as br[=o]c_ refers to the water into which the last sheaf
+(representing Beow) was thrown, in accordance with the harvest custom, and
+in the expectation of the return of the spirit in the coming spring[599].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+C. THE STAGES ABOVE WODEN IN THE WEST-SAXON GENEALOGY
+
+The problems to which this pedigree gives rise are very numerous, and some
+have been discussed above. There are four which seem to need further
+discussion.
+
+(I) A "Sceafa" occurs in _Widsith_ as ruling over the Longobards. Of course
+we cannot be certain that this hero is identical with the Sceaf of the
+genealogy. Now there is no one in the long list of historic or
+semi-historic Longobard kings, ruling after the tribe had left Scandinavia,
+who bears a name at all similar. It seems therefore reasonable to suppose
+that Sceafa, if he is a genuine Longobard king at all, belongs to the
+primitive times when the Longobardi or Winnili dwelt in "Scadan," before
+the historic or semi-historic times with which our extant list deals. And
+Old English accounts, although making Sceaf an ancestor of the Saxon kings,
+are unanimous in connecting him with Scani or Scandza.
+
+Some scholars[600] have seen a serious difficulty in the weak form
+"Sceafa," as compared with "Sceaf." But we have the exactly parallel cases
+of _Horsa_[601] compared with _Hors_[602], and _Hr[=æ]dla_[603] compared
+with _Hr[=æ]del_[604], _Hr[=e]ðel_. Parallel, but not quite so certain, are
+_Sceldwa_[605] and _Scyld_[606], _G[=e]ata_[607] and _G[=e]at_[608],
+_B[=e]owa_[609] and _B[=e]aw, B[=e]o(w)_[610].
+
+{312}
+
+I do not think it has ever been doubted that the forms _Hors_ and _Horsa_,
+or _Hr[=e]ðel_ and _Hr[=æ]dla_, relate to one and the same person. Prof.
+Chadwick seems to have little or no doubt as to the identity of _Scyld_ and
+_Sceldwa_[611], or _B[=e]o_ and _B[=e]owa_[612]. Why then should the
+identity of _Sc[=e]af_ and _Sc[=e]afa_ be denied because one form is strong
+and the other weak[613]? We cannot demonstrate the identity of the figure
+in the genealogies with the figure in _Widsith_; but little difficulty is
+occasioned by the weak form.
+
+(II) Secondly, the absence of the name _Sc[=e]af_ from the oldest MS of the
+_Chronicle_ (the _Parker MS_, _C.C.C.C._ 173) has been made the ground for
+suggesting that when that MS was written (_c._ 892) Sceaf had not yet been
+invented (Möller, _Volksepos_, 43; Symons in _Pauls Grdr_. (2), III, 645;
+Napier, as quoted by Clarke, _Sidelights_, 125). But Sceaf, and the other
+names which are omitted from the _Parker MS_, are found in the other MSS of
+the _Chronicle_ and the allied pedigrees, which are known to be derived
+independently from one and the same original. Now, unless the names were
+older than the _Parker MS_, they could not appear in so many independent
+transcripts. For, even though these transcripts are individually later,
+their _agreement_ takes us back to a period earlier than that of the
+_Parker MS_ itself[614].
+
+An examination of the different versions of the genealogy, given on pp.
+202-3, above, and of the tree showing the connection between them, on p.
+315, will, I think, make this clear.
+
+The versions of the pedigree given in the _Parker MS_ of the _Chronicle_,
+in Asser and in _Textus Roffensis I_, all contain the stages _Friþuwald_
+and _Friþuwulf_. Asser and _Roff. I_ are connected by the note about
+_G[=e]ata_: but _Roff. I_ is not derived from that text of Asser which has
+come down to us, as that {313} text has corrupted _Fin_ and _Godwulf_ into
+one name and has substituted _Seth_ for _Sc[=e]af_ ["Seth, _Saxonice_
+Sceaf": Florence of Worcester]. _Roff. I_ is free from both these
+corruptions.
+
+Ethelwerd is obviously connected with a type of genealogy giving the stages
+_Friþuwald_ and _Friþuwulf_, but differs from all the others in giving no
+stages between _Scyld_ and _Sc[=e]f_.
+
+None of the other versions contain the names _Friþuwald_ and _Friþuwulf_.
+They are closely parallel, but fall into groups showing special
+peculiarities.
+
+_MSS Tib. A. VI_ and _Tib. B. I_ of the _Chronicle_ show only trifling
+differences of spelling. The MSS belong respectively to about the years
+1000 and 1050, and are both derived from an Abingdon original of about
+977[615].
+
+_MS Cott. Tib. B. IV_ is derived from a copy of the _Chronicle_ sent North
+about 892[616].
+
+_MS Cott. Tib. B. V_ and _Textus Roffensis II_ are closely connected, but
+neither is derived from the other. For _Roff. II_ preserves _Teþwa_ and
+_Hw[=a]la_, who are lost in _Tib. B. V; Tib. B. V_ preserves _Iterman_, who
+is corrupted in _Roff. II._ Both _Tib. B. V_ and _Roff. II_ carry the
+pedigree down to Edgar, mentioning his three sons _[=E]adweard and
+[=E]admund and Æþelred æðelingas syndon [=E]adg[=a]res suna cyninges_. The
+original therefore apparently belongs to some date before 970, when Edmund
+died (cf. Stevenson's Asser, 158, note).
+
+Common features of _MS Cott. Tib. B. V_ and _Roff. II_ are (1) _Eat(a)_ for
+_Geat(a)_, (2) the omission of _d_ from _Scealdwa_, and (3) the expression
+_se Sc[=e]f_, "this Scef." Features (1) and (3) are copied in the Icelandic
+pedigrees. _Scealdwa_ is given correctly there, but the Icelandic
+transcriber could easily have got it from _Scealdwaging_ above. The
+Icelandic was, then, ultimately derived either from _Tib. B. V_ or from a
+version so closely connected as not to be worth distinguishing.
+
+Accordingly _Cott. Tib. B. V_, _Textus Roffensis II_, _Langfeðgatal_ and
+_Flateyarbók_ form one group, pointing to an archetype _c._ 970.
+
+{314}
+
+The pedigrees can accordingly be grouped on the system shown on the
+opposite page[617].
+
+(III) Prof. Chadwick, in his _Origin of the English Nation_, draws wide
+deductions from the fact that the Danes traced the pedigree of their kings
+back to Skjold, whilst the West-Saxons included Sceldwa (Scyld) in their
+royal pedigree:
+
+ "Since the Angli and the Danes claimed descent from the same ancestor,
+ there can be no doubt that the bond was believed to be one of
+ blood[618]."
+
+This belief, Prof. Chadwick thinks, went back to exceedingly early
+times[619], and he regards it as well-founded:
+
+ "It is true that the Angli of Britain seem never to have included
+ themselves among the Danes, but the reason for this may be that the
+ term _Dene_ (_Danir_) had not come into use as a collective term before
+ the invasion of Britain[620]."
+
+Doubtless the fact that the name of a Danish king _Scyld_ or _Sceldwa_ is
+found in a pedigree of West-Saxon kings, as drawn up at a period certainly
+not later than 892, points to a belief, at that date, in some kind of a
+connection. But we have still to ask: How close was the connection supposed
+to be? And how old is the belief?
+
+Firstly as to the closeness of the connection. Finn also occurs in the
+pedigree--possibly the Frisian king: Sceaf occurs, possibly, though not
+certainly, a Longobard king. Noah and Adam occur; are we therefore to
+suppose that the compiler of the _Genealogy_ believed his kings to be of
+one blood with the Hebrews? Certainly he did: but only remotely, as common
+descendants of Noah. And the occurrence of Sceldwa and Sceaf and Finn in
+the genealogies--granting the identity of these heroes with Skjold of the
+Danes, Sceafa of the Longobards and Finn of the Frisians, might only prove
+that the genealogist believed in their common (Germanic) race.
+
+{315}
+
+
+ 900 950 1000
+ | | |
+
+ | A. Chron |
+ _| Parker MS ______________________________|
+ / | c. 890-900 |
+ / | Asser
+ / | MS Cott.
+ /______________________________________| Otho A.XII,
+ / \ | c. 1000
+ / \__________________________
+ / | B. Chron.
+ Transcript of \ ................ | MS Cott.
+ Chronicle from Copy sent to Abingdon, : presumed : | Tib. A. VI,
+ which all kept there till c. 977__: Abingdon :/| c. 1000
+ extant \ : copy, c. 977 :\
+ MSS are \ :..............: \____________
+ derived \____________
+ Copy sent to Ripon\
+ \
+ \_______________________________
+ \
+ \ | Common original
+ \_| compiled about _
+ | 970 \
+ \ \______
+ \
+ \ | Genealogy
+ \_| MS Cott.
+ | Tib. B. V,_
+ | c. 1000
+
+ .........................................................................
+
+ 1050 1100 1125
+ | | |
+
+ | W. Chron.
+ | MS Cott, Otho B. XI, 2.
+ | c. 1025
+
+ ___________________________________| Textus Roffensis I,
+ | c. 1120
+
+ | C. Chron.
+ _______| MS Cott. Tib. B. I,
+ | c. 1050
+
+ | D. Chron.
+ _______| MS Cott. Tib. B. IV,
+ | c. 1050
+
+ ___________________________________| Textus Roffensis II,
+ | c. 1120
+
+ ___________________________________| Icelandic
+ | Genealogies
+
+ ==>
+
+
+{316}
+
+Secondly, how old is the belief? The Anglian genealogies (Northumbrian,
+Mercian and East Anglian), as reproduced in the _Historia Brittonum_ and in
+the _Vespasian MS_, form part of what is doubtless, as is said above, the
+oldest extant English historical document. But in this document _there is
+no mention of Scyld_. Indeed, it contains no pedigree of the West-Saxon
+kings at all. From whatever cause, the West-Saxon genealogy is not extant
+from so early a date as are the pedigrees of the Northumbrian, Mercian,
+East Anglian and Kentish kings[621]. Still, this may well be a mere
+accident, and I am not prepared to dispute that the pedigree which traces
+the West-Saxon kings to Woden dates back, like the other genealogies
+connecting Old English kings with Woden, to primitive and heathen times.
+Now the West-Saxon pedigree is found in many forms: some which trace the
+royal house only to Woden, and some which go beyond Woden and contain a
+list of names by which Woden is connected with Sceaf, and then with Noah
+and Adam.
+
+(1) The nucleus of the whole pedigree is to be found in the names between
+Cynric or Cerdic and Woden. These occur in every version. The pedigree in
+this, its simplest form, is found twice among the entries in the
+_Chronicle_ which deal with the events of heathen times, under 552 and 597.
+These names fall into verse:
+
+ [Cynr[=i]c Cerdicing], Cerdic Elesing,
+ Elesa Esling, Esla GiWising,
+ GiWis W[=i]ging, W[=i]g Fr[=e]awining,
+ Fr[=e]awine Friðug[=a]ring, Friðug[=a]r Bronding,
+ Brond B[=æ]ldæging, B[=æ]ldæg W[=o]dening.
+
+Like the mnemonic lists in _Widsith_, these lines are probably very old.
+Their object is clearly to connect the founder of the West-Saxon royal
+house with Woden. Note, that not only do the names alliterate, but the
+alliteration is perfect. Every line attains double alliteration in the
+first half, with one alliterating word only in the second half. The lines
+must go back to times when lists of royal ancestors, both real and
+imaginary, had to {317} be arranged in correct verse; times when such
+things were recorded by memory rather than by writing. They are
+pre-literary, and were doubtless chanted by retainers of the West-Saxon
+kings in heathen days.
+
+(2) An expanded form of this genealogy occurs in _MSS C.C.C.C._ 183 and
+_Cotton Tib. B. V_. Woden is here furnished with a father Frealaf. We know
+nothing of any Frealaf as father of the All-Father in heathen days, though
+Frealaf is found in this capacity in other genealogies written down in the
+ages after the conversion. Frealaf breaks the correct alliterative system.
+In both MSS the pedigree is brought down to King Ine (688-726): both MSS
+are ultimately, no doubt, derived from a list current in the time of that
+king, that is to say less than a century after the conversion of Wessex.
+
+(3) A further expansion, which Prof. Napier has held on linguistic
+grounds[622] to have been written down as early as 750, is incorporated in
+a genealogical and chronological note regarding the West-Saxon kings, which
+is extant in many MSS[623]. _In its present form_ this genealogical note is
+a recension, under Alfred, of a document coming down to the death of his
+father Æthelwulf. It traces the pedigree of Æthelwulf to Cerdic, but it
+keeps this district from the rhythmical nucleus, in which it traces Cerdic
+to Woden, and no further.
+
+(4) Then, in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, under the year 855, the pedigree
+is given in its most elaborate form. There the genealogy of Æthelwulf is
+traced in one unbroken series, not merely through Cerdic to Woden, but from
+Woden through a long line of Woden's ancestors, including Frealaf, Geat,
+Sceldwa and Sceaf, to Noah and Adam.
+
+It has been noted above[624] that none of the _Chronicle_ pedigrees {318}
+stop at Sceaf. The _Chronicle_, in the stages above Woden, recognizes as
+stopping places only Geat (Northumbrian pedigree, anno 547) or Adam
+(West-Saxon pedigree, anno 855).
+
+(5) The Chronicle of Ethelwerd (_c._ 1000) does, however, stop at
+Scef[625]. Now it has been argued that Ethelwerd's pedigree is merely
+abbreviated from the pedigree in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ under 855, and
+that, in making Scef the final stage, and in what he tells us about that
+hero, Ethelwerd is merely adapting what he had read in _Beowulf_ about
+Scyld[626]. But this seems hardly possible. Ethelwerd, it is true, borrows
+most of his facts from the _Chronicle_, from Bede, and other known sources:
+but there are some passages which show that he had access to a source now
+lost. Ethelwerd was a member of the West-Saxon royal house, and he wrote
+his Chronicle for a kinswoman, Matilda, in order, as he says, to explain
+their common stock and race. They were both descended from Æthelwulf, the
+chronicler being great-great-grandson of Æthelred, and the lady to whom he
+dedicates his work being great-great-granddaughter of Alfred. So he writes
+to tell "who and whence were their kin, so far as memory adduces, and our
+parents have taught us." Accordingly, though he begins his Chronicle with
+the Creation, the bulk of it is devoted to the deeds of his or Matilda's
+ancestors. Is it credible that he would have cut out all the stages in
+their common pedigree between Scyld and Scef, that he would have sacrificed
+all the ancestors of Scef, thus severing relations with Noah and Adam, and
+that he would have attributed to Scef the story which in _Beowulf_ is
+attributed to Scyld, all this simply in order to bring his English pedigree
+into some harmony with what is told about the Danish pedigree in
+_Beowulf_--a poem of which we have no evidence that he had ever heard?
+
+To suppose him to have done this, is to make him sacrifice, _without any
+reason_, just that part of the pedigree in the _Chronicle_ under 855 which,
+from all we know of Ethelwerd, was most likely to have interested him: that
+which connected his race with Noah and Adam. Further, it is to suppose him
+to have reproduced just those stages in the pedigree which on critical
+{319} grounds modern scholars can show to be the oldest, and to have
+modified or rejected just those which on critical grounds modern scholars
+can show to be later accretion. When Brandl supposes Ethelwerd to have
+produced his pedigree by comparing together merely the materials which have
+come down to us to-day, namely _Beowulf_ and the _Chronicle_, he is, in
+reality, attributing to him the mind and acumen of a modern critic. An
+Anglo-Saxon alderman could only have detected and rejected the additions by
+using some material which has _not_ come down to us. What more natural than
+that Ethelwerd, who writes as the historian of the West-Saxon royal family,
+should have known of a family pedigree which traced the line up to Sceaf
+and his arrival in the boat, and that he should have (rightly) thought this
+to be more authoritative than the pedigree in the _Chronicle_ under the
+year 855, which had been expanded from it? Prof. Chadwick, it seems to me,
+is here quite justified in holding that Ethelwerd had "acquired the
+genealogy from some unknown source, in a more primitive form than that
+contained in the _Chronicle_[627]."
+
+But, because the source of Ethelwerd's pedigree is more primitive than that
+contained in the _Chronicle_ under the year 855, it does not follow that it
+goes back to heathen times. Wessex had been converted more than two
+centuries earlier.
+
+
+
+We are now in a position to make some estimate of the antiquity of Scyld
+and Sceaf in the West-Saxon pedigree. The nucleus of this pedigree is to be
+found in the verses connecting Cynric and Cerdic with Woden. (Even as late
+as Æthelwulf and Alfred this nucleus is often kept distinct from the later,
+more historic stages connecting Cerdic with living men.) Pedigrees of other
+royal houses go to Woden, and many stop there; however, in times
+comparatively early, but yet Christian, we find Woden provided with five
+ancestors: later, Ethelwerd gives him ten: the _Chronicle_ gives him
+twenty-five. It is evidently a process of accumulation.
+
+Now, if the name of Scyld had occurred in the portion of the pedigree which
+traces the West-Saxon kings up to Woden, {320} it would possess sufficient
+authority to form the basis of an argument. But Scyld, like Heremod, Beaw
+and Sceaf, occurs in the fantastic development of the pedigree, by which
+Woden is connected up with Adam and Noah. The fact that these heroes occur
+_above_ Woden makes it almost incredible that their position in the
+pedigree can go back to heathen times. Those who believed in Woden as a god
+can hardly have believed at the same time that he was a descendant of the
+Danish king Scyld. This difficulty Prof. Chadwick admits: "It is difficult
+to believe that in heathen times Woden was credited with five generations
+of ancestors, as in the _Frealaf-Geat_ list." Still less is it credible
+that he was credited with 25 generations of ancestors, as in the
+_Frealaf-Geat-Sceldwa-Sceaf-Noe-Adam_ list.
+
+The obvious conclusion seems to me to be that the names above Woden were
+added in Christian times to the original list, which in heathen times only
+went back to Woden, and _which is still extant in this form_. A Christian,
+rationalizing Woden as a human magician, would have no difficulty in
+placing him far down the ages, just as Saxo Grammaticus does[628].
+Obviously _Noe-Adam_ must be an addition of Christian times, and the same
+seems to me to apply to all the other names above Woden, which, though
+ancient and Germanic, are not therefore ancient and Germanic in the
+capacity of ancestors of Woden.
+
+And even if these extraordinary ancestors of Woden were really believed in
+in heathen times, they cannot have been regarded as the special property of
+any one nation. For it was never claimed that the West-Saxon kings had any
+unique distinction in tracing their ancestry to Woden, such as would give
+them a special claim upon Woden's forefathers. How then can the ancient
+belief (if indeed it _were_ an ancient belief) that Woden was descended
+from Scyld, King of Denmark, prove that the Anglo-Saxons regarded
+_themselves_ as specially related to the Danes? For any such relationship
+derived through Woden must have been shared by all descendants of the
+All-Father.
+
+Prof. Chadwick avoids this difficulty by supposing that Woden did not
+originally occur in the pedigree, but is a later {321} insertion[629]. But
+how can this be so when, of the two forms in which the West-Saxon pedigree
+appears, one (and, so far as our evidence goes, much the older one) traces
+the kings to Woden _and stops there_. The _object_ of this pedigree is to
+connect the West-Saxon kings with Woden. The expanded pedigrees, which
+carry on the line still further, from Woden to Sceldwa, Sceaf and Adam,
+though very numerous, are all traceable to one, or at most two, sources. It
+is surely not the right method to regard Woden as an interpolation (though
+he occurs in that portion of the pedigree which is common to all versions,
+some of which we can probably trace back to primitive times), and to regard
+as the original element Scyld and Sceaf (though they form part of the
+continuation of the pedigree found only in, at most, two families of MSS
+which we cannot trace back beyond the ninth century).
+
+Besides, there is the strongest external support for Woden in the very
+place which he occupies in the West-Saxon pedigree. That pedigree is traced
+in all its texts up to one Baldæg and his father Woden. Those texts which
+further give Woden's ancestry make him a descendant of Frealaf--they
+generally make Woden son of Frealaf, though some texts insert an
+intermediate Frithuwald.
+
+Now the very ancient Northumbrian pedigree also goes up, by a different
+route, to "Beldæg," and gives him Woden for a father. In some versions
+(e.g. the _Historia Brittonum_) the Northumbrian pedigree stops there: in
+others (e.g. the _Vespasian MS_) Woden has a father Frealaf. How then _can_
+it be argued, contrary to the unanimous evidence of all the dozen or more
+MSS of the West-Saxon pedigree, that _Woden_, standing as he does between
+his proper father and his proper son, is an interpolation? There is no
+evidence whatsoever to support such an argument, and everything to disprove
+it.
+
+The fact that Sceaf, Sceldwa and Beaw occur above Woden, that some versions
+of the pedigree stop at Woden, and that in heathen times presumably all
+must have stopped when they reached the All-Father, seems to me a fatal
+argument--not against the antiquity of the legends of Sceaf, Sceldwa, and
+{322} Beaw, but against the antiquity of these characters in the capacity
+(given to them in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_) of ancestors of the
+West-Saxon kings, and against the vast deduction concerning the origin of
+the English nation which Prof. Chadwick draws from this supposed antiquity.
+
+(IV) Precisely the same argument--that Sceaf, Sceldwa and Beaw are found
+_above Woden_ in the pedigree of the English kings, and are not likely to
+have occupied that place in primitive heathen times, is fatal to the
+attempt to draw from this pedigree any argument that the myths of these
+heroes were specially and exclusively Anglo-Saxon. The argument of
+Müllenhoff and other scholars for an ancient, _purely Anglo-Saxon_
+Beowa-myth[630] falls, therefore, to the ground.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+D. EVIDENCE FOR THE DATE OF _BEOWULF_. THE RELATION OF _BEOWULF_ TO THE
+CLASSICAL EPIC
+
+A few years ago there was a tendency to exaggerate the value of grammatical
+forms in fixing the date of Old English poetry, and attempts were made to
+arrange Old English poems in a chronological series, according to the exact
+percentage of "early" to "late" forms in each. There has now been a natural
+reaction against the assumption that, granting certain forms to be archaic,
+these would necessarily be found in a percentage diminishing exactly
+according to the dates of composition of the various poems in which they
+occur. The reaction has now gone to the other extreme, and grammatical
+facts are in danger of being regarded as not being "in any way valid or
+helpful indications of dates[631]."
+
+Schücking[632], in an elaborate recent monograph on the date of _Beowulf_,
+rejects the grammatical evidence as valueless, and proceeds to date the
+poem about two centuries later than has usually been held, placing its
+composition at the court of some christianized Scandinavian monarch in
+England, about 900 A.D.
+
+{323}
+
+But it surely does not follow that, because grammatical data have been
+misused, therefore no use can be made of them. And, if _Beowulf_ was
+composed about the year 900, from stories current among the Viking
+settlers, how are we to account for the fact that the proper names in
+_Beowulf_ are given, not in the Scandinavian forms of the Viking age, nor
+in corruptions of such forms, but in the correct English forms which we
+should expect, according to English sound laws, if the names had been
+brought over in the sixth century, and handed down traditionally[633]?
+
+For example, King Hygelac no doubt called himself _Hugilaikaz_. The
+_Chochilaicus_ of Gregory of Tours is a good--if uncouth--shot at
+reproducing this name. The name became, in Norse, _Hugleikr_ and in Danish
+_Huglek_ (_Hugletus_ in Saxo): traditional kings so named are recorded,
+though it is difficult to find that they have anything in common with the
+King Hygelac in _Beowulf_[634]. Had the name been introduced into England
+in Viking times, we should expect the Scandinavian form, not
+_Hygel[=a]c_[635].
+
+Even in the rare cases where the character in _Beowulf_ and his
+Scandinavian equivalent bear names which are not phonologically identical,
+the difference does not point to any corruption such as might have arisen
+from borrowing in Viking days[636]. We have only to contrast the way in
+which the names of Viking chiefs are recorded in the _Anglo-Saxon
+Chronicle_, to be convinced that the Scandinavian stories recorded in
+_Beowulf_ are due to contact during the age when Britain was being
+conquered, not during the Viking period three or four centuries later[637].
+
+And the arguments from literary and political history, which Schücking
+adduces to prove his late date, seem to me to point in exactly the opposite
+direction, and to confirm the orthodox view which would place _Beowulf_
+nearer 700 than 900.
+
+{324}
+
+Schücking urges that, however highly we estimate the civilizing effect of
+Christianity, it was only in the second half of the seventh century that
+England was thoroughly permeated by the new faith. Can we expect already,
+at the beginning of the eighth century, a courtly work, showing, as does
+_Beowulf_, such wonderful examples of tact, modesty, unselfishness and
+magnanimity? And this at the time when King Ceolwulf was forced by his
+rebellious subjects to take the cowl. For Schücking[638], following
+Hodgkin[639], reminds us how, in the eighth century, out of 15 Northumbrian
+kings, five were dethroned, five murdered; two abdicated, and only three
+held the crown to their death; and how at the end of the century
+Charlemagne called the Northumbrian Angles "a perfidious and perverse
+nation, murderers of their lords."
+
+But surely, at the base of all this argument, lies the same assumption
+which, as Schücking rightly holds, vitiates so many of the grammatical
+arguments; the assumption that development must necessarily be in steady
+and progressive proportion. We may take Penda as a type of the unreclaimed
+heathen, and Edward the Confessor of the chaste and saintly churchman; but
+Anglo-Saxon history was by no means a development in steady progression, of
+diminishing percentages of ruffianism and increasing percentages of
+saintship.
+
+The knowledge of, and interest in, heathen custom shown in _Beowulf_, such
+as the vivid accounts of cremation, would lead us to place it as near
+heathen times as other data will allow. So much must be granted to the
+argument of Prof. Chadwick[640]. But the Christian tone, so far from
+leading us to place _Beowulf_ late, would _also_ lead us to place it near
+the time of the conversion. For it is precisely in these times just after
+the conversion, that we get the most striking instances in all Old English
+history of that "tact, modesty, generosity, and magnanimity" which
+Schücking rightly regards as characteristic of _Beowulf_.
+
+King Oswin (who was slain in 651) was, Bede tells us, handsome, courteous
+of speech and bearing, bountiful both to great {325} and lowly, beloved of
+all men for his qualities of mind and body, so that noblemen came from all
+over England to enter his service--yet of all his endowments gentleness and
+humility were the chief. We cannot read the description without being
+reminded of the words of the thegns in praise of the dead Beowulf. Indeed,
+I doubt if Beowulf would have carried gentleness to those around him quite
+so far as did Oswin. For Oswin had given to Bishop Aidan an exceptionally
+fine horse--and Aidan gave it to a beggar who asked alms. The king's mild
+suggestion that a horse of less value would have been good enough for the
+beggar, and that the bishop needed a good horse for his own use, drew from
+the saint the stern question "Is that son of a mare dearer to thee than the
+Son of God?" The king, who had come from hunting, stood warming himself at
+the fire, thinking over what had passed; then he suddenly ungirt his sword,
+gave it to his squire, and throwing himself at the feet of the bishop,
+promised never again to grudge anything he might give in his charities.
+
+Of course such conduct was exceptional in seventh century Northumbria--it
+convinced Aidan that the king was too good to live long, as indeed proved
+to be the case. But it shows that the ideals of courtesy and gentleness
+shown in _Beowulf_ were by no means beyond the possibility of
+attainment--were indeed surpassed by a seventh century king. I do not know
+if they could be so easily paralleled in later Old English times.
+
+And what is true from the point of view of morals is true equally from that
+of art and learning. In spite of the misfortunes of Northumbrian kings in
+the eighth century, the _first third_ of that century was "the Golden Age
+of Anglo-Saxon England[641]." And not unnaturally, for it had been preceded
+by half a century during which Northumbria had been free both from internal
+strife and from invasion. The empire won by Oswiu over Picts and Scots in
+the North had been lost at the battle of Nectansmere: but that battle had
+been followed by the twenty years reign of the learned Aldfrid, whose
+scholarship did not prevent him from nobly retrieving the state of the
+kingdom[642], though he could not recover the lost dominions.
+
+{326}
+
+Now, whatever we may think of _Beowulf_ as poetry, it is remarkable for its
+conscious and deliberate art, and for the tone of civilization which
+pervades it. And this half century was distinguished, above any other
+period of Old English history, precisely for its art and its civilization.
+Four and a half centuries later, when the works of great Norman master
+builders were rising everywhere in the land, the buildings which Bishop
+Wilfrid had put up during this first period of conversion were still
+objects of admiration, even for those who had seen the glories of the great
+Roman basilicas[643].
+
+Nor is there anything surprising in the fact that this "golden age" was not
+maintained. On the contrary, it is "in accordance with the phenomena of
+Saxon history in general, in which seasons of brilliant promise are
+succeeded by long eras of national eclipse. It is from this point of view
+quite in accordance with natural likelihood that the age of conversion was
+one of such stimulus to the artistic powers of the people that a level of
+effort and achievement was reached which subsequent generations were not
+able to maintain. The carved crosses and the coins certainly degenerate in
+artistic value as the centuries pass away, and the fine barbaric gold and
+encrusted work is early in date[644]."
+
+Already in the early part of the eighth century signs of decay are to be
+observed. At the end of his _Ecclesiastical History_, Bede complains that
+the times are so full of disturbance that one knows not what to say, or
+what the end will be. And these fears were justified. A hundred and forty
+years of turmoil and decay follow, till the civilization of the North and
+the Midlands was overthrown by the Danes, and York became the uneasy seat
+of a heathen jarl.
+
+How it should be possible to see in these facts, as contrasted with the
+Christian and civilized tone of _Beowulf_, any argument for late date, I
+cannot see. On the contrary, because of its Christian civilization combined
+with its still vivid, if perhaps not always quite exact, recollection of
+heathen customs, we should be inclined to put _Beowulf_ in the early
+Christian ages.
+
+{327}
+
+A further argument put forward for this late date is the old one that the
+Scandinavian sympathies of _Beowulf_ show it to have been composed for a
+Scandinavian court, the court, Schücking thinks, of one of the princes who
+ruled over those portions of England which the Danes had settled[645]. Of
+course Schücking is too sound a scholar to revive at this time of day the
+old fallacy that the Anglo-Saxons ought to have taken no interest in the
+deeds of any but Anglo-Saxon heroes. But how, he asks, are we to account
+for such _enthusiasm_ for, such a burning interest in, a people of alien
+dialect and foreign dynasty, such as the Scyldings of Denmark?
+
+The answer seems to me to be that the enthusiasm of _Beowulf_ is not for
+the Danish nation as such: on the contrary, _Beowulf_ depicts a situation
+which is most humiliating to the Danes. For twelve years they have suffered
+the depredations of Grendel; Hrothgar and his kin have proved helpless: all
+the Danes have been unequal to the need. Twice at least this is emphasized
+in the most uncompromising, and indeed insulting, way[646]. The poet's
+enthusiasm is not, then, for the Danish race as such, but for the ideal of
+a great court with its body of retainers. Such retainers are not
+necessarily native born--rather is it the mark of the great court that it
+draws men from far and wide to enter the service, whether permanently or
+temporarily, even as Beowulf came from afar to help the aged Hrothgar in
+his need.
+
+It is this ideal of personal valour and personal loyalty, rather than of
+tribal patriotism, which pervades _Beowulf_, and which certainly suits the
+known facts of the seventh and early eighth centuries. The bitterest strife
+in England in the seventh century had been between the two quite new states
+of Northumbria and Mercia, both equally of Anglian race. Both these states
+had been built up by a combination of smaller units, and not without
+violating the old local patriotisms of the diverse elements from which they
+had been formed. At first, at any rate, no such thing as Northumbrian or
+Mercian patriotism can have existed. Loyalty was personal, to the king.
+Neither the kingdom nor the _comitatus_ was homogeneous. We have seen {328}
+that Bede mentions it as a peculiar honour to a Northumbrian prince that
+_from all parts of England_ nobles came to enter his service. We must not
+demand from the seventh or eighth century our ideals of exclusive
+enthusiasm for the land of one's birth, ideals which make it disreputable
+for a "mercenary" to sell his sword. The ideal is, on the contrary, loyalty
+to a prince whose service a warrior _voluntarily_ enters. And the Danish
+court is depicted as a pattern of such loyalty--before the Scyldings began
+to work evil[647], by the treason of Hrothulf.
+
+Further, the fact that the Danish court at Leire had been a heathen one
+might be matter for regret, but it would not prevent its being praised by
+an Englishman about 700. For England was then entirely Christian. In the
+process of conversion no single Christian had, so far as we know, been
+martyred. There had been no war of religion. If Penda had fought against
+Oswald, it had been as the king of Mercia against the king of Northumbria.
+Penda's allies were Christian, and he showed no antipathy to the new
+faith[648]. So that at this date there was no reason for men to feel any
+deep hostility towards a heathendom which had been the faith of their
+grandfathers, and with which there had never been any embittered conflict.
+
+But in 900 the position was quite different. For more than a generation the
+country had been engaged in a life-and-death struggle between two warring
+camps, the "Christian men" and the "heathen men." The "heathen men" were in
+process of conversion, but were liable to be ever recruited afresh from
+beyond the sea. It seems highly unlikely that _Beowulf_ could have been
+written at this date, by some English poet, for the court of a converted
+Scandinavian prince, with a view perhaps, as Schücking suggests, to
+educating his children in the English speech. In such a case the one thing
+likely to be avoided by the English poet, with more than two centuries of
+Christianity behind him, would surely have been the praise of that
+Scandinavian heathendom, from which his patron had freed himself, and from
+which his children were to be weaned. The martyrdom of S. Edmund might have
+seemed a more appropriate theme[649]. {329} The tolerant attitude towards
+heathen customs, and the almost antiquarian interest in them, very justly,
+as it seems to me, emphasized by Schücking[650], is surely far more
+possible in A.D. 700 than in A.D. 900. For between those dates heathendom
+had ceased to be an antiquarian curiosity, and had become an imminent
+peril.
+
+If those are right who hold that _Beowulf_ is no purely native growth, but
+shows influence of the classical epic, then again it is easier to credit
+such influence about the year 700 than 900. At the earlier date we have
+scholars like Aldhelm and Bede, both well acquainted with Virgil, yet both
+interested in vernacular verse. It has been urged, as a _reductio ad
+absurdum_ of the view which would connect _Beowulf_ with Virgil, that the
+relation to the _Odyssey_ is more obvious than that to the _Æneid_.
+Perhaps, however, some remote and indirect connection even between
+_Beowulf_ and the _Odyssey_ is not altogether unthinkable, about the year
+700. At the end of the seventh century there was a flourishing school of
+Greek learning in England, under Hadrian and the Greek Archbishop Theodore,
+both "well read in sacred _and in secular_ literature." In 730 their
+scholars were still alive, and, Bede tells us, could speak Greek and Latin
+as correctly as their native tongue. Bede himself knew something about the
+_Iliad_ and the _Odyssey_. Not till eight centuries have passed, and we
+reach Grocyn and Linacre, was it again to be as easy for an Englishman to
+have a first-hand knowledge of a Greek classic as it was about the year
+700. What scholarship had sunk to by the days of Alfred, we know: and we
+know that all Alfred's patronage did not produce any scholar whom we can
+think of as in the least degree comparable to Bede.
+
+So that from the point of view of its close touch with heathendom, its
+tolerance for heathen customs, its Christian magnanimity and gentleness,
+its conscious art, and its learned tone, all historic and artistic analogy
+would lead us to place _Beowulf_ in the great age--the age of Bede.
+
+
+
+This has brought us to another question--more interesting to many than the
+mere question of date. Are we to suppose {330} any direct connection
+between the classical and the Old English epic?
+
+As nations pass through their "Heroic Age," similar social conditions will
+necessarily be reflected by many similarities in their poetry. In heroic
+lays like _Finnsburg_ or _Hildebrand_ or the Norse poems, phrases and
+situations may occur which remind us of phrases and situations in the
+_Iliad_, without affording any ground for supposing classical influence
+direct or indirect.
+
+But there is much more in _Beowulf_ than mere accidental coincidence of
+phrase or situation.
+
+A simple-minded romancer would have made the _Æneid_ a biography of Æneas
+from the cradle to the grave. Not so Virgil. The story begins with mention
+of Carthage. Æneas then comes on the scene. At a banquet he tells to Dido
+his earlier adventures. Just so _Beowulf_ begins, not with the birth of
+Beowulf and his boyhood, but with Heorot. Beowulf arrives. At the banquet,
+in reply to Unferth, he narrates his earlier adventures. The _Beowulf_-poet
+is not content merely to tell us that there was minstrelsy at the feast,
+but like Virgil or Homer, he must give an account of what was sung. The
+epic style leads often to almost verbal similarities. Jupiter consoling
+Hercules for the loss of the son of his host says:
+
+ stat sua cuique dies, breve et inreparabile tempus
+ omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis
+ hoc virtutis opus[651].
+
+In the same spirit and almost in the same words does Beowulf console
+Hrothgar for the loss of his friend:
+
+ [=U]re [=æ]ghwylc sceal ende geb[=i]dan
+ worolde l[=i]fes; wyrce s[=e] þe m[=o]te
+ d[=o]mes [=æ]r d[=e]aþe; þæt biþ drihtguman
+ unlifgendum æfter s[=e]lest.
+
+On the other hand, though we are often struck by the likeness in spirit and
+in plan, it must be allowed that there is no tangible or conclusive proof
+of borrowing[652]. But the influence may have been none the less effective
+for being indirect: nor is {331} it quite certain that the author, had he
+known his Virgil, would necessarily have left traces of direct borrowing.
+For the deep Christian feeling, which has given to _Beowulf_ its almost
+prudish propriety and its edifying tone, is manifested by no direct and
+dogmatic reference to Christian personages or doctrines.
+
+I sympathize with Prof. Chadwick's feeling that a man who knew Virgil would
+not have disguised his knowledge, and would probably have lacked both
+inclination and ability to compose such a poem as _Beowulf_[653]. But does
+not this feeling rest largely upon the analogy of other races and ages? Is
+it borne out by such known facts as we can gather about this period? The
+reticence of _Beowulf_ with reference to Christianity does not harmonize
+with one's preconceived ideas; and Bishop Aldhelm gives us an even greater
+surprise. Let anyone read, or try to read, Aldhelm's _Epistola ad Acircium,
+sive liber de septenario et de metris_. Let him then ask himself "Is it
+possible that this learned pedant can also have been the author of English
+poems which King Alfred--surely no mean judge--thought best of all he
+knew?" These poems may of course have been educated and learned in tone.
+But we have the authority of King Alfred for the fact that Aldhelm used to
+perform at the cross roads as a common minstrel, and that he could hold his
+audiences with such success that they resorted to him again and again[654].
+Only after he had made himself popular by several performances did he
+attempt to weave edifying matter into his verse. And the popular, secular
+poetry of Aldhelm, his _carmen triviale_, remained current among the common
+people for centuries. Nor was Aldhelm's classical knowledge of late growth,
+something superimposed upon an earlier love of popular poetry, for he had
+{332} studied under Hadrian as a boy[655]. Later we are told that King Ine
+imported two Greek teachers from Athens for the help of Aldhelm and his
+school[656]; this may be exaggeration.
+
+Everything seems to show that about 700 an atmosphere existed in England
+which might easily have led a scholarly Englishman, acquainted with the old
+lays, to have set to work to compose an epic. Even so venerable a person as
+Bede, during his last illness, uttered his last teaching not, as we should
+expect on _a priori_ grounds, in Latin hexameters, but in English metre.
+The evidence for this is conclusive[657]. But, at a later date, Alcuin
+would surely have condemned the minstrelsy of Aldhelm[658]. Even King
+Alfred seems to have felt that it needed some apology. It would have
+rendered Aldhelm liable to severe censure under the Laws of King
+Edgar[659]; and Dunstan's biographer indignantly denies the charge brought
+against his hero of having learnt the heathen songs of his
+forefathers[660].
+
+The evidence is not as plentiful as we might wish, but it rather suggests
+that the chasm between secular poetry and ecclesiastical learning was more
+easily bridged in the first generations after the conversion than was the
+case later.
+
+But, however that may be, it assuredly does not give any grounds for
+abandoning the old view, based largely upon grammatical and metrical
+considerations, which would make _Beowulf_ a product of the early eighth
+century, and substituting for it a theory which would make our poem a
+product of mixed Saxon and Danish society in the early tenth century.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+{333}
+
+E. THE "JUTE-QUESTION" REOPENED
+
+The view that the Geatas of _Beowulf_ are the Jutes (Iuti, Iutae) of Bede
+(i.e. the tribe which colonized Kent, the Isle of Wight and Hampshire) has
+been held by many eminent scholars. It was dealt with only briefly above
+(pp. 8-9) because I thought the theory was now recognized as being no
+longer tenable. Lately, however, it has been maintained with conviction and
+ability by two Danish scholars, Schütte and Kier. It therefore becomes
+necessary once more to reopen the question, now that the only elaborate
+discussion of it in the English language favours the "Jute-theory,"
+especially as Axel Olrik gave the support of his great name to the view
+that "the question is still open[661]" and that "the last word has not been
+said concerning the nationality of the Geatas[662]."
+
+As in most controversies, a number of rather irrelevant side issues have
+been introduced[663], so that from mere weariness students are sometimes
+inclined to leave the problem undecided. Yet the interpretation of the
+opening chapters of Scandinavian history turns upon it.
+
+Supporters of the "Jute-theory" have seldom approached the subject from the
+point of view of Old English. Bugge[664] perhaps did so: but the
+"Jute-theory" has been held chiefly by students of Scandinavian history,
+literature or geography, like Fahlbeck[665], Steenstrup[666], Gering[667],
+Olrik[668], Schütte[669] and Kier[670]. But, now that the laws of Old
+English sound-change have been {334} clearly defined, it seldom happens
+that anyone who approaches the subject primarily as a student of the
+Anglo-Saxon language holds the view that the Geatas are Jutes.
+
+And this is naturally so: for, from the point of view of language, the
+question is not disputable. The _G[=e]atas_ phonologically are the _Gautar_
+(the modern Götar of Southern Sweden). It is admitted that the words are
+identical[671]. And, equally, it is admitted that the word _G[=e]atas_
+cannot be identical with the word _Iuti_, _Iutae_, used by Bede as the name
+of the Jutes who colonized Kent[671]. Bede's _Iuti_, _Iutae_, on the
+contrary, would correspond to a presumed Old English _*[=I]uti_ or
+_*[=I]utan_[672], current in his time in Northumbria. This in later
+Northumbrian would become _[=I]ote_, _[=I]otan_ (though the form _[=I]ute_,
+_[=I]utan_ might also survive). The dialect forms which we should expect
+(and which we find in the genitive and dative) corresponding to this would
+be: Mercian, _[=E]ote_, _[=E]otan_; Late West-Saxon, _[=Y]te_, _[=Y]tan_
+(through an intermediate Early West-Saxon _*[=I]ete_, _*[=I]etan_, which is
+not recorded).
+
+If, then, the word _G[=e]atas_ came to supplant the correct form _[=I]ote_,
+_[=I]otan_ (or its Mercian and West-Saxon equivalents _[=E]ote_,
+_[=E]otan_, _[=Y]te_, _[=Y]tan_), this can only have been the result of
+confusion. Such confusion is, on abstract grounds, conceivable: it is
+always possible that the name of one tribe may come to be attached to
+another. "Scot" has ceased to mean "Irishman," and has come to mean "North
+Briton"; and there is no intrinsic impossibility in the word _G[=e]atas_
+having been transferred by Englishmen, from the half-forgotten Gautar, to
+the Jutes, and having driven out the correct name of the latter, _[=I]ote_,
+_[=I]otan_. For example, there might have been an exiled Geatic family
+among the Jutish invaders, which might have become so prominent as to cause
+{335} the name _G[=e]atas_ to supplant the correct _[=I]ote_, _[=E]ote_,
+etc. But, whoever the Geatas may have been, _Beowulf_ is their chief early
+record: indeed, almost all we know of their earliest history is derived
+from _Beowulf_. In _Beowulf_, therefore, if anywhere, the old names and
+traditions should be remembered. The word _G[=e]at_ occurs some 50 times in
+the poem. The poet obviously wishes to use other synonyms, for the sake of
+variety and alliteration: hence we get _Weder-G[=e]atas_, _Wederas_,
+_S[=æ]-G[=e]atas_, _G[=u]ð-G[=e]atas_. Now, if these Geatas are the Jutes,
+how comes it that the poet _never_ calls them such, never speaks of them
+under the correct tribal name of _[=E]ote_, etc., although this was the
+current name at the time _Beowulf_ was written, and indeed for centuries
+later?
+
+For, demonstrably, the form _[=E]ote_, etc., _was_ recognized as the name
+of the Jutes till at least the twelfth century. Then it died out of current
+speech, and only Bede's Latin _Iuti_ (and the modern "Jute" derived
+therefrom) remained as terms used by the historians. The evidence is
+conclusive:
+
+(_a_) Bede, writing about the time when _Beowulf_, in its present form, is
+supposed to have been composed, uses _Iuti_, _Iutae_, corresponding to a
+presumed contemporary Northumbrian _*[=I]uti_, _*[=I]utan_.
+
+(_b_) In the O.E. translation of Bede, made in Mercia perhaps two centuries
+after Bede's time, we do indeed in one place find "Geata," "Geatum" used to
+translate "Iutarum," "Iutis," instead of the correctly corresponding
+Mercian form "Eota," "Eotum." Only two MSS are extant at this point. But
+since both agree, and since they belong to different types, it is probable
+that "Geata" here is no mere copyist's error, but is due to the translator
+himself[673]. But, later, when the translator {336} has to render Bede's
+"Iutorum," he gives, not "Geata," but the correct Mercian "Eota." There can
+be no possible doubt here, for five MSS are extant at this point, and all
+give the correct form--four in the Mercian, "Eota," whilst one gives the
+West-Saxon equivalent, "Ytena."
+
+Now the _G[=e]ata_-passage in the Bede translation is the chief piece of
+evidence which those who would explain the Geatas of _Beowulf_ as "Jutes"
+can call: and it does not, in fact, much help them. What they have to prove
+is that the _Beowulf_-poet could _consistently and invariably_ have used
+_G[=e]atas_ in the place of _[=E]ote_. To produce an instance in which the
+two terms are both used by the same translator is very little use, when
+what has to be proved is that the one term had already, at a much earlier
+period, entirely ousted the other.
+
+All our other evidence is for the invariable use of the correct form
+_[=I]ote_, _[=I]otan_, etc. in Old English.
+
+(_c_) The passage from Bede was again translated, and inserted into a copy
+of the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, which was sent quite early to one of the
+great abbeys of Northumbria[674]. In this, "Iutis, Iutarum" is represented
+by the correct Northumbrian equivalent, "Iutum," "Iotum"; "Iutna."
+
+(_d_) This Northumbrian Chronicle, or a transcript of it, subsequently came
+South, to Canterbury. There, roughly about the year 1100, it was used to
+interpolate an Early West-Saxon copy of the Chronicle. Surely at
+Canterbury, the capital of the old Jutish kingdom, people must have known
+the correct form of the Jutish name, whether _G[=e]atas_ or _[=I]ote_. We
+find the forms "Iotum," "Iutum"; "Iutna."
+
+(_e_) Corresponding to this Northumbrian (and Kentish) form _[=I]ote_,
+Mercian _[=E]ote_, the Late West-Saxon form should be _[=Y]te_. Now _MS
+Corpus Christi College, Cambridge_, 41, gives us "the Wessex version of the
+English Bede" and is written by a scribe who knew the Hampshire
+district[675]. In this MS the "Eota" of the Mercian original has been
+transcribed as "Ytena," "Eotum" as "Ytum," showing that the scribe
+understood the tribal name and its equivalent correctly. This was about the
+{337} time of the Norman Conquest, but the name continued to be understood
+till the early twelfth century at least. For Florence of Worcester records
+that William Rufus was slain _in Noua Foresta quae lingua Anglorum Ytene
+nuncupatur_; and in another place he speaks of the same event as happening
+_in prouincia Jutarum in Noua Foresta_[676], which shows that Florence
+understood that "Ytene" was _[=Y]tena land_, "the province of the Jutes."
+
+
+
+It comes, then, to this. The "Jute-hypothesis" postulates not only that, at
+the time _Beowulf_ was composed, _G[=e]atas_ had come to mean "Jutes," but
+also that it had so completely ousted the correct old name _[=I]uti,
+[=I]ote, [=E]ote, [=Y]te_, that none of the latter terms are ever used in
+the poem as synonyms for Beowulf's people[677]. Yet all the evidence shows
+that _[=I]uti_ etc. was the recognized name when Bede wrote, and we have
+evidence at intervals showing that it was so understood till four centuries
+later. But not only was _[=I]uti_, _[=I]ote_ never superseded in O.E.
+times; there is no real evidence that _G[=e]atas_ was ever _generally_ used
+to signify "Jutes." The fact that one translator in one passage (writing
+probably some two centuries after _Beowulf_ was composed) uses "Geata,"
+"Geatum," where he should have used "Eota," "Eotum," does not prove the
+misnomer to have been general--especially when the same translator
+subsequently uses the correct form "Eota."
+
+I do not think sufficient importance has been attached to what seems (to
+me) the vital argument against the "Jute-theory." It is not merely that
+_G[=e]atas_ is the exact phonological equivalent of _Gautar_ (Götar) and
+cannot be equivalent to Bede's _Iuti_. This difficulty may be got over by
+the assumption that somehow the _Iuti_, or some of them, had adopted the
+name _G[=e]atas_: and we are not in a position to disprove such assumption.
+But the advocates of the "Jute-theory" have further to assume that, at the
+date when _Beowulf_ was written, the correct name _Iuti_ (Northumbrian
+_[=I]ote_, Mercian _[=E]ote_, West-Saxon _[=Y]te_) must have so passed into
+disuse that it could not be once used as a {338} synonym for Beowulf's
+people, by our synonym-hunting poet. And this assumption we _are_ in a
+position to disprove.
+
+
+
+The Jute-theory would therefore still be untenable on the ground of the
+name, even though it were laboriously proved that, from the historical and
+geographical standpoint, there was more to be said for it than had hitherto
+been recognized. But even this has not been proved: quite the reverse. As I
+have tried to show above, historical and geographical considerations,
+though in themselves not absolutely conclusive, point emphatically to an
+identification with the Götar, rather than with the Jutes[678].
+
+The relations of Beowulf and the Geatas with the kings of Denmark and of
+Sweden are the constant topic of the poem. Now the land of the Götar _was_
+situated between Denmark and Sweden. But if the Geatas be Jutes, their
+neighbours were the Danes on the east and the Angles on the south; farther
+away, across the Cattegat lay the Götar, and beyond these the Swedes. If
+the Geatas be Jutes, why should their immediate neighbours, the Angles,
+never appear in _Beowulf_ as having any dealings with them? And why, above
+all, should the Götar never be mentioned, whilst the Swedes, far to the
+north, play so large a part? Even if Swedes and Götar had at this time been
+under one king, the Götar could not have been thus ignored, seeing that,
+owing to their position, the brunt of the fighting must have fallen on
+them[679]. But we know that the Götar were independent. The strictly
+contemporary evidence of Procopius shows quite conclusively that they were
+one of the strongest of the Scandinavian kingdoms[680]. How then could
+warfare be carried on for three generations between Jutes and Swedes
+without concerning the Götar, whose territory lay in between?
+
+Again, in the "Catalogue of Kings" in _Widsith_, the Swedes are named with
+their famous king Ongentheow. The Jutes (_[=Y]te_) are also mentioned, with
+_their_ king. And their king is {339} not Hrethel, Hæthcyn, Hygelac or
+Heardred, but a certain Gefwulf, whose name does not even alliterate with
+that of any known king of the Geatas[681].
+
+Again, in the (certainly very early) _Book on Monsters_, Hygelac is
+described as _Huiglaucus qui imperavit Getis_. Now Getis can mean
+Götar[682], but can hardly mean Jutes.
+
+The geographical case against the identification of Geatas and Götar
+depends upon the assumption that the western sea-coast of the Götar in
+ancient times must have coincided with that of West Gothland
+(Vestra-Götland) in mediæval and modern times. Now as this coast consists
+merely of a small strip south of the river Götaelv, it is argued that the
+Götar could not be the maritime Geatas of _Beowulf_, capable of undertaking
+a Viking raid to the mouth of the Rhine. But the assumption that the
+frontiers of the Götar about A.D. 500 were the same as they were a thousand
+years later, is not only improbable on _a priori_ grounds, but, as Schück
+has shown[683], can be definitely disproved. Adam of Bremen, writing in the
+eleventh century, speaks of the river Gothelba (Götaelv) as running through
+the midst of the peoples of the Götar. And the obvious connection between
+the name of the river and the name of the people seems to make it certain
+that Adam is right, and that the original Götar must have dwelt around the
+river Götaelv. But, if so, then they were a maritime folk: for the river
+Götaelv is merely the outlet which connects Lake Wener with the sea,
+running a course almost parallel with the shore and nowhere very distant
+from it[684]. But even when Adam wrote, the {340} Götar to the north of the
+river had long been politically subject to Norway[685]: and the
+_Heimskringla_ tells us how this happened.
+
+Harold Fairhair, King of Norway (a contemporary of King Alfred), attacked
+them: they had staked the river Götaelv against him, but he moored his
+ships to the stakes[686] and harried _on either shore_: he fought far and
+wide in the country, had many battles _on either side of the river_, and
+finally slew the leader of the Götar, Hrani Gauzki (the Götlander). Then he
+annexed to Norway all the land north of the river and west of Lake Wener.
+Thenceforward the Götaelv was the boundary between Norway and West
+Gothland, though the country ultimately became Swedish, as it now is. But
+it is abundantly clear from the _Heimskringla_ that Harold regarded as
+hostile all the territory north of the Götaelv, and between Lake Wener and
+the sea[687] (the old Ránriki and the modern Bohuslän).
+
+But, if so, then the objection that the Götar are not a sufficiently
+maritime people becomes untenable. For precisely to this region belong the
+earliest records of maritime warfare to be found in the north of Europe,
+possibly the earliest in Europe. The smooth rocks of Bohuslän are covered
+with incised pictures of the Bronze age: and the favourite subject of these
+is ships and naval encounters. About 120 different pictures of ships and
+sea fights are reproduced by one scholar alone[688]. And at the present day
+this province of Göteborg and Bohus is the most important centre in Sweden
+both of fishery and shipping. Indeed, more than one quarter of the total
+tonnage of the modern Swedish mercantile marine comes from this
+comparatively tiny strip of coast[689].
+
+{341}
+
+It is surely quite absurd to urge that the men of this coast could not have
+harried the Frisians in the manner in which Hygelac is represented as
+doing. And surely it is equally absurd to urge that the people of this
+coast would not have had to fear a return attack from the Frisians, after
+the downfall of their own kings. The Frisians seem to have been "the chief
+channel of communication between the North and West of Europe[690]" before
+the rise of the Scandinavian Vikings, and to have been supreme in the North
+Sea. The Franks were of course a land power, but the Franks, _when in
+alliance with the Frisians_, were by no means helpless at sea. Gregory of
+Tours tells us that they overthrew Hygelac on land, and _then in a sea
+fight annihilated his fleet_. Now the poet says that the Geatas may expect
+war when the Franks _and Frisians_ hear of Beowulf's fall. The objection
+that, because they feared the Franks, the Geatas must have been reachable
+by land, depends upon leaving the "and Frisians" out of consideration.
+
+"Now we may look for a time of war" says the messenger "when the fall of
+our king is known among the Franks and Frisians": then he gives a brief
+account of the raid upon the land of the Frisians and concludes: "Ever
+since then has the favour of the Merovingian king been denied us[691]."
+What is there in this to indicate whether the raiders came from Jutland, or
+from the coast of the Götar across the Cattegat, 50 miles further off? The
+messenger goes on to anticipate hostility from the Swedes[692]. To this, at
+any rate, the Götar were more exposed than the Jutes. Further, he concludes
+by anticipating the utter overthrow of the Geatas[693]: and the poet
+expressly tells us that these forebodings were justified[694]. There must
+therefore be a reference to some famous national catastrophe. Now the Götar
+_did_ lose their independence, and _were_ incorporated into the Swedish
+kingdom. When did the Jutes suffer any similar downfall at the hands of
+either Frisians, Franks, or Swedes?
+
+
+
+The other geographical and historical arguments urged in favour of the
+Jutes, when carefully scrutinized, are found either {342} equally
+indecisive, or else actually to tell against the "Jute-theory."
+Schütte[695] thinks that the name "Wederas" (applied in _Beowulf_ to the
+Geatas) is identical with the name _Eudoses_ (that of a tribe mentioned by
+Tacitus, who _may_[696] have dwelt in Jutland). But this is impossible
+phonologically: _Wederas_ is surely a shortened form of _Weder-G[=e]atas_,
+"the Storm-Geatas." Indeed, we have, in favour of the Götar-theory, the
+fact that the very name of the Wederas survives on the Bohuslän coast to
+this day, in the Wäder Öar and the Wäder Fiord.
+
+Advocates of the "Jute-theory" lay great stress upon the fact that Gregory
+of Tours and the _Liber Historiae Francorum_ call Hygelac a Dane[697]:
+_Dani cum rege suo Chochilaico_. Now, when Gregory wrote in the sixth
+century, either the Jutes were entirely distinct from, and independent of,
+the Danes, or they were not. If they were distinct, how do Gregory's words
+help the "Jute-theory"? He must be simply using "Dane," like the
+Anglo-Saxon historians, for "Scandinavian." But if the Jutes were not
+distinct from the Danes, then we have an argument against the
+"Jute-theory." For we know from _Beowulf_ that the Geatas _were_ quite
+distinct from the Danes[698], and quite independent of them[699].
+
+It is repeatedly urged that the Geatas and Swedes fight _ofer s[=æ]_[700].
+But _s[=æ]_ can mean a great fresh-water lake, like Lake Wener, just as
+well as the ocean[701]: and as a matter of fact we know that the decisive
+battle did take place on Lake Wener, _in stagno Waener, á Vænis ísi_[702].
+Lake Wener is an obvious battle place for Götar and Swedes. They were
+separated by the great and almost impassable forests of "Tived" and
+"Kolmård," and the lake was their simplest way of meeting[703]. But it does
+not equally fit Jutes and Swedes.
+
+It is repeatedly objected that the Götar are remote from the
+Anglo-Saxons[704]. Possibly: but remoteness did not prevent {343} the
+Anglo-Saxons from being interested in heroes of the Huns or Goths or
+Burgundians or Longobards, who were much more[705] distant. And the absence
+of any direct connection between the history of the Geatas and the historic
+Anglo-Saxon records, affords a strong presumption that the Geatas _were_ a
+somewhat alien people. If the people of Beowulf, Hygelac, and Hrethel, were
+the same people as the Jutes who colonized Kent and Hampshire, why do we
+never, in the Kentish royal genealogies or elsewhere, find any claim to
+such connection? The Mercians did not so forget their connection with the
+old Offa of Angel, although a much greater space of time had intervened.
+The fact that we have no mention among the ancestors of Beowulf and Hygelac
+of any names which we can connect with the Jutish genealogy affords,
+therefore, a strong presumption that they belonged to some other tribe.
+
+The strongest historical argument for the "Jute-theory" was that produced
+by Bugge. The _Ynglinga tal_ represents Ottar (who is certainly the Ohthere
+of _Beowulf_) as having fallen in Vendel, and this Vendel was clearly
+understood as being the district of that name in North Jutland. The body of
+this Swedish king was torn asunder by carrion birds, and he was remembered
+as "the Vendel-crow," a mocking nickname which pretty clearly goes back to
+primitive times. Other ancient authors attributed this name, not to Ottar,
+but to his father, who can be identified with the Ongentheow of _Beowulf_.
+This would seem to indicate that the hereditary foes of Ongentheow and the
+Swedish kings of his house were, after all, the Jutes of Vendel.
+
+But Knut Stjerna has shown that the Vendel from which "Ottar Vendel-crow"
+took his name was probably not the Vendel of Jutland at all, but the place
+of that name north of Uppsala, famous for the splendid grave-finds which
+show it to have been of peculiar importance during our period[706]. And
+subsequent research has shown that a huge grave-mound, near this Vendel, is
+mentioned in a record of the seventeenth century as King {344} Ottar's
+mound, and is still popularly known as the mound of Ottar Vendel-crow[707].
+But, if so, this story of the Vendel-crow, so far from supporting the
+"Jute-hypothesis," tells against it: nothing could be more suitable than
+Vendel, north of Uppsala, as the "last ditch" to which Ongentheow
+retreated, if we assume his adversaries to have been the Götar: but it
+would not suit the Jutes so well.
+
+An exploration of the mound has proved beyond reasonable doubt that it
+_was_ raised to cover the ashes of Ottar Vendel-crow, the Ohthere of
+_Beowulf_[708]. That Ohthere fell in battle against the Geatas there is
+nothing, in _Beowulf_ or elsewhere, to prove. But the fact that his ashes
+were laid in mound at Vendel in Sweden makes it unlikely that he fell in
+battle against the Jutes, and is quite incompatible with what we are told
+in the _Ynglinga saga_ of his body having been torn to pieces by carrion
+fowl on a mound in Vendel in Jutland. It now becomes clear that this story,
+and the tale of the crow of wood made by the Jutlanders in mockery of
+Ottar, is a mere invention to account for the name Vendel-crow: the name,
+as so often, has survived, and a new story has grown up to give a reason
+for the name.
+
+What "Vendel-crow" originally implied we cannot be quite sure. Apparently
+"Crow" or "Vendel-crow" is used to this day as a nickname for the
+inhabitants of Swedish Vendel. Ottar may have been so called because he was
+buried (possibly because he lived) in Vendel, not, like other members of
+his race, his son and his father, at Old Uppsala. But however that may be,
+what is clear is that, as the name passed from the Swedes to those
+Norwegian and Icelandic writers who have handed it down {345} to us, Vendel
+of Sweden was naturally misunderstood as the more familiar Vendel of
+Jutland. Stjerna's conjecture is confirmed. The Swedish king's nickname,
+far from pointing to ancient feuds between Jute and Swede, is shown to have
+nothing whatsoever to do with Jutland.
+
+
+
+It appears, then, that _G[=e]atas_ is phonologically the equivalent of
+"Götar," but not the equivalent of "Jutes"; that what we know of the use of
+the word "Jutes" (_[=I]ote_, etc.) in Old English makes it incredible that
+a poem of the length of _Beowulf_ could be written, concerning their heroes
+and their wars, without even mentioning them by their correct name; that in
+many respects the geographical and historical evidence fits the Götar, but
+does _not_ fit the Jutes; that the instances to the contrary, in which it
+is claimed that the geographical and historical evidence fits the Jutes but
+does not fit the Götar, are all found on examination to be either
+inconclusive or actually to favour the Götar.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+F. _BEOWULF_ AND THE ARCHÆOLOGISTS
+
+The peat-bogs of Schleswig and Denmark have yielded finds of the first
+importance for English archæology. These "moss-finds" are great
+collections, chiefly of arms and accoutrements, obviously deposited with
+intention. The first of these great discoveries, that of Thorsbjerg, was
+made in the heart of ancient Angel: the site of the next, Nydam, also comes
+within the area probably occupied by either Angles or Jutes; and most of
+the rest of the "moss-finds" were in the closest neighbourhood of the old
+Anglian home. The period of the oldest deposits, as is shown by the Roman
+coins found among them, is hardly before the third century A.D., and some
+authorities would make it considerably later.
+
+An account of these discoveries will be found in Engelhardt's _Denmark in
+the Early Iron Age_[709], 1866: a volume which {346} summarizes the results
+of Engelhardt's investigations during the preceding seven years. He had
+published in Copenhagen _Thorsbjerg Mosefund_, 1863; _Nydam Mosefund_,
+1865. Engelhardt's work at Nydam was interrupted by the war of 1864: the
+finds had to be ceded to Germany, and the exploration was continued by
+German scholars. Engelhardt consoled himself that these "subsequent
+investigations ... do not seem to have been carried on with the necessary
+care and intelligence," and continued his own researches within the
+narrowed frontiers of Denmark, publishing two monographs on the mosses of
+Fünen: _Kragehul Mosefund_, 1867; _Vimose Fundet_, 1869.
+
+These deposits, however, obviously belong to a period much earlier than
+that in which _Beowulf_ was written: indeed most of them certainly belong
+to a period earlier than that in which the historic events described in
+_Beowulf_ occurred; so that, close as is their relation with Anglian
+civilization, it is with the civilization of the Angles while still on the
+continent.
+
+
+
+The Archæology of _Beowulf_ has been made the subject of special study by
+Knut Stjerna, in a series of articles which appeared between 1903 and his
+premature death in 1909. A good service has been done to students of
+_Beowulf_ by Dr Clark Hall in collecting and translating Stjerna's
+essays[710]. They are a mine of useful information, and the reproductions
+of articles from Scandinavian grave-finds, with which they are so copiously
+illustrated, are invaluable. The magnificent antiquities from Vendel, now
+in the Stockholm museum, are more particularly laid under
+contribution[711]. Dr Clark Hall added a most useful "Index of things
+mentioned in _Beowulf_[712]," well illustrated. Here again the
+illustrations, with few exceptions, are from Scandinavian finds.
+
+{347}
+
+Two weighty arguments as to the origin of _Beowulf_ have been based upon
+archæology. In the first place it has been urged by Dr Clark Hall that:
+
+ "If the poem is read in the light of the evidence which Stjerna has
+ marshalled in the essays as to the profusion of gold, the prevalence of
+ ring-swords, of boar-helmets, of ring-corslets, and ring-money, it
+ becomes clear how strong the distinctively Scandinavian colouring is,
+ and how comparatively little of the _mise-en-scène_ must be due to the
+ English author[713]."
+
+Equally, Prof. Klaeber finds in Stjerna's investigations a strong argument
+for the Scandinavian character of _Beowulf_[714].
+
+Now Stjerna, very rightly and naturally, drew his illustrations of
+_Beowulf_ from those Scandinavian, and especially Swedish, grave-finds
+which he knew so well: and very valuable those illustrations are. But it
+does not follow, because the one archæologist who has chosen to devote his
+knowledge so wholeheartedly to the elucidation of _Beowulf_ was a
+Scandinavian, using Scandinavian material, that therefore _Beowulf_ is
+Scandinavian. This, however, is the inference which Stjerna himself was apt
+to draw, and which is still being drawn from his work. Stjerna speaks of
+our poem as a monument raised by the Geatas to the memory of their
+saga-renowned king[715], though he allows that certain features of the
+poem, such as the dragon-fight[716], are of Anglo-Saxon origin.
+
+Of course, it must be allowed that accounts such as those of the fighting
+between Swedes and Geatas, if they are historical (and they obviously are),
+must have originated from eyewitnesses of the Scandinavian battles: but I
+doubt if there is anything in _Beowulf_ so purely Scandinavian as to compel
+us to assume that any line of the story, in the poetical form in which we
+now have it, was _necessarily_ composed in Scandinavia. Even if it could be
+shown that the conditions depicted in _Beowulf_ can be better illustrated
+from the grave-finds of Vendel in Sweden than from English diggings, this
+would not prove _Beowulf_ Scandinavian. Modern scientific archæology is
+surely based on chronology as well as geography. The English finds date
+from {348} the period before 650 A.D., and the Vendel finds from the period
+after. _Beowulf_ might well show similarity rather with contemporary art
+abroad than with the art of earlier generations at home. For intercourse
+was more general than is always realized. It was not merely trade and
+plunder which spread fashions from nation to nation. There were the
+presents of arms which Tacitus mentions as sent, not only privately, but
+with public ceremony, from one tribe to another[717]. Similar presentations
+are indicated in _Beowulf_[718]; we find them equally at the court of the
+Ostrogothic Theodoric[719]; Charles the Great sent to Offa of Mercia _unum
+balteum et unum gladium huniscum_[720]; according to the famous story in
+the _Heimskringla_, Athelstan sent to Harold Fairhair of Norway a sword and
+belt arrayed with gold and silver; Athelstan gave Harold's son Hakon a
+sword which was the best that ever came to Norway[721]. It is not
+surprising, then, if we find parallels between English poetry and
+Scandinavian grave-finds, both apparently dating from about the year 700
+A.D. But I do not think that there is any _special_ resemblance, though,
+both in _Beowulf_ and in the Vendel graves, there is a profusion lacking in
+the case of the simpler Anglo-Saxon tomb-furniture.
+
+Let us examine the five points of special resemblance, alleged by Dr Clark
+Hall, on the basis of Stjerna's studies.
+
+"The profusion of gold." Gold is indeed lavishly used in _Beowulf_: the
+golden treasure found in the dragon's lair was so bulky that it had to be
+transported by waggon. And, certainly, gold is found in greater profusion
+in Swedish than in English graves: the most casual visitor to the Stockholm
+museum must be impressed by the magnificence of the exhibits there. But,
+granting gold to have been rarer in England than in Sweden, I cannot grant
+Stjerna's contention that therefore an English poet could not have
+conceived the idea of a vast gold hoard[722]; or that, even if the poet
+does deck his warriors with gold somewhat more sumptuously than was
+actually the case in England, {349} we can draw any argument from it. For,
+if the dragon in _Beowulf_ guards a treasure, so equally does the typical
+dragon of Old English proverbial lore[723]. Beowulf is spoken of as
+_gold-wlanc_, but the typical thegn in _Finnsburg_ is called
+_gold-hladen_[724]. The sword found by Beowulf in the hall of Grendel's
+mother has a golden hilt, but the English proverb had it that "gold is in
+its place on a man's sword[725]." Heorot is hung with golden tapestry, but
+gold-inwoven fabric has been unearthed from Saxon graves at Taplow, and
+elsewhere in England[726]. Gold glitters in other poems quite as lavishly
+as in _Beowulf_, sometimes more so. Widsith made a hobby of collecting
+golden _b[=e]agas_. The subject of _Waldere_ is a fight for treasure. The
+byrnie of Waldere[727] is adorned with gold: so is that of Holofernes in
+_Judith_[728], so is that of the typical warrior in the _Elene_[729]. Are
+all these poems Scandinavian?
+
+"The prevalence of ring-swords." We know that swords were sometimes fitted
+with a ring in the hilt[730]. It is not clear whether the object of this
+ring was to fasten the hilt by a strap to the wrist, for convenience in
+fighting (as has been the custom with the cavalry sword in modern times) or
+whether it was used to attach the "peace bands," by which the hilt of the
+sword was sometimes fixed to the scabbard, when only being worn
+ceremonially[731]. The word _hring-m[=æ]l_, applied three times to the
+sword in _Beowulf_, has been interpretated as a reference to these
+"ring-swords," though it is quite conceivable that it may refer only to the
+damascening of the sword with a ringed pattern[732]. Assuming that the
+reference in _Beowulf_ _is_ to a "ring-sword," Stjerna illustrates the
+allusion from seven ring-swords, or fragments of ring-swords, found in
+Sweden. But, as Dr Clark Hall himself points out (whilst oddly enough
+accepting this argument {350} as proof of the Scandinavian colouring of
+_Beowulf_) four ring-swords at least have been found in England[733]. And
+these English swords are _real_ ring-swords; that is to say, the pommel is
+furnished with a ring, within which another ring moves (in the oldest type
+of sword) quite freely. This freedom of movement seems, however, to be
+gradually restricted, and in one of these English swords the two rings are
+made in one and the same piece. In the Swedish swords, however, this
+restriction is carried further, and the two rings are represented by a knob
+growing out of a circular base. Another sword of this "knob"-type has
+recently been found in a Frankish tomb[734], and yet another in the
+Rhineland[735]. It seems to be agreed among archæologists that the English
+type, as found in Kent, is the original, and that the Swedish and
+continental "ring-swords" are merely imitations, in which the ring has
+become conventionalized into a knob[736]. But, if so, how can the mention
+of a ring-sword in _Beowulf_ (if indeed that be the meaning of
+_hring-m[=æ]l_) prove Scandinavian colouring? If it proved anything (which
+it does not) it would tend to prove the reverse, and to locate _Beowulf_ in
+Kent, where the true ring-swords have been found.
+
+"The prevalence of boar-helmets." It is true that several representations
+of warriors wearing boar-helmets have been found in Scandinavia. But the
+only certainly Anglo-Saxon {351} helmet yet found in England has a
+boar-crest[737]; and this is, I believe, the only actual boar-helmet yet
+found. How then can the boar-helmets of _Beowulf_ show Scandinavian rather
+than Anglo-Saxon origin?
+
+"The prevalence of ring-corslets." It is true that only one trace of a
+byrnie, and that apparently not of ring-mail, has so far been found in an
+Anglo-Saxon grave. (We have somewhat more abundant remains from the period
+prior to the migration to England: a peculiarly fine corslet of ring-mail,
+with remains of some nine others, was found in the moss at Thorsbjerg[738]
+in the midst of the ancient Anglian continental home; and other
+ring-corslets have been found in the neighbourhood of Angel, at Vimose[739]
+in Fünen.) But, for the period when _Beowulf_ must have been composed, the
+ring-corslet is almost as rare in Scandinavia as in England[740]; the
+artist, however, seems to be indicating a byrnie upon many of the warriors
+depicted on the Vendel helm (Grave 14: seventh century). Equally, in
+England, warriors are represented on the Franks Casket as wearing the
+byrnie: also the laws of Ine (688-95) make it clear that the byrnie was by
+no means unknown[741]. Other Old English poems, certainly not Scandinavian,
+mention the ring-byrnie. How then can the mention of it in _Beowulf_ be a
+proof of Scandinavian origin?
+
+"The prevalence of ring-money." Before minted money became current, rings
+were used everywhere among the Teutonic peoples. Gold rings, _intertwined_
+so as to form a chain, have been found throughout Scandinavia, presumably
+for use as a medium of exchange. The term _locenra b[=e]aga_ (gen. plu.)
+occurs in _Beowulf_, and this is interpreted by Stjerna as "rings
+_intertwined or locked_ together[742]." But _locen_ in _Beowulf_ need not
+have the meaning of "intertwined"; it occurs elsewhere in Old English of a
+single jewel, _sincgim locen_[743]. Further, even if _locen_ does mean
+{352} "intertwined," such intertwined rings are not limited to Scandinavia
+proper. They have been found in Schleswig[744]. And almost the very phrase
+in _Beowulf_, _londes ne locenra b[=e]aga_[745], recurs in the _Andreas_.
+The phrase there may be imitated from _Beowulf_, but, equally, the phrase
+in _Beowulf_ may be imitated from some earlier poem. In fact, it is part of
+the traditional poetic diction: but its occurrence in the _Andreas_ shows
+that it cannot be used as an argument of Scandinavian origin.
+
+
+
+Whilst, therefore, accepting with gratitude the numerous illustrations
+which Stjerna has drawn from Scandinavian grave-finds, we must be careful
+not to read a Scandinavian colouring into features of _Beowulf_ which are
+at least as much English as Scandinavian, such as the ring-sword or the
+boar-helmet or the ring-corslet.
+
+There is, as is noted above, a certain atmosphere of profusion and wealth
+about some Scandinavian grave-finds, which corresponds much more nearly
+with the wealthy life depicted in _Beowulf_ than does the comparatively
+meagre tomb-furniture of England. But we must remember that, after the
+spread of Christianity in the first half of the seventh century, the custom
+of burying articles with the bodies of the dead naturally ceased, or almost
+ceased, in England. Scandinavia continued heathen for another four hundred
+years, and it was during these years that the most magnificent deposits
+were made. As Stjerna himself points out, "a steadily increasing luxury in
+the appointment of graves" is to be found in Scandinavia in these centuries
+before the introduction of Christianity there. When we find in Scandinavia
+things (complete ships, for example) which we do not find in England, we
+owe this, partly to the nature of the soil in which they were embedded, but
+also to the continuance of such burial customs after they had died out in
+England.
+
+
+
+Helm and byrnie were not necessarily unknown, or even very rare in England,
+simply because it was not the custom to bury them with the dead. On the
+other hand, the frequent mention of them in _Beowulf_ does not imply that
+they were common: for {353} _Beowulf_ deals only with the aristocratic
+adherents of a court, and even in _Beowulf_ fine specimens of the helm and
+byrnie are spoken of as things which a king seeks far and wide to procure
+for his retainers[746]. We cannot, therefore, argue that there is any
+discrepancy. However, if we do so argue, it would merely prove, not that
+_Beowulf_ is Scandinavian as opposed to English, but that it is
+comparatively late in date. Tacitus emphasizes the fact that spear and
+shield were the Teutonic weapons, that helmet and corslet were hardly
+known[747]. Pagan graves show that at any rate they were hardly known _as
+tomb-furniture_ in England in the fifth, sixth, and early seventh
+centuries. The introduction of Christianity, and the intercourse with the
+South which it involved, certainly led to the growth of pomp and wealth in
+England, till the early eighth century became "the golden age of
+Anglo-Saxon England."
+
+It might therefore conceivably be argued that _Beowulf_ reflects the
+comparative abundance of early Christian England, as opposed to the more
+primitive heathen simplicity; but to argue a Scandinavian origin from the
+profusion of _Beowulf_ admits of an easy _reductio ad absurdum_. For the
+same arguments would prove a heathen, Scandinavian origin for the
+_Andreas_, the _Elene_, the _Exodus_, or even for the Franks Casket,
+despite its Anglo-Saxon inscription and Christian carvings.
+
+
+
+However, though the absence of helm and byrnie from Anglo-Saxon graves does
+not prove that these arms were not used by the living in heathen times, one
+thing it assuredly _does_ prove: that the Anglo-Saxons in heathen times did
+not sacrifice helm and byrnie recklessly in funeral pomp. And this brings
+us to the second argument as to the origin of _Beowulf_ which has been
+based on archæology.
+
+Something has been said above of this second contention[748]--that the
+accuracy of the account of Beowulf's funeral is confirmed in every point by
+archæological evidence: that it must {354} therefore have been composed
+within living memory of a time when ceremonies of this kind were still
+actually in use in England: and that therefore we cannot date _Beowulf_
+later than the third or fourth decade of the seventh century.
+
+To begin with; the pyre in _Beowulf_ is represented as hung with helmets,
+bright byrnies, and shields. Now it is impossible to say exactly how the
+funeral pyres were equipped in England. But we _do_ know how the buried
+bodies were equipped. And (although inhumation cemeteries are much more
+common than cremation cemeteries) all the graves that have been opened have
+so far yielded only one case of a helmet and byrnie being buried with the
+warrior, and one other very doubtful case of a helmet without the byrnie.
+Abroad, instances are somewhat more common, but still of great rarity. For
+such things could ill be spared. Charles the Great forbade the export of
+byrnies from his dominions. Worn by picked champions fighting in the
+forefront, they might well decide the issue of a battle. In the mounds
+where we have reason to think that the great chiefs mentioned in _Beowulf_,
+Eadgils or Ohthere, lie buried, any trace of weapons was conspicuously
+absent among the burnt remains. Nevertheless, the belief that his armour
+would be useful to the champion in the next life, joined perhaps with a
+feeling that it was unlucky, or unfair on the part of the survivor to
+deprive the dead of his personal weapons, led in heathen times to the
+occasional burial of these treasures with the warrior who owned them. The
+fifth century tomb of Childeric I, when discovered twelve centuries later,
+was found magnificently furnished--the prince had been buried with treasure
+and much equipment[749], sword, scramasax[750], axe, spear. But these were
+his own. Similarly, piety might have demanded that Beowulf should be burnt
+with his full equipment. But would the pyre have been hung with helmets and
+byrnies? Whose? Were the thegns asked to sacrifice theirs, and go naked
+into the next fight in honour of their lord? If so, what archæological
+authority have we for such a custom in England?
+
+{355}
+
+Then the barrow is built, and the vast treasure of the dragon (which
+included "many a helmet[751]") placed in it. Now there are instances of
+articles which have not passed through the fire being placed in or upon or
+around an urn with the cremated bones[752]. But is there any instance of
+the thing being done on this scale--of a wholesale burning of helmets and
+byrnies followed by a burial of huge treasure? If so, one would like to
+know when, and where. If not, how can it be argued that the account in
+_Beowulf_ is one of which "the accuracy is confirmed in every point by
+archæological or contemporary literary evidence?" Rather we must say, with
+Knut Stjerna, that it is "too much of a good thing[753]."
+
+ For the antiquities of Anglo-Saxon England, the student should consult
+ the _Victoria County History_. The two splendid volumes of Professor G.
+ Baldwin Brown on _Saxon Art and Industry in the Pagan Period_[754] at
+ length enable the general reader to get a survey of the essential
+ facts, for which up to now he has had to have recourse to innumerable
+ scattered treatises. _The Archæology of the Anglo-Saxon Settlements_ by
+ Mr E. Thurlow Leeds will also be found helpful.
+
+ Side-lights from the field of Teutonic antiquities in general can be
+ got from Prof. Baldwin Brown's _Arts and Crafts of our Teutonic
+ Forefathers_, 1910, and from Lindenschmit's _Handbuch der deutschen
+ Alterthumskunde, I. Theil: Die Alterthümer der Merovingischen Zeit_
+ (Braunschweig, 1880-89), a book which is still indispensable. Hoops'
+ _Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde_, Strassburg, 1911-19, 4
+ vols., includes a large number of contributions of the greatest
+ importance to the student of _Beowulf_, both upon archæological and
+ other subjects. By the completion[755] of this most valuable work, amid
+ heart-breaking difficulties, Prof. Hoops has placed all students under
+ a great obligation.
+
+ Much help can be got from an examination of the antiquities of Teutonic
+ countries other than England. The following books are useful--for
+ Norway: {356} Gustafson (G.), _Norges Oldtid_, 1906; for Denmark:
+ Müller (S.), _Vor Oldtid_, 1897; for Sweden: Montelius (O.),
+ _Civilization of Sweden in Heathen Times_, 1888, _Kulturgeschichte
+ Schwedens_, 1906; for Schleswig: Mestorf (J.), _Vorgeschichtliche
+ Alterthümer aus Schleswig_; for the Germanic nations in their
+ wanderings on the outskirts of the Roman Empire: Hampel (J.),
+ _Alterthümer des frühen Mittelalters in Ungarn_, 3 Bde, 1905; for
+ Germanic remains in Gaul: Barrière-Flavy (M. C.), _Les Arts industriels
+ des peuples barbares de la Gaule du V^me au VIII^me siècle_, 3 tom.
+ 1901.
+
+ Somewhat popular accounts, and now rather out of date, are the two
+ South Kensington handbooks: Worsaae (J. J. A.), _Industrial Arts of
+ Denmark_, 1882, and Hildebrand (H.), _Industrial Arts of Scandinavia_,
+ 1883.
+
+_Scandinavian Burial Mounds_
+
+The three great "Kings' Mounds" at Old Uppsala were explored between 1847
+and 1874: cremated remains from them can be seen in the Stockholm Museum.
+An account of the tunnelling, and of the complicated structure of the
+mounds, was given in 1876 by the Swedish State-Antiquary[756]. From these
+finds Knut Stjerna dated the oldest of the "Kings' Mounds" about 500
+A.D.[757], and the others somewhat later. Now, as we are definitely told
+that Athils (Eadgils) and the two kings who figure in the list of Swedish
+monarchs as his grandfather and great-grandfather (Aun and Egil) were "laid
+in mound" at Uppsala[758], and as the chronology agrees, it seems only
+reasonable to conclude that the three Kings' Mounds were raised over these
+three kings[759].
+
+That Athils' father Ottar (Ohthere) was not regarded as having been buried
+at Uppsala is abundantly clear from the account given of his death, and of
+his nickname Vendel-crow[760]. A mound near Vendel north of Uppsala is
+known by his name. Such names are often the result of quite modern
+antiquarian conjecture: but that such is not the case here was proved by
+the recent discovery that an antiquarian survey (preserved in MS in the
+Royal Library at Stockholm) dating from 1677, mentions in Vendel "widh
+Hussby, [en] stor jorde högh, som heeter Otters högen[761]." An exploration
+of Ottar's mound showed a striking similarity with the Uppsala mounds. The
+structure was the same, a cairn of stones covered over with earth; the
+{357} cremated remains were similar, there were abundant traces of burnt
+animals, a comb, half-spherical draughts with two round holes bored in the
+flat side, above all, there was in neither case any trace of weapons. In
+Ottar's mound a gold Byzantine coin was found, pierced, having evidently
+been used as an ornament. It can be dated 477-8; it is much worn, but such
+coins seldom remained in the North in use for a century after their
+minting[762]. Ottar's mound obviously, then, belongs to the same period as
+the Uppsala mounds, and confirms the date attributed by Stjerna to the
+oldest of those mounds, about 500 A.D.
+
+_Weapons_
+
+ For weapons in general see Lehmann (H.), _Über die Waffen im
+ angelsächsischen Beowulfliede_, in _Germania_, XXXI, 486-97; Keller
+ (May L.), _The Anglo-Saxon weapon names treated archæologically and
+ etymologically_, Heidelberg, 1906 (_Anglistische Forschungen_, XV: cf.
+ Holthausen, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XVIII, 65-9, Binz, _Litteraturblatt_,
+ XXXI, 98-100); ++Wagner (R.), _Die Angriffswaffen der
+ Angelsächsischen_, Diss., Königsberg; and especially Falk (H.),
+ _Altnordische Waffenkunde_, in _Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter,
+ Hist.-Filos. Klasse_, 1914, Kristiania.
+
+THE SWORD. The sword of the Anglo-Saxon pagan period (from the fifth to the
+seventh century) "is deficient in quality as a blade, and also ... in the
+character of its hilt[763]." In this it contrasts with the sword found in
+the peat-bogs of Schleswig from an earlier period: "these swords of the
+Schleswig moss-finds are much better weapons[764]," as well as with the
+later Viking sword of the ninth or tenth century, which "is a remarkably
+effective and well-considered implement[765]." It has been suggested that
+both the earlier Schleswig swords and the later Viking swords (which bear a
+considerable likeness to each other, as against the inferior Anglo-Saxon
+sword) are the product of intercourse with Romanized peoples[766], whilst
+the typical Anglo-Saxon sword "may represent an independent Germanic effort
+at sword making[767]." However this may be, it is noteworthy that nowhere
+in _Beowulf_ do we have any hint of the skill of any sword-smith who is
+regarded as contemporary. A good sword is always "an old heirloom," "an
+ancient treasure[768]." The sword of Wiglaf, which had belonged to Eanmund,
+or the sword with which Eofor slays Ongentheow, are {358} described by the
+phrase _ealdsweord eotenisc_, as if they were weapons of which the secret
+and origin had been lost--indeed the same phrase is applied to the magic
+sword which Beowulf finds in the hall of Grendel's mother.
+
+The blade of these ancestral swords was sometimes damascened or adorned
+with wave-like patterns[769]. The swords of the Schleswig moss-finds are
+almost all thus adorned with a variegated surface, as often are the later
+Viking swords; but those of the Anglo-Saxon graves are _not_. Is it
+fanciful to suggest that the reference to damascening is a tradition coming
+down from the time of the earlier sword as found in the Nydam moss? A few
+early swords might have been preserved among the invaders as family
+heirlooms, too precious to be buried with the owner, as the product of the
+local weapon-smith was.
+
+See, for a full discussion of the sword in _Beowulf_, Stjerna, _Hjälmar och
+svärd i Beovulf_ (_Studier tillägnade O. Montelius_, Stockholm, pp. 99-120
+= _Essays_, transl. Clark Hall, pp. 1-32). The standard treatise on the
+sword, _Den Yngre Jernalders Sværd_, Bergen, 1889, by A. L. Lorange, deals
+mainly with a rather later period.
+
+THE HELMET. The helmet found at Benty Grange in Derbyshire in 1848 is now
+in the Sheffield Museum[770]: little remains except the boar-crest, the
+nose-piece, and the framework of iron ribs radiating from the crown, and
+fixed to a circle of iron surrounding the brow (perhaps the
+_fr[=e]awr[=a]sn_ of _Beowulf_, 1451). Mr Bateman, the discoverer,
+described the helmet as "coated with narrow plates of horn, running in a
+diagonal direction from the ribs, so as to form a herring-bone pattern; the
+ends were secured by strips of horn, radiating in like manner as the iron
+ribs, to which they were riveted at intervals of about an inch and a half:
+all the rivets had ornamented heads of silver on the outside, and on the
+front rib is a small cross of the same metal. Upon the top or crown of the
+helmet, is an elongated oval brass plate, upon which stands the figure of
+an animal, carved in iron, now much rusted, but still a very good
+representation of a pig: it has bronze eyes[771]." Helmets of very similar
+construction, but without the boar, have been found on the Continent and in
+Scandinavia (Vendel, Grave 14, late seventh century). The continental
+helmets often {359} stand higher[772] than the Benty Grange or Vendel
+specimens, being sometimes quite conical (cf. the epithet "war-steep,"
+_heaðo-st[=e]ap_, _Beowulf_). Many of the continental helmets are provided
+with cheek-protections, and these also appear in the Scandinavian
+representations of warriors on the Torslunda plates and elsewhere. These
+side pieces have become detached from the magnificent Vendel helmet, which
+is often shown in engravings without them[773], but they can be seen in the
+Stockholm Museum[774]. If it ever possessed them, the Benty Grange helmet
+has lost these side pieces. Such cheek-protections are, however,
+represented, together with the nose-protection, on the head of one of the
+warriors depicted on the Franks Casket. In the Vendel helms, the
+nose-pieces were connected under the eyes with the rim of the helmet, so as
+to form a mask[774]; the helmet in _Beowulf_ is frequently spoken of as the
+battle-mask[775].
+
+Both helmet and boar-crest were sometimes gold-adorned[776]: the golden
+boar was a symbol of the god Freyr: some magic protective power is still,
+in _Beowulf_[777], felt to adhere to these swine-likenesses, as it was in
+the days of Tacitus[778].
+
+In Scandinavia, the Torslunda plates show the helmet with a boar-crest: the
+Vendel helmet has representations of warriors whose crests have an animal's
+head tailing off to a mere rim or roll: this may be the _walu_ or _wala_
+which keeps watch over the head in _Beowulf_[779]. The helmet was bound
+fast to the head[780]; exactly how, we do not know.
+
+See Lehmann (H.), _Brünne und Helm im ags. Beowulfliede_ (Göttingen Diss.,
+Leipzig; cf. Wülker, _Anglia_, VIII, _Anzeiger_, 167-70; Schulz, _Engl.
+Stud._, IX, 471); Hoops' _Reallexikon_, s.v. _Helm_; Baldwin Brown, III,
+194-6; Falk, _Altnord. Waffenkunde_, 155-73; Stjerna, _Hjälmar och svärd_,
+1907, as above: but the attempt of Stjerna to arrange the helmets he
+depicts in a {360} chronological series is perilous, and depends on a
+dating of the Benty Grange helmet which is by no means generally accepted.
+
+THE CORSLET. This in _Beowulf_ is made of rings[781], twisted and
+interlaced by hand[782]. As stated above, the fragments of the only known
+Anglo-Saxon byrnie were not of this type, but rather intended to have been
+sewn "upon a doublet of strong cloth[783]." Byrnies were of various
+lengths, the longer ones reaching to the middle of the thigh (_byrnan
+s[=i]de_, _Beow._ 1291, cf. _loricæ longæ, síðar brynjur_).
+
+See Falk, 179; Baldwin Brown, III. 194.
+
+THE SPEAR. Spear and shield were the essential Germanic weapons in the days
+of Tacitus, and they are the weapons most commonly found in Old English
+tombs. The spear-shaft has generally decayed, analysis of fragments
+surviving show that it was frequently of ash[784]. The butt-end of the
+spear was frequently furnished with an iron tip, and the distance of this
+from the spear-head, and the size of the socket, show the spear-shaft to
+have been six or seven feet long, and three-quarters of an inch to one inch
+in diameter.
+
+See Falk, 66-90; Baldwin Brown, III, 234-41.
+
+THE SHIELD. Several round shields were preserved on the Gokstad ship, and
+in the deposits of an earlier period at Thorsbjerg and Nydam. These are
+formed of boards fastened together, often only a quarter of an inch thick,
+and not strengthened or braced in any way, bearing out the contemptuous
+description of the painted German shield which Tacitus puts into the mouth
+of Germanicus[785]. It was, however, intended that the shield should be
+light. It was easily pierced, but, by a rapid twist, the foe's sword could
+be broken or wrenched from his hand. Thus we are told how Gunnar gave his
+shield a twist, as his adversary thrust his sword through it, and so
+snapped off his sword at the hilt[786]. The shield was held by a bar,
+crossing a hole some four inches wide cut in the middle. The hand was
+protected by a hollow conical boss or umbo, fixed to the wood by its brim,
+but projecting considerably. In England the wood of the shield has always
+perished, but a large number of bosses have been preserved. The boss seems
+to have been called _rond_, a word which is also used for the shield as a
+whole. In _Beowulf_, 2673, _Gifts of Men_, 65, the meaning "boss" suits
+_rond_ best, also in _rand sceal on scylde, fæst fingra gebeorh_ (_Cotton.
+Gnomic Verses_, 37-8). But the original meaning of _rand_ must have been
+the circular rim round the edge, and this {361} meaning it retains in
+Icelandic (Falk, 131). The linden wood was sometimes bound with bast,
+whence _scyld (sceal) gebunden, l[=e]oht linden bord_ (_Exeter Gnomic
+Verses_, 94-5).
+
+See Falk (126-54); Baldwin Brown, III, 196-204; Pfannkuche (K.), _Der
+Schild bei den Angelsachsen_, Halle Dissertation, 1908.
+
+THE BOW is a weapon of much less importance in _Beowulf_ than the spear.
+Few traces of the bow have survived from Anglo-Saxon England, though many
+wooden long-bows have been preserved in the moss-finds in a remarkably fine
+state. They are of yew, some over six feet long, and in at least one
+instance tipped with horn. The bow entirely of horn was, of course, well
+known in the East, and in classical antiquity, but I do not think traces of
+any horn-bow have been discovered in the North. It was a difficult weapon
+to manage, as the suitors of Penelope found to their cost. Possibly that is
+why Hæthcyn is represented as killing his brother Herebeald accidentally
+with a horn-bow: he could not manage the exotic weapon.
+
+See Falk, 91-103; Baldwin Brown, III, 241.
+
+_The Hall_
+
+It may perhaps be the fact that in the church of Sta. Maria de Naranco, in
+the north of Spain, we have the hall of a Visigothic king driven north by
+the Mohammedan invasion. But, even if this surmise[787] be correct, the
+structure of a stone hall of about 750 A.D. gives us little information as
+to the wooden halls of early Anglo-Saxon times. Heorot is clearly built of
+timber, held together by iron clamps[788]. These halls were oblong, and a
+famous passage in Bede[789] makes it clear that, at any rate at the time of
+the Conversion, the hall had a door at both ends, and the fire burnt in the
+middle. (The smoke escaped through a hole in the roof, through which
+probably most of the light came, for windows were few or none.) The
+_Finnsburg Fragment_ also implies two doors. Further indications can be
+drawn from references to the halls of Norse chiefs. The Scandinavian hall
+was divided by rows of wooden pillars into a central nave and side aisles.
+The pillars in the centre were known as the "high-seat pillars." Rows of
+seats ran down the length of the hall on each side. The central position,
+facing the high-seat pillars and the fire, was the most honourable. The
+place of honour for the chief guest was opposite: and it is quite clear
+that in _Beowulf_ also the guest did not sit next his host[790].
+
+Other points we may note about Heorot, are the tapestry with which its
+walls are draped[791], and the paved and variegated floor[792]. Unlike so
+{362} many later halls, Heorot has a floor little, if anything, raised
+above the ground: horses can be brought in[793].
+
+In later times, in Iceland, the arrangement of the hall was changed, and
+the house consisted of many rooms; but these were formed, not by
+partitioning the hall, but by building several such halls side by side: the
+_stufa_ or hall proper, the _skáli_ or sleeping hall, _etc._
+
+See M. Heyne, _Ueber die Lage und Construction der Halle Heorot_,
+Paderborn, 1864, where the scanty information about Heorot is collected,
+and supplemented with some information about Anglo-Saxon building. For the
+Icelandic hall see Valtyr Guðmundsson, _Privatboligen på Island i
+Sagatiden_, København, 1889. This has been summarized, in a more popular
+form, in a chapter on _Den islandske Bolig i Fristatstiden_, contributed by
+Guðmundsson to Rosenberg's _Træk af Livet paa Island i Fristatstiden_, 1894
+(pp. 251-74). Here occurs the picture of an Icelandic hall which has been
+so often reproduced--by Olrik, Holthausen, and in _Beowulf_-translations.
+But it is a conjectural picture, and we can by no means assume all its
+details for Heorot. Rhamm's colossal work is only for the initiated, but is
+useful for consultation on special points (_Ethnographische Beiträge zur
+Germanischslawischen Altertumskunde_, von K. Rhamm, 1905-8. I. _Die
+Grosshufen der Nordgermanen_; II. _Urzeitliche Bauernhöfe_). For various
+details see Hoops' _Reallexikon_, s.v. _flett_; Neckel in _P.B.B._ XLI,
+1916, 163-70 (_under edoras_); Meiringer in _I.F._, especially XVIII, 257
+(_under eoderas_); Kaufmann in _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXXIX, 282-92.
+
+_Ships_
+
+In a tumulus near Snape in Suffolk, opened in 1862, there were discovered,
+with burnt bones and remains thought to be of Anglo-Saxon date, a large
+number of rivets which, from the positions in which they were found, seemed
+to give evidence of a boat 48 feet long by over nine feet wide[794]. A
+boat, similar in dimensions, but better preserved, was unearthed near
+Bruges in 1899, and the ribs, mast and rudder removed to the Gruuthuuse
+Museum[795].
+
+Three boats were discovered in the peat-moss at Nydam in Schleswig in 1863,
+by Engelhardt. The most important is the "Nydam boat," clinker-built (i.e.
+with overlapping planks), of oak, 77 feet [23.5 m.] long, by some 11 [3.4
+m.] broad, with rowlocks for fourteen oars down each side. There was no
+trace of any mast. Planks and framework had been held together, partly by
+iron bolts, and partly by ropes of bast. The boat had fallen to pieces, and
+had to be laboriously put together in the museum at Flensborg. Another boat
+was quite fragmentary, but a third boat, of fir, was found tolerably
+complete. Then the war of 1864 ended Engelhardt's labours at Nydam.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOKSTAD SHIP]
+
+[Illustration: THE OSEBERG SHIP]
+
+{363}
+
+The oak-boat was removed to Kiel, where it now is.
+
+The fir-boat was allowed to decay: many of the pieces of the oak-boat had
+been rotten and had of necessity been restored in facsimile, and it is much
+less complete than might be supposed from the numerous reproductions, based
+upon the fine engraving by Magnus Petersen. The rustic with a spade, there
+depicted as gazing at the boat, is apt to give a wrong impression that it
+was dug out intact[796].
+
+Such was, however, actually the case with regard to the ship excavated from
+the big mound at Gokstad, near Christiania, by Nicolaysen, in 1880. This
+was fitted both as a rowing and sailing ship; it was 66 feet [20.1 m.] long
+on the keel, 78 feet [23.8 m.] from fore to aft and nearly 17 feet [5.1 m.]
+broad, and was clinker-built, out of a much larger number of oaken planks
+than the Nydam ship. It had rowlocks for sixteen oars down each side, the
+gunwale was lined with shields, some of them well preserved, which had been
+originally painted alternately black and yellow. The find owed its
+extraordinary preservation to the blue clay in which it was embedded. Its
+discoverer wrote, with pardonable pride: "Certain it is that we shall not
+disinter any craft which, in respect of model and workmanship, will
+outrival that of Gokstad[797]."
+
+Yet the prophecy was destined to prove false: for on Aug. 8, 1903, a farmer
+came into the National Museum at Christiania to tell the curator, Prof.
+Gustafson, that he had discovered traces of a boat on his farm at Oseberg.
+Gustafson found that the task was too great to be begun so late in the
+year: the digging out of the ship, and its removal to Christiania, occupied
+from just before Midsummer to just before Christmas of 1904. The potter's
+clay in which the ship was buried had preserved it, if possible, better
+than the Gokstad ship: but the movement of the soft subsoil had squeezed
+and broken both ship and contents. The ship was taken out of the earth in
+nearly two thousand fragments. These were carefully numbered and marked:
+each piece was treated, bent back into its right shape, and the ship was
+put together again plank by plank, as when it was first built. With the
+exception of a piece about half a yard long, five or six little bits let
+in, and one of the beams, the ship as it stands now consists of the
+original woodwork. Two-thirds of the rivets are the old ones. Till his
+death in 1915 Gustafson was occupied in treating and preparing for
+exhibition first the ship, and then its extraordinarily rich contents: a
+waggon and sledges beautifully carved, beds, chests, kitchen utensils which
+had been buried with the princess who had owned them. A full account of the
+find is only now being published[798].
+
+{364}
+
+ The Oseberg ship is the pleasure boat of a royal lady: clinker-built,
+ of oak, exquisitely carved, intended not for long voyages but for the
+ land-locked waters of the fiord, 70½ feet [21.5 m.] long by some 16½
+ feet [5 m.] broad. There are holes for fifteen oars down each side, and
+ the ship carried mast and sail.
+
+ The upper part of the prow had been destroyed, but sufficient fragments
+ have been found to show that it ended in the head of a snake-like
+ creature, bent round in a coil. This explains the words
+ _hringed-stefna_[799], _hring-naca_[800], _wunden-stefna_[801], used of
+ the ship in _Beowulf_. A similar ringed prow is depicted on an engraved
+ stone from Tjängvide, now in the National Historical Museum at
+ Stockholm. This is supposed to date from about the year 1000[802].
+
+ The Gokstad and Oseberg ships, together with the ship of Tune, a much
+ less complete specimen (unearthed in 1867, and found like the others on
+ the shore of the Christiania fiord) owe their preservation to the clay,
+ and the skill of Scandinavian antiquaries. Yet they are but three out
+ of thousands of ship- or boat-burials. Schetelig enumerates 552 known
+ instances from Norway alone. Often traces of the iron rivets are all
+ that remain.
+
+ Ships preserved from the Baltic coast of Germany can be seen at
+ Königsberg, Danzig and Stettin; they are smaller and apparently later;
+ the best, that of Brösen, was destroyed.
+
+ The seamanship of _Beowulf_ is removed by centuries from that of the (?
+ fourth or fifth century) Nydam boat, which not only has no mast or
+ proper keel, but is so built as to be little suited for sailing. In
+ _Beowulf_ the sea is a "sail-road," the word "to row" occurs only in
+ the sense of "swim," sailing is assumed as the means by which Beowulf
+ travels between the land of the Geatas and that of the Danes. Though he
+ voyages with but fourteen companions, the ship is big enough to carry
+ back four horses. How the sail may have been arranged is shown in many
+ inscribed stones of the eighth to the tenth centuries: notably those of
+ Stenkyrka[803], Högbro[804], and Tjängvide[805].
+
+ The Oseberg and Gokstad ships are no doubt later than the composition
+ of _Beowulf_. But it is when looking at the Oseberg ship, especially if
+ we picture the great prow like the neck of a swan ending in a serpent's
+ coil, that we can best understand the words of _Beowulf_
+
+ flota f[=a]m[=i]-heals fugle gel[=i]cost,
+ wunden-stefna,
+
+ well rendered by Earle "The foamy-necked floater, most like to a
+ bird--the coily-stemmed."
+
+{365}
+
+See Boehmer (G. H.), _Prehistoric Naval Architecture of the North of
+Europe, Report of the U.S. National Museum for 1891_ (now rather out of
+date); Guðmundsson (V.), _Nordboernes Skibe i Vikinge- og Sagatiden_,
+København, 1900; [*]Schnepper, _Die Namen der Schiffe u. Schiffsteile im
+Altenglischen_ (Kiel Diss.), 1908; Falk (H.), _Altnordisches Seewesen_
+(_Wörter u. Sachen_, IV, Heidelberg, 1912); Hoops' _Reallexikon_, s.v.
+_Schiff_.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+G. LEIRE BEFORE ROLF KRAKI
+
+That Leire was the royal town, not merely of Rolf Kraki, but of Rolf's
+predecessors as well, is stated in the _Skjoldunga Saga_, extant in the
+Latin abstract of Arngrim Jonsson: _Scioldus in arce Selandiae Hledro sedes
+posuit, quae et sequentium plurimorum regum regia fuit_ (ed. Olrik,
+København, 1894, p. 23 [105]). Similarly we are told in the _Ynglinga
+Saga_, concerning Gefion, _Hennar fekk Skj[o,]ldr, sonr Óðins; þau bjoggu
+at Hleiðru_ (_Heimskringla_, udgivne ved F. Jónsson, København, I, 15 [cap.
+V]).
+
+Above all, it is clear from the _Annales Lundenses_ that, in the twelfth
+century, Dan, Ro (Hrothgar) and Haldan (Healfdene) were traditionally
+connected with Leire, and three of the grave mounds there were associated
+with these three kings. See the extract given above, pp. 204-5, and cf. p.
+17.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+H. BEE-WOLF AND BEAR'S SON
+
+The obvious interpretation of the name _B[=e]owulf_ is that suggested by
+Grimm[806], that it means "wolf, or foe, of the bee." Grimm's suggestion
+was repeated independently by Skeat[807], and further reasons for the
+interpretation "bee-foe" have been found by Sweet[808] (who had been
+anticipated by Simrock[809] in some of his points), by Cosijn[810],
+Sievers[811], von Grienberger[812], Panzer[813] and Björkman[814].
+
+From the phonological point of view the etymology is a {366} perfect one,
+but many of those who were convinced that "Beowulf" meant "bee-foe" had no
+satisfactory explanation of "bee-foe" to offer[815]. Others, like Bugge,
+whilst admitting that, so far as the form of the words goes, the etymology
+is satisfactory, rejected "bee-foe" because it seemed to them
+meaningless[816].
+
+Yet it is very far from meaningless. "Bee-foe" means "bear." The bear has
+got a name, or nickname, in many northern languages from his habit of
+raiding the hives for honey. The Finnish name for bear is said to be
+"honey-hand": he is certainly called "sweet-foot," _sötfot_, in Sweden, and
+the Old Slavonic name, "honey-eater," has come to be accepted in Russian,
+not merely as a nickname, but as the regular term for "bear."
+
+And "bear" is an excellent name for a hero of story. The O.E. _beorn_,
+"warrior, hero, prince" seems originally to have meant simply "bear." The
+bear, says Grimm, "is regarded, in the belief of the Old Norse, Slavonic,
+Finnish and Lapp peoples, as an exalted and holy being, endowed with human
+understanding and the strength of twelve men. He is called 'forest-king,'
+'gold-foot,' 'sweet-foot,' 'honey-hand,' 'honey-paw,' 'honey-eater,' but
+also 'the great,' 'the old,' 'the old grandsire[817].'" "Bee-hunter" is
+then a satisfactory explanation of _B[=e]owulf_: while the alternative
+explanations are none of them satisfactory.
+
+Many scholars have been led off the track by the assumption that Beow and
+Beowulf are to be identified, and that we must therefore assume that the
+first element in Beowulf's name is _B[=e]ow_--that we must divide not
+_B[=e]o-wulf_ but _B[=e]ow-ulf_, "a warrior after the manner of Beow[818]."
+But there is no ground {367} for any such assumption. It is true that in
+ll. 18, 53, "Beowulf" is written where we should have expected "Beowa."
+But, even if two words of similar sound have been confused, this fact
+affords no reason for supposing that they must necessarily have been in the
+first instance connected etymologically. And against the "warrior of Beow"
+interpretation is the fact that the name is recorded in the early
+Northumbrian _Liber Vitae_ under the form "Biuuulf[819]." This name, which
+is that of an early monk of Durham, is presumably the same as that of the
+hero of our poem, though it does not, of course, follow that the bearer of
+it was named with any special reference to the slayer of Grendel. Now
+_Biuuulf_ is correct Northumbrian for "bee-wolf," but the first element in
+the word cannot stand for _B[=e]ow_[820], unless the {368} affinities and
+forms of that word are quite different from all that the evidence has
+hitherto led us to believe. So much at least seems certain. Besides, we
+have seen that Byggvir is taunted by Loki precisely with the fact that he
+_is_ no warrior. If we can estimate the characteristics of the O.E. Beow
+from those of the Scandinavian Byggvir, the name "Warrior after the manner
+of Beow" would be meaningless, if not absurd. Bugge[821], relying upon the
+parallel O.N. form _Bjólfr_[822], which is recorded as the name of one of
+the early settlers in Iceland[823], tried to interpret the word as
+_Boejólfr_ "the wolf of the farmstead," quoting as parallels _Heimulf_,
+_Gardulf_. But _Bjólfr_ itself is best interpreted as "Bee-wolf[824]." And
+admittedly Bugge's explanation does not suit the O.E. _B[=e]owulf_, and
+necessitates the assumption that the word in English is a mere meaningless
+borrowing from the Scandinavian: for _B[=e]owulf_ assuredly does not mean
+"wolf of the farmstead[825]."
+
+Neither can we take very seriously the explanation of Sarrazin and
+Ferguson[826] that _B[=e]owulf_ is an abbreviation of _Beadu-wulf_, "wolf
+of war." Our business is to interpret the name _B[=e]owulf_, or, if we
+cannot, to admit that we cannot; not to substitute some quite distinct name
+for it, and interpret that. Such theories merely show to what straits we
+may be reduced, if we reject the obvious etymology of the word.
+
+And there are two further considerations, which confirm, almost to a
+certainty, this obvious interpretation of "Beowulf" as "Bee-wolf" or
+"Bear." The first is that it agrees excellently with Beowulf's bear-like
+habit of hugging his adversaries to death--a feature which surely belongs
+to the original kernel of our story, since it is incompatible with the
+chivalrous, {369} weapon-loving trappings in which that story has been
+dressed[827]. The second is that, as I have tried to show, the evidence is
+strongly in favour of Bjarki and Beowulf being originally the same
+figure[828]: and Bjarki is certainly a bear-hero[829]. His name signifies
+as much, and in the _Saga of Rolf Kraki_ we are told at length how the
+father of Bjarki was a prince who had been turned by enchantment into a
+bear[830].
+
+
+
+If, then, Beowulf is a bear-hero[831], the next step is to enquire whether
+there is any real likeness between his adventures at Heorot and under the
+mere, and the adventures of the hero of the widely-spread "Bear's Son"
+folk-tale. This investigation has, as we have seen above[832], been carried
+out by Panzer in his monumental work, which marks an epoch in the study of
+_Beowulf_.
+
+Panzer's arguments in favour of such connection would, I think, have been
+strengthened if he had either quoted textually a number of the more
+important and less generally accessible folk-tales, or, since this would
+have proved cumbersome, if he had at least given abstracts of them. The
+method which Panzer follows, is to enumerate over two hundred tales, and
+from them to construct a story which is a compound of them all. This is
+obviously a method which is liable to abuse, though I do not say that
+Panzer has abused it. But we must not let a story so constructed usurp in
+our minds the place of the actual recorded folk-tales. Folk-tales, as
+Andrew Lang wrote long ago, "consist of but few incidents, grouped together
+in a kaleidoscopic variety of arrangements." A collection of over two
+hundred cognate tales offers a wide field for the selection therefrom of a
+composite story. Further, some geographical discrimination is necessary:
+these tales are scattered over Europe and Asia, and it is important to keep
+constantly in mind whether a given type of tale belongs, for example, to
+Greece or to Scandinavia.
+
+{370}
+
+A typical example of the Bear's son tale is _Der Starke Hans_ in
+Grimm[833]. Hans is brought up in a robber's den: but quite apart from any
+of the theories we are now considering, it has long been recognized that
+this is a mere toning down of the original incredible story, which makes a
+bear's den the nursery of the strong youth[834]. Hans overcomes in an empty
+castle the foe (a mannikin of magic powers) who has already worsted his
+comrades Fir-twister and Stone-splitter. He pursues this foe to his hole,
+is let down by his companions in a basket by a rope, slays the foe with his
+club and rescues a princess. He sends up the princess in the basket; but
+when his own turn comes to be pulled up his associates intentionally drop
+the basket when halfway up. But Hans, suspecting treason, has only sent up
+his club. He escapes by magic help, takes vengeance on the traitors, and
+weds the princess.
+
+In another story in Grimm[835], the antagonist whom the hero overcomes, but
+does not in this case slay, is called the Earthman, _Dat Erdmänneken_. This
+type begins with the disappearance of the princesses, who are to the
+orthodox number of three; otherwise it does not differ materially from the
+abstract given above. Grimm records four distinct versions, all from
+Western Germany.
+
+The versions of this widespread story which are most easily accessible to
+English readers are likely to prejudice such readers against Panzer's view.
+The two versions in Campbell's _Popular Tales of the West Highlands_[836],
+or the version in Kennedy's _Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts_[837]
+are not of a kind to remind any unprejudiced reader strongly of _Beowulf_,
+or of the _Grettir_-story either. Indeed, I believe that from countries so
+remote as North Italy or Russia parallels can be found which are closer
+than any so far quoted from the Celtic portions of the British Isles.
+Possibly more Celtic parallels may be forthcoming in the future: some
+striking ones at any rate are promised[838].
+
+{371}
+
+So, too, the story of the "Great Bird Dan" (_Fugl Dam_[839]), which is
+accessible to English readers in Dasent's translation[840], is one in which
+the typical features have been overlaid by a mass of detail.
+
+A much more normal specimen of the "Bear's son" story is found, for
+example, in a folk-tale from Lombardy--the story of _Giovanni dell'
+Orso_[841]. Giovanni is brought up in a bear's den, whither his mother has
+been carried off. At five, he has the growth of a man and the strength of a
+giant. At sixteen, he is able to remove the stone from the door of the den
+and escape, with his mother. Going on his adventures with two comrades, he
+comes to an empty palace. The comrades are defeated: it becomes the turn of
+Giovanni to be alone. An old man comes in and "grows, grows till his head
+touched the roof[842]." Giovanni mortally wounds the giant, who however
+escapes. They all go in search of him, and find a hole in the ground. His
+comrades let Giovanni down by a rope. He finds a great hall, full of rich
+clothes and provision of every kind: in a second hall he finds three girls,
+each one more beautiful than the other: in a third hall he finds the giant
+himself, drawing up his will[843]. Giovanni kills the giant, rescues the
+damsels, and, in spite of his comrades deserting the rope, he escapes,
+pardons them, himself weds the youngest princess and marries his comrades
+to the elder ones.
+
+I cannot find in this version any mention of the hero smiting the giant
+below with a magic sword which he finds there, as suggested by Panzer[844].
+But even without this, the first part of the story has resemblances to
+_Beowulf_, and still more to the _Grettir_-story.
+
+There are many Slavonic variants. The South Russian story of the Norka[845]
+begins with the attack of the Norka upon the King's park. The King offers
+half his kingdom to whomsoever will destroy the beast. The youngest prince
+of three watches, {372} after the failure of his two elder brothers, chases
+and wounds the monster, who in the end pulls up a stone and disappears into
+the earth. The prince is let down by his brothers, and, with the help of a
+sword specially given him in the underworld, and a draught of the water of
+strength, he slays the foe, and wins the princesses. In order to have these
+for themselves, the elder brothers drop what they suppose to be their
+youngest brother, as they are drawing him up: but it is only a stone he has
+cautiously tied to the rope in place of himself. The prince's miraculous
+return in disguise, his feats, recognition by the youngest princess, the
+exposure of the traitors, and marriage of the hero, all follow in due
+course[846].
+
+A closer Russian parallel is that of _Ivashko Medvedko_[847]. "John
+Honey-eater" or "Bear." John grows up, not by years, but by hours: nearly
+every hour he gains an inch in height. At fifteen, there are complaints of
+his rough play with other village boys, and John Bear has to go out into
+the world, after his grandfather has provided him with a weapon, an iron
+staff of immense weight. He meets a champion who is drinking up a river:
+"Good morning, John Bear, whither art going?" "I know not whither; I just
+go, not knowing where to go." "If so, take me with you." The same happens
+with a second champion whose hobby is to carry mountains on his shoulder,
+and with a third, who plucks up oaks or pushes them into the ground. They
+come to a revolving house in a dark forest, which at John's word stands
+with its back door to the forest and its front door to them: all its doors
+and windows open of their own accord. Though the yard is full of poultry,
+the house is empty. Whilst the three companions go hunting, the
+river-swallower stays in the house to cook dinner: this done, he washes his
+head, and sits at the window to comb his locks. Suddenly the earth shakes,
+then stands still: a stone is lifted, and from under it appears Baba Yaga
+driving in her mortar with a pestle: behind her comes barking a little dog.
+A short dialogue ensues, and the champion, at her request, gives her food;
+but the second helping she throws to her dog, and thereupon beats the
+champion with {373} her pestle till he becomes unconscious; then she cuts a
+strip of skin from his back, and after eating all the food, vanishes. The
+victim recovers his senses, ties up his head with a handkerchief, and, when
+his companions return, apologizes for the ill-success of his cooking: "He
+had been nearly suffocated by the fumes of the charcoal, and had had his
+work cut out to get the room clear." Exactly the same happens to the other
+champions. On the fourth day it is the turn of John Bear, and here again
+the same formulas are repeated. John does the cooking, washes his head,
+sits down at the window and begins to comb his curly locks. Baba Yaga
+appears with the usual phenomena, and the usual dialogue follows, till she
+begins to belabour the hero with her pestle. But he wrests it from her,
+beats her almost to death, cuts three strips from her skin, and imprisons
+her in a closet. When his companions return, they are astonished to find
+dinner ready. After dinner they have a bath, and the companions try not to
+show their mutilated backs, but at last have to confess. "Now I see why you
+all suffered from suffocation," says John Bear. He goes to the closet,
+takes the three strips cut from his friends, and reinserts them: they heal
+at once. Then he ties up Baba Yaga by a cord fastened to one foot, and they
+all shoot at the cord in turn. John Bear hits it, and cuts the string in
+two; Baba Yaga falls to the earth, but rises, runs to the stone from under
+which she had appeared, lifts it, and vanishes. Each of the companions
+tries in turn to lift the stone, but only John can accomplish it, and only
+he is willing to go down. His comrades let him down by a rope, which
+however is too short, and John has to eke it out by the three strips
+previously cut from the back of Baba Yaga. At the bottom he sees a path,
+follows it, and reaches a palace where are three beautiful maidens, who
+welcome him, but warn him against their mother, who is Baba Yaga herself:
+"She is asleep now, but she keeps at her head a sword. Do not touch it, but
+take two golden apples lying on a silver tray, wake her gently, and offer
+them to her. As soon as she begins to eat, seize the sword, and cut her
+head off at one blow." John Bear carries out these instructions, and sends
+up the maidens, two to be wives to his companions, and the youngest to be
+his own wife. This leaves the third companion wifeless {374} and, in
+indignation, he cuts the rope when the turn comes to pull John up. The hero
+falls and is badly hurt. [John has forgotten, in this version, to put his
+iron club into the basket instead of himself--indeed he has up to now made
+no use of his staff.] In time the hero sees an underground passage, and
+makes his way out into the white world. Here he finds the youngest maiden,
+who is tending cattle, after refusing to marry the false companion. John
+Bear follows her home, slays his former comrades with his staff, and throws
+their bodies on the field for the wild beasts to devour. He then takes his
+sweetheart home to his people, and weds her.
+
+The abstract given above is from a translation made by one of my students,
+Miss M. Steine, who tells me that she had heard the tale in this form many
+times from her old nurse "when we were being sent to sleep, or sitting
+round her in the evening." I have given it at this length because I do not
+know of any accessible translation into any Western language.
+
+Panzer enumerates two hundred and two variants of the story: and there are
+others[848]. But there is reason in the criticism that what is important
+for us is the form the folk-tale may have taken in those countries where we
+must look for the original home of the _Beowulf_-story[849]. The Mantuan
+folk-tale may have been carried down to North Italy from Scandinavia by the
+Longobards: who can say? But Panzer's theory must stand or fall by the
+parallels which can be drawn between the _Beowulf-Grettir_-story on the one
+hand, and the folk-tales as they have been collected in the countries where
+this story is native: the lands, that is to say, adjoining the North Sea.
+
+Now it is precisely here that we do find the most remarkable resemblances:
+in Iceland, the Faroes, Norway, Denmark, Jutland, Schleswig, and the Low
+German lands as far as the Scheldt.
+
+An Icelandic version exists in an unprinted MS at Reykjavik[850] which can
+be consulted in a German translation[851]. In this {375} version a bear,
+who is really an enchanted prince, carries off a princess. He resumes his
+human form and weds the princess, but must still at times take the bear's
+form. His child, the Bear-boy (Bjarndreingur), is to be kept in the house
+during the long periods when the enchanted husband is away. But at twelve
+years old the Bear-boy is too strong and unmanageable, bursts out, and
+slays a bear who turns out to be his father. His mother's heart is broken,
+but Bear-boy goes on his adventures, and associates with himself three
+companions, one of whom is Stein. They build a house in the wood, which is
+attacked by a giant, and, as usual, the companions are unable to withstand
+the attacks. Bear-boy does so, ties the giant's hands behind his back, and
+fastens him by his beard. But the giant tears himself free. As in
+_Beowulf_, Bear-boy and his companions follow the track by the drops of
+blood, and come to a hole. Stein is let some way down, the other companions
+further, but only Bear-boy dares to go to the bottom. There he finds a
+weeping princess, and learns that she, and her two sisters, have been
+carried off by three giants, one of whom is his former assailant. He slays
+all three, and sends their heads up, together with the maidens and other
+treasures. But his companions desert the rope, and he has to climb up
+unaided. In the end he weds the youngest princess.
+
+The story from the Faroe Islands runs thus:
+
+Three brothers lived together and took turns, two to go out fishing, and
+one to be at home. For two days, when the two elder brothers were at home,
+came a giant with a long beard (Skeggjatussi) and ate and drank all the
+food. Then comes the turn of the despised youngest brother, who is called
+in one version Øskudólgur--"the one who sits and rakes in the ashes"--a
+kind of male Cinderella. This brother routs the giant, either by catching
+his long beard in a cleft tree-trunk, or by branding him in the nose with a
+hot iron. In either case the mutilated giant escapes down a hole: in one
+version, after the other brothers come home, they follow him to this hole
+by the track of his blood. The two elder brothers leave the task of
+plunging down to the youngest one, who finds below a girl (in the second
+version, two kidnapped princesses). He finds also a magic sword hanging
+{376} on the wall, which he is only able to lift when he has drunk a magic
+potion. He then slays the giant, rescues the maiden or maidens, is betrayed
+in the usual way by his brothers: in the one version they deliberately
+refuse to draw him up: in the other they cut the rope as they are doing so:
+but he is discreetly sending up only a big stone. The hero is helped out,
+however, by a giant, "Skræddi Kjálki" or "Snerkti risi," and in the end
+marries the princess[852].
+
+In the Norwegian folk-tale the three adventurers are called respectively
+the Captain, the Lieutenant and the Soldier. They search for the three
+princesses, and watch in a castle, where the Captain and Lieutenant are in
+turn worsted by a strange visitor--who in this version is not identical
+with the troll below ground who guards the princesses[853]. When the turn
+of the Soldier comes, he seizes the intruder (the man, as he is called).
+
+ "Ah no, Ah no, spare my life," said the man, "and you shall know all.
+ East of the castle is a great sandheap, and down in it a winch, with
+ which you can lower yourself. But if you are afraid, and do not dare to
+ go right down, you only need to pull the bell rope which you will find
+ there, and up you will come again. But if you dare venture so far as to
+ come to the bottom, there stands a flask on a shelf over the door: you
+ must drink what is in it: so will you become so strong that you can
+ strike the head off the troll of the mountain. And by the door there
+ hangs a Troll-sword, which also you must take, for no other steel will
+ bite on his body."
+
+ When he had learnt this, he let the man go. When the Captain and the
+ Lieutenant came home, they were not a little surprised to find the
+ Soldier alive. "How have you escaped a drubbing," said they, "has not
+ the man been {377} here?" "Oh yes, he is quite a good fellow, he is,"
+ said the Soldier, "I have learnt from him where the princesses are,"
+ and he told them all. They were glad when they heard that, and when
+ they had eaten, they went all three to the sandheap.
+
+As usual, the Captain and the Lieutenant do not dare to go to the bottom:
+the hero accomplishes the adventure, is (as usual) betrayed by his
+comrades, but is saved because he has put a stone in the basket instead of
+himself, and in the end is rescued by the interposition of "Kløverhans."
+
+What is the explanation of the "sandheap" (_sandhaug_) I do not know. But
+one cannot forget that Grettir's adventure in the house, followed by his
+adventure with the troll under the earth, is localized at Sandhaugar. This
+may be a mere accident; but it is worth noting that in following up the
+track indicated by Panzer we come across startling coincidences of this
+kind. As stated above, it can hardly be due to any influence of the
+_Grettis Saga_ upon the folk-tale[854]. The likeness between the two is too
+remote to have suggested a transference of such details from the one story
+to the other.
+
+We find the story in its normal form in Jutland[855]. The hero, a
+foundling, is named Bjørnøre (Bear-ears). There is no explanation offered
+of this name, but we know that in other versions of the story, where the
+hero is half bear and half man, his bear nature is shown by his bear's
+ears. "Bear-ears" comes with his companions to an empty house, worsts the
+foe (the old man, _den gamle_) who has put his companions to shame, and
+fixes him by his beard in a cloven tree. The foe escapes nevertheless; they
+follow him to his hole: the companions are afraid, but "Bear-ears" is let
+down, finds the enemy on his bed, and slays him. The rest of the story
+follows the usual pattern. "Bear-ears" rescues and sends up the princesses,
+his comrades detach the rope, which however is hauling up only the hero's
+iron club. He escapes miraculously from his confinement below, and returns
+to marry the youngest princess. In another Danish version, from the South
+of Zealand[856], the hero, "Strong Hans" (nothing is said {378} about his
+bear-origin), comes with his companions to a magnificent but empty castle.
+The old witch worsts his comrades and imprisons them under the trap-door:
+but Hans beats her and rescues them, though the witch herself escapes. Hans
+is let down, rescues the princesses, is betrayed by his comrades (who,
+thinking to drop him in drawing him up, only drop his iron club), and
+finally weds the third princess.
+
+A little further South we have three versions of the same tale recorded for
+Schleswig-Holstein[857]. The hero wins his victory below by means of "a
+great iron sword" (_en grotes ysernes Schwäert_) which he can only wield
+after drinking of the magic potion.
+
+From Hanover comes the story of Peter Bär[858], which shows all the
+familiar features: from the same district came some of Grimm's variants.
+Others were from the Rhine provinces: but the fullest version of all comes
+from the Scheldt, just over the Flemish border. The hero, Jean l'Ourson, is
+recovered as a child from a bear's den, is despised in his youth[859], but
+gives early proof of his strength. He defends an empty castle _un superbe
+château_, when his companion has failed, strikes off an arm[860] of his
+assailant _Petit-Père-Bidoux_, chases him to his hole, _un puits vaste et
+profond_. He is let down by his companion, but finding the rope too short,
+plunges, and arrives battered at the bottom. There he perceives _une
+lumière qui brillait au bout d'une longue galerie_[861]. At the end of the
+gallery he sees his former assailant, attended by _une vieille femme à
+cheveux blancs, qui semblait âgée de plus de cent ans_, who is salving his
+wounded arm. The hero quenches the light (which is a magic one) smites his
+foe on the head and kills him, and then rekindles the lamp[862]. His
+companion above seeks to rob him of the two princesses he has won, by
+detaching the rope. Nevertheless, he escapes, weds the good princess, and
+punishes his faithless companion by making him wed the bad one.
+
+The white-haired old woman is not spoken of as the mother {379} of the foe
+she is nursing, and it may be doubted whether she is in any way parallel to
+Grendel's mother. The hero does not fight her: indeed it is she who, in the
+end, enables him to escape. Still the parallels between Jean l'Ourson and
+Beowulf are striking enough. Nine distinct features recur, in the same
+order, in the _Beowulf_-story and in this folk-tale. It needs a more robust
+faith than I possess to attribute this solely to chance.
+
+Unfortunately, this French-Flemish tale is found in a somewhat
+sophisticated collection. Its recorder, as Sainte-Beuve points out in his
+letter introductory to the series[863], uses literary touches which
+diminish the value of his folk-tales to the student of origins. Any
+contamination from the _Beowulf_-story or the _Grettir_-story is surely
+improbable enough in this case: nevertheless, one would have liked the tale
+taken down verbatim from the lips of some simple-minded narrator as it used
+to be told at Condé on the Scheldt.
+
+
+
+But if we take together the different versions enumerated above, the result
+is, I think, convincing. Here are eight versions of one folk-tale taken as
+representatives from a much larger number current in the countries in touch
+with the North Sea: from Iceland, the Faroes, Norway, Jutland, Zealand,
+Schleswig, Hanover, and the Scheldt. The champion is a bear-hero (as
+Beowulf almost certainly is, and as Bjarki quite certainly is); he is
+called, in Iceland, _Bjarndreingur_, in Jutland, _Bjørnøre_, in Hanover,
+_Peter Bär_, on the Scheldt _Jean l'Ourson_. Like Beowulf, he is despised
+in his youth (Faroe, Scheldt). In all versions he resists his adversary in
+an empty house or castle, after his comrades have failed. In most versions
+of the folk-tale this is the third attack, as it is in the case of Grettir
+at Sandhaugar and of Bjarki: in _Beowulf_, on the contrary, we gather that
+Heorot has been raided many times. The adversary, though vanquished,
+escapes; in one version after the loss of an arm (Scheldt): they follow his
+track to the hole into which he has vanished, sometimes, as in _Beowulf_,
+marking traces of his blood (Iceland, Faroe, Schleswig). The hero always
+ventures down alone, and gets into {380} an underworld of magic, which has
+left traces of its mysteriousness in _Beowulf_. In one tale (Scheldt) the
+hero sees a magic lamp burning below, just as he sees the fire in _Beowulf_
+or the _Grettis Saga_. He overcomes either his original foe, or new ones,
+often by the use of a magic sword (Faroe, Norway, Schleswig); this sword
+hangs by the door (Norway) or on the wall (Faroe) as in _Beowulf_. After
+slaying his foe, the hero rekindles the magic lamp, in the Scheldt fairy
+tale, just as he kindles a light in the _Grettis Saga_, and as the light
+flashes up in _Beowulf_ after the hero has smitten Grendel's mother. The
+hero is in each case deserted by his companions: a feature which, while it
+is marked in the _Grettis Saga_, can obviously be allowed to survive in
+_Beowulf_ only in a much softened form. The chosen retainers whom Beowulf
+has taken with him on his journey could not be represented as unfaithful,
+because the poet is reserving the episode of the faithless retainers for
+the death of Beowulf. To have twice represented the escort as cowardly
+would have made the poem a satire upon the _comitatus_, and would have
+assured it a hostile reception in every hall from Canterbury to Edinburgh.
+But there is no doubt as to the faithlessness of the comrade Stein in the
+_Grettis Saga_. And in Zealand, one of the faithless companions is called
+_Stenhuggeren_ (the Stone-hewer), in Schleswig _Steenklöwer_, in Hanover
+_Steinspieler_, whilst in Iceland he has the same name, _Stein_, which he
+has in the _Grettis Saga_.
+
+The fact that the departure home of the Danes in _Beowulf_ is due to the
+same cause as that which accounts for the betrayal of his trust by Stein,
+shows that in the original _Beowulf_-story also this feature must have
+occurred, however much it may have become worn down in the existing epic.
+
+I think enough has been said to show that there is a real likeness between
+a large number of recorded folk-tales and the _Beowulf-Grettir_ story. The
+parallel is not merely with an artificial, theoretical composite put
+together by Panzer. But it becomes equally clear that _Beowulf_ cannot be
+spoken of as a version of these folk-tales. At most it is a version of a
+portion of them. The omission of the princesses in _Beowulf_ and the
+_Grettis Saga_ is fundamental. With the princesses much else falls away.
+There is no longer any motive for the betrayal of trust {381} by the
+watchers. The disguise of the hero and his vengeance are now no longer
+necessary to the tale.
+
+
+
+It might be argued that there was something about the three princesses
+which made them unsatisfactory as subjects of story. It has been thought
+that in the oldest version the hero married all three: an awkward episode
+where a _scop_ had to compose a poem for an audience certainly monogamous
+and most probably Christian. The rather tragic and sombre atmosphere of the
+stories of Beowulf and Grettir fits in better with a version from which the
+princesses, and the living happily ever afterwards, have been dropped. On
+the other hand, it might be argued that the folk-tale is composite, and
+that the source from which the _Beowulf-Grettir_-story drew was a simpler
+tale to which the princesses had not yet been added.
+
+And there are additions as well as subtractions. Alike in _Beowulf_ and in
+the _Grettis Saga_, the fight in the house and the fight below are
+associated with struggles with monsters of different sex. The association
+of "The Devil and his Dam" has only few and remote parallels in the
+"Bear's-son" folk-tale.
+
+
+
+But Panzer has, I think, proved that the struggle of Beowulf in the hall,
+and his plunging down into the deep, is simply an epic glorification of a
+folk-tale motive.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+I. THE DATE OF THE DEATH OF HYGELAC.
+
+Gregory of Tours mentions the defeat of Chochilaicus (Hygelac) as an event
+of the reign of Theudoric. Now Theudoric succeeded his father Chlodoweg,
+who died 27 Nov. 511. Theudoric died in 534. This, then, gives the extreme
+limits of time; but as Gregory mentions the event among the first
+occurrences of the reign, the period 512-520 has generally been suggested,
+or in round numbers about 515 or 516.
+
+Nevertheless, we cannot attach much importance to the mere order followed
+by Gregory[864]. He may well have had no means of dating the event exactly.
+Of much more importance than the order, is the fact he records, that
+Theudoric did not {382} defeat Chochilaicus in person, but sent his son
+Theudobert to repel the invaders.
+
+Now Theudobert was born before the death of his grandfather Chlodoweg. For
+Gregory tells us that Chlodoweg left not only four sons, but a grandson
+Theudobert, _elegantem atque utilem_[865]: _utilem_ cannot mean that, at
+the time of the death of Chlodoweg, Theudobert was of age to conduct
+affairs of state, for Chlodoweg was only 45 at death[866]. The Merovingians
+were a precocious race; but if we are to allow Theudobert to have been at
+least fifteen before being placed in charge of a very important expedition,
+and Chlodoweg to have been at least forty before becoming a grandfather,
+the defeat of Hygelac cannot be put before 521; and probability would
+favour a date five or ten years later.
+
+There is confirmation for this. When Theudobert died, in 548, he left one
+son only, quite a child and still under tutelage[867]; probably therefore
+not more than twelve or thirteen at most. We know the circumstances of the
+child's birth. Theudobert had been betrothed by his father Theudoric to a
+Longobardic princess, Wisigardis[868]. In the meantime he fell in love with
+the lady Deoteria[869], and married her[870]. The Franks were shocked at
+this fickleness (_valde scandalizabantur_), and Theudobert had ultimately
+to put away Deoteria[871], although they had this young son (_parvulum
+filium_), who, as we have seen, could hardly have been born before 535, and
+possibly was born years later. Theudobert then married the Longobardic
+princess, in the seventh year after their betrothal. So it cannot have been
+much before 530 that Theudobert's father was first arranging the
+Longobardic match. A king is not likely to have waited to find a wife for a
+son, upon whom his dynasty was to depend, till fifteen years after that son
+was of age to win a memorable victory[872].
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{383}
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY OF _BEOWULF_ AND _FINNSBURG_
+
+ I remember it was with extreme difficulty that I could bring my master
+ to understand the meaning of the word _opinion_, or how a point could
+ be disputable; because reason taught us to affirm or deny only where we
+ are certain; and beyond our knowledge we cannot do either. So that
+ controversies, wranglings, disputes, and positiveness in false or
+ dubious propositions are evils unknown among the _Houyhnhnms_.... He
+ would laugh that a creature pretending to reason should value itself
+ upon the knowledge of other people's conjectures, and in things, where
+ that knowledge, if it were certain, could be of no use....
+
+ I have often since reflected what destruction such a doctrine would
+ make in the libraries of Europe.
+
+ _Gulliver's Travels._
+
+The following items are (except in special cases) not included in this
+bibliography:
+
+ (_a_) Articles dealing with single passages in _Beowulf_, or two
+ passages only, in cases where they have already been recorded under the
+ appropriate passage in the footnotes to the text, or in the glossary,
+ of my revision of Wyatt's edition.
+
+ (_b_) Articles dealing with the emendation or interpretation of single
+ passages, in cases where such emendations have been withdrawn by their
+ author himself.
+
+ (_c_) Purely popular paraphrases or summaries.
+
+ (_d_) Purely personal protests (e.g., _P.B.B._ XXI, 436), however well
+ founded, in which no point of scholarship is any longer involved.
+
+Books dealing with other subjects, but illustrating _Beowulf_, present a
+difficulty. Such books may have a value for _Beowulf_ students, even though
+the author may never refer to our poem, and have occasionally been included
+in previous bibliographies. But, unless _Beowulf_ is closely concerned,
+these books are not usually mentioned below: such enumeration, if carried
+out consistently, would clog a bibliography already all too bulky. Thus,
+Siecke's _Drachenkämpfe_ does not seem to come within the scope of this
+bibliography, because the author is not concerned with Beowulf's dragon.
+
+Obviously every general discussion of Old English metre must concern itself
+largely with _Beowulf_: for such treatises the student is referred to the
+section _Metrik_ of Brandl's Bibliography (_Pauls Grdr._); and, for Old
+English heroic legend in general, to the Bibliography of my edition of
+_Widsith_.
+
+Many scholars, e.g. Heinzel, have put into their reviews of the books of
+others, much original work which might well have formed the material for
+independent articles. Such reviews are noted as "weighty," but it must not
+be supposed that the reviews not so marked are negligible; unless of some
+value to scholarship, reviews are not usually mentioned below.
+
+The title of any book, article or review which I have not seen and verified
+is denoted by the sign ++. {384}
+
+SUMMARY
+
+§ 1. Periodicals.
+
+§ 2. Bibliographies.
+
+§ 3. The MS and its transcripts.
+
+§ 4. Editions.
+
+§ 5. Concordances, _etc._
+
+§ 6. Translations (including early summaries).
+
+§ 7. Textual criticism and interpretation.
+
+§ 8. Questions of literary history, date and authorship. _Beowulf_ in the
+light of history, archæology[873], heroic legend, mythology and folk-lore.
+
+§ 9. Style and Grammar.
+
+§ 10. Metre.
+
+§ 1. PERIODICALS
+
+The periodicals most frequently quoted are:
+
+_A.f.d.A._ = Anzeiger für deutsches Alterthum. Berlin, 1876 _etc._
+
+_A.f.n.F._ = Arkiv för nordisk Filologi. Christiania, Lund, 1883 _etc._
+_Quoted according to the original numbering._
+
+_Anglia._ Halle, 1878 _etc._
+
+_Archiv_ = Herrigs Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und
+Litteraturen. Elberfeld, Braunschweig, 1846 _etc._ _Quoted according to the
+original numbering._
+
+_D.L.Z._ = Deutsche Literatur-Zeitung. Berlin, 1880 _etc._
+
+_Engl. Stud._ = Englische Studien. Heilbronn, Leipzig, 1877 _etc._
+
+_Germania._ Wien, 1856-92.
+
+_I.F._ = Indogermanische Forschungen. Strassburg, 1892 _etc._
+
+_J.(E.)G.Ph._ = Journal of (English and) Germanic Philology. Bloomington,
+Urbana, 1897 _etc._
+
+_Lit. Cbl._ = Literarisches Centralblatt. Leipzig, 1851 _etc._
+
+_Literaturblatt_ für germanische und romanische Philologie. Heilbronn,
+Leipzig, 1880 _etc._
+
+_M.L.N._ = Modern Language Notes. Baltimore, 1886 _etc._ _Quoted by the
+page, not the column._
+
+_M.L.R._ = The Modern Language Review. Cambridge, 1906 _etc._
+
+_Mod. Phil._ = Modern Philology. Chicago, 1903 _etc._
+
+_Morsbachs Studien_ zur englischen Philologie. Halle, 1897 _etc._
+
+_P.B.B._ = Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache u. Litteratur.
+Halle, 1874 _etc._
+
+_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ = Publications of the Modern Language
+Association of America. Baltimore, 1889 _etc._
+
+_Z.f.d.A._ = Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum. Leipzig, Berlin, 1841
+_etc._
+
+_Z.f.d.Ph._ = Zachers Zeitschrift für deutsche Philologie. Halle, 1869
+_etc._
+
+_Z.f.ö.G._ = Zeitschrift für die österreichischen Gymnasien. Wien, 1850
+_etc._
+
+The titles of other periodicals are given with sufficient fulness for easy
+identification.
+
+{385}
+
+§ 2. BIBLIOGRAPHIES
+
+Bibliographies have been published from time to time as a supplement to
+_Anglia_; also in the _Jahresbericht über...german. Philologie_; by Garnett
+in his _Translation_, 1882 _etc._; and will be found in
+
+ Wülker's _Grundriss_ (with very useful abstracts), 1885, pp. 245 _etc._
+
+ Clark Hall's _Translation_, 1901, 1911.
+
+ Holthausen's _Beowulf_, 1906, 1909, 1913, 1919.
+
+ Brandl's _Englische Literatur_, in _Pauls Grdr._(2), II, 1015-24 (full,
+ but not so reliable as Holthausen's).
+
+ Sedgefield's _Beowulf_, 1910, 1913 (carefully selected).
+
+An excellent critical bibliography of _Beowulf_-translations up to 1903 is
+that of Tinker: see under § 6, _Translations_.
+
+§ 3. THE MS AND ITS TRANSCRIPTS
+
+_Beowulf_ fills ff. 129 (132)_a_ to 198 (201)_b_ of the British Museum MS
+_Cotton Vitellius A. XV._
+
+_Beowulf_ is written in two hands, the first of which goes to l. 1939. This
+hand was identified by Prof. Sedgefield (_Beowulf_, _Introduction_, p. xiv,
+footnote) with that of the piece immediately preceding _Beowulf_ in the MS,
+and by Mr Kenneth Sisam, in 1916, with that of all three immediately
+preceding pieces: the _Christopher_ fragment, the _Wonders of the East_,
+and the _Letter of Alexander on the Wonders of India_. The pieces preceding
+these, however (the _Soliloquies of S. Augustine_, the _Gospel of
+Nicodemus_, _Salomon and Saturn_), are certainly not in the same hand, and
+their connection with the _Beowulf_-MS is simply due to the bookbinder.
+
+From l. 1939 to the end, _Beowulf_ is written in a second hand, thicker and
+less elegant than the first. This second hand seems to be clearly identical
+with that in which the poem of _Judith_, immediately following _Beowulf_,
+is written. This was pointed out by Sievers in 1872 (_Z.f.d.A._ XV, 457),
+and has never, I think, been disputed (cf. Sisam, p. 337; Förster, p. 31).
+Nevertheless the two poems have probably not always formed one book. For
+the last page of _Beowulf_ was apparently once the last page of the volume,
+to judge from its battered condition, whilst _Judith_ is imperfect at the
+beginning. And there are trifling differences, e.g. in the frequency of the
+use of contractions, and the form of the capital H.
+
+This identity of the scribe of the second portion of _Beowulf_ and the
+_Judith_ scribe, together with the identity (pointed out by Mr Sisam) of
+the scribe of the first portion of _Beowulf_ and the scribe of the three
+preceding works, is important. A detailed comparison of these texts will
+throw light upon the characteristics of the scribes.
+
+That the three preceding works are in the same hand as that of the first
+_Beowulf_ scribe was again announced, independently of Mr Sisam, by Prof.
+Max Förster, in 1919. Sievers had already in 1871 arrived at the same
+result (see Förster, p. 35, note) but had not published it.
+
+It seems to me in the highest degree improbable that the _Beowulf_-MS has
+lost its ending, as Prof. Förster thinks (pp. 82, 88). Surely nothing could
+be better than the conclusion of the poem as it stands in the MS: that the
+{386} casual loss of a number of leaves could have resulted in so
+satisfactory a conclusion is, I think, not conceivable. Moreover, the
+scribe has crammed as much material as possible into the last leaf of
+_Beowulf_, making his lines abnormally long, and using contractions in a
+way he does not use them elsewhere. The only reason for this must be to
+avoid running over into a new leaf or quire: there could be no motive for
+this crowded page if the poem had ever run on beyond it.
+
+There is pretty general agreement that the date of the _Beowulf_-MS is
+about the year 1000, and that it is somewhat more likely to be before that
+date than after.
+
+The _Beowulf_-MS was injured in the great Cottonian fire of 1731, and the
+edges of the parchment have since chipped away owing to the damage then
+sustained. Valuable assistance can therefore be derived from the two
+transcripts now preserved in the Royal Library of Copenhagen, made in 1787,
+when the MS was much less damaged.
+
+ A. Poema anglosaxonicum de rebus gestis Danorum ... fecit exscribi
+ Londini A.D. MDCCLXXXVII Grimus Johannis Thorkelin.
+
+ B. Poema anglosaxonicum de Danorum rebus gestis ... exscripsit Grimus
+ Johannis Thorkelin. Londini MDCCLXXXVII.
+
+The first description of the _Beowulf_-MS is in 1705 by H. WANLEY
+(_Librorum Septentrionalium ... Catalogus_, pp. 218--19, Oxoniæ, forming
+vol. II of Hickes' _Thesaurus_). Two short extracts from the MS are given
+by Wanley. He describes the poem as telling of the wars _quæ Beowulfus
+quidam Danus, ex regio Scyldingorum stirpe ortus, gessit contra Sueciæ
+regulos_. The text was printed by THORKELIN in 1815, and the MS was
+collated by CONYBEARE, who in his _Illustrations_ (1826) issued 19 pages of
+corrections of Thorkelin. These corrections were further corrected by J. M.
+KEMBLE in 1837 (Letter to M. Francisque Michel, in Michel's _Bibliothèque
+Anglo-Saxonne_, pp. 20, 51-8). Meantime Kemble's text had been issued in
+1833, based upon his examination of the MS. The MS was also seen by THORPE
+(in 1830: Thorpe's text was not published till 1855) and by GRUNDTVIG (pub.
+1861). A further collation was that of E. KÖLBING in 1876 (Zur
+Beóvulf-handschrift, _Archiv_, LVI, 91-118). Kölbing's collation proves the
+superiority of Kemble's text to Grundtvig's. Line for line transcripts of
+the MS were those of Holder, Wülker and Zupitza:
+
+ 1881 HOLDER, A. Beowulf. Bd. I. Abdruck der Handschrift. Freiburg u.
+ Tübingen. (++1881, from collation made in 1875.) Reviews: Kölbing,
+ _Engl. Stud._ VII, 488; Kluge, _Literaturblatt_, 1883, 178; Wülker,
+ _Lit. Cbl._ 1882, 1035-6.
+
+ 1882. 2 Aufl.
+
+ 1895. 3 Aufl. Reviews: Dieter, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, VI, 260-1;
+ Brandl, _Z.f.d.A._ XL, 90.
+
+ 1881 WÜLKER, R. P. Beowulf: Text nach der handschrift, in Grein's
+ _Bibliothek_, I, 18-148.
+
+ 1882 ZUPITZA, J. Beowulf. Autotypes of the unique Cotton MS. Vitellius
+ A XV; with a transliteration and notes. _Early English Text Society_,
+ London. Reviews: Trautmann, _Anglia_, VII, _Anzeiger_, 41; Kölbing,
+ _Engl. Stud._ VII, 482 _etc._; Varnhagen, _A.f.d.A._ X, 304; Sievers,
+ _Lit. Cbl._ 1884, 124.
+
+{387}
+
+Further discussion of the MS by
+
+ 1890 DAVIDSON, C. Differences between the scribes of Beowulf. _M.L.N._
+ V, 43-4; MCCLUMPHA, C., criticizes the above, _M.L.N._ V, 123; reply by
+ DAVIDSON, _M.L.N._ V, 189-90.
+
+ 1910 LAMB, EVELYN H. "Beowulf": Hemming of Worcester. _Notes and
+ Queries_, Ser. XI, vol. I, p. 26. (Worthless. An assertion, unsupported
+ by any evidence, that _both_ the hands of the Beowulf MS are those of
+ Hemming of Worcester, who flourished c. 1096.)
+
+ 1916 SISAM, K. The Beowulf Manuscript. _M.L.R._ XI, 335-7. (Very
+ important. Gives results of a scrutiny of the other treatises in _MS
+ Vitellius A. XV_ (see above) and shows, among other things, that the
+ Beowulf MS, before reaching the hands of Sir Robert Cotton, was (in
+ 1563) in those of Lawrence Nowell, the Elizabethan Anglo-Saxon
+ scholar.)
+
+ 1919 FÖRSTER, MAX. Die Beowulf-Handschrift, Leipzig, _Berichte der
+ Sächs_. _Akad. der Wissenschaften_, Bd. 71. (An excellent and detailed
+ discussion of the problems of the MS, quite independent of that of Mr
+ Sisam, whose results it confirms.) Review: Schröder, _Z.f.d.A._ LVIII,
+ 85-6.
+
+ 1920 RYPINS, S. I. The Beowulf Codex. _Mod. Phil._ XVII, 541-8
+ (promising further treatment of the problems of the MS).
+
+The MS of Finnsburg has been lost. See above, p. 245.
+
+§ 4. EDITIONS OF BEOWULF AND FINNSBURG
+
+ 1705 HICKES, G. Linguarum Vett. Septentrionalium Thesaurus. Oxoniæ.
+ (Vol. I, 192-3, text of Finnsburg Fragment.)
+
+ 1814 CONYBEARE, J. J. The Battle of Finsborough, in Brydges' _British
+ Bibliographer_, vol. IV, pp. 261-7; No. XV (Text, Latin translation,
+ and free verse paraphrase in English: some brief notes).
+
+ 1815 THORKELIN, G. J. De Danorum rebus gestis secul. III et IV. Poëma
+ Danicum dialecto Anglo-Saxonica. (Copenhagen, with Lat. transl.)
+ Reviews: See § 7, _Textual Criticism_, 1815, Grundtvig; also _Dansk
+ Litteratur-Tidende_, 1815, 401-32, 437-46, 461-2 (defending Thorkelin
+ against Grundtvig); _Iduna_, vii, 1817, 133-59; _Monthly Review_,
+ LXXXI, 1816, 516-23; ++_Jenaische Literatur-Zeitung_, 1816,
+ _Ergänzungsblätter_, 353-65 (summary in Wülker's _Grundriss_, p. 252);
+ Outzen in _Kieler Blätter_, 1816, see § 8, below.
+
+ 1817 RASK, R. K. Angelsaksisk sproglære. Stockholm (pp. 163-6 contain
+ Beowulf, ll. 53-114, with commentary).
+
+ 1820 Text of Finnsburg, given by GRUNDTVIG in _Bjowulfs Drape,_ pp.
+ xl-xlv.
+
+ 1826 Text of Finnsburg, and of large portions of Beowulf, given in
+ CONYBEARE'S _Illustrations_. See § 5, _Translations_.
+
+ 1833 KEMBLE, J. M. Beowulf, the Travellers Song, and the Battle of
+ Finnesburh, edited with a glossary ... and an historical preface.
+ London.
+
+ 1835. Second edit.
+
+ 1847 SCHALDEMOSE, F. Beo-wulf og Scopes Widsið ... med Oversættelse.
+ Kjøbenhavn. (Follows Kemble's text of 1835: Text and transl. of
+ Finnsburg also given, pp. 161-4.) 1851, Reprinted.
+
+ 1849 KLIPSTEIN, L. F. Analecta Anglo-Saxonica. New York. (Selections
+ from Beowulf, II, 227-61: Text of Finnsburg, 426-7.)
+
+ 1850 ETTMÜLLER, L. Engla and Seaxna scopas and b[=o]ceras. Quedlinburg
+ u. Leipzig. (Text of large portions of Beowulf, with Finnsburg, pp.
+ 95-131.)
+
+ 1855 THORPE, B. The A.S. poems of Beowulf, the scop or gleeman's tale,
+ and Finnesburg, with a literal translation ... Oxford. ++1875,
+ Reprinted.
+
+ {388}
+
+ 1857 GREIN, C. W. M. Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Poesie, I.
+ Göttingen (pp. 255--343, Beóvulf, Ueberfall in Finnsburg).
+
+ 1861-4. Bd. III, IV. Sprachschatz.
+
+ 1861 RIEGER, M. Alt- u. angelsächsisches Lesebuch. Giessen. (Der Kampf
+ zu Finnsburg, pp. 61-3: aus dem Beovulf, 63-82.)
+
+ 1861 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Beowulfes Beorh eller Bjovulfs-Drapen.
+ Kiöbenhavn, London. (The Finnsburg Fragment is inserted in the text of
+ Beowulf, after l. 1106.)
+
+ 1863 HEYNE, M. Beovulf, mit ausführlichem Glossar. Paderborn. (Anhang:
+ Der Ueberfall in Finnsburg.) Reviews: Grein, _Lit. Cbl._ 1864, 137--8;
+ Holtzmann, _Germania_, VIII, 506-7.
+
+ 1868. ++2 Aufl. Review: Rieger, _Z.f.d.Ph._ II, 371-4.
+
+ 1873. 3 Aufl. Review: Sievers, _Lit. Cbl._ 1873, 662-3, brief but
+ severe.
+
+ 1879. 4 Aufl. [in this, Kölbing's collation of 1876 was utilized;
+ see p. 82]. Reviews: Brenner, _Engl. Stud._ IV, 135-9; Gering,
+ _Z.f.d.Ph._ XII, 122-5.
+
+ 1867 GREIN, C. W. M. Beovulf, nebst den Fragmenten Finnsburg u.
+ Valdere. Cassel u. Göttingen.
+
+ 1875 ETTMÜLLER, L. Carmen de Beóvulfi, Gautarum regis, rebus praeclare
+ gestis atque interitu, quale fuerit antequam in manus interpolatoris,
+ monachi Vestsaxonici, inciderat. (Zürich. University Programme. The
+ additions of the "interpolator" being omitted, the edition contains
+ 2896 lines only.) Reviews: Schönbach, _A.f.d.A._ III, 36-46; ++Suchier,
+ _Jenaer Literatur-Zeitung_, XLVII, 1876, 732.
+
+ 1876 ARNOLD, T. Beowulf, with a translation, notes and appendix.
+ London. Reviews (unfavourable): Sweet, _Academy_, X, 1876, 588; Wülker,
+ _Lit. Cbl._ 1877, 665-6, and _Anglia_, I, 177-86.
+
+ 1879 WÜLKER, R. P. Kleinere angelsächsische Dichtungen. Halle, Leipzig.
+ (Finnsburg, pp. 6-7.)
+
+ 1883 MÖLLER, H. Das altenglische Volksepos in der ursprünglichen
+ strophischen Form. I. Abhandlungen. II. Texte. Kiel. (Containing only
+ those parts of the Finn-story and of Beowulf which Möller regarded as
+ "genuine," in strophic form.) Reviews: Heinzel, _A.f.d.A._ X, 215-33
+ (important); Schönbach, _Z.f.ö.G._ XXXV, 37-46.
+
+ 1883 WÜLKER, R. P. Das Beowulfslied, nebst den kleineren epischen ...
+ stücken. Kassel. (In the second edit. of Grein's _Bibliothek der ags.
+ Poesie._) Review: Kölbing, _Engl. Stud._ VII, 482 _etc._
+
+ 1883 HARRISON, J. A. and SHARP, R. Beowulf. Boston, U.S.A. (++1883, on
+ the basis of Heyne's edition; with Finnsburg.) Reviews: York Powell,
+ _Academy_, XXVI, 1884, 220-1; reply by Harrison, 308-9; by York Powell,
+ 327; Kölbing, _Engl. Stud._ VII, 482; Bright, _Literaturblatt_, 1884,
+ 221--3.
+
+ 1892. Third edit.
+
+ 1894. Fourth edit. Reviews: Wülker, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, V, 65-7;
+ Glöde, _Engl. Stud._ XX, 417-18.
+
+ 1884 HOLDER, A. Beowulf, II. Berichtigter Text u. Wörterbuch. Freiburg
+ u. Tübingen. Reviews: York Powell, _Academy_, XXVI, 1884, 220-1;
+ Wülker, _Lit. Cbl._ 1885, 1008-9; Krüger, _Literaturblatt_, 1884,
+ 468-70.
+
+ 1899. 2 Aufl. [with suggestions of Kluge and Cosijn]. Reviews:
+ Trautmann, _Anglia, Beiblatt,_ X, 257; Wülfing, _Engl. Stud._ XXIX,
+ 278-9; Holthausen, _Literaturblatt_, 1900, 60-2 (important
+ corrections).
+
+ 1888 HEYNE, M. and SOCIN, A. [Fifth edit. of Heyne's text.] Paderborn
+ u. Münster. Reviews: Koeppel, _Engl. Stud._ XIII, 466-72; Heinzel,
+ _A.f.d.A._ XV, 189-94; Sievers, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXI, 354-65 (very important
+ corrections); Schröer, _Literaturblatt_, 1889, 170-1.
+
+ {389}
+
+ 1898. 6 Aufl. Reviews: Trautmann, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, X, 257;
+ Holthausen, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, X, 265; Sarrazin, _Engl. Stud._
+ XXVIII, 408-10; Jantzen, _Archiv_, CIII, 175-6.
+
+ 1903. 7 Aufl. Reviews: Holthausen, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XVIII,
+ 193-4; Klaeber, the same, 289-91; Kruisinga, _Engl. Stud._ XXXV,
+ 401-2; v. Grienberger, _Z.f.ö.G._ LVI, 744-61 (very full); E. Kock,
+ _A.f.n.F._ XXII, 215 (brief).
+
+ 1894 WYATT, A. J. Beowulf, edited with textual footnotes, index of
+ proper names, and glossary. (Text of Finnsburg.) Cambridge. Reviews:
+ Bradley, _Academy_, XLVI, 1894, 69-70; Wülker, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, V,
+ 65-7; Brenner, _Engl. Stud._ XX, 296; Zupitza, _Archiv_, XCIV, 326-9.
+
+ 1898. Second edit. Reviews: Trautmann, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, X, 257;
+ Sarrazin, _Engl. Stud._ XXVIII, 407-8.
+
+ 1902 KLUGE, F. Angelsächsisches Lesebuch. 3 Aufl. Halle. (XXX. Der
+ Überfall von Finnsburuh, pp. 127-8.)
+
+ 1903 TRAUTMANN, M. Finn u. Hildebrand. _Bonner Beiträge_, VII. (Text,
+ translation and comment on the Episode and Fragment.) Reviews: Binz,
+ _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXXVII, 529-36; Jantzen, _Die Neueren Sprachen_, XI, 543-8;
+ _Neue philol. Rundschau_, 1903, 619-21 (signed -tz- ? Jantzen). Some
+ additional notes by Trautmann, "Nachträgliches zu Finn u. Hildebrand"
+ appeared in _Bonner Beiträge_, XVII, 122.
+
+ 1904 TRAUTMANN, M. Das Beowulflied ... das Finn-Bruchstück u. die
+ Waldhere-Bruchstücke. Bearbeiteter Text u. deutsche Übersetzung.
+ _Bonner Beiträge_, XVI. Reviews: Klaeber, _M.L.N._ XX, 83-7 (weighty);
+ Eckhardt, _Engl. Stud._ XXXVII, 401-3; Schücking, _Archiv_, CXV,
+ 417-21; Barnouw, _Museum_, XIV, 96-8; _Neue philologische Rundschau_ (?
+ by Jantzen), 1905, 549-50.
+
+ 1905-6 HOLTHAUSEN, F. Beowulf nebst dem Finnsburg-Bruchstück. I. Texte.
+ II. Einleitung, Glossar u. Anmerkungen. Heidelberg. Reviews: Lawrence,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ VII, 125-9; Klaeber, _M.L.N._ XXIV, 94-5; Schücking, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XXXIX, 94-111 (weighty); Deutschbein, _Archiv_, CXXI, 162-4; v.
+ Grienberger, _Z.f.ö.G._ 1908, LIX, 333-46 (giving an elaborate list of
+ etymological parallels); Barnouw, _Museum_, XIV, 169-70; Wülker,
+ _D.L.Z._ 1906, 285-6; ++Jantzen, _Neue philologische Rundschau_, 1907,
+ 18.
+
+ 1908-9. 2 Aufl., nebst den kleineren Denkmälern der Heldensage,
+ Finnsburg, Waldere, Deor, Widsith, Hildebrand. Reviews: Eichler,
+ _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXI, 129-33; XXII, 161-5; Schücking, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XLII, 108-11; Brandl, _Archiv_, CXXI, 473, CXXIV, 210; Binz,
+ _Literaturblatt_, XXXII, 1911, 53-5: see also Koeppel, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XXIII, 297.
+
+ 1912-13. 3 Aufl.
+
+ 1914-19. 4 Aufl. Reviews: Binz, _Literaturblatt_, XLI, 1920,
+ 316-17; Fischer, _Engl. Stud._ LIV, 404-6.
+
+ 1908 SCHÜCKING, L. L. Beowulf [8th edit. of Heyne's text]. Paderborn.
+ Reviews: Lawrence, _M.L.N._ XXV, 155-7; Klaeber, _Engl. Stud._ XXXIX,
+ 425-33 (weighty); Imelmann, _D.L.Z._ 1909, 995 (contains important
+ original contributions); v. Grienberger, _Z.f.ö.G._ LX, 1089; Boer,
+ _Museum_, XVI, 139 (brief).
+
+ 1910. 9 Aufl. Reviews: Sedgefield, _Engl. Stud._ XLIII, 267-9; F.
+ Wild, _Z.f.ö.G._ LXIV, 153-5.
+
+ 1913. 10 Aufl. Reviews: Klaeber, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXIV, 289-91;
+ _Engl. Stud._ XLIX, 424; ++Degenhart, _Blätter f.
+ gymnasialschulwesen_, LI, 130; E. A. Kock, _A.f.n.F._ XXXII, 222-3;
+ Holthausen, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XLVIII, 127-31 (weighty).
+
+ 1918. 11, 12 Aufl. Reviews: Björkman, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXX,
+ 121-2, 180; Fischer, _Engl. Stud._ LIII, 338-9.
+
+ {390}
+
+ 1910 SEDGEFIELD, W. J. Beowulf, edited with Introduction, Bibliography,
+ Notes, Glossary and Appendices. Manchester. Reviews: Thomas, _M.L.R._
+ VI, 266-8; Lawrence, _J.E.G.Ph._ X, 633-40; Wild, _Anglia, Beiblatt_,
+ XXIII, 253-60; Klaeber, _Engl. Stud._ XLIV, 119-26; Brandl, _Archiv_,
+ CXXVI, 279.
+
+ 1913. Second edit. Reviews: _M.L.R._ IX, 429; Lawrence, _J.E.G.Ph._
+ XIV, 609-13; Klaeber, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXV, 166-8.
+
+ 1912 Text of the Finn episode given in MEYER, W., Beiträge zur
+ Geschichte der Eroberung Englands durch die Angelsachsen.
+
+ 1914 CHAMBERS, R. W. Beowulf with the Finnsburg Fragment, ed. by A. J.
+ WYATT. New edition, revised. Cambridge. Reviews: Jones, _M.L.R._ XI,
+ 230-1: Lawrence, _J.E.G.Ph._ XIV, 609-13; Bright, _M.L.N._ XXXI, 188-9;
+ Schücking, _Engl. Stud._ LV, 88-100.
+
+ 1915 DICKINS, B. Runic and Heroic Poems (Text of Finnsburg with Notes).
+ Cambridge. Review: Mawer, _M.L.R._ XII, 82-4.
+
+ 1917 MACKIE, W. L. The Fight at Finnsburg (Introduction, Text and
+ Notes). _J.E.G.Ph._ XVI, 250-73.
+
+ 1919 SCHÜCKING, L. L. Kleines angelsächsisches Dichterbuch. [Includes
+ Finnsburg Fragment, Finnsburg Episode and "Beowulf's Return" (ll.
+ 1888-2199).] Reviews: Binz, _Literaturblatt_, XLI, 1920, pp. 315-16;
+ Imelmann, _D.L.Z._ XL, 1919, 423-5; Fischer, _Engl. Stud._ LIV, 1920,
+ 302-3.
+
+ 1920 Text of Finnsburg Fragment and Episode, with commentary, in
+ IMELMANN'S "Forschungen zur altenglischen Poesie."
+
+An edition of Beowulf by Prof. F. KLAEBER is in the press.
+
+§ 5. CONCORDANCES, etc.
+
+ 1896 HOLDER, A. Beowulf, vol. II_b_, Wortschatz. Freiburg. Review:
+ Brandl, _A.f.d.A._ XXIII, 107.
+
+ 1911 COOK, A. S. Concordance to Beowulf. Halle. Reviews: Klaeber,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ XI, 277-9; Garnett, _Amer. Jnl. Philol._ XXXIII, 86-7.
+
+§ 6. TRANSLATIONS (INCLUDING EARLY SUMMARIES)
+
+ 1881 WÜLKER, R. P. Besprechung der Beowulfübersetzungen, _Anglia_, IV,
+ _Anzeiger_, 69-80.
+
+ 1886 GUMMERE, F. B. The translation of Beowulf, and the relations of
+ ancient and modern English verse, _Amer. Jour. of Phil._ VII, 46-78. (A
+ weighty argument for translation into "the original metre.")
+
+ 1891 GARNETT, J. M. The translation of A.S. poetry, _Pub. Mod. Lang.
+ Assoc. Amer._ VI, 95-105. (Agreeing in the main with Gummere.)
+
+ 1897 FRYE, P. H. The translation of Beowulf, _M.L.N._ XII, 79-82.
+ (Advocating blank verse.)
+
+ 1898 FULTON, E. On translating A.S. poetry, _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc.
+ Amer._ XIII, 286-96. (Recommending an irregular four-accent line.)
+
+ 1903 GARNETT, J. M. Recent translations of O.E. poetry, _Pub. Mod.
+ Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XVIII, 445-58.
+
+ 1903 TINKER, C. B. The translations of Beowulf. A critical
+ bibliography. _Yale Studies in English_. New York. Reviews: Klaeber,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ V, 116-8; Binz, _Anglia, Beiblatt,_ XVI, 291-2.
+
+ 1909 CHILD, G. C. "Gummere's Oldest English Epic," _M.L.N._ XXIV,
+ 253-4. (A criticism advocating prose translation.)
+
+ 1910 GUMMERE, F. B. Translation of Old English Verse, _M.L.N._ XXV,
+ 61-3. (Advocating alliterative verse.) Reply by CHILD, _M.L.N._ XXV,
+ 157-8. See also reviews of Gummere, under year 1909, below.
+
+ {391}
+
+ 1918 LEONARD, W. E. Beowulf and the Niebelungen couplet, _Univ. of
+ Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature_, II, 99-152.
+
+
+
+ 1805 TURNER, SHARON. History of the manners ... poetry ... and language
+ of the Anglo-Saxons. London. (From p. 398 to p. 408 is a summary, with
+ translations, of Beowulf, Prol.-VIII. Turner was misled as to the
+ subject of the poem, because a leaf had been misplaced in the MS, so
+ that the account of the fighting between Grendel and Beowulf (ll.
+ 740-82) occurred immediately after l. 91. The struggle between Beowulf
+ and an (unnamed) adversary being thus made to follow the account of
+ Hrothgar's court at Heorot, Turner was led to suppose that the poem
+ narrated the attempt of Beowulf to avenge _on Hrothgar_ the feud for a
+ homicide he had committed. "The transition," Turner not unreasonably
+ complains, "is rather violent." The correct placing of the shifted leaf
+ is due to Thorkelin.)
+
+ 1815 THORKELIN, G. J. [Latin version in his edition, q.v.] The
+ reviewers gave summaries of the poem, with translations of portions of
+ it: English in the _Monthly Review_, LXXXI, 1816, 516-23 (less
+ inaccurate than Turner's summary); Danish in the _Dansk
+ Litteratur-Tidende_, 1815, 401-32, 437-46, and by Grundtvig in the
+ _Nyeste Skilderie_ (see below, § 7); Swedish in _Iduna_, VII, 1817,
+ 133-59.
+
+ 1819 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Stykker af Skjoldung-Kvadet eller Bjovulfs
+ Minde, _Dannevirke_, IV, 234-62.
+
+ 1820 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Bjowulfs Drape, Kjøbenhavn. (Free rhymed
+ translation of Beowulf: Finnsburg rendered into short lines, unrhymed:
+ Introduction and most important critical notes.) Review: J. Grimm in
+ _Gött. Anzeigen_, 1823 = _Kleinere Schriften_, IV, 178-86. For second
+ edit., see 1865.
+
+ 1820 TURNER, SHARON. History of the Anglo-Saxons ... third edit.
+ London. (Vol. III, pp. 325-48, contains a summary, with translations,
+ of the earlier part of the poem, much less inaccurate than that of
+ 1805.)
+
+ 1826 CONYBEARE, J. J. Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon poetry. London. (Pp.
+ 35-136 contain a summary of Beowulf, with blank verse transl. and the
+ corresponding text in A.S. and Latin; pp. 175-82, Finnsburg, text with
+ transl. into Latin and into English verse.)
+
+ 1832 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Nordens mythologi. Anden Udgave. Kiöbenhavn.
+ (Pp. 571-94 give a summary of the Beowulf-stories. This was, of course,
+ wanting in the first edit. of 1808.)
+
+ 1837 KEMBLE, J. M. Translation ... with ... glossary, preface and
+ notes. London. (The "postscript to the preface" in which Kemble
+ supplemented and corrected the "Historical Preface" to his edition of
+ 1833, is the basis of the mythological explanations of Beowulf as an
+ Anglian god, Beowa.)
+
+ 1839 LEO, H. [Summary with translation of extracts.] See § 8, below.
+
+ 1840 ETTMÜLLER, L. Beowulf, stabreimend übersetzt, mit Einleitung und
+ Anmerkungen (Finnsburg, pp. 36-8). Zürich.
+
+ 1845 LONGFELLOW, H. W. The Poets and Poetry of Europe. Philadelphia.
+ (Pp. 8-10 contain transl. of extracts from Beowulf.)
+
+ 1847 SCHALDEMOSE, F. [Danish transl. of Beowulf and Finnsburg, in his
+ edit., q.v.]
+
+ 1849 WACKERBARTH, A. D. Beowulf, translated into English verse. London.
+ (Imitation of Scott's metre.)
+
+ 1855 THORPE, B. [In his edit., q.v.]
+
+ 1857 UHLAND, L. [Prose transl. of Finnsburg.] _Germania_, II, 354-5.
+
+ {392}
+
+ 1857 GREIN, C. W. M. Dichtungen der Angelsachsen, stabreimend
+ übersetzt. Göttingen. (Vol. I, pp. 222--308, Beowulf, trans. into
+ alliterative verse.)
+
+ 1883. 2 Aufl. [Incorporating Grein's manuscript corrections, seen
+ through the press by Wülker.] Cassel. Review: Krüger, _Engl. Stud._
+ VIII, 139--42.
+
+ 1859 SIMROCK, K. Beowulf übersetzt u. erläutert. Stuttgart u. Augsburg.
+ (Alliterative verse: Finnsburg Fragment inserted after l. 1124.)
+
+ 1859 SANDRAS, G. S. De carminibus anglo-saxonicis Caedmoni adjudicatis.
+ Paris. (Pp. 8--10 contain extract from Beowulf and Latin transl.)
+
+ 1861 HAIGH, D. H. (Prose transl. of Finnsburg.) In _Anglo-Saxon Sagas,_
+ pp. 32--3, q.v.
+
+ 1863 HEYNE, M. Beowulf übersetzt. Paderborn. (Blank verse.) Review:
+ Holtzmann, _Germania_, VIII, 506--7.
+
+ 1897--8. 2 Aufl. Paderborn. Reviews: Holthausen, _Archiv_, CIII,
+
+ 373--6; Wülker, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, IX, 1; Jantzen,_ Engl.
+ Stud._ XXV,
+
+ 271--3; Löhner, _Z.f.ö.G._ XLIX, 563.
+
+ 1915. 3 Aufl. Paderborn.
+
+ 1865 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Bjovulfs-Drapen. Anden Udgave.
+
+ 1872 VON WOLZOGEN, H. Beovulf aus dem ags. Leipzig. (Verse.)
+
+ 1876 ARNOLD, T. [In his edit., q.v.]
+
+ 1877 BOTKINE, L. Beowulf traduite en français. Havre. (Prose: some
+ omissions.) Review: Körner, _Engl. Stud._ II, 248--51.
+
+ 1881 ZINSSER, G. Der Kampf Beowulfs mit Grendel [vv. 1--836] als Probe
+ einer metrischen Uebersetzung. Saarbrücken. Reviews: _Archiv_, LXVIII,
+ 446; Krüger, _Engl. Stud_. VII, 370--2.
+
+ 1881 LUMSDEN, H. W. Beowulf ... transl. into modern rhymes. London.
+ (Some omissions.) Reviews: _Athenæum_, April 1881, p. 587; Garnett,
+ _Amer. Jour. of Phil._ II, 355--61; Wülker, _Anglia_, IV, _Anzeiger_,
+ 69--80.
+
+ 1883. ++Second edit. Review: York Powell, _Academy_, XXVI, 1884,
+ pp. 220--1.
+
+ 1882 SCHUHMANN, G. Beovulf, antichissimo poema epico de' popoli
+ germanici. _Giornale Napoletano di filosofia e lettere_. Anno IV, vol.
+ 7, 25--36, 175--190. (A summary only.)
+
+ 1882 GARNETT, J. M. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, translated.
+ Boston, U.S.A. Reviews: _Nation_ (New York), No. 919, 1883; Harrison,
+ _Amer. Jour. of Phil._ IV, 84--6, reply by Garnett, 243--6; Schipper,
+ _Anglia_, VI, _Anzeiger_, 120--4; Krüger, _Engl. Stud_. VIII, 133--8,
+ and (second edit.) IX, 151; Bright, _Literaturblatt_, 1883, 386--7.
+
+ 1885. Second edit., revised.
+
+ 1900. Fourth edit.
+
+ 1883 GRION, GIUSTO. Beovulf, poema epico anglòsassone del VII secolo,
+ tradotto e illustrato. In the _Atti della reale Accademia Lucchese_,
+ XXII. (First Italian translation.) Review: Krüger, _Engl. Stud._ IX,
+ 64--77.
+
+ 1889 ++WICKBERG, R. Beowulf, en fornengelsk hjältedikt översatt.
+ Westervik.
+
+ 1914. ++Second edit. Upsala. Review: Kock, _A.f.n.F._ XXXII,
+ 223--4.
+
+ 1892 HALL, JOHN LESSLIE. Beowulf translated. (Verse, with notes.)
+ Boston, U.S.A. Reviews: _M.L.N._ VII, 128, 1892 (brief mention);
+ Miller, _Viking Club Year Book_, I, 91--2; Holthausen, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, IV, 33--6; Glöde, _Engl. Stud._ XIX, 257--60.
+
+ 1893. ++Student's edit.
+
+ 1892 (1891) EARLE, JOHN. The deeds of Beowulf. Oxford. (Prose
+ translation, somewhat spoilt by its artificial and sometimes grotesque
+ vocabulary; very valuable introduction, with summary of the controversy
+ to date, {393} and notes.) Reviews: _Athenæum_, 1 Oct. 1892; Koeppel,
+ _Engl. Stud._ XVIII, 93-5 (fair, though rather severe).
+
+ 1893 HOFFMANN, P. Beówulf ... aus dem angelsächsischen übertragen.
+ Züllichau. (In the measure of the Nibelungenlied; ind. Finnsburg.)
+ Reviews (mostly unfavourable): Shipley, _M.L.N._ IX, 121-3, 1894;
+ Wülker, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, V, 67; Wülker, _Lit. Cbl._ 1894, p. 1930;
+ Glöde, _Engl. Stud._ XIX, 412-5; ++Detter, _Öster. Literaturblatt_, V,
+ 9; ++Marold, _Deut. Literaturblatt_, XXIII, 332.
+
+ 1900. ++Second edit. Hannover.
+
+ 1895 MORRIS, W. and WYATT, A. J. The Tale of Beowulf. Kelmscott Press,
+ Hammersmith. (Verse: archaic vocabulary.)
+
+ 1898. New edit. Review: Hulme, _M.L.N._ XV, 22-6, 1900.
+
+ 1896 SIMONS, L. Beówulf ... vertaald in stafrijm en met inleiding en
+ aanteekeningen. Gent (_Koninklijke vlaamsche Academie_). Reviews:
+ Glöde, _Engl. Stud._ XXV, 270-1; Uhlenbeck, _Museum_ (Groningen), V,
+ 217-8.
+
+ 1898 STEINECK, H. Altenglische Dichtungen (Beowulf, Elene, u.a.) in
+ wortgetreuer Übersetzung. Leipzig. (Prose, line for line.) Reviews:
+ Binz, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, IX, 220-2; Holthausen, _Archiv_, CIII, 376-8
+ (both very unfavourable).
+
+ 1901 HALL, J. R. CLARK. Beowulf and the fight at Finnsburg. A
+ translation into modern English prose. London. Reviews: _Athenæum_,
+ 1901, July, p. 56; _Academy_, LX, 1901, 342; Stedman, _Viking Club Year
+ Book_, III, 72-4; Tinker, _J.E.G.Ph._ IV, 379-81; Holthausen, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XIII, 225-8; Dibelius, _Archiv_, CIX, 403-4; Vietor, _Die
+ neueren Sprachen_, XI, 439; Wülker, _Lit. Cbl._ 1902, 30-1 ("sehr zu
+ empfehlen").
+
+ 1911 (q.v.). New edit., with considerable additions.
+
+ 1902 TINKER, C. B. Beowulf translated out of the Old English. New York.
+ (Prose.) Reviews: Klaeber, _J.E.G.Ph._ V, 91-3; Holthausen, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XIV, 7.
+
+ 1903 ++BJÖRKMAN, E. Swedish transl. (prose) of Beowulf, Part II (in
+ Schück's _Världslitteraturen_, with introd. by Schück).
+
+ 1903-4 TRAUTMANN, M., in his editions, q.v.
+
+ 1904 CHILD, C. G. Beowulf and the Finnesburh Fragment translated.
+ London and Boston. Reviews: Grattan, _M.L.R._ III, 303-4 ("a good prose
+ translation which steers an even course between pseudo-archaisms and
+ modern colloquialisms"); Miller, _Viking Club Year Book_, I, 91-2;
+ Klaeber, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XVI, 225-7; Brandl, _Archiv_, CXXI, 473.
+
+ 1904 ++HANSEN, A. Transl. into Danish of Beowulf, ll. 491-924, _Danske
+ Tidsskrift_.
+
+ 1905 VOGT, P. Beowulf ... übersetzt. Halle. (Text rearranged according
+ to theories of interpolation: Finnsburg Fragment translated, following
+ Möller's text.) Reviews: Binz, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXI, 289-91;
+ Eichler, _Z.f.ö.G._ LVII, 908-10; Klaeber, _Archiv_, CXVII, 408-10:
+ Jantzen, _Lit. Cbl._ 1906, 257-8.
+
+ 1906 GERING, H. Beowulf nebst dem Finnsburg-Bruchstück übersetzt.
+ Heidelberg. (Verse.) Reviews: Lawrence, _J.E.G.Ph._ VII, 129-33
+ ("thoroughly scholarly"); Jantzen, _Lit. Cbl._ 1907, 64-5; Ries,
+ _A.f.d.A._ XXXIII, 143-7; Binz, _Literaturblatt_, XXXI, 397-8
+ ("Fliessend und ungezwungen, sinngetreu ..."); ++Zehme,
+ _Monatsschrift_, XIV, 597-600; v. Grienberger, _Z.f.ö.G._ 1908, LIX,
+ 423-8.
+
+ 1914. 2 Aufl.
+
+ 1907 HUYSHE, W. Beowulf ... translated into ... prose ("Appendix: The
+ Fight at Finn's burgh"). London. ("Translation," to quote Clark Hall,
+ "apparently such as might have been compiled from previous translations
+ by a person ignorant of Ags. Some original mistakes.") Reviews:
+ _Athenæum_, 1907, II, 96 ("Mr Huyshe displays sad ignorance of Old
+ {394} English ... but an assiduous study of the work of his
+ predecessors has preserved him from misrepresenting seriously the
+ general sense of the text"); _Notes and Queries_, Ser. X, vol. VIII,
+ 58; Garnett, _Amer. Jnl. Philol._ XXIX, 344-6; Klaeber, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XIX, 257.
+
+ 1909 GUMMERE, F. B. The oldest English Epic. Beowulf, Finnsburg,
+ Waldere, Deor and the German Hildebrand, translated in the original
+ metres. New York. Reviews: _Athenæum_, 1909, II, 151; Trautmann,
+ _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXXIII, 353-60 (metrical debate); Sedgefield,
+ _Engl. Stud._ XLI, 402-3 (discussing possibility of reproducing in Mod.
+ Eng. the Old Eng. alliterative verse-rhythm); Derocquigny, _Revue
+ Germanique_, VI, 356-7; see also above, p. 390.
+
+ 1910 HANSEN, ADOLF. Bjovulf, oversat af A. Hansen, og efter hans død
+ gået efter og fuldført samt forsynet med en inledning og en
+ oversættelse af brudstykket om kampen i Finsborg, af Viggo Julius von
+ Holstein Rathlou; udgivet ved Oskar Hansen. København og Kristiania. An
+ account of this translation, by v. Holstein Rathlou, in _Tilskueren_,
+ June, 1910, pp. 557-62; Review: Olrik, _Danske Studier_, 1910, 112-13.
+
+ 1911 CLARK HALL, J. R. Beowulf and the Finnsburg Fragment. A
+ translation into Modern English Prose. London. Reviews: Mawer, _M.L.R._
+ VI, 542 ("probably the best working translation that we have, enriched
+ by a valuable introduction and excellent appendices"); _Academy_, 1911,
+ I, 225-6; Björkman, _Engl. Stud._ XLIV, 127-8; _Archiv_, CXXVI, 492-3;
+ Binz, _Literaturblatt_, XXXII, 232.
+
+ 1912 PIERQUIN, H. Le poème Anglo-Saxon de Beowulf. (An extraordinary
+ piece of work; the version mainly follows Kemble's text, which is
+ reproduced, but with many misprints: Kemble's _Saxons in England_ is
+ translated by way of introduction. The Finnsburg Fragment is included.)
+ Reviews: _Academy_, 1912, II, 509-10 (seems to regard Pierquin as
+ author of _Les Saxons en Angleterre_); Sedgefield, _M.L.R._ VIII,
+ 550-2; Klaeber, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXIV, 138-9; Imelmann, _D.L.Z._
+ XXXIV (1913), 1062-3 (very unfavourable); ++Luick, _Mitt. d. inst. f.
+ österr. gesch.-forsch._ XXXVI, 401; ++Barat, _Moyen Âge_, XXVI (see.
+ ser. XVII), 298-302.
+
+ 1913 KIRTLAN, E. J. The Story of Beowulf. London. (A fair specimen of
+ the less scholarly translations; nicely got up and not exceedingly
+ incorrect.) Reviews: _Athenæum_, 1914, II, 71; Klaeber, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XXVII, 129-31.
+
+ 1914 CLARK HALL, J. R. Beowulf: a metrical translation. Cambridge. (Not
+ so successful as the same writer's prose translation.) Reviews:
+ Sedgefield, _M.L.R._ X, 387-9 (discussing the principles of metrical
+ translation); Klaeber, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXVI, 170-2.
+
+ 1915 OLIVERO, F. Traduzioni dalla Poesia Anglo-sassone. Bari. (Pp.
+ 73-119, extracts from Beowulf.) Review: _M.L.R._ XI, 509.
+
+ 1916 ++BENEDETTI, A. La canzone di Beowulf, poema epico anglo-sassone
+ del VI secolo. Versione italiana, con introduzione e note. Palermo.
+
+ 1918 LEONARD, W. E. [Specimen, Passus IX, of forthcoming transl., in
+ the measure of the Nibelungenlied.] In _Univ. of Wisconsin Studies_,
+ II, 149-52; see above.
+
+ A translation of Beowulf into the Norwegian "landsmaal," by H.
+ RYTTER, will appear shortly.
+
+Popular paraphrases of Beowulf are not included in the above list. An
+account will be found in Tinker's _Translations_ of those of E. H. Jones
+(in COX'S _Popular Romances_, 1871); J. Gibb, 1881-4; Wägner-MacDowall,
+1883 _etc._; Miss Z. A. Ragozin, 1898, 1900; A. J. Church, 1898; Miss C. L.
+Thomson, 1899, 1904. Mention may also be made of those of ++F. A. Turner,
+1894; H. E. Marshall, 1908; T. Cartwright, 1908; Prof. J. H. Cox, 1910. An
+illustrated summary of {395} the _Beowulf_ story was issued by Mr W. T.
+Stead in his penny "Books for the Bairns." The versions of Miss Thomson and
+Prof. Cox are both good. The paraphrase in the _Canadian Monthly_, II, 83
+(1872), attributed in several bibliographies to Earle, is assuredly not the
+work of that scholar: it is an inaccurate version based upon Jones. An
+account will be found in Tinker of the German paraphrase of Therese Dahn,
+1883 _etc._; mention may also be made of those of J. Arnheim, 1871; ++ F.
+Bässler, sec. edit. 1875 (praised highly by Klaeber in _J.E.G.Ph._ V, 118).
+
+§ 7. TEXTUAL CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION
+
+ 1815 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Et Par Ord om det nys udkomne angelsaxiske
+ Digt. _Nyeste Skilderie af Kjøbenhavn_, No. 60 _etc._, cols. 945, 998,
+ 1009, 1025, 1045; Nok et Par Ord om Bjovulfs Drape, 1106, 1121, 1139
+ (comment upon Thorkelin's text and translation).
+
+ 1815 THORKELIN, G. J. Reply to Grundtvig in _Nyeste Skilderie_, cols.
+ 1057, 1073. (There were further articles in the same magazine, but they
+ were purely personal.)
+
+ 1820 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Emendations to Thorkelin's text, added to
+ _Bjowulfs Drape_, 267-312.
+
+ 1826 CONYBEARE, J. J. Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon poetry. London.
+ (Beowulf and "Finnsborough," pp. 30-182.)
+
+ 1859 BOUTERWEK, K. W. Zur Kritik des Beowulfliedes, _Z.f.d.A._ XI,
+ 59-113.
+
+ 1859 DIETRICH, F. Rettungen, _Z.f.d.A._ XI, 409-20.
+
+ 1863 HOLTZMANN, A. Zu Beowulf, _Germania_, VIII, 489-97. (Incl.
+ Finnsburg.)
+
+ 1865 GREIN, C. W. M. Zur Textkritik der angelsächsischen Dichter:
+ Finnsburg, _Germania_, X, 422.
+
+ 1868-9 BUGGE, SOPHUS. Spredte iagttagelser vedkommende de oldengelske
+ digte om Beówulf og Waldere; _Tidskrift for Philologi og Pædagogik_,
+ VIII, 40-78 and 287-307 (incl. Finnsburg, 304-5). Important.
+
+ 1871 RIEGER, M. Zum Beowulf, _Z.f.d.Ph._ III, 381-416.
+
+ 1873 BUGGE, S. Zum Beowulf, _Z.f.d.Ph._ IV, 192-224.
+
+ 1880 KÖLBING, E. Kleine Beiträge (Beowulf, 168, 169), _Engl. Stud._
+ III, 92 _etc._
+
+ 1882 KLUGE, F. Sprachhistorische Miscellen (Beowulf, 63, 1027, 1235,
+ 1267), _P.B.B._ VIII, 532-5.
+
+ 1882 COSIJN, P. J. Zum Beowulf, _P.B.B._ VIII, 568-74.
+
+ 1883 SIEVERS, E. Zum Beowulf, _P.B.B._ IX, 135-44, 370.
+
+ 1883 KLUGE, F. Zum Beowulf, _P.B.B._ IX, 187-92.
+
+ 1883 KRÜGER, TH. Zum Beowulf, _P.B.B._ IX, 571-8.
+
+ 1889 MILLER, T. The position of Grendel's arm in Heorot, _Anglia_, XII,
+ 396-400.
+
+ 1890 JOSEPH, E. Zwei Versversetzungen im Beowulf, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXII,
+ 385-97.
+
+ 1891 SCHRÖER, A. Zur texterklärung des Beowulf, _Anglia_, XIII, 333-48.
+
+ 1891-2 COSIJN, P. J. Aanteekeningen op den Beowulf. Leiden.
+ (Important.) Reviews: Lübke, _A.f.d.A._ XIX, 341-2; Holthausen,
+ _Literaturblatt_, 1895, p. 82.
+
+ 1892 SIEVERS, E. Zur texterklärung des Beowulf, _Anglia_, XIV, 133-46.
+
+ 1895 BRIGHT, J. W. Notes on the Beowulf (ll. 30, 306, 386-7, 623, 737),
+ _M.L.N._ X, 43-4.
+
+ 1899 TRAUTMANN, M. Berichtigungen, Vermutungen und Erklärungen zum
+ Beowulf (ll. 1-1215). _Bonner Beiträge zur Anglistik_, II, 121-92.
+ Reviews: Binz, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XIV, 358-60; Holthausen,
+ _Literaturblatt_, 1900, 62-4 (important). See Sievers, _P.B.B._ XXVII,
+ 572; XXVIII, 271.
+
+ 1901 KLAEBER, F. A few Beowulf notes (ll. 459, 847 _etc._, 1206, 3024
+ _etc._, 3171); _M.L.N._ XVI, 14-18.
+
+ {396}
+
+ 1902 KLAEBER, F. Zum Beowulf (497-8; 1745-7), _Archiv_, CVIII, 368-70.
+
+ 1902 KLAEBER, F. Beowulf's character, _M.L.N._ XVII, 162.
+
+ 1903 KRACKOW, O. Zu Beowulf, 1225, 2222, _Archiv_, CXI, 171-2.
+
+ 1904 BRYANT, F. E. Beowulf, 62, _M.L.N._ XIX, 121-2.
+
+ 1904 ABBOTT, W. C. Hrothulf, _M.L.N._ XIX, 122-5. (Abbott suggests that
+ Hrothulf is the name--missing in whole or part from l. 62--of the
+ husband of the daughter of Healfdene. This suggestion is quite
+ untenable, for many reasons: Hrothulf (Rolf Kraki) is a Dane, and the
+ missing husband is a Swede: but the article led to a long controversy
+ between Bryant and Klaeber; see _M.L.N._ XX, 9-11; XXI, 143, 255; XXII,
+ 96, 160. Klaeber is undoubtedly right.)
+
+ 1904 KRAPP, G. B. Miscellaneous Notes: _Sc[=u]rheard_; _M.L.N._ XIX,
+ 234.
+
+ 1904 SIEVERS, E. Zum Beowulf, _P.B.B._ XXIX, 305-31. (Criticism of
+ Trautmann's emendations.)
+
+ 1904 KOCK, E. A. Interpretations and Emendations of Early English
+ Texts: III (Beowulf), _Anglia_, XXVII, 218-37.
+
+ 1904 SIEVERS, E. Zum Beowulf (l. 5, Criticism of Kock), _P.B.B._ XXIX,
+ 560-76. Reply by Kock, _Anglia_, XXVIII (1905), 140-2.
+
+ 1905 TRAUTMANN, M. Auch zum Beowulf: ein gruss an herren Eduard
+ Sievers, _Bonner Beiträge zur Anglistik_, XVII, 143-74. (Reply to
+ Sievers' criticism of Trautmann's conjectural emendations.) Review:
+ Klaeber, _M.L.N._ XXII, 252.
+
+ 1905 SWIGGETT, G. L. Notes on the Finnsburg fragment, _M.L.N._ XX,
+ 169-71.
+
+ 1905 KLAEBER, F. Notizen zur texterklärung des Beowulf, _Anglia_,
+ XXVIII, 439-47 (incl. Finnsburg); Zum Beowulf, the same, 448-56.
+
+ 1905 KLAEBER, F. Bemerkungen zum Beowulf, _Archiv_, CXV, 178-82. (Incl.
+ Finnsburg.)
+
+ 1905 HOLTHAUSEN, F. Beiträge zur Erklärung des altengl. epos. I, Zum
+ Beowulf; II, Zum Finnsburg-fragment; _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXXVII, 113-25.
+
+ 1905-6 KLAEBER, F. Studies in the Textual Interpretation of "Beowulf,"
+ _Mod. Phil._ III, 235-66, 445-65 (Most important).
+
+ 1906 CHILD, C. G. Beowulf, 30, 53, 132 (i.e. 1323), 2957, _M.L.N._ XXI,
+ 175-7, 198-200.
+
+ 1906 HORN, W. Textkritische Bemerkungen (Beowulf, 69 _etc._), _Anglia_,
+ XXIX, 130-1.
+
+ 1906 KLAEBER, F. Notizen zum Beowulf, _Anglia_, XXIX, 378-82.
+
+ 1907 KLAEBER, F. Minor Notes on the Beowulf, _J.E.G.Ph._ VI, 190-6.
+
+ 1908 TINKER, C. B. Notes on Beowulf, _M.L.N._ XXIII, 239-40.
+
+ 1908 KLAEBER, F. Zum Beowulf, _Engl. Stud._ XXXIX, 463-7.
+
+ 1909 KLAEBER, F. Textual Notes on Beowulf, _J.E.G.Ph._ VIII, 254-9.
+
+ 1910 VON GRIENBERGER, T. Bemerkungen zum Beowulf, _P.B.B._ XXXVI,
+ 77-101. (Incl. Finnsburg.)
+
+ 1910 SIEVERS, E. Gegenbemerkungen zum Beowulf, _P.B.B._ XXXVI, 397-434.
+ (Incl. Finnsburg.)
+
+ 1910 SEDGEFIELD, W. J. Notes on "Beowulf," _M.L.R._ V, 286-8.
+
+ 1910 TRAUTMANN, M. Beiträge zu einem künftigen "Sprachschatz der
+ altenglischen Dichter," _Anglia_, XXXIII, 276-9 (_gedræg_).
+
+ 1911 BLACKBURN, F. A. Note on Beowulf, 1591-1617, _Mod. Phil._ IX,
+ 555-66. (Argues that a loose leaf has been misplaced and the order of
+ events thus disturbed.)
+
+ 1911 KLAEBER, F. Zur Texterklärung des Beowulf, vv. 767, 1129, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XXII, 372-4.
+
+ 1912 HART, J. M. Beowulf, 168-9, _M.L.N._ XXVII, 198.
+
+ {397}
+
+ 1912-14 GREIN, C. W. M. Sprachschatz der angelsächsischen dichter.
+ Unter mitwirkung von F. Holthausen neu herausgegeben von J. J. Köhler.
+ Heidelberg. Reviews: Trautmann, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXIV, 36-43;
+ Schücking, _Engl. Stud._ XLIX, 113-5.
+
+ 1915 CHAMBERS, R. W. The "Shifted leaf" in Beowulf, _M.L.R._ X, 37-41.
+ (Points out that the alleged "confused order of events" is that also
+ followed in the Grettis saga.)
+
+ 1916 GREEN, A. The opening of the episode of Finn in Beowulf, _Pub.
+ Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXXI, 759-97.
+
+ 1916 BRIGHT, J. W. Anglo-Saxon _umbor_ and _seld-guma_, _M.L.N._ XXXI,
+ 82-4; Beowulf, 489-90, _M.L.N._ XXXI, 217-23.
+
+ 1917 GREEN, A. An episode in Ongenþeow's fall, _M.L.R._ XII, 340-3.
+
+ 1917 HOLLANDER, L. M. Beowulf, 33, _M.L.N._ XXXII, 246-7. (Suggests the
+ reading _[=i]tig_.)
+
+ 1917 HOLTHAUSEN, F. Zu altenglischen Denkmälern--Beowulf, 1140, _Engl.
+ Stud._ LI, 180.
+
+ 1918 HUBBARD, F. G. Beowulf, 1598, 1996, 2026: uses of the impersonal
+ verb _geweorþan_, _J.E.G.Ph._ XVII, 119.
+
+ 1918 KOCK, E. A. Interpretations and emendations of early English
+ Texts: IV, Beowulf, _Anglia_, XLII, 99-124. (Important.)
+
+ 1918 ++KOCK, E. A. Jubilee Jaunts and Jottings, in the _Lunds univ.
+ årsskrift_, N. F. avd. I, bd. 14, nr. 26 (_Festskrift vid ...
+ 250-årsjubileum_). Reviews: Holthausen, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXX, 1-5;
+ Klaeber, _J.E.G.Ph._ XIX, 409-13.
+
+ 1919 MOORE, SAMUEL. Beowulf Notes (Textual), _J.E.G.Ph._ XVIII, 205-16.
+
+ 1919 KLAEBER, F. Concerning the functions of O.E. _geweorðan_,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ XVIII, 250-71. (Cf. paper of Prof. Hubbard above, by which
+ this was suggested.)
+
+ 1919 KLAEBER, F. Textual notes on "Beowulf," _M.L.N._ XXXIV, 129-34.
+
+ 1919 BROWN, CARLETON. Beowulf, 1080-1106, _M.L.N._ XXXIV, 181-3.
+
+ 1919 BRETT, CYRIL. Notes on passages of Old and Middle English,
+ _M.L.R._ XIV, 1-9.
+
+ 1919-20 KOCK, E. A. Interpretations and emendations of Early English
+ Texts: V (Incl. Beowulf, 2030, 2419-24); VI (Incl. Beowulf 24, 154-6,
+ 189-90, 1992-3, 489-90, 581-3, 1745-7, 1820-1, 1931-2, 2164); VII
+ (Incl. Beowulf, 1230, 1404, 1553-6); _Anglia_, XLIII, 303-4; XLIV, 98
+ _etc._, 245 _etc._
+
+ 1920 BRYAN W. F. Beowulf Notes (303-6, 532-4, 867-71), _J.E.G.Ph._ XIX,
+ 84-5.
+
+§ 8. QUESTIONS OF LITERARY HISTORY, DATE AND AUTHORSHIP: BEOWULF IN THE
+LIGHT OF HISTORY, ARCHÆOLOGY, HEROIC LEGEND, MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
+
+ See also preceding section.
+
+No attempt is made here to deal with Old English heroic legend in general:
+nor to enumerate the references to _Beowulf_ in histories of literature.
+Probably the earliest allusion to our poem by a great writer is in Scott's
+_Essay on Romance_ (1824):
+
+ "The Saxons had, no doubt, Romances, ... and Mr Turner ... has given us
+ the abridgement of one entitled Caedmon, in which the hero, whose
+ adventures are told much after the manner of the ancient Norse Sagas,
+ encounters, defeats and finally slays an evil being called Grendel...."
+
+ 1816 OUTZEN, N. Das ags. Gedicht Beowulf, _Kieler Blätter_, III,
+ 307-27. (See above, p. 4, note.) {398}
+
+ 1816 (Review of Thorkelin in) _Monthly Review_, LXXXI, 516-23. (Beowulf
+ identified with Beaw Sceldwaing of the West Saxon genealogy; see above,
+ p. 292.)
+
+ 1817 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. _Danne-Virke_, II, 207-89. (Identifies
+ Chochilaicus; see above, p. 4, note.)
+
+ 1826 GRIMM, W. Einleitung über die Elfen, _Kleinere Schriften_, I, 405,
+ esp. p. 467 (extract relating to Grendel's hatred of song). From
+ ++_Irische Elfenmärchen_.
+
+ 1829 GRIMM, W. Die deutsche Heldensage. Göttingen. (Pp. 13-17. Extracts
+ from Beowulf, with translation, relating to Weland, Sigemund, Hama and
+ Eormenric.)
+
+ 1836 KEMBLE, J. M. Über die Stammtafel der Westsachsen. München.
+ Review: J. Grimm, _Göttingische gelehrte Anziegen_, 1836, 649-57, =
+ _Kleinere Schriften_, V, 240.
+
+ 1836 MONE, F. J. Zur Kritik des Gedichts von Beowulf (in Untersuchungen
+ zur Geschichte der teutschen Heldensage). Quedlinburg u. Leipzig. (Pp.
+ 129-36.)
+
+ 1839 LEO, H. Bëówulf ... nach seinem inhalte, und nach seinen
+ historischen und mythologischen beziehungen betrachtet. Halle.
+
+ 1841 DISRAELI, I. Amenities of Literature. London. (Beowulf; the
+ Hero-Life. Vol. I, pp. 80-92.)
+
+ 1841 GRUNDTVIG, N. F. S. Bjovulfs Drape, _Brage og Idun_, IV, 481-538.
+ (Discusses the story, with criticism of previous scholars, and
+ especially of Kemble.)
+
+ 1843-9 GRIMM, W. Einleitung zur Vorlesung über Gudrun [with an abstract
+ of Beowulf]; see _Kleinere Schriften_, IV, 557-60.
+
+ 1844 MÜLLENHOFF, K. Die deutschen Völker an Nord- und Ostsee in
+ ältester Zeit, _Nordalbingische Studien_, I, 111 _etc._
+
+ 1845 A brief discussion of Beowulf in _Edinburgh Review_, LXXXII,
+ 309-11.
+
+ 1845 HAUPT, M. Zum Beowulf, _Z.f.d.A._ V, 10. (Drawing attention to the
+ reference to Hygelac in the _liber de monstris_; see above, p. 4.)
+
+ 1848 MÜLLENHOFF, K. Die austrasische Dietrichssage, _Z.f.d.A._ VI, 435
+ _etc._
+
+ 1849 MÜLLENHOFF, K. Sceáf u. seine Nachkommen, _Z.f.d.A._ VII, 410-19;
+ Der Mythus von Beóvulf, _Z.f.d.A._ VII, 419-41.
+
+ 1849 GRIMM, J. Ueber das Verbrennen der Leichen, _Abhandl. d. Berl.
+ Akad._, 1849, 191 _etc._ = _Kleinere Schriften_, II, 211-313 (esp.
+ 261-4).
+
+ 1849 BACHLECHNER, J. Die Merovinge im Beowulf, _Z.f.d.A._ VII, 524-6.
+
+ 1851 ZAPPERT, G. Virgil's Fortleben im Mittelalter, _Denkschriften der
+ k. Akad. Wien, Phil.-Hist. Classe_, Bd. II, Abth. 2, pp. 17-70. (Gives
+ numerous parallels between Virgil and "Beowulf," somewhat
+ indiscriminately.)
+
+ 1852 BRYNJULFSSON, G. Oldengelsk og Oldnordisk, _Antikuarisk
+ Tidsskrift_, Kjøbenhavn, 1852-4, pp. 81-143. (An important paper which
+ has been unduly overlooked. Brynjulfsson notes the parallel between
+ Beowulf and Bjarki (see above, p. 61) and in other respects anticipates
+ later scholars, e.g., in noting the close relationship between Angles
+ and Danes (p. 143) and less fortunately (pp. 129-31) in identifying the
+ Geatas with the Jutes.)
+
+ 1856 BACHLECHNER, J. Eomaer und Heming (Hamlac), _Germania_, I, 297-303
+ and 455-61.
+
+ 1856 BOUTERWEK, K. W. Das Beowulflied: Eine Vorlesung; _Germania_, I,
+ 385-418.
+
+ 1857 UHLAND, L. Sigemund und Sigeferd, _Germania_, II, 344-63 =
+ _Schriften_, VIII, 479 _etc._ (Incl. Finnsburg.)
+
+ {399}
+
+ 1858 WEINHOLD, K. Die Riesen des germanischen Mythus, _Sitzungberichte
+ der K. Akad., Wien, Phil-Hist. Classe_, XXVI, 225-306. (Grendel and his
+ mother, p. 255.)
+
+ 1859 RIEGER, M. Ingaevonen, Istaevonen, Herminonen, _Z.f.d.A._ XI,
+ 177-205.
+
+ 1859 MÜLLENHOFF, K. Zur Kritik des angelsächsischen Volksepos, 2,
+ Widsith, _Z.f.d.A._ XI, 275-94.
+
+ 1860 MÜLLENHOFF, K. Zeugnisse u. Excurse zur deutschen Heldensage,
+ _Z.f.d.A._ XII, 253-386. (_This portion_ of vol. XII was published in
+ 1860.)
+
+ 1861 HAIGH, D. H. The Anglo-Saxon Sagas. London. (An uncritical attempt
+ to identify the proper names in Beowulf and Finnsburg with sites in
+ England.)
+
+ 1862 GREIN, C. W. M. Die historischen Verhältnisse des Beowulfliedes,
+ _Eberts Jahrbuch für roman. u. engl. Litt._ IV, 260-85. (Incl.
+ Finnsburg.)
+
+ 1864 ++SCHULTZE, M. Ueber das Beowulfslied. _Programm der städtischen
+ Realschule zu Elbing._ (Not seen, but contents, including the mythical
+ interpretations current at the period, noted in _Archiv_, XXXVII, 232.)
+
+ 1864 HEYNE, M. Ueber die Lage und Construction der Halle Heorot.
+ Paderborn.
+
+ 1868 KÖHLER, A. Germanische Alterthümer im Beóvulf, _Germania_, XIII,
+ 129-58.
+
+ 1869 MÜLLENHOFF, K. Die innere Geschichte des Beovulfs, _Z.f.d.A._ XIV,
+ 193-244. (Reprinted in _Beovulf_, 1889. See above, p. 113 _etc._)
+
+ 1870 KÖHLER, A. Die Einleitung des Beovulfliedes. Die beiden Episoden
+ von Heremod, _Z.f.d.Ph._ II, 305-21.
+
+ 1875 SCHRØDER, L. Om Bjovulfs Drapen. København. (See above, p. 30.)
+
+ 1876 BOTKINE, L. Beowulf. Analyse historique et géographique. Havre.
+ (Material subsequently incorporated in translation, q.v. § 6.) Review:
+ Körner, _Engl. Stud._ I, 495-6.
+
+ 1877 SKEAT, W. W. The name "Beowulf," _Academy_, XI (Jan.-June), p.
+ 163. (Suggests Beowulf = "woodpecker"; see above, pp. 365-6, _note_.)
+
+ 1877 TEN BRINK, B. Geschichte der englischen Litteratur. (Beowulf,
+ Finnsburg, pp. 29-40.)
+
+ 1877 DEDERICH, H. Historische u. geographische Studien zum ags.
+ Beóvulfliede. Köln. (Incl. Finnsburg.) Reviews: Körner, _Engl. Stud._
+ I, 481-95; Müllenhoff, _A.f.d.A._ III, 172-82; ++Suchier, _Jenaer
+ Literatur-Zeitung_, XLVII, 732, 1876.
+
+ 1877 HORNBURG, J. Die Composition des Beowulf. _Programm des K. Lyceums
+ in Metz._ Full summary by F. Hummel in _Archiv_, LXII, 231-3. See also
+ under 1884.
+
+ 1877 SCHULTZE, M. Alt-heidnisches in der angelsächsischen Poesie,
+ speciell im Beowulfsliede. Berlin.
+
+ 1877 SUCHIER, H. Ueber die Sage von Offa u. Þryðo, _P.B.B._ IV, 500-21.
+
+ 1878 MÜLLER, N. Die Mythen im Beówulf, in ihrem Verhältniss zur
+ germanischen Mythologie betrachtet. Dissertation, Heidelberg. Leipzig.
+
+ 1879 LAISTNER, L. Nebelsagen. Stuttgart. (See above, p. 46, note.)
+
+ 1879 SWEET, H. Old English etymologies: I, _Beóhata_, _Engl. Stud._ II,
+ 312-14. (See above, p. 365.)
+
+ 1880 GERING, H. Der Beówulf u. die isländische Grettissaga, _Anglia_,
+ III, 74-87. (Important. Gering announced Vigfússon's discovery to a
+ wider circle of readers, with translation of the Sandhaugar episode,
+ and useful comment. The discovery was further announced to American
+ readers by GARNETT in the _American Journal of Philology_, I, 492
+ (1880), though its importance was there rather understated. See above,
+ p. 54.)
+
+ {400}
+
+ 1881 SMITH, C. SPRAGUE. Beówulf Gretti, _New Englander_, XL (N. S. IV),
+ 49-67. (Translation of corresponding passages in Grettis saga and
+ Beowulf.)
+
+ 1882 MARCH, F. A. The World of Beowulf, _Proceedings of Amer. Phil.
+ Assoc._ pp. xxi-xxiii.
+
+ 1883 RÖNNING, F. Beovulfs-kvadet; en literær-historisk undersøgelse.
+ København. Review: Heinzel, _A.f.d.A._ X, 233-9. (Rönning criticises
+ Müllenhoff's theories of separate lays. His book and Heinzel's review
+ are both important.)
+
+ 1883 MERBOT, R. Aesthetische Studien zur Ags. Poesie. Breslau. Reviews:
+ Koch, _Anglia_, VI, _Anzeiger_, 100-3; Kluge, _Engl. Stud._, VIII,
+ 480-2.
+
+ 1884 EARLE, J. Anglo-Saxon Literature (The dawn of European
+ Literature). London. (Pp. 120-39 deal with Beowulf. Earle holds Beowulf
+ to be "a genuine growth of that junction in time ... when the heathen
+ tales still kept their traditional interest, and yet the spirit of
+ Christianity had taken full possession of the Saxon mind.")
+
+ 1884 FAHLBECK, P. Beowulfs-kvädet såsom källa för nordisk fornhistoria,
+ _Antikvar. tidskr. för Sverige_, VIII, 1-87. Review: _Academy_, XXIX,
+ 1886, p. 12. (See above, pp. 8, 333.)
+
+ 1884 HARRISON, J. A. Old Teutonic life in Beowulf, _Overland Monthly_,
+ Sec. Ser. vol. IV, 14-24; 152-61.
+
+ 1884 HERTZ, W. Beowulf, das älteste germanische Epos, _Nord und Süd_,
+ XXIX, 229-53.
+
+ 1884 HORNBURG, J. Die komposition des Beovulf, _Archiv_, LXXII,
+ 333-404. (Rejects Müllenhoff's "Liedertheorie.")
+
+ 1884 KRÜGER, TH. Zum Beowulfliede. Bromberg. Reviewed favourably by
+ Kölbing, _Engl. Stud._ IX, 150; severely by Kluge, _Literaturblatt_,
+ 1884, 428-9. (A useful summary, which had the misfortune to be
+ superseded next year by the publication of Wülker's _Grundriss_.)
+
+ 1884 KRÜGER, TH. Über Ursprung u. Entwickelung des Beowulfliedes,
+ _Archiv_, LXXI, 129-52.
+
+ 1884-5 EARLE, J. Beowulf, in _The Times_, London (Aug. 25, 1884, p. 6
+ (not signed); Oct. 29, 1885, p. 3; Sept. 30, 1885, p. 3. "The Beowulf
+ itself is a tale of old folk-lore which, in spite of repeated editing,
+ has never quite lost the old crust of its outline.... This discovery,
+ if established, must have the effect of quite excluding the application
+ of the Wolffian hypothesis to our poem.")
+
+ 1885 WÜLKER, R. Grundriss zur geschichte der angelsächsischen
+ Litteratur. Leipzig. 6. Die angelsächsische Heldendichtung, Beowulf,
+ Finnsburg, 244-315. (An important and useful summary.)
+
+ 1885 LEHMANN, H. Brünne und Helm im angelsächsischen Beowulfliede.
+ Dissertation, Göttingen. Leipzig. Reviews: Wülker, _Anglia_, VIII,
+ _Anzeiger_, 167-70; Schulz, _Engl. Stud._ IX, 471.
+
+ 1886 SKEAT, W. W. On the signification of the monster Grendel ... with
+ a discussion of ll. 2076-2100. Read before the Cambridge Philological
+ Society. _Journal of Philology_, XV, 120-31. (Not _American Jour. of
+ Phil._, as frequently quoted.)
+
+ 1886 SARRAZIN, G. Die Beowulfsage in Dänemark, _Anglia_, IX, 195-9;
+ Beowa und Böthvar, _Anglia_, IX, 200-4; Beowulf und Kynewulf, _Anglia_,
+ IX, 515-50; Der Schauplatz des ersten Beowulfliedes und die Heimat des
+ Dichters, _P.B.B._ XI, 159-83 (see above, p. 101).
+
+ 1886 SIEVERS, E. Die Heimat des Beowulfdichters, _P.B.B._ XI, 354-62.
+
+ 1886 SARRAZIN, G. Altnordisches im Beowulfliede, _P.B.B._ XI, 528-41.
+ (See above, p. 102.)
+
+ 1886 SIEVERS, E. Altnordisches im Beowulf? _P.B.B._ XII, 168-200.
+
+ {401}
+
+ 1886 SCHILLING, H. Notes on the Finnsaga, _M.L.N._ I, 89-92; 116-17.
+
+ 1886 LEHMANN, H. Über die Waffen im angelsächsischen Beowulfliede,
+ _Germania_, XXXI, 486-97.
+
+ 1887 SCHILLING, H. The Finnsburg-fragment and the Finn-episode,
+ _M.L.N._ II, 146-50.
+
+ 1887 MORLEY, H. Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, in _English
+ Writers_, vol. I, 276-354. London.
+
+ 1887 BUGGE, S. Studien über das Beowulfepos, _P.B.B._ XII, 1-112,
+ 360-75. Important. (Das Finnsburgfragment, pp. 20-8.)
+
+ 1887 ++SCHNEIDER, F. Der Kampf mit Grendels Mutter. _Program des
+ Friedrichs Real-Gymnasiums._ Berlin.
+
+ 1888 TEN BRINK, B. Beowulf. Untersuchungen. (_Quellen u. Forschungen_,
+ LXII.) (Important. See above, p. 113.) Strassburg. Reviews: Wülker,
+ _Anglia_, XI, 319-21 and _Lit. Cbl._ 1889, 251; Möller, _Engl. Stud._
+ XIII, 247-315 (weighty, containing some good remarks on the
+ Jutes-Geatas); Koeppel, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXIII, 113-22; Heinzel, _A.f.d.A._
+ XV, 153-82 (weighty); Liebermann, _Deut. Zeitschr. f.
+ Geschichtswissenschaft_, II, 1889, 197-9; Kraus, _D.L.Z._ XII, 1891,
+ 1605-7, 1846: reply by ten Brink ("Beowulfkritik und _ABAB_"), _D.L.Z._
+ 1892, 109-12.
+
+ 1888 SARRAZIN, G. Beowulf-Studien. Berlin. Reviews: Koeppel, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XIII, 472-80; Sarrazin, Entgegnung, _Engl. Stud._ XIV, 421
+ _etc._, reply by Koeppel, XIV, 427; Sievers, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXI, 366;
+ Dieter, _Archiv_, LXXXIII, 352-3; Heinzel, _A.f.d.A._ XV, 182-9;
+ Wülker, _Lit. Cbl._ 1889, 315-16; Wülker, _Anglia_, XI, 536-41.
+ Holthausen, _Literaturblatt_, 1890, 14-16; Liebermann, _Deut. Zeitschr.
+ f. Geschichtswissenschaft_, VI, 1891, 138; Kraus, _D.L.Z._ XII, 1891,
+ pp. 1822-3. (All these reviews express dissent from Sarrazin's main
+ conclusions, though many of them show appreciation of details in his
+ work. See above, p. 101.)
+
+ 1888 KITTREDGE, G. L. Zu Beowulf, 107 _etc._, _P.B.B._ XIII, 210
+ (Cain's kin).
+
+ 1889 MÜLLENHOFF, K. Beovulf (pp. 110-65=_Z.f.d.A._ XIV, 193-244).
+ Berlin. See above, pp. 46-7, 113-15. Reviews: Schirmer, _Anglia_, XII,
+ 465-7; Sarrazin, _Engl. Stud._ XVI, 71-85 (important); Wülker, _Lit.
+ Cbl._ 1890, 58-9; Heinzel, _A.f.d.A._ XVI, 264-75 (important); Koeppel,
+ _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXIII, 110-13; Holthausen, _Literaturblatt_, 1890, 370-3;
+ Liebermann, _Deut. Zeitschr. f. Geschichtswissenschaft_, VI, 1891,
+ 135-7; Kraus, _D.L.Z._ XII, 1891, pp. 1820-2; Logeman, _Le Moyen Âge_,
+ III, 266-7 ("personne ne conteste plus ... que le poème se composait
+ originairement de plusieurs parties"). Müllenhoff's book, like that of
+ ten Brink, is based on assumptions generally held at the time, but now
+ not so widely accepted; yet it remains important.
+
+ 1889 LAISTNER, L. Das Rätsel der Sphinx. Berlin. (See above, p. 67.)
+
+ 1889 LÜNING, O. Die Natur ... in der altgermanischen und
+ mittelhochdeutschen Epik. Zürich. Reviews: Weinhold, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXII,
+ 246-7; Golther, _D.L.Z._ 1889, 710-2; Ballerstedt, _A.f.d.A._ XVI,
+ 71-4; Fränkel, _Literaturblatt_, 1890, 439-44.
+
+ 1890 ++DESKAU, H. Zum studium des Beowulf. Berichte des freien
+ deutschen Hochstiftes, 1890. Frankfurt.
+
+ 1890 ++KLÖPPER, C. Heorot-Hall in the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf.
+ Festschrift für K. E. Krause. Rostock.
+
+ 1891 JELLINEK, M. H. and KRAUS, C. Die Widersprüche im Beowulf,
+ _Z.f.d.A_, XXXV, 265-81.
+
+ 1891 BUGGE, S. and OLRIK, A. Røveren ved Gråsten og Beowulf, _Dania_,
+ I, 233-45.
+
+ 1891 JELLINEK, M. H. Zum Finnsburgfragment, _P.B.B._ XV, 428-31.
+
+ 1892 EARLE, J. The Introduction to his Translation (q.v.) gave a
+ summary of the controversy, with "a constructive essay."
+
+ {402}
+
+ 1892 BROOKE, STOPFORD A. History of Early English Literature (Beowulf,
+ pp. 17-131). London. Reviews: McClumpha, _M.L.N._ VIII, 27-9, 1892
+ (attacks in a letter of unnecessary violence); Wülker, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_ IV, 170-6, 225-33; Glöde, _Engl. Stud._ XXII, 264-70.
+
+ 1892 GUMMERE, F. B. Germanic Origins. A study in primitive culture. New
+ York.
+
+ 1892 FERGUSON, R. The Anglo-Saxon name Beowulf, _Athenæum_, June, 1892
+ p. 763. See above, p. 368.
+
+ 1892 HAACK, O. Zeugnisse zur altenglischen Heldensage. Kiel.
+
+ 1892 ++KRAUS, K. Hrodulf. (P. Moneta, zum 40 jähr. Dienstjub.) Wien.
+ (p. 4 _etc._)
+
+ 1892 OLRIK, A. Er Uffesagnet indvandret fra England? _A.f.n.F._ VIII
+ (N.F. IV), 368-75.
+
+ 1892 SARRAZIN, G. Die Abfassungszeit des Beowulfliedes, _Anglia_, XIV,
+ 399-415.
+
+ 1892 SIEVERS, E. Sceaf in den nordischen Genealogien, _P.B.B._ XVI,
+ 361-3.
+
+ 1892 KÖGEL, R. Beowulf, _Z.f.d.A._ XXXVII, 268-76. (Etymology of the
+ name.) Discussed by Sievers, _P.B.B._ XVIII, 413. See above, p. 367,
+ footnote.
+
+ 1893 WARD, H. L. D. Catalogue of Romances in the British Museum;
+ Beowulf: vol. II, pp. 1-15, 741-3.
+
+ 1893 TEN BRINK, B. Altenglische Literatur, _Pauls Grdr._(1), II, I,
+ 510-50. (Finnsburg, 545-50.)
+
+ 1894 MCNARY, S. J. Beowulf and Arthur as English Ideals, _Poet-Lore_,
+ VI, 529-36.
+
+ 1894 ++DETTER, F. Über die Heaðobarden im Beowulf, _Verhandl. d. Wiener
+ Philologenversammlung_, Mai, 1893. Leipzig, p. 404 _etc._ (Argues that
+ the story is not historical, but mythical--_Ragnarok_.)
+
+ 1895 SIEVERS, E. Beowulf und Saxo, _Berichte der kgl. sächs.
+ Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, XLVII, 175-93. (Important, see above,
+ pp. 90-7.)
+
+ 1895 BINZ, G. Zeugnisse zur germanischen sage in England, _P.B.B._ XX,
+ 141-223. (A most useful collection, though the significance of many of
+ the names collected is open to dispute.)
+
+ 1895 KLUGE, F. Zeugnisse zur germanischen sage in England, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XXI, 446-8.
+
+ 1895-6 KLUGE, F. Der Beowulf u. die Hrolfs Saga Kraka, _Engl. Stud._
+ XXII, 144-5.
+
+ 1896 Sarrazin, G. Neue Beowulf-studien, _Engl. Stud._ XXIII, 221-67.
+
+ 1897 Ker, W. P. Epic and Romance. London. (Beowulf, pp. 182-202.
+ Important. See above, p. 116.) Reviews: Fischer, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, X,
+ 133-5; Brandl, _Archiv_, C, 198-200. New edit. 1908.
+
+ 1897 BLACKBURN, F. A. The Christian coloring in the Beowulf, _Pub. Mod.
+ Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XII, 205-25. (See above, p. 125.)
+
+ 1897 SARRAZIN, G. Die Hirschhalle, _Anglia_, XIX, 368-92; Der
+ Balder-kultus in Lethra, _ibid._ 392-7; Rolf Krake und sein Vetter im
+ Beowulfliede, _Engl. Stud._ XXIV, 144-5. (Important. See above, p. 31.)
+
+ 1897 HENNING, R. Sceaf und die westsächsische Stammtafel, _Z.f.d.A._
+ XLI, 156-69.
+
+ 1898 ARNOLD, T. Notes on Beowulf. London. Reviews: Hulme, _M.L.N._ XV,
+ 22-6, 1900; Sarrazin, _Engl. Stud._ XXVIII, 410-18; Garnett, _Amer.
+ Jour. of Phil._ XX, 443.
+
+ 1898 NIEDNER, F. Die Dioskuren im Beowulf, _Z.f.d.A._ XLII, 229-58.
+
+ 1899 COOK, A. S. An Irish Parallel to the Beowulf Story, _Archiv_,
+ CIII, 154-6.
+
+ 1899 AXON, W. E. A. A reference to the evil eye in Beowulf, _Trans. of
+ the Royal Soc. of Literature_, London. (Very slight.)
+
+ {403}
+
+ 1899 ++FURST, CLYDE. "Beowulf" in "A Group of Old Authors."
+ Philadelphia. (Popular.) Review: Child, _M.L.N._ XV, 31-2.
+
+ 1900 FÖRSTER, MAX. Bêowulf-Materialien, zum Gebrauch bei Vorlesungen.
+ Braunschweig. Reviews: Holthausen, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XI, 289;
+ Behagel, _Literaturblatt_, 1902, 67 (very brief).
+
+ 1908. 2 Aufl.
+
+ 1912. 3 Aufl. Review: Wild, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXIV, 166-7.
+
+ 1901 POWELL, F. YORK. Beowulf and Watanabe-No-Tsema, _Furnivall
+ Miscellany_, pp. 395-6. Oxford. (A parallel from Japanese legend.)
+
+ 1901 LEHMANN, E. Fandens Oldemor, _Dania_, VIII, 179-94. Repeated
+ ("Teuffels Grossmutter"), _Archiv f. Religionswiss._ VIII, 411-30. (See
+ above, p. 49, note, and p. 381.)
+
+ 1901 ++OTTO, E. Typische Motive in dem weltlichen Epos der
+ Angelsachsen. Berlin. Reviews: Binz, _Engl. Stud._ XXXII, 401-5; Spies,
+ _Archiv_, CXV, 222.
+
+ 1901 OHLENBECK, C. C. Het Béowulf-epos als geschiedbron, _Tijdschrift
+ voor nederlandsche taal- en letterkunde_, XX (N. R. XII), 169-96.
+
+ 1902 _Gerould, G. H._ Offa and Labhraidh Maen, _M.L.N._ XVII, 201-3.
+ (An Irish parallel of the story of the dumb young prince.)
+
+ 1902 GOUGH, A. B. The Constance-Saga. Berlin. (The "Thrytho saga," pp.
+ 53-83.) Reviews: Eckhardt, _Engl. Stud._ XXXII, 110-3; Weyrauch,
+ _Archiv_, CXI, 453.
+
+ 1902 BOER, R. C. Die Béowulfsage. I. Mythische reconstructionen; II.
+ Historische untersuchung der überlieferung; _A.f.n.F._ XIX (N. F. XV),
+ 19-88.
+
+ 1902 BRANDL, A. Ueber den gegenwärtigen Stand der Beowulf-Forschung,
+ _Archiv_, CVIII, 152-5.
+
+ 1903 ANDERSON, L. F. The Anglo-Saxon Scop. (_Univ. of Toronto Studies,
+ Phil. Ser. 1._) Review: Heusler, _A.f.d.A._ XXXI, 113-5.
+
+ 1903 OLRIK, A. Danmarks Heltedigtning: I, Rolf Krake og den ældre
+ Skjoldungrække. Kobenhavn. (Most important.) Reviews: Heusler,
+ _A.f.d.A._ XXX, 26-36; Golther, _Literaturblatt_, XXVIII, 1907, pp.
+ 8-9; Ranisch, _A.f.d.A._ XXI, 276-80. Revised translation 1919 (q.v.).
+
+ 1903 ++BOER, R. C. Eene episode uit den Beowulf, _Handelingen van het 3
+ nederl. phil. congres._, p. 84 _etc._
+
+ 1903 A Summary of the _Lives of the Offas_, with reproductions of a
+ number of the drawings in _MS Cotton Nero D. I_, in _The Ancestor_, V,
+ 99-137.
+
+ 1903 HART, J. M. Allotria [on the forms _B[=e]anst[=a]n_, l. 524 and
+ _Þr[=y]ðo_, l. 1931], _M.L.N._ XVIII, 117.
+
+ 1903 STJERNA, K. Hjälmar och svärd i Beovulf, _Studier tillägnade O.
+ Montelius_, 99-120. Stockholm. See above, pp. 346 _etc._
+
+ 1903-4 BOER, R. C. Finnsage und Nibelungen-sage, _Z.f.d.A._ XLVII,
+ 125-60.
+
+ 1904 RICKERT, E. The O.E. Offa-saga, _Mod. Phil._ II, 29-76 and 321-76.
+ (Important. See above, pp. 34 _etc._)
+
+ 1904 HAGEN, S. N. Classical names and stories in Beowulf, _M.L.N._ XIX,
+ 65-74 and 156-65. (Very fantastic).
+
+ 1904 STJERNA, K. Vendel och Vendelkråka, _A.f.n.F._ XXI (N. F. XVII),
+ 71-80. (Most important: see above, pp. 343-5.)
+
+ 1904 ++VETTER, F. Beowulf und das altdeutsche Heldenzeitalter in
+ England, _Deutschland_, III, 558-71.
+
+ 1905 MOORMAN, F. W. The interpretation of nature in English poetry from
+ Beowulf to Shakespeare. Strassburg. _Quellen u. Forschungen_, 95.
+
+ {404}
+
+ 1905 ROUTH, J. E. Two studies on the Ballad Theory of the Beowulf: I.
+ The Origin of the Grendel legend; II. Irrelevant Episodes and
+ Parentheses as features of Anglo-Saxon Poetic Style. Baltimore.
+ Reviews: Eckhardt, _Engl. Stud._ XXXVII, 404-5; Heusler, _A.f.d.A._
+ XXXI, 115-16; Schücking, _D.L.Z._ 1905, pp. 1908-10.
+
+ 1905 HEUSLER, A. Lied und Epos in germanischer Sagendichtung. Dortmund.
+ (See above, p. 116.) Reviews: Kauffmann, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXXVIII, 546-8;
+ Seemüller, _A.f.d.A._ XXXIV, 129-35; Meyer, _Archiv_, CXV, 403-4; Helm,
+ _Literaturblatt_, XXVIII, 237-8.
+
+ 1905 SCHÜCKING, L. L. Beowulfs Rückkehr. (_Morsbachs Studien_, XXI.)
+ Halle. (Important: see above, pp. 118-20.) Review: Brandl, _Archiv_,
+ CXV, 421-3 (dissenting).
+
+ 1905 SCHÜCK, H. Studier i Ynglingatal, I-III. Uppsala.
+
+ 1905 HANSCOM, E. D. The Feeling for Nature in Old English Poetry,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ V, 439-63.
+
+ 1905 SARRAZIN, G. Neue Beowulf Studien, _Engl. Stud._ XXXV, 19-27.
+
+ 1905 STJERNA, K. Skölds hädanfärd, _Studier tillägnade H. Schück_,
+ 110-34. Stockholm.
+
+ 1905 ++STJERNA, K. Svear och Götar under folkvandringstiden, _Svenska
+ Förnminnesforeningens Tidskr._ XII, 339-60. (Transl. by Clark Hall in
+ _Essays_. See under 1912.)
+
+ 1905-6 RIEGER, M. Zum Kampf in Finnsburg, _Z.f.d.A._ XLVIII, 9-12.
+
+ 1905-6 HEUSLER, A. Zur Skiöldungendichtung, _Z.f.d.A._ XLVIII, 57-87.
+
+ 1905-6 NECKEL, J. Studien über Fróði, _Z.f.d.A._ XLVIII, 163-86.
+
+ 1905-7 STJERNA, K. Arkeologiska anteckningar till Beovulf, _Kungl.
+ vitterhets akademiens månadsblad_ for 1903-5 (1907), pp. 436-51.
+
+ 1906 EMERSON, O. F. Legends of Cain, especially in Old and Middle
+ English (see particularly § VI, "Cain's Descendants"), _Pub. Mod. Lang.
+ Assoc. Amer._ XXI, 831-929. (Important.)
+
+ 1906 SKEMP, A. R. Transformation of scriptural story, motive, and
+ conception in Anglo-Saxon poetry, _Mod. Phil._ IV, 423-70.
+
+ 1906 DUFF, J. W. Homer and Beowulf: a literary parallel, _Saga-Book of
+ the Viking Club_. London.
+
+ 1906 MORSBACH, L. Zur datierung des Beowulf-epos, _Nachrichten der kgl.
+ Ges. d. Wiss. zu Göttingen, Phil.-Hist. Klasse_, pp. 252-77.
+ (Important. See above, pp. 107-12.)
+
+ 1906 PFÄNDLER, W. Die Vergnügungen der Angelsachsen, _Anglia_, XXIX,
+ 417-526.
+
+ 1906 GARLANDA, F. Béowulf. Origini, bibliografia, metrica ...
+ significato storico, etico, sociologico. Roma. (Slight.)
+
+ 1906 STJERNA, K. Drakskatten i Beovulf, _Fornvännen_, I, 119-44.
+
+ 1907 CHADWICK, H. M. Origin of the English Nation. Cambridge.
+ (Important.) Reviews: Andrews, _M.L.N._ XXIII, 261-2; Chambers,
+ _M.L.R._ IV, 262-6; Schütte, _A.f.n.F._ XXV (N. F. XXI), 310-32 (an
+ elaborate discussion of early Germanic ethnology and geography);
+ Huchon, _Revue Germanique_, III, 625-31.
+
+ 1907 CHADWICK, H. M. "Early National Poetry," in _Cambridge History of
+ English Literature_, vol. I, 19-32, 421-3. Important. See above, pp.
+ 122-6.
+
+ 1907 HART, WALTER MORRIS. Ballad and Epic. Boston: Harvard _Studies and
+ Notes in Philology and Literature_. (Important: see above, p. 116.)
+ Review: _Archiv_, CXIX, 468.
+
+ 1907 OLRIK, A. Nordisk Aandsliv i Vikingetid og tidlig Middelalder.
+ København og Kristiania. (Translated into German by W. Ranisch, 1908,
+ as "Nordisches Geistesleben.")
+
+ {405}
+
+ 1907 SCHÜCK, H. Folknamnet Geatas i den fornengelska dikten Beowulf.
+ Uppsala. (Important. See above, pp. 8-10, 333 _etc._) Reviews: Mawer,
+ _M.L.R._ IV, 273; Freeburg, _J.E.G.Ph._ XI, 279-83.
+
+ 1907 COOK, A. S. Various notes, _M.L.N._ XXI, 146-7. (Further classical
+ parallels to Beowulf, 1408 ff., in succession to a parallel from Seneca
+ quoted in _M.L.N._ XVII, 209-10.)
+
+ 1907 SARRAZIN, G. Zur Chronologie u. Verfasserfrage Ags. Dichtungen,
+ _Engl. Stud._ XXXVIII, 145 _etc._, esp. 170-95 (Das Beowulflied und die
+ ältere Genesis).
+
+ 1907 BRANDL, A. Entstehungsgeschichte des Beowulfepos. A five-line
+ summary of this lecture is given in the _Sitzungsberichte d. k. preuss.
+ Akad. Phil.-Hist. Classe_, p. 615.
+
+ 1907 HOLTHAUSEN, F. Zur altenglischen literatur--Zur datierung des
+ Beowulf, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XVIII, 77.
+
+ 1907 ++GRÜNER, H. Mathei Parisiensis vitae duorum Offarum, in ihrer
+ manuskript- und textgeschichte. Dissertation, Munich. Kaiserslautern.
+
+ 1908 BRANDL, A. Geschichte der alteng. Literatur. (Offprint from _Pauls
+ Grdr._(2): Beowulf, pp. 988-1024; Finnsburg, pp. 983-6; an exceedingly
+ useful and discriminating summary.)
+
+ 1908 SCHÜCKING, L. L. Das Angelsächsische Totenklagelied, _Engl. Stud._
+ XXXIX, 1-13.
+
+ 1908 WEYHE, H. König Ongentheow's Fall, _Engl. Stud._ XXXIX, 14-39.
+
+ 1908 NECKEL, G. Beiträge zur Eddaforschung; Anhang: Die altgermanische
+ heldenklage (pp. 495-6: cf. p. 376). Dortmund.
+
+ 1908 KLAEBER, F. Zum Finnsburg Kampfe, _Engl. Stud._ XXXIX, 307-8.
+
+ 1908 BJÖRKMAN, E. Über den Namen der Jüten, _Engl. Stud._ XXXIX,
+ 356-61.
+
+ 1908 LEVANDER, L. Sagotraditioner om Sveakonungen Adils, _Antikvarisk
+ Tidskrift för Sverige_, XVIII, 3.
+
+ 1908 STJERNA, K. Fasta fornlämningar i Beovulf, _Antikvarisk Tidskrift
+ för Sverige_, XVIII, 4.
+
+ 1908 GRAU, G. Quellen u. Verwandtschaften der älteren germanischen
+ Darstellungen des jüngsten Gerichtes. Halle. (See esp. pp. 145-56.)
+ Review: Guntermann, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XLI, 401-415.
+
+ 1909 SCHÜCK, H. Studier i Beowulfsagan. Uppsala. Review: Freeburg,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ XI, 488-97 (a very useful summary).
+
+ 1909 LAWRENCE, W. W. Some disputed questions in Beowulf-criticism,
+ _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXIV, 220-73. (Very important.) Review:
+ Brandl, _Archiv_, CXXIII, 473.
+
+ 1909 EHRISMANN, G. Religionsgeschichtliche Beiträge zum germanischen
+ Frühchristentum, _P.B.B._ XXXV, 209-39.
+
+ 1909 BUGGE, S. Die Heimat der Altnordischen Lieder von den Welsungen u.
+ den Nibelungen, II, _P.B.B._ XXXV, 240-71.
+
+ 1909 DEUTSCHBEIN, M. Die Sagenhistorischen u. literarischen Grundlagen
+ des Beowulfepos, _Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift_, I, 103-19.
+
+ 1910 OLRIK, A. Danmarks Heltedigtning: II, Starkad den gamle og den
+ yngre Skjoldungrække. København. (Most important.) Reviews: Heusler,
+ _A.f.d.A._ XXXV, 169-83 (important); Ussing, _Danske Studier_, 1910,
+ 193-203; Boer, _Museum_, XIX, 1912, 171-4.
+
+ 1910 PANZER, F. Studien zur germanischen Sagengeschichte. I. Beowulf.
+ München. (Most important: see above, pp. 62-8; 365-81. Valuable
+ criticisms and modifications are supplied by the reviews, more
+ particularly perhaps that of von Sydow (_A.f.d.A._ XXXV, 123-31), but
+ also in the elaborate discussions of Heusler (_Engl. Stud._ XLII,
+ 289-98), Binz (_Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXIV, 321-37), Brandl (_Archiv_,
+ CXXVI, 231-5), Kahle {406} (_Z.f.d.Ph._ XLIII, 383-94) and the briefer
+ ones of Lawrence (_M.L.N._ XXVII, 57-60) Sedgefield _(M.L.R._ VI,
+ 128-31) and Golther (_Neue Jahrbücher f. das klassische Altertum_, XXV,
+ 610-13).)
+
+ 1910 BRADLEY, H. Beowulf, in _Encyclopædia Britannica_, III, pp.
+ 758-61. (Important. See above, pp. 121, 127-8.)
+
+ 1910 SCHÜCK, H. Sveriges förkristna konungalängd. Uppsala.
+
+ 1910 CLARK HALL, J. R. A note on Beowulf, 1142-5, _M.L.N._ XXV, 113-14.
+ _(H[=u]nl[=a]fing._)
+
+ 1910 SARRAZIN, G. Neue Beowulf-studien, _Engl. Stud._ XLII, 1-37.
+
+ 1910 KLAEBER, F. Die ältere Genesis und der Beowulf, _Engl. Stud._
+ XLII, 321-38.
+
+ 1910 HEUSLER, A. Zeitrechnung im Beowulf-epos, _Archiv_, CXXIV, 9-14.
+
+ 1910 NECKEL, G. Etwas von germanischer Sagenforschung, _Germ.-Rom.
+ Monatsschrift_, II, 1-14.
+
+ 1910 SMITHSON, G. A. The Old English Christian Epic ... in comparison
+ with the Beowulf. Berkeley. _Univ. of California Pub. in Mod. Phil._
+ (See particularly pp. 363-8, 376-90.)
+
+ 1911 CLARKE, M. G. Sidelights on Teutonic History. Cambridge. Reviews:
+ Mawer, _M.L.N._ VII, 126-7; Chambers, _Engl. Stud._ XLVIII, 166-8;
+ Fehr, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXVI, 19-20; Imelmann, _D.L.Z._ XXXIV, 1913,
+ 1062 _etc._
+
+ 1911-19 HEUSLER, A. A series of articles in Hoops' _Reallexikon_:
+ Beowulf, Dichtung, Ermenrich, Gautensagen, Heldensage, Hengest,
+ Heremod, Offa, Skj[o,]ldungar, Ynglingar, _etc._ Strassburg.
+ (Important.)
+
+ 1911 NECKEL, G. Ragnacharius von Cambrai, _Festschrift zur
+ Jahrhundertfeier der Universität zu Breslau = Mitt. d. Schlesischen
+ Gesellschaft für Volkskunde_, XIII-XIV, 121-54. (A historical parallel
+ between the treatment of Ragnachar by Chlodowech and that of Hrethric
+ by Hrothulf.)
+
+ 1911 SCHÖNFELD, M. Worterbuch der altgermanischen Personen- und
+ Völkernamen. Heidelberg. See also Schütte, Noter til Schönfelds
+ Navnesamling, in _A.f.n.F._ XXXIII, 22-49.
+
+ 1911 KLAEBER, F. Aeneis und Beowulf, _Archiv_, CXXVI, 40-8, 339-59.
+ (Important: see above, p. 330.)
+
+ 1911 LIEBERMANN, F. Grendel als Personenname, _Archiv_, CXXVI, 180.
+
+ 1911-12 KLAEBER, F. Die Christlichen Elemente im Beowulf, _Anglia_,
+ XXXV, 111-36, 249-70, 453-82; XXXVI, 169-99. (Most important:
+ demonstrates the fundamentally Christian character of the poem.)
+
+ 1912 CHADWICK, H. Munro. The Heroic Age. Cambridge. (Important: see
+ above, p. 122.) Reviews: Mawer, _M.L.R._ VIII, 207-9; Chambers, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XLVIII, 162-6.
+
+ 1912 STJERNA, K. Essays on questions connected with the O.E. poem of
+ Beowulf, transl. and ed. by John R. Clark Hall, (Viking Club),
+ Coventry. (Important: see above, pp. 346 _etc._) Reviews: Klaeber,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ XIII, 167-73, weighty; Mawer, _M.L.N._ VIII, 242-3;
+ _Athenæum_, 1913, I, 459-60; Brandl, _Archiv_, CXXXII, 238-9; Schütte,
+ _A.f.n.F._ XXXIII, 64-96, elaborate; Olrik, _Nord. Tidskr. f. Filol._
+ IV, 2. 127; Mogk, _Historische Vierteljahrsschrift_, XVIII, 196-7.
+
+ 1912 CHAMBERS, R. W. Widsith: a study in Old English heroic legend.
+ Cambridge. Reviews: Mawer, _M.L.R._ VIII, 118-21; Lawrence, _M.L.N._
+ XXVIII, 53-5; Fehr, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXVI, 289-95; Jordan, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XLV, 300-2; Berendsohn, _Literaturblatt_, XXXV (1914), 384-6.
+
+ 1912 BOER, R. C. Die Altenglische Heldendichtung. I. Béowulf. Halle.
+ (Important.) Reviews: ++Jantzen, _Z. f. französischen u. englischen
+ Unterricht_, XIII, 546-7; Berendsohn, _Literaturblatt_, XXXV, 152-4;
+ Dyboski, _Allgemeines Literaturblatt_, XXII, 1913, 497-9; Imelmann,
+ _D.L.Z._ XXXIV, 1913, 1062-6 (weighty criticisms); Barnouw, _Museum_,
+ XXI, 53-8.
+
+ {407}
+
+ 1912 VON DER LEYEN, F. Die deutschen Heldensagen (Beowulf, pp. 107-23,
+ 345-7). München.
+
+ 1912 MEYER, W. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Eroberung Englands.
+ Dissertation, Halle. (Finn story.)
+
+ 1912 LAWRENCE, W. W. The haunted mere in Beowulf. _Pub. Mod. Lang.
+ Assoc. Amer._ XXVII, 208-45. (Important. See above, pp. 52-3.)
+
+ 1912 SCHÜTTE, G. The Geats of Beowulf, _J.E.G.Ph._ XI, 574-602. (See
+ above, pp. 8, 333 _etc._)
+
+ 1912 STEFANOVI[VC], S. Ein beitrag zur angelsächsischen Offa-sage,
+ _Anglia_, XXXV, 483-525.
+
+ 1912 MUCH, R. Grendel, _W[=o]rter u. Sachen_, IV, 170-3. (Deriving
+ _Vendsyssel_, Vandal, and the _Wendle_ of Beowulf from _wandil_--"a
+ bough, wand.")
+
+ 1912 CHAMBERS, R. W. Six thirteenth century drawings illustrating the
+ story of Offa and of Thryth (Drida) from _MS Cotton Nero D. I._ London,
+ _privately printed_.
+
+ 1913 ++FAHLBECK, P. Beowulfskvädet som källa för nordisk fornhistoria.
+ (Stockholm, _N. F. K. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademiens
+ Handlingar_, 13, 3.) Review: Klaeber, _Engl. Stud._ XLVIII, 435-7.
+
+ 1913 NERMAN, B. Studier över Svärges hedna litteratur. Uppsala.
+
+ 1913 NERMAN, B. Vilka konungar ligga i Uppsala högar? Uppsala.
+
+ 1913 LAWRENCE, W. W. The Breca episode in Beowulf (Anniversary papers
+ to G. L. Kittredge). Boston.
+
+ 1913 SARRAZIN, G. Von Kädmon bis Kynewulf. Berlin. Reviews: Dudley,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ XV, 313-17; Berendsohn, _Literaturblatt_, XXXV (1914),
+ 386-8; Funke, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXXI, 121-33.
+
+ 1913 THOMAS, P. G. Beowulf and Daniel A, _M.L.R._ VIII, 537-9.
+ (Parallels between the two poems.)
+
+ 1913 BELDEN, H. M. Onela the Scylfing and Ali the Bold, _M.L.N._
+ XXVIII, 149-53.
+
+ 1913 STEDMAN, D. Some points of resemblance between Beowulf and the
+ Grettla (or Grettis Saga). From the _Saga Book of the Viking Club_,
+ London. (It should have been held unnecessary to prove the relationship
+ yet once again.)
+
+ 1913 VON SYDOW, C. W. Irisches in Beowulf[874]. (_Verhandlungen der 52
+ Versammlung deutscher Philologen in Marburg_, pp. 177-80.)
+
+ 1913 BERENDSOHN, W. A. Drei Schichten dichterischer Gestaltung im
+ Beowulfepos, _Münchener Museum_, II, i, pp. 1-33.
+
+ 1913 DEUTSCHBEIN, M. Beowulf der Gautenkönig, _Festschrift für Lorenz
+ Morsbach_, Halle, pp. 291-7, _Morsbachs Studien_, L. (Very important.
+ Expresses very well, and with full working out of details, the doubts
+ which some of us had already felt as to the historic character of the
+ reign of Beowulf over the Geatas.)
+
+ {408}
+
+ 1913 BENARY, W. Zum Beowulf-Grendelsage, _Archiv_, CXXX, 154-5.
+ (Grändelsmôr in Siebenbürgen: see above, p. 308.)
+
+ 1913 KLAEBER, F. Das Grändelsmôr--eine Frage, _Archiv_, CXXXI, 427.
+
+ 1913 BRATE, E. Betydelsen av ortnamnet Skälv [cf. Scilfingas], _Namn
+ och Bygd_, I, 102-8.
+
+ 1914 MÜLLER, J. Das Kulturbild des Beowulfepos. Halle. _Morsbachs
+ Studien_, LIII. Reviews: Klaeber, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXVII, 241-4;
+ Brunner, _Archiv_, CXXXVIII, 242-3.
+
+ 1914 MOORMAN, F. W. English place-names and Teutonic Sagas, in _Essays
+ and Studies by members of the English Association_, vol. V, pp. 75-103.
+ (Argues that "Gilling" and other place-names in Yorkshire, point to an
+ early colony of Scandinavian "Gautar," who may have been instrumental
+ in introducing Scandinavian traditions into England.)
+
+ 1914 OLSON, O. L. Beowulf and the Feast of Bricriu, _Mod. Phil._ XI,
+ 407-27. (Emphasises the slight character of the parallels noted by
+ Deutschbein.)
+
+ 1914 VON SYDOW, C. W. Grendel i anglosaxiska ortnamn, in _Nordiska
+ Ortnamn, hyllningsskrift tillägnad Adolf Noreen_, Uppsala, pp.
+ 160-4=_Namn och Bygd_, II. (Important).
+
+ 1915 KIER, CHR. Beowulf, et Bidrag til Nordens Oldhistorie. København.
+ (An elaborate and painstaking study of the historic problems of
+ Beowulf, vitiated throughout by quite unjustifiable assumptions. See
+ above, p. 333 _etc._) Review: Björkmann, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXVII,
+ 244-6.
+
+ 1915 BRADLEY, H. The Numbered Sections in Old English Poetical MSS,
+ _Proc. Brit. Acad._ vol. VII.
+
+ 1915 LAWRENCE, W. W. Beowulf and the tragedy of Finnsburg, _Pub. Mod.
+ Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXX, 372-431. (Important. An excellent survey of
+ the Finnsburg problems.)
+
+ 1915 VAN SWERINGEN, G. F. The main ... types of men in the Germanic
+ Hero-Sagas, _J.E.G.Ph._ XIV, 212-25.
+
+ 1915-19 LINDROTH, H. Är Skåne de gamles Scadinavia? _Namn och Bygd_,
+ III, 1915, 10-28. Lindroth denied that the two words are the same, and
+ was answered by A. Kock (_A.f.n.F._ XXXIV, 1917, 71 _etc._), A. Noreen
+ (in ++_Studier tillegn. E. Tegnér_, 1918) and E. Björkman ("Scedeland,
+ Scedenig," _Namn och Bygd_, VI, 1918, 162-8). Lindroth replied ("Äro
+ Scadinavia och Skåne samma ord," _A.f.n.F._ XXXV, 1918, 29 _etc._, and
+ "Skandinavien och Skåne," _Namn och Bygd_, VI, 1918, 104-12) and was
+ answered by Kock ("Vidare om Skåne och Scadinavia," _A.f.n.F._ XXXVI,
+ 74-85). Björkman's discussion is the one of chief importance to
+ students of Beowulf.
+
+ 1915 KLAEBER, F. Observations on the Finn episode, _J.E.G.Ph._ XIV,
+ 544-9.
+
+ 1915 ANSCOMBE, A. Beowulf in High-Dutch saga, _Notes and Queries_, Aug.
+ 21, 1915, pp. 133-4.
+
+ 1915 BERENDSOHN, WALTER A. Die Gelage am Dänenhof zu Ehren Beowulfs,
+ _Münchener Museum_, III, i, 31-55.
+
+ 1915-16 PIZZO, E. Zur frage der ästhetischen einheit des Beowulf,
+ _Anglia_, XXXIX, 1-15. (Sees in Beowulf the uniform expression of the
+ early Anglo-Saxon Christian ideal.)
+
+ 1916 OLSON, O. L. The relation of the Hrólfs Saga Kraka and the
+ Bjarkarímur to Beowulf. Chicago. (Olson emphasises that the monster
+ slain by Bjarki in the _Saga_ does not attack the hall, but the cattle
+ outside, and is therefore a different kind of monster from Grendel (p.
+ 30). But he does not disprove the general equation of Beowulf and
+ Bjarki: many of the most striking points of resemblance, such as the
+ support given to Eadgils (Athils) against Onela (Ali), lie outside the
+ scope of his study.) Review: Hollander, _J.E.G.Ph._ XVI, 147-9.
+
+ {409}
+
+ 1916 NECKEL, G. Adel und gefolgschaft, _P.B.B._ XLI, 385-436 (esp. pp.
+ 410 ff. for social conditions in Beowulf).
+
+ 1917 FLOM, G. T. Alliteration and Variation in Old Germanic name
+ giving, _M.L.N._ XXXII, 7-17.
+
+ 1917 MEAD, G. W. Wiðer[gh]yld of Beowulf, 2051, _M.L.N._ XXXII, 435-6.
+ (Suggests, very reasonably, that Wiðer[gh]yld is the father of the
+ young Heathobard warrior who is stirred to revenge.)
+
+ 1917 AYRES, H. M. The tragedy of Hengest in Beowulf, _J.E.G.Ph._ XVI,
+ 282-95. (See above, pp. 266-7.)
+
+ 1917 AURNER, N. S. An analysis of the interpretations of the Finnsburg
+ documents. (_Univ. of Iowa Monographs: Humanistic Studies_, I, 6.)
+
+ 1917 BJÖRKMAN, E. Zu ae. _Eote_, _Yte_, usw., dän. _Jyder_, "Jüten,"
+ _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXVIII, 275-80. (See above, p. 334.)
+
+ 1917 ROOTH, E. G. T. Der name Grendel in der Beowulfsage, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XXVIII, 335-40. (Etymologies. Grendel is the "sandman," a
+ man-eating monster of the sea-bottom. With this, compare Panzer's
+ interpretation of Grendel as the "earthman." See above, p. 309.)
+
+ 1917 SCHÜCKING, L. L. Wann entstand der Beowulf? Glossen, Zweifel und
+ Fragen, _P.B.B._ XLII, 347-410. (Important. See above, pp. 322-32.)
+
+ 1917 FOG, REGINALD. Trolden "Grendel" i Bjovulf: en hypothese, _Danske
+ Studier_, 1917, 134-40. (Grendel is here interpreted as an infectious
+ disease, prevalent among those who sleep in an ill-ventilated hall in a
+ state of intoxication, but to which Beowulf, whose health has been
+ confirmed by a recent sea-voyage, is not liable. This view is not as
+ new as its author believes it to be, and a letter from von Holstein
+ Rathlau is added, pointing this out. It might further have been pointed
+ out that as early as 1879 Grendel was explained as the malaria. Cf. the
+ theories of Laistner, Kögel and Golther, and see above, p. 46.)
+
+ 1917 NEUHAUS, J. Sillende = vetus patria = Angel, _Nordisk Tidsskrift
+ för Filologi_, IV. Række, Bd. V, 125-6; Helges Prinsesse Svåvå = Eider
+ = den svebiske Flod hos Ptolemæos, VI, 29-32; Halfdan = Frode =
+ Hadbardernes Konge, hvis Rige forenes med det danske, VI, 78-80;
+ Vestgermanske Navne i dansk Historie og Sprog, 141-4. The inherent
+ difficulty of the subject is enhanced by the obscurity of the writer's
+ style: but much of the argument (e.g. that Halfdan and Frode are
+ identical) is obviously based upon quite reckless conjectures. The
+ question is complicated by political feeling: many of Neuhaus'
+ arguments are repeated in his pamphlet, _Die Frage von Nordschleswig im
+ Lichte der neuesten vorgeschichtlichen Untersuchungen_, Jena, 1919. His
+ theories were vigorously refuted by G. SCHÜTTE, "Urjyske
+ 'Vestgermaner,'" _Nordisk Tidsskrift för Filologi_, IV. Række, Bd. VII,
+ 129 _etc._
+
+ 1917 ++FREDBORG. Det första årtalet i Sveriges historia. Umeå.
+
+ 1917 NERMAN, B. Ynglingasagan i arkeologisk belysning, _Fornvännen_,
+ 1917, 226-61.
+
+ 1917 NERMAN, B. Ottar Vendelkråka och Ottarshögen i Vendel, _Upplands
+ Fornminnesförenings Tidskrift_, VII, 309-34.
+
+ 1917 BJÖRKMAN, E. B[=e]owulf och Sveriges Historia, _Nordisk
+ Tidskrift_, 1917, 161-79.
+
+ 1917-18 ++VON SYDOW, C. W. Draken som skattevaktare, _Danmarks
+ folkeminder_, XVII, 103 _etc._
+
+ 1918 HACKENBERG, E. Die Stammtafeln der angelsächsischen Königreiche,
+ Dissertation, Berlin. (A useful collection.) Reviews: Fischer, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XXXI, 73-4; Ekwall, _Engl. Stud._ LIV, 307-10; Liebemann,
+ _D.L.Z._ 1 March, 1919.
+
+ 1918 LAWRENCE, W. W. The dragon and his lair in Beowulf, _Pub. Mod.
+ Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXXIII, 547-83.
+
+ {410}
+
+ 1918 BELDEN, H. M. Beowulf 62, once more, _M.L.N._ XXXIII, 123.
+
+ 1918 BELDEN, H. M. Scyld Scefing and Huck Finn, _M.L.N._ XXXIII, 315.
+
+ 1918 KLAEBER, F. Concerning the relation between Exodus and Beowulf,
+ _M.L.N._ XXXIII, 218-24.
+
+ 1918 BJÖRKMAN, E. B[=e]ow, B[=e]aw, und B[=e]owulf, _Engl. Stud._ LII,
+ 145-93. (Very important. See above, p. 304.)
+
+ 1918 BRANDL, A. Die Urstammtafel der Westsachsen und das Beowulf-Epos,
+ _Archiv_, CXXXVII, 6-24. (See above, p. 200, note.)
+
+ 1918 BRANDL, A. Die urstammtafel der englischen könige,
+ _Sitzungsberichte d. k. preuss. Akad., Phil.-Hist. Classe_, p. 5. (Five
+ line summary only published).
+
+ 1918 ++BJÖRKMAN, E. B[=e]owulf-forskning och mytologi, _Finsk
+ Tidskrift_, 151 _etc._ (Cf. _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXX, 207.)
+
+ 1918 BJÖRKMAN, E. Sköldungaättens mytiska stamfäder, _Nordisk
+ Tidskrift_, 163 _etc._
+
+ 1918 V. UNWERTH, W. Eine schwed. Heldensage als deutsches Volksepos,
+ _A.f.n.F._ XXXV, 113-37. (An attempt to connect the story of Hygelac
+ and Hæthcyn with the M.H.G. _Herbort ûz Tenelant_.)
+
+ 1918 NEUHAUS, J. Om Skjold, _A.f.n.F._ XXXV, 166-72. (A dogmatic
+ assertion of errors in Olrik's arguments in the _Heltedigtning_.)
+
+ 1918 CLAUSEN, H. V. Kong Hugleik, _Danske Studier_, 137-49.
+ (Conjectures based upon the assumption Geatas = Jutes.)
+
+ 1918 ++LUND University "Festskrift" contains NORLIND, Skattsägner; VON
+ SYDOW, Sigurds strid med Favne.
+
+ 1919 OLRIK, A. The heroic legends of Denmark translated ... and revised
+ in collaboration with the author by Lee M. Hollander. New York. (Very
+ important.) Review: Flom, _J.E.G.Ph._ XIX, 284-90.
+
+ 1919 BJÖRKMAN, E. Bedwig in den westsächsischen genealogien, _Anglia,
+ Beiblatt_, XXX, 23.
+
+ 1919 BJÖRKMAN, E. Zu einigen Namen im B[=e]owulf: _Breca_,
+ _Brondingas_, _Wealhþ[=e]o(w)_; _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXX, 170-80.
+
+ 1919 MOGK, E. Altgermanische Spukgeschichten: Zugleich ein Beitrag zur
+ Erklärung der Grendelepisode im Beowulf, _Neue Jahrbücher für das
+ klass. altertum ... und deutsche literatur_, XXXIV, 103-17. (Mogk here
+ abandons his older allegorical interpretation of Grendel as the
+ destroying power of the sea, and sees in the Grendel-story a Germanic
+ ghost-tale, poetically adorned.)
+
+ 1919 BJÖRKMAN, E. Skialf och Skilfing [edited by E. Ekwall, with a note
+ on Björkman's work], _Namn och Bygd_, VII, 163-81.
+
+ 1919 LINDERHOLM, E. Vendelshögens konunganamn i socknens
+ 1600-tals-tradition, _Namn och Bygd_, VII, 36-40.
+
+ 1919 FOG, R. Bjarkemaals "Hjalte," _Danske Studier_, 1919, 29-35. (With
+ a letter from A. Olrik.)
+
+ 1919 SEVERINSEN, P. Kong Hugleiks Dødsaar, _Danske Studier_, 1919, 96.
+
+ 1920 IMELMANN, R. Forschungen zur altenglischen Poesie. (IX. Hengest u.
+ Finn; X. _Enge [=a]npaðas, unc[=u]ð gel[=a]d_; XII. _Þr[=y]ðo_; XIII.
+ _H[=æ]þenra hyht._) Berlin. (A weighty statement of some original
+ views).
+
+ 1920 BJÖRKMAN, E. Studien über die Eigennamen im Beowulf. Halle.
+ _Morsbachs Studien_, LVIII. (An extremely valuable and discriminating
+ digest. See above, p. 304.)
+
+ 1920 BARTO, P. S. The _Schwanritter-Sceaf_ Myth in _Perceval le
+ Gallois_, _J.E.G.Ph._ XIX, 190-200.
+
+ 1920 HUBBARD, F. G. The plundering of the Hoard. _Univ. Wisconsin
+ Stud._ 11.
+
+ {411}
+
+ 1920 SCHÜCKING, L. L. Wiðergyld (Beowulf, 2051), _Engl. Stud._ LIII,
+ 468-70. (Schücking, like Mead, but independently, interprets Withergyld
+ as the name of the warrior whose son is being stirred to revenge.)
+
+ 1920 BJÖRKMAN, E. Hæðcyn und Hákon, _Engl. Stud._ LIV, 24-34.
+
+ 1920 HOOPS, J. Das Verhüllen des Haupts bei Toten, ein
+ angelsächsisch-nordischer Brauch (Zu Beowulf, 446, _hafalan h[=y]dan_),
+ _Engl. Stud._ LIV, 19-23.
+
+ 1920 NOREEN, A. Yngve, Inge, Inglinge [Ingwine], _Namn och Bygd_, VIII,
+ 1-8.
+
+ 1920 LA COUR, V. Lejrestudier, _Danske Studier_, 1920, 49-67. (Weighty.
+ Emphasizing the importance of the site of Leire in the sixth century.)
+ A discussion on the date and origin of Beowulf, by LIEBERMANN, is about
+ to appear (_Gott. Gelehrt. Gesellschaft_).
+
+§ 9. STYLE AND GRAMMAR
+
+Titles already given in previous sections are not repeated here. General
+treatises on O.E. style and grammar are recorded here only if they have a
+special and exceptional bearing upon _Beowulf_.
+
+ 1873 LICHTENHELD, A. Das schwache adjectiv im ags., _Z.f.d.A._ XVI,
+ 325-93. (Important. See above, pp. 105-7.)
+
+ 1875 HEINZEL, R. Über den Stil der altgermanischen Poesie. Strassburg.
+ (_Quellen u. Forschungen_, X.) (Important and suggestive: led to
+ further studies on the style of Beowulf, such as those of Hoffmann and
+ Bode.) Review: Zimmer, _A.f.d.A._ II, 294-300.
+
+ 1877 ++ARNDT, O. Über die altgerm. epische Sprache. Paderborn.
+
+ 1877 SCHÖNBACH, A. [A discussion of words peculiar to sections of
+ Beowulf, added to a review of Ettmüller's Beowulf], _A.f.d.A._ III,
+ 36-46. See also Möller, _Volksepos_, 60 _etc._
+
+ 1879 NADER, E. Zur Syntax des Béowulf. _Progr. der
+ Staats-Ober-Realschule_, in Brünn. Review: Bernhardt, _Literaturblatt_,
+ 1880, 439-40 (unfavourable: reply by Nader and answer by Bernhardt,
+ 1881, 119-20).
+
+ 1881 ++GUMMERE, F. B. The Anglo-Saxon metaphor. Dissertation, Freiburg.
+
+ 1882 SCHEMANN, K. Die Synonyma im Beówulfsliede, mit Rücksicht auf
+ Composition u. Poetik des Gedichtes. Hagen. Dissertation, Münster.
+ (Examines the use of noun-synonyms in the different sections of the
+ poem as divided by Müllenhoff, and finds no support for Müllenhoff's
+ theories.) Review: Kluge, _Literaturblatt_, 1883, 62-3.
+
+ 1882 ++NADER, E. Der Genitiv im Beówulf. Brünn. Review: Klinghardt,
+ _Engl. Stud._ VI, 288.
+
+ 1882 SCHULZ, F. Die Sprachformen des Hildebrand-Liedes im Beovolf.
+ Königsberg.
+
+ 1883 NADER, E. Dativ u. Instrumental im Beówulf. Wien. Review:
+ Klinghardt, _Engl. Stud._ VII, 368-70.
+
+ 1883 HARRISON, J. A. List of irregular (strong) verbs in Béowulf,
+ _Amer. Jour. of Phil._ IV, 462-77.
+
+ 1883 HOFFMANN, A. Der bildliche Ausdruck im Beówulf u. in der Edda,
+ _Engl. Stud._ VI, 163-216.
+
+ 1886 BODE, W. Die Kenningar in der angelsächsischen Dichtung. Darmstadt
+ and Leipzig. Reviews: Gummere, _M.L.N._ II, 17-19 (important--praises
+ Bode highly); Kluge, _Engl. Stud._ X, 117; Brandl, _D.L.Z._ 1887,
+ 897-8; Bischoff, _Archiv_, LXXIX, 115-6; Meyer, _A.f.d.A._ XIII, 136.
+
+ 1886 ++KÖHLER, K. Der syntaktische gebrauch des Infinitivs und
+ Particips im Beowulf. Dissertation, Münster.
+
+ 1886 BANNING, A. Die epischen Formeln im Bêowulf. I. Die verbalen
+ synonyma. Dissertation, Marburg.
+
+ {412}
+
+ 1887 TOLMAN, A. H. The style of Anglo-Saxon poetry, _Trans. Mod. Lang.
+ Assoc. Amer._ III, 17-47.
+
+ 1888-9 NADER, E. Tempus und modus im Beowulf, _Anglia_, X, 542-63; XI,
+ 444-99.
+
+ 1889 KAIL, J. Über die Parallelstellen in der Ags. Poesie, _Anglia_,
+ XII, 21-40. (A _reductio ad absurdum_ of the theories of Sarrazin.
+ Important.)
+
+ 1891 DAVIDSON, C. The Phonology of the Stressed Vowels in Béowulf,
+ _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ VI, 106-33. Review: Karsten, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XVII, 417-20.
+
+ 1892 SONNEFELD, G. Stilistisches und Wortschatz im Beówulf.
+ Dissertation, Strassburg. Würzburg.
+
+ 1893 TODT, A. Die Wortstellung im Beowulf, _Anglia_, XVI, 226-60.
+
+ 1898 KISTENMACHER, R. Die wörtlichen Wiederholungen im Bêowulf.
+ Dissertation, Greifswald. Reviews: Mead, _J.(E.)G.Ph._ II, 546-7;
+ Kaluza, _Engl. Stud._ XXVII, 121-2 (short but valuable).
+
+ 1902 BARNOUW, A. J. Textkritische Untersuchungen nach dem gebrauch des
+ bestimmten Artikels und des schwachen Adjektivs in der altenglischen
+ Poesie. Leiden. (Important, see above, p. 107.) Reviews: Kock, _Engl.
+ Stud._ XXXII, 228-9; Binz, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXXVI, 269-74; Schücking,
+ _Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen_, 1905, 730-40.
+
+ 1902 HEUSLER, A. Der dialog in der altgermanischen erzählenden
+ Dichtung. _Z.f.d.A._ XLVI, 189-284.
+
+ 1903 SHIPLEY, G. The genitive case in Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Baltimore.
+ Reviews: Kock, _Engl. Stud._ XXV, 92-5; Mourek, _A.f.d.A._ XXX, 172-4.
+
+ 1903 KRACKOW, O. Die Nominalcomposita als Kunstmittel im altenglischen
+ Epos. Dissertation, Berlin. Review: Björkman, _Archiv_, CXVII, 189-90.
+
+ 1904 SCHÜCKING, L. L. Die Grundzüge der Satzverknüpfung im Beowulf. Pt.
+ I. (_Morsbachs Studien_, XV.) Halle. (Important.) Reviews: Eckhardt,
+ _Engl. Stud._ XXXVII, 396-7; Pogatscher, _D.L.Z._ 1905, 922-3; Behagel,
+ _Literaturblatt_, XXVIII, 100-2; Grossmann, _Archiv_, CXVIII, 176-9.
+
+ 1904 HÄUSCHKEL, B. Die Technik der Erzählung im Beowulfliede.
+ Dissertation, Breslau.
+
+ 1905 KRAPP, G. P. The parenthetic exclamation in Old English poetry,
+ _M.L.N._ XX, 33-7.
+
+ 1905 SCHEINERT, M. Die Adjektiva im Beowulfepos als Darstellungsmittel,
+ _P.B.B._ XXX, 345-430.
+
+ 1906 THOMAS, P. G. Notes on the language of Beowulf, _M.L.R._ I, 202-7.
+ (A short summary of the dialectal forms.)
+
+ 1906 BARNOUW, A. J. Nochmals zum ags. Gebrauch des Artikels, _Archiv_,
+ CXVII, 366-7.
+
+ 1907 RIES, J. Die Wortstellung im Beowulf. Halle. (An important and
+ exhaustive study by an acknowledged specialist.) Reviews: Binz,
+ _Anglia_, _Beiblatt_, XXII, 65-78 (important); Borst, _Engl. Stud._
+ XLII, 93-101; Delbrück, _A.f.d.A._ XXXI, 65-76 (important); Reis,
+ _Literaturblatt_, XXVIII, 328-30; _Lit. Cbl._ 1907, p. 1474; Huchon,
+ _Revue germanique_, III, 634-8.
+
+ 1908 KRAUEL, H. Der Haken- und Langzeilenstil im Beowulf. Dissertation,
+ Göttingen.
+
+ 1908 LORS, A. Aktionsarten des Verbums im Beowulf. Dissertation,
+ Würzburg.
+
+ 1908 ++MOUREK, E. Zur Syntax des konjunktivs im Beowulf, _Prager
+ deutsche stud._ VIII.
+
+ 1909-10 RANKIN, J. W. A study of the Kennings in Ags. poetry,
+ _J.E.G.Ph._ VIII, 357-422; IX, 49-84. (Latin parallels; very
+ important.)
+
+ {413}
+
+ 1909 SHEARIN, H. G. The expression of purpose in Old English poetry,
+ _Anglia_, XXXII, 235-52.
+
+ 1909 ++RIGGERT, G. Der syntaktische Gebrauch des Infinitivs in der
+ altenglischen Poesie. Dissertation, Kiel.
+
+ 1910 RICHTER, C. Chronologische Studien zur angelsächsischen Literatur
+ auf grund sprachl.-metrischer Kriterien. Halle. (_Morsbachs Studien_,
+ XXXIII.) Reviews: Binz, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXII, 78-80; Imelmann,
+ _D.L.Z._ 1910, 2986-7; Hecht, _Archiv_, CXXX, 430-2.
+
+ 1910 WAGNER, R. Die Syntax des Superlativs ... im Beowulf. Berlin.
+ (_Palaestra_, XCI.) Reviews: Schatz, _D.L.Z._ 1910, 2848-9; Kock,
+ _A.f.n.F._ XXVIII, 347-9.
+
+ 1910 SCHUCHARDT, R. Die negation im Beowulf. Berlin. (_Berliner
+ Beiträge zur germ. u. roman. Philol._ XXXVIII.)
+
+ 1912 BRIGHT, J. W. An Idiom of the Comparative in Anglo-Saxon, _M.L.N._
+ XXVII, 181-3. (Bearing particularly upon Beowulf, 69, 70.)
+
+ 1912 EXNER, P. Typische Adverbialbestimmungen in frühenglischer Poesie.
+ Dissertation, Berlin.
+
+ 1912 GRIMM, P. Beiträge zum Pluralgebrauch in der altenglischen Poesie.
+ Dissertation, Halle.
+
+ 1913 PAETZEL, W. Die Variationen in der altgermanischen
+ Alliterationspoesie. Berlin. See pp. 73-84 for Beowulf and Finnsburg.
+ (_Palaestra_, XLVIII.) Pt. I. had appeared in 1905 as a Berlin
+ dissertation.
+
+§ 10. METRE
+
+For bibliography of O.E. metre in general, see _Pauls Grdr._ (2), II,
+1022-4.
+
+ 1870 SCHUBERT, H. De Anglosaxonum arte metrica. Dissertatio
+ inauguralis, Berolini.
+
+ 1884 SIEVERS, E. Zur rhythmik des germanischen alliterationsverses: I.
+ Vorbemerkungen. Die metrik des Beowulf: II. Sprachliche Ergebnisse,
+ _P.B.B._ X, 209-314 and 451-545. (Most important.)
+
+ 1894 KALUZA, M. Studien zum altgermanischen alliterationsvers. I.
+ Kritik der bisherigen theorien. II. Die Metrik des Beowulfliedes.
+ (Important.) Reviews: Martin, _Engl. Stud._ XX, 293-6; Heusler,
+ _A.f.d.A._ XXI, 313-17; Saran, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXVII, 539-43.
+
+ 1905 TRAUTMANN, M. Die neuste Beowulfausgabe und die altenglische
+ verslehre, _Bonner Beiträge zur Anglistik_, XVII, 175-91. (A discussion
+ of O.E. metre in view of Holthausen's edition.) Review: Klaeber,
+ _M.L.N._ XXII, 252.
+
+ 1908 MORGAN, B. Q. Zur lehre von der alliteration in der
+ westgermanischen dichtung: I. Die tonverhältnisse der hebungen im
+ Beowulf: II. Die gekreuzte alliteration; _P.B.B._ XXXIII, 95-181.
+
+ 1908 BOHLEN, A. Zusammengehörige Wortgruppen, getrennt durch Cäsur oder
+ Versschluss, in der angelsächsischen Epik. Dissertation, Berlin.
+ Reviews: Dittes, _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XX, 199-202; Kroder, _Engl. Stud._
+ XL, 90.
+
+ 1912 TRAUTMANN, M. Zum altenglischen Versbau, _Engl. Stud._ XLIV,
+ 303-42.
+
+ 1913 SEIFFERT, F. Die Behandlung der Wörter mit auslautenden
+ ursprünglich silbischen Liquiden oder Nasalen und mit
+ Kontraktionsvokalen in der Genesis A und im Beowulf. Dissertation,
+ Halle. (Concludes the dialect of the two poems to be distinct, but
+ finds no evidence on these grounds which is the earlier.)
+
+ 1914 FIJN VAN DRAAT, P. The cursus in O.E. poetry, _Anglia_, XXXVIII,
+ 377-404.
+
+ 1918 LEONARD, W. E. Beowulf and the Niebelungen couplet, in _Univ. of
+ Wisconsin Studies in Language and Literature_, II, 98-152. (Important.
+ Pp. 123-46 advocating the "four-accent theory.")
+
+ 1920 ++NEUNER, E. Ueber ein- und dreihebige Halbverse in der
+ altenglischen alliterierenden Poesie. Berlin. Review: Bright, _M.L.N._
+ XXXVI, 59-63.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+{414}
+
+INDEX
+
+ Abingdon, sheaf ordeal at, 83-4, 303
+ Adam of Bremen, on the Götar, 339
+ Æthelbert of East Anglia, 239-43
+ Agnerus, 132-3
+ Alboin and Thurisind, 281, 282, 285
+ Alcester, _Grindeles pytt_ near, 305
+ Alcuin, 22, 332
+ Aldfrid, 325
+ Aldhelm, 331
+ Alfsola, 69
+ Ali, _see_ Onela
+ Aliel, _see_ Riganus
+ _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, Pedigrees in, 72 _etc._, 312 _etc._
+ Archæology in relation to _Beowulf_, 122 _etc._, 345-65
+ Asbiorn, 186-92
+ Athils, Athislus, _see_ Eadgils
+ Attila, funeral of, compared with that of Beowulf, 124
+ Atuarii, _see_ Hetware
+ Ayres, Prof. H. M., on the _Finnsburg_ story, 266 _etc._
+
+ Baldæg, 321
+ Baldr, 69
+ _bana_, 270-1
+ Battersea, _Gryndeles sylle_ near, 306
+ "Bear's-son" folk-tale, 62 _etc._, 369-81
+ _B[=e]as broc_, _B[=e]as feld_, 310
+ Bede, the Venerable, 326 _etc._
+ Bedwig, 303-4
+ Beow(a), Beaw, 10, 42 _etc._, 87-8, 202-3, 291 _etc._, 296 _etc._
+ Beowi, 303
+ Beowulf the Dane (Beowulf Scyldinga), 41 _etc._, 88, 92 _etc._, 291
+ _etc._
+ Beowulf son of Ecgtheow, king of the Geatas, 10-13;
+ his struggle with Grendel and Grendel's mother, 41 _etc._;
+ with the dragon, 92 _etc._;
+ his funeral rites, 122 _etc._;
+ etymology and meaning of the name, 365-9
+ _Beowulf_, suggested translation from a Scandinavian original, 98-104;
+ dialect, syntax and metre of, 104-12;
+ theories as to the structure of, 112-20;
+ the Christian elements in, 121-8;
+ date of, 122, 322 _etc._, 353 _etc._;
+ possible classical influence upon, 329 _etc._;
+ archæology of, 345-65;
+ division into fittes or passus, 294 _etc._
+ Biar, 7, 45
+ _Biuuulf_, 367
+ _Bjarkamál_, 26, 264;
+ Saxo's Latin translation quoted, 135-6
+ _Bjarka rímur_, 58, 182-6
+ Bjarki, 9, 12, 54-61, 132-6, 138-46, 182-6
+ Bjarndreingur, 374-5
+ Bjørnøre, 377
+ Blackburn, Prof., on the Christian element in _Beowulf_, 125
+ Blood-feud, in primitive society, 276 _etc._
+ Boar-helmets, 350-1, 358-9
+ Bocus, 26, 135
+ Boerinus, 201
+ Bothvar Bjarki, _see_ Bjarki
+ Bow, the, in _Beowulf_, 361
+ Bradley, Dr Henry, on the Christian elements in _Beowulf_, 127;
+ on Beow and Beowulf the Dane, 293 _etc._;
+ on the passus in _Beowulf_, 294-5
+ Brusi, 187-92
+ Brutus (Hildebrandus), 222
+ Bugge, Sophus, on the _Finnsburg_ story, 257-66
+ Burial mounds, Scandinavian, 356
+ Burials, 122 _etc._, 353-5
+ Byggvir, 45, 297 _etc._
+
+ Cerdic, his ancestry, 316 _etc._
+ Chadwick, Prof. H. M., on the date of _Beowulf_, 122, 353 _etc._
+ Chatuarii, _see_ Hetware
+ Chochilaicus, 2, 3
+ Christianity of _Beowulf_, 121 _etc._, 322 _etc._
+ Cities of Refuge, 276-7
+ Clyst, river, 44, 310
+ Creedy, the, _Grendeles pyt_ near, 305
+ Crying the Neck, 82-3, 302
+ Cynethryth, 37 _etc._
+
+ Dan, king of the Danes, 129, 204
+ Danes, first mentioned soon after A.D. 500, 14;
+ their early kings, 13-31;
+ their early history as recorded in Saxo, 129-37;
+ in the _Little Chronicle of the Kings of Leire_, 204-6;
+ in Sweyn Aageson, 211;
+ their relation to the English, 314 _etc._
+ Date of _Beowulf_, 122, 322 _etc._, 353 _etc._
+ Dialect of _Beowulf_, 104
+ Dorestad, 259, 288-9
+ Dragons, not extinct in 1649, 11 (note);
+ Frotho's dragon, 92 _etc._, 130-1;
+ the Vendsyssel dragon, 192-5
+ Dunstan, 332
+ Drida, 36 _etc._; 238-43; _see also_ Thryth
+
+ Eadgils (Athils, Athislus), 5-8; 184, 186, 356
+ {415}
+ Eaha, 246
+ Eanmund, 5
+ _Edda_ of Snorri, 69
+ Engelhardt, on the Moss-finds, 345 _etc._
+ Eomaer (Eamer), 31, 197-8
+ Eotan, Eote, _see_ Jutes
+ Eotenas, part played by them in the _Finnsburg Episode_, 219 _etc._; 260
+ _etc._; 283 _etc._
+ Eric, jarl, 277, 278
+ Esthonian cult of Pekko, 299 _etc._
+ Ethelwerd, 70 _etc._, 202, 318 _etc._
+
+ Fahlbeck, Pontus, his Jute-theory, 8, 333 _etc._
+ Faroe "Bear's-son" tale, 375-6
+ _ferhð-freca_, 276
+ Fifeldor, 35, _note_
+ Finn, son of Folcwald, 199, 200, 248 _etc._, 253-4, 283 _etc._, 289
+ Finnsburg, the story of, 245-89;
+ site of, 259
+ Florence of Worcester, 8
+ Folcwald(a), 199
+ Frealaf, 321
+ Freawaru, daughter of Hrothgar, 21 _etc._, 282
+ Frisia in the Heroic Age, 288-9
+ Froda (Frothi, Frotho), 21, 24-5, 211, 282
+ Frotho and the dragon, 92-7, 130-1
+ Frowinus, 33-4
+ Funeral rites, _see_ Burials
+
+ Garulf, his part in the _Finnsburg_ story, 246-7; 283 _etc._, 287
+ Gautar, _see_ Geatas
+ Geatas (O.N. Gautar), 2, 8-10, 333-45;
+ their kings, 2-13;
+ boundaries of their territory, 339
+ Gefwulf, 286-7
+ Genealogies, 311 _etc._
+ Giovanni dell' Orso, 371
+ Glam, 48, 147 _etc._, 164 _etc._
+ Godulf, 200
+ Götar, _see_ Geatas
+ Gokstad ship, 363-4
+ Gold in the Heroic Age, 348 _etc._
+ Gram Guldkølve, 192, 194
+ Grändels môr in Transsylvania, 308
+ _grandi_, 309
+ Greek scholarship in Anglo-Saxon times, 329
+ Gregory of Tours, his account of the death of Hygelac, 3-4, 9, 342
+ Grendel, 41 _etc._;
+ occurrence of the name in English charters, 305-6;
+ etymology, 309-10
+ _Grendles mere_, 43-4, 306
+ Grettir Asmundarson, 48 _etc._, 152-62, 169-82
+ _Grettis Saga_, 162;
+ extracts from, 146-62;
+ translation, 162-82;
+ death of Illugi, 280
+ Grimm's story of _Der Starke Hans_, 370
+ Grindale village, 308
+ Grindle or Greendale brook, near Exeter, 44, 309
+ _grundel_, 309
+ Grundtvig, his identification of Chochilaicus, 4
+ Guest (Gestr), _see_ Grettir
+ Gullinhjalti, 141, 146
+ Guthlaf, 246-7, 252, 267, 285
+
+ Haki, 68-9
+ Halga (Helgi, Helgo), 14 _etc._, 132, 205, 211
+ Hall, Dr Clark, on the archæology of _Beowulf_, 346 _etc._
+ Hall, the, in _Beowulf_, 361
+ Ham, _Grendles mere_ near, 43-4, 306
+ Hamlet (Amlethus), 39;
+ Hengest's hesitation compared to that of Shakespeare's Hamlet, 266
+ Hans, der starke, 370
+ Harold Fairhair and the Gautar, 340
+ Harvest customs, 81 _etc._
+ _h[=e]aburh_, 259 _note_
+ Healfdene (Halfdan, Haldanus), 14 _etc._, 131, 205, 211
+ Heardred, slain by Onela, 5, 13
+ Heathobeardan, 20 _etc._, 244
+ Hendon, "Grendels gate" near, 306-7
+ Hengest, 246, 250 _etc._, 284 _etc._
+ Henry (Henrik) slays a dragon, 192-5
+ Heorogar, 14, 287
+ Heorot, 13-20; _see also_ Leire
+ Heoroweard (Hj[o,]rvarðr, Hiarwarus), 14, 15, 29-30, 134-7, 205-6, 277
+ Heremod, 89 _etc._
+ Hermuthruda, 39
+ Heruli, identified by some with the Heathobeardan, 24
+ Hetware (Atuarii), 2-3
+ Hiarthwarus, Hiarwarus, _see_ Heoroweard
+ Hickes, his text of the _Finnsburg Fragment_, 245-6
+ Hildebrandus, another name for Brutus, _q.v._
+ Hildeburh, 248 _etc._
+ Hjalti (Hott), 55 _etc._, 132 _etc._, 138-46, 182-6
+ Hnæf, 247 _etc._, 283 _etc._
+ Hocingas, 249
+ Hott, _see_ Hjalti
+ Hrethric, 25-7, 135 (Röricus), 211 (Rökil)
+ Hrothgar (Hroarr, Roe), 14 _etc._, 132, 204, 244
+ {416}
+ Hrothulf (Rolf Kraki, Roluo), 15, 25-9, 132-7, 139-46, 205-6, 244
+ Hugleikr, 323
+ Huglek, 323
+ Humblus, 129
+ Hunlafing, 252, 267, 283
+ Hygelac, death of, 2-4
+
+ Ialto, _see_ Hjalti
+ Icelandic "Bear's-son" tale, 374-5
+ Illugi, _see Grettis Saga_
+ Ingeld, son of Froda, 21 _etc._, 244, 282, 284-5
+ Intercourse between tribes in Heroic Age, 348 _etc._
+ Ivashko Medvedko, 372-4
+
+ Jean l'Ourson, 378-9
+ Jenny Greenteeth, 307
+ Jomsvikings, 278
+ Jovial huntsmen, the Three, their views, 310
+ Jutes, attempt to identify them with the Geatas, 8-10, 333-45;
+ Jutes and _Eotenas_, 261 _etc._, 272 _etc._
+ Jutland, "Bear's-son" tale in, 377
+
+ _Kálfsvísa_, 7, 45
+ Kemble, his mythological theories, 291 _etc._
+ Keto, 33-4
+ Klaeber, on the Christian element in _Beowulf_, 126
+
+ Lawrence, Prof. W. W., on mythology in _Beowulf_, 43 _etc._, 291 _etc._;
+ on _Finnsburg_, 270 _etc._
+ _Laxdæla Saga_, parallels from, 278-9
+ Leifus, 252, _note_
+ Leire, 16 _etc._, 134, 204, 211, 216, 365;
+ _see also_ Heorot
+ _Leire, Little Chronicle of the Kings of_, extracts from, 204-6
+ Lethra, _see_ Leire
+ _Liber Historiae Francorum_, account of the death of Chochilaicus
+ (Hygelac) in, 3
+ "Lichtenheld's Test," 105 _etc._
+ _Lokasenna_ quoted, 297-9
+ Loki, 297-9
+ Lombard story of the "Bear's-son," 371
+ Longobardi, relation to the Heathobeardan, 23; 311;
+ _see also_ Alboin
+ Lother(us), 89 _etc._, 129
+
+ Malmesbury, William of, _see_ William of Malmesbury
+ Mercian genealogy, 195-8
+ Milio, 220
+ Minstrelsy forbidden to priests, 332
+ Mitunnus, 218 _etc._
+ Möller, on _Finnsburg_, 254-7
+ _Monsters and Strange Beasts_, account of Hygelac in the _Book of (Liber
+ Monstrorum)_, 4, 339
+ "Morsbachs Test," 107-12
+ Moss-finds, 345 _etc._
+ Müllenhoff's theories on _Beowulf_, 113 _etc._, 292 _etc._
+ Myrgingas, 31-2, 244
+ Mythology in _Beowulf_, 46 _etc._, 291 _etc._
+
+ Neck, _see_ Crying the Neck
+ Neckersgate, 307
+ _Njáls Saga_, parallels from, 271, 277, 280-1
+ Norka, the, 371-2
+ North Frisians, 249, _note_, 273
+ Northumbrian anarchy in the eighth century, 324
+ Norwegian folk-tale ("Bear's-son" type), 376-7
+ Nydam, 345 _etc._
+ Nydam boat, 362-3
+
+ _Odyssey_, parallels with _Beowulf_, 329
+ Offa I, king of Angel, 31-40, 197-8, 206-15, 217-35, 244
+ Offa II, 36 _etc._, 235-43
+ Ohthere, 5, 343 _etc._;
+ _see also_ Ottar Vendel-crow
+ Onela, 5-8, 184-6
+ Ongentheow, 4-5, 8
+ Ordlaf (Oslaf), 246, 252, 267, 285, 287
+ Origin of the English, 314 _etc._
+ Orm Storolfsson, 53, 186-92
+ Oseberg ship, 363-4
+ Oslaf, _see_ Ordlaf
+ Oswin, king, 324 _etc._
+ Oswiu, king, 325
+ Otta, 220
+ Ottar Vendelcrow, his mound, 343-5, 356;
+ _see also_ Ohthere
+
+ Panzer, his derivation of the story of _Beowulf_ from the "Bear's-son"
+ folk-tale, 67-8, 369-81
+ passus of _Beowulf_, 294 _etc._
+ Peg o' Nell, 307
+ Peg Powler, 307
+ Pekko, 87, 299 _etc._
+ Pellon-Pecko, _see_ Pekko
+ Peter Bär, 378
+ Pinefredus, _see_ Offa II
+ Procopius, mentions the Goutai (Geatas), 8-9, 338
+
+ Riganus (or Aliel), 218 _etc._
+ Ring-corslets, 351, 360
+ Ring-money, 351-2
+ Ring-swords, 349 _etc._
+ Roe, _see_ Hrothgar
+ {417}
+ Rökil, _see_ Hrethric
+ Röricus, _see_ Hrethric
+ _Rolf Kraki, Saga of_, 16, 55 _etc._;
+ extract from, 138-46;
+ quoted in illustration of the _Finnsburg_ story, 281, 282
+ Rolf Kraki, _see_ Hrothulf
+ Roluo, _see_ Hrothulf
+ Roskilde, 18, 132, 204
+ Runkoteivas, 300
+ Russian variants of the "Bear's-son" story, 371-4
+ Ruta, 133
+
+ Sämpsä, 84-5, 300
+ _Saga of Rolf Kraki_, see _Rolf Kraki, Saga of_
+ Sandhaugar, 48, 66, 156-62, 175-82
+ Saxo Grammaticus, 16;
+ his story of Starcatherus, 22-3;
+ of Röricus, 26;
+ of Hiarwarus, 30;
+ of Uffo (Offa), 32-3;
+ of Biarco (Bjarki), 57 _etc._;
+ of Skyoldus, 77;
+ of Lotherus, 89 _etc._;
+ of Frotho, 91 _etc._;
+ on cremation, 123;
+ extracts from, 129-37, 206-11;
+ on text of, 215-16; 282
+ Sceaf, 68-86, 200-3, 302 _etc._, 311 _etc._
+ Sceafa, 311
+ Scenery of _Beowulf_, 101
+ Schücking, Prof.,
+ on the structure of _Beowulf_, 117-20;
+ on the date of _Beowulf_, 322 _etc._
+ Schütte, on the Geatas, 8, 333 _etc._
+ Sculda, 133-4, 204-5
+ Scyld, 68-86, 201-4, 303, 314 _etc._
+ Secgan, 269, 286
+ Setukese, 301
+ Sheaf, _see_ Sceaf
+ Shield, _see_ Scyld
+ Shield, the, in Anglo-Saxon times, 360-1
+ Ships, 362-4
+ Sigeferth, 246-7, 269, 286, 287
+ Sigmund, 91
+ Sigurd Ring, 69
+ Sinfjotli, his foul language, 28
+ Skeggjatussi, 375
+ Skjold (Skyoldus), 71 _etc._, 130, 211
+ _Skjoldunga Saga_,
+ account of Adilsus (Eadgils) in, 7;
+ of Rolf Kraki (Hrothulf), 16 _etc._;
+ quoted, 69, 252 _note_
+ Spear, the, in Anglo-Saxon times, 360
+ Starkad (Starcatherus), 22-3
+ Steenklöwer, Stenhuggeren, 380
+ Stein, 49, 66, 156-62, 175-82, 380
+ Steinspieler, 380
+ Steinv[o,]r, 157-62, 175-82
+ Stjerna, Knut,
+ on the funeral customs of _Beowulf_, 124;
+ on Ottar Vendelcrow, 343-5;
+ on the archæology of _Beowulf_, 346 _etc._
+ Sueno, 222
+ Svold, battle of, 277
+ Sweden, kings of, 4-8;
+ _see_ Eadgils, Ohthere, Onela, Ongentheow
+ Sweyn Aageson, his account of Uffo (Offa), 33;
+ extract from, 211-15; 216
+ Swinford, _Grendels mere_ near, 306
+ Swords in _Beowulf_ and in Anglo-Saxon grave-finds, 357
+
+ Ten Brink's theories on _Beowulf_, 113 _etc._
+ Theodoric, king of the Franks, 3
+ Thorgaut, 150 _etc._, 167 _etc._
+ Thorhall Grimsson, 146-56, 163-74
+ Thorsbjerg, 345 _etc._
+ Thryth, 37 _etc._, 238-43
+ Tours, Gregory of, _see_ Gregory of Tours
+
+ Uffo, _see_ Offa
+ Ull, 303
+ Unferth, 27-30
+ Ursula, 205
+
+ Vendel finds, 347 _etc._
+ Vendsyssel, dragon of, 192-5
+ Virgil, possible influence of, upon _Beowulf_, 329 _etc._
+ _Vitae duorum Offarum_, 34 _etc._, 217-43
+ _V[o,]lsunga Saga_, parallels from, 275, 286
+
+ Wäder Öar and Wäder Fiord, 342
+ Warmundus, _see_ Wermundus
+ Weak and strong forms of heroic names used alternatively, 311
+ Wealhtheow, her forebodings, 25
+ Weapons in _Beowulf_, 357-61
+ Wederas, name applied to the Geatas, 342
+ Wener, Lake, 9, 342
+ _wer-gild_, 277
+ Wermund, 32 _etc._, 197-8, 206-15, 217-26
+ West-Saxon genealogy, 72 _etc._, 198-201, 311 _etc._
+ _Widsith_,
+ account of the Heathobeardan in, 20 _etc._;
+ of Hrothulf, 25;
+ of Offa, 31;
+ of Sceafa, 80;
+ extract from, 243-4; 286; 338
+ Wiggo, 133-7, 264-5
+ Wigo, 33-4
+ Wijk bij Duurstede, _see_ Dorestad
+ William of Malmesbury, 70 _etc._, 203, 302
+ Woden's ancestors, 311 _etc._
+
+ _Ynglinga tal_ and _Ynglinga Saga_, 5-7, 68-9, 344
+ Yte, _see_ Jutes
+ Ytene, 8, 337
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+NOTES
+
+[1] The exact equivalent to _Hr[=o]ðgar_ is found in O.N., in the form
+_Hróðgeirr_. The by-form _Hróarr_, which is used of the famous Danish king,
+is due to a number of rather irregular changes, which can however be
+paralleled. The Primitive Germanic form of the name would have been
+*_Hr[=o]þugaisaz_: for the loss of the _g_ at the beginning of the second
+element we may compare _Aðils_ with _[=E]adgils_ (Noreen, _Altisländische
+Grammatik_, 1903, § 223); for the loss of _ð_ before _w_ compare _Hrólfr_
+with _Hr[=o]ðwulf_ (Noreen, § 222); for the absence of _R-_ umlaut in the
+second syllable, combined with loss of the _g_, compare O.N. _nafarr_ with
+O.E. _nafug[=a]r_ (Noreen, § 69).
+
+[2] Corresponding to O.N. _Aðils_ we should expect O.E. _Æðgils_, _Æðgisl_.
+The form _[=E]adgils_ may be due to confusion with the famous Eadgils, king
+of the Myrgingas, who is mentioned in _Widsith_. The name comes only once
+in _Beowulf_ (l. 2392) and may owe its form there to a corruption of the
+scribe. That the O.E. form is corrupt seems more likely than that the O.N.
+_Aðils_, so well known and so frequently recorded, is a corruption of
+_Auðgisl_.
+
+[3] It must be remembered that the sound changes of the Germanic dialects
+have been worked out so minutely that it is nearly always possible to
+decide quite definitely whether two names do or do not exactly correspond.
+Only occasionally is dispute possible [e.g. whether _Hrothgar_ is or is not
+phonetically the exact equivalent of _Hroarr_].
+
+[4] See below, pp. 8-10.
+
+[5] _Chochilaicus_, which appears to be the correct form, corresponds to
+_Hygelac_ (in the primitive form _Hugilaikaz_) as _Chlodovechus_ to
+_Hludovicus_.
+
+[6] The passages in _Beowulf_ referring to this expedition are:
+
+1202 _etc._. Frisians (adjoining the Hetware) and Franks mentioned as the
+foes.
+
+2354 _etc._ Hetware mentioned.
+
+2501 _etc._ Hugas (= Franks) and the Frisian king mentioned.
+
+2914 _etc._ Franks, Frisians, Hugas, Hetware and "the Merovingian"
+mentioned.
+
+[7] The identification of Chochilaicus with Hygelac is the most important
+discovery ever made in the study of _Beowulf_, and the foundation of our
+belief in the historic character of its episodes. It is sometimes
+attributed to Grundtvig, sometimes to Outzen. It was first vaguely
+suggested by Grundtvig (_Nyeste Skilderie af Kjøbenhavn_, 1815, col. 1030):
+the importance of the identification was worked out by him fully, two years
+later (_Danne-Virke_, II, 285). In the meantime the passage from Gregory
+had been quoted by Outzen in his review of Thorkelin's _Beowulf_ (_Kieler
+Blätter_, III, 312). Outzen's reference was obviously made independently,
+but he failed to detect the real bearing of the passage upon _Beowulf_.
+Credit for the find accordingly belongs solely to Grundtvig.
+
+[8] Ongentheow is mentioned in _Widsith_ (l. 31) as a famous king of the
+Swedes. Many of the kings mentioned in the same list can be proved to be
+historical, and the reference in _Widsith_ therefore supports Ongentheow's
+historic character, but is far, in itself, from proving it.
+
+[9] Strictly _Anganþér_. See Heusler, _Heldennamen in mehrfacher
+Lautgestalt, Z.f.d.A._ LII, 101.
+
+[10] ll. 2382-4.
+
+[11] ll. 2612-9.
+
+[12] Whether it be accuracy or accident, these names Ottar and Athils come
+just at that place in the list of the _Ynglinga tal_ which, when we reckon
+back the generations, we find to correspond to the beginning of the sixth
+century. And this is the date when we know from _Beowulf_ that they should
+have been reigning.
+
+[13] But the accounts are quite inconsistent. Saxo (ed. Holder, pp. 56-7)
+implies a version in which Athils was deposed, if not slain, by Bothvar
+Bjarki, which is quite at variance with other information given by Saxo.
+
+[14] Unless they are among the fragments carried off to the Stockholm
+Museum. Little of interest was found in these mounds when they were opened:
+everything had been too thoroughly burnt.
+
+[15] See Schück, _Folknamnet Geatas_, 22 _etc._
+
+[16] See below, p. 98 and Appendix (E); The "Jute-Question."
+
+[17] See below, pp. 45 _etc._
+
+[18] Olrik (_Heltedigtning_, I, 22 _etc._). The Danish house--Healfdene,
+Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga, Heoroweard, Hrethric, Hrothmund, Hrothulf: the
+Swedish--Ongentheow, Onela, Ohthere, Eanmund, Eadgils: the Geatic--Hrethel,
+Herebeald, Hætheyn, Hygelac, Heardred. The same principle is strongly
+marked in the Old English pedigrees.
+
+[19] ll. 3018 _etc._
+
+[20] As is done, e.g., by Schück (_Studier i Beowulf-sagan_, 27).
+
+[21] "Dragon fights are more frequent, not less frequent, the nearer we
+come to historic times": Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 313. The dragon
+survived much later in Europe than has been generally recognized. He was
+flying from Mount Pilatus in 1649. (See J. J. Scheuchzer, _Itinera per
+Helvetiae Alpinas regiones_, 1723, III, p. 385.) The same authority quotes
+accounts of dragons authenticated by priests, his own contemporaries, and
+supplies many bloodcurdling engravings of the same.
+
+[22] Cf. on this point Klaeber in _Anglia_, XXXVI (1912) p. 190.
+
+[23] l. 2382.
+
+[24] l. 2393.
+
+[25] Of course, even if Beowulf's reign over the Geatas is not historic,
+this does not exclude the possibility of his having _some_ historic
+foundation.
+
+[26] Attempts at working out the chronology of _Beowulf_ have been made by
+Gering (in his translation) and by Heusler (_Archiv_, CXXIV, 9-14). On the
+whole the chronology of _Beowulf_ is self-consistent, but there are one or
+two discrepancies which do not admit of solution.
+
+[27] l. 468.
+
+[28] l. 2161.
+
+[29] _Widsith_, l. 46.
+
+[30] _Beowulf_, l. 2160. Had Hrothulf been a son of Heorogar he could not
+have been passed over in silence here. Neither can Hrothulf be Hrothgar's
+sister's son: for since the sister married the Swedish king, Hrothulf would
+in that case be a Swedish prince, and presumably would be living at the
+Swedish court, and bearing a name connected by alliteration with those of
+the Swedish, not the Danish house. Besides, had he been a Swedish prince,
+he must have been heard of in connection with the dynastic quarrels of the
+Swedish house.
+
+[31] ll. 1163-5.
+
+[32] ll. 1188-91.
+
+[33] ll. 1180 _etc._
+
+[34] Doubts are expressed, for example, in Trap's monumental topographical
+work (_Kongeriket Danmark_, II, 328, 1898).
+
+[35] For example Sweyn Aageson (c. 1200) had no doubt that the little
+village of Leire near Roskilde was identical with the Leire of story: _Rolf
+Kraki, occisus in Lethra, qvae tunc famosissima Regis extitit curia, nunc
+autem Roskildensi vicina civitati, inter abjectissima ferme vix colitur
+oppida._ Svenonis Aggonis _Historia Regum Daniae_, in Langebek, I, 45.
+
+[36] _Ro ... patrem vero suum Dan colle apud Lethram tumulavit Sialandie
+ubi sedem regni pro eo pater constituit, qvam ipse post eum divitiis
+multiplicibus ditavit._ In the so-called _Annales Esromenses_, in Langebek,
+I, 224. Cf. Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 188, 194. For further evidence, see
+Appendix (G) below.
+
+[37] We must not think of Heorot as an isolated country seat. The Royal
+Hall would stand in the middle of the Royal Village, as in the case of the
+halls of Attila (Priscus in Möller's _Fragmenta_, IV, 85) or Cynewulf
+(_A.S. Chronicle_, Anno 755).
+
+[38] _Lethram pergitur, quod oppidum, a Roluone constructum eximiisque
+regni opibus illustratum, ceteris confinium prouinciarum urbibus regie
+fundacionis et sedis auctoritate prestabat._ Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p.
+58).
+
+[39] _His cognitis Helgo filium Roluonem Lethrica arce conclusit, heredis
+saluti consulturus_ (p. 52).
+
+[40] _A Roe Roskildia condita memoratur._ Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p.
+51). Roe's spring, after being a feature of the town throughout the ages,
+is now (owing perhaps to its sources having been tapped by a neighbouring
+mineral-water factory) represented only by a pump in a market-garden.
+
+[41] I owe this paragraph to information kindly supplied me by Dr Sofus
+Larsen, librarian of the University Library, Copenhagen.
+
+[42] It was once believed that, in prehistoric times, the sea came up to
+Leire also (Forchhammer, Steenstrup and Worsaae: _Undersøgelser i
+geologisk-antiqvarisk Retning_, Kjøbenhavn, 1851). A most exact scrutiny of
+the geology of the coast-line has proved this to be erroneous. (Danmarks
+geologiske Undersøgelse I.R. 6. _Beskrivelse til Kaartbladene Kjøbenhavn og
+Roskilde_, af K. Rørdam, Kjøbenhavn, 1899.)
+
+[43] The presence at Leire of early remains makes it tempting to suppose
+that it may have been from very primitive times a stronghold or sacred
+place. It is impossible here to examine these conjectures, which would
+connect Heorot ultimately with the "sacred place on the isle of the ocean"
+mentioned by Tacitus. The curious may be referred to Much in _P.B.B._ XVII,
+196-8; Mogk in _Pauls Grdr._ (2) III, 367; Kock in the Swedish _Historisk
+Tidskrift_, 1895, 162 _etc._; and particularly to the articles by Sarrazin:
+_Die Hirsch Halle_ in _Anglia_, XIX, 368-91, _Neue Beowulfstudien_ (_Der
+Grendelsee_) in _Engl. Stud._ XLII, 6-15.
+
+[44] This seems to me much more probable than, as Olrik supposes, that
+Froda fell in battle against Healfdene (_Skjoldungasaga_, 162 [80]).
+
+[45] _Saga of Rolf Kraki_, cap. IV.
+
+[46] Olrik wishes to read the whole of this account, not as a prediction in
+the present future tense, but as a narrative of past events in the historic
+present. (_Heltedigtning_, I, 16; II, 38.) Considering the rarity of the
+historic present idiom in Old English poetry, this seems exceedingly
+unlikely.
+
+[47] ll. 2047-2056.
+
+[48] _Verba dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio; ibi decet lectorem
+audiri, non citharistam, sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid
+Hinieldus cum Christo?_ See Jaffé's _Monumenta Alcuiniana_ (_Bibliotheca
+Rer. Germ._ VI), Berlin, 1873, p. 357; _Epistolae_, 81.
+
+[49] Saxo, Book _VI_ (ed. Holder, 205, 212-13).
+
+The contrast between this lyrical outburst, and the matter-of-fact speech
+in which the old warrior in _Beowulf_ eggs on the younger man, is
+thoroughly characteristic of the difference between Old English and Old
+Scandinavian heroic poetry. This difference is very noticeable whenever we
+have occasion to compare a passage in _Beowulf_ with any parallel passage
+in a Scandinavian poem, and should be carefully pondered by those who still
+believe that _Beowulf_ is, in its present form, a translation from the
+Scandinavian.
+
+[50] Saxo, Book VIII (ed. Holder, p. 274); _Helga kviþa Hundingsbana_, II,
+19. See also Bugge, _Helge-digtene_, 157.
+
+[51] _Þáttr Þorsteins Skelks_ in _Flateyarbók_ (ed. Vigfússon and Unger),
+I, 416.
+
+[52] Similarly, there is certainly a primitive connection between the names
+of the Geatas (Gautar) and of the Goths: but they are quite distinct
+peoples: we should not be justified in speaking of the Geatas as identical
+with the Goths.
+
+[53] Müllenhoff (_Beovulf_, 29-32) followed by Much (_P.B.B._ XVII, 201)
+and Heinzel (_A.f.d.A._ XVI, 271). The best account of the Heruli is in
+Procopius (_Bell. Gott._ II, 14, 15).
+
+[54] See also Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 21, 22: Sarrazin in _Engl. Stud._
+XLII, 11: Bugge, _Helgi-digtene_, 151-63; 181: Chambers, _Widsith_, p. 82
+(note), pp. 205-6.
+
+[55] _Saga of Rolf Kraki: Skjoldungasaga._
+
+[56] Best represented in Saxo.
+
+[57] See above, p. 15.
+
+[58] ll. 1180-87.
+
+[59] ll. 1188-91.
+
+[60] ll. 1163-5.
+
+[61] ll. 1017-19.
+
+[62] ll. 45-6.
+
+[63] For a contrary view see Clarke, _Sidelights_, 100.
+
+[64] Saxo has mistaken a title _hnøggvanbaugi_ for a father's name,
+(_hins_) _hnøggva Baugs_ "(son of the) covetous Baug."
+
+[65] _Langfeðgatal_ in Langebek, I, 5. The succession given in
+_Langfeðgatal_ is Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Rolf, Hrærek: it should, of
+course, run Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Hrærek, Rolf. Hrærek has been moved
+from his proper place in order to clear Rolf of any suspicion of
+usurpation.
+
+[66] l. 1189.
+
+[67] See Olrik, _Episke Love_ in _Danske Studier_, 1908, p. 79. Compare the
+remark of Goethe in _Wilhelm Meister_, as to the necessity of there being
+_both_ a Rosencrantz _and_ a Guildenstern (_Apprenticeship_, Book V, chap.
+V).
+
+[68] ll. 587-9.
+
+[69] ll. 1165-8.
+
+[70] Perhaps such murder of kin was more common among the aristocratic
+houses than among the bulk of the population (Chadwick, _H.A._ 348). In
+some great families it almost becomes the rule, producing a state of things
+similar to that in present day Afghanistan, where it has become a proverb
+that a man is "as great an enemy as a cousin" (Pennell, _Afghan Frontier_,
+30).
+
+[71] This is proposed by Cosijn (_Aanteekeningen_, 21) and again
+independently by Lawrence in _M.L.N._ XXV, 157.
+
+[72] ll. 467-9.
+
+[73] ll. 2155-62.
+
+[74] See _Widsith_, ed. Chambers, pp. 92-4.
+
+[75] See Rickert, "The Old English Offa Saga" in _Mod. Phil._ II, esp. p.
+75.
+
+[76] The common ascription of the _Lives of the Offas_ to Matthew Paris is
+erroneous: they are somewhat earlier.
+
+[77] The identification of _Fifeldor_ with the Eider has been doubted,
+notably by Holthausen, though he seems less doubtful in his latest edition
+(third edit. II, 178). The reasons for the identification appear to me the
+following. Place names ending in _dor_ are exceedingly rare. When,
+therefore, two independent authorities tell us that Offa fought at a place
+named _Fifel-dor_ or _Egi-dor_, it appears unlikely that this can be a mere
+coincidence: it seems more natural to assume that the names are corruptions
+of one original. But further, the connection is not limited to the second
+element in the name. For the Eider (_Egidora_, _Ægisdyr_) would in O.E. be
+_Egor-dor_: and _Egor-dor_ stands to _Fifel-dor_ precisely as _egor-stream_
+(Boethius, _Metra_, XX, 118) does to _fifel-stream_ (_Metra_, XXVI, 26),
+_"egor" and "fifel" being interchangeable synonyms_. See note to _Widsith_,
+l. 43 (p. 204). It is objected that the interchange of _fifel_ and _egor_,
+though frequent in common nouns, would be unusual in the name of a place.
+The reply is that the Old English scop may not have regarded it as a
+place-name. He may have substituted _fifel-dor_ for the synonymous
+_egor-dor_, "the monster gate," without realizing that it was the name of a
+definite place, just as he would have substituted _fifel-stream_ for
+_egor-stream_, "the monster stream, the sea," if alliteration demanded the
+change.
+
+[78] _The Deeds of Beowulf_, LXXXV.
+
+[79] See below, pp. 105-12, and Appendix (D) below.
+
+[80] Wihtlæg appears in Saxo as _Vigletus_ (Book IV, ed. Holder, p. 105).
+
+[81] _Nibelungen Lied_, ed. Piper, 328.
+
+[82] Book IV (ed. Holder, p. 102).
+
+[83] Kemble, _Beowulf_, _Postscript_ IX; followed by Müllenhoff, _etc._ So,
+lately, Chadwick (_H.A._ 126): cf. also Sievers ('Beowulf und Saxo' in the
+_Berichte d. k. sächs. Gesell. d. Wissenschaften_, 1895, pp. 180-88);
+Bradley in _Encyc. Brit._ III, 761; Boer, _Beowulf_, 135. See also Olrik,
+_Danmarks Heltedigtning_, I, 246. For further discussion see below,
+Appendix (A).
+
+[84] _Beo_--_Scyld_--_Scef_ in Ethelwerd: _Beowius_--_Sceldius_--_Sceaf_ in
+William of Malmesbury. But in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ five generations
+intervene between Sceaf and his descendant Scyldwa, father of Beaw.
+
+[85] "Item there is vii acres lond lying by the high weye toward the
+grendyll": _Bury Wills_, ed. S. Tymms (Camden Soc. XLIX, 1850, p. 31).
+
+[86] I should hardly have thought it worth while to revive this old
+"cesspool" theory, were it not for the statement of Dr Lawrence that
+"Miller's argument that the word _grendel_ here is not a proper name at
+all, that it means 'drain,' has never, to my knowledge, been refuted."
+(_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXIV, 253.)
+
+Miller was a scholar whose memory should be reverenced, but the letter to
+the _Academy_ was evidently written in haste. The only evidence which
+Miller produced for _grendel_ standing alone as a common noun in Old
+English was a charter of 963 (Birch, 1103: vol. III, p. 336): _þanon forð
+eft on grendel: þanon on clyst_: _grendel_ here, he asserted, meant
+"drain": and consequently _gryndeles sylle_ and _grendles mere_ in the
+other charters must mean "cesspool." But the locality of this charter of
+963 is known (Clyst St Mary, a few miles east of Exeter), and the two words
+exist there as names of streams to this day--"thence again along the
+Greendale brook, thence along the river Clyst." The Grindle or Greendale
+brook is no sewer, but a stream some half dozen miles in length which
+"winds tranquilly through a rich tract of alluvial soil" (_Journal of the
+Archaeol. Assoc._ XXXIX, 273), past three villages which bear the same
+name, Greendale, Greendale Barton and Higher Greendale, under Greendale
+Bridge and over the ford by Greendale Lane, to its junction with the Clyst.
+Why the existence of this charming stream should be held to justify the
+interpretation of _Grendel_ or _Gryndel_ as "drain" and _grendles mere_ as
+"cesspool" has always puzzled me. Were a new Drayton to arise he might, in
+a new _Polyolbion_, introduce the nymph complaining of her hard lot at the
+hands of scholars in the Hesperides. I hope, when he next visits England,
+to conduct Dr Lawrence to make his apologies to the lady. Meantime a glance
+at the "six inch" ordnance map of Devon suffices to refute Miller's curious
+hypothesis.
+
+[87] It is often asserted that the same Beowa appears as a witness to a
+charter (Müllenhoff, _Beovulf_, p. 8: Haak, _Zeugnisse zur altenglischen
+Heldensage_, 53). But this rests upon a misprint of Kemble (_C.D.S._ V,
+44). The name is really _Beoba_ (Birch, _Cart. Sax._ I, 212).
+
+[88] _Beaf er ver kollum Biar_, in the descent of Harold Fairhair from
+Adam, in _Flateyarbók_, ed. Vigfússon and Unger, Christiania, 1859, I, 27.
+[The genealogy contains many names obviously taken from a MS of the O.E.
+royal pedigrees, not from oral tradition, as is shown by the miswritings,
+e.g., _Beaf_ for _Beaw_, owing to mistaking the O.E. _w_ for _f_.] "This is
+no proof," Dr Lawrence urges, "of popular acquaintance with Bjár as a
+Scandinavian figure." (_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXIV, 246.) But how
+are we to account for the presence of his name among a mnemonic list of
+some of the most famous warriors and their horses--mention along with
+heroes like Sigurd, Gunnar, Atli, Athils and Ali, unless Bjar was a
+well-known figure?
+
+[89] _en Bjárr [reið] Kerti_. _Kortr_, "short" (Germ. _Kurz_), if indeed we
+are so to interpret it, is hardly an Icelandic word, and seems strange as
+the name of a horse. Egilsson (_Lex. Poet._ 1860) suggests _kertr_,
+"erect," "with head high" (cf. Kahle in _I.F._ XIV, 164).
+
+[90] See Appendix (A) below.
+
+[91] Müllenhoff derived Beaw from the root _bh[=u]_, "to be, dwell, grow":
+Beaw therefore represented settled dwelling and culture. Müllenhoff's
+mythological explanation (_Z.f.d.A._ VII, 419, _etc._, _Beovulf_, 1,
+_etc._) has been largely followed by subsequent scholars, e.g., ten Brink
+(_Pauls Grdr._ II, 533: _Beowulf_, 184), Symons (_Pauls Grdr._ (2), III,
+645-6) and, in general outline, E. H. Meyer (_Mythol. der Germanen_, 1903,
+242).
+
+[92] Uhland in _Germania_, II, 349.
+
+[93] Laistner (_Nebelsagen_, 88, _etc._, 264, _etc._), Kögel (_Z.f.d.A._
+XXXVII, 274: _Geschichte d. deut. Litt._ I, 1, 109), and Golther (_Handbuch
+der germ. Mythologie_, 1895, 173) see in Grendel the demon of combined
+storm and pestilence.
+
+[94] E. H. Meyer (_Germ. Mythol._ 1891, 299).
+
+[95] Mogk (_Pauls Grdr._ (2), III, 302) regards Grendel as a
+"water-spirit."
+
+[96] Boer (_Ark. f. nord. Filol._ XIX, 19).
+
+[97] This suggestion is made (very tentatively) by Brandl, in _Pauls Grdr._
+(2), II, i, 992.
+
+[98] This view has been enunciated by Wundt in his _Völkerpsychologie_, II,
+i, 326, _etc._, 382. For a discussion see A. Heusler in _Berliner
+Sitzungsberichte_, XXXVII, 1909, pp. 939-945.
+
+[99] Cf. Lawrence in _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXIV, 265, _etc._, and
+Panzer's "Beowulf" throughout.
+
+[100] The tradition of "the devil and his dam" resembles that of Grendel
+and his mother in its coupling together the home-keeping female and the
+roving male. See E. Lehmann, "Fandens Oldemor" in _Dania_, VIII, 179-194; a
+paper which has been undeservedly neglected in the _Beowulf_
+bibliographies. But the devil beats his dam (cf. _Piers Plowman_, C-text,
+XXI, 284): conduct of which one cannot imagine Grendel guilty. See too
+Lehmann in _Arch. f. Religionswiss._ VIII, 411-30: Panzer, _Beowulf_, 130,
+137, _etc._: Klaeber in _Anglia_, XXXVI, 188.
+
+[101] Cf. _Beowulf_, ll. 1282-7.
+
+[102] There are other coincidences which _may_ be the result of mere
+chance. In each case, before the adventure with the giants, the hero proves
+his strength by a feat of endurance in the ice-cold water. And, at the end
+of the story, the hero in each case produces, as evidence of his victory, a
+trophy with a runic inscription: in _Beowulf_ an engraved sword-hilt; in
+the _Grettis saga_ bones and a "rune-staff."
+
+[103] Vigfússon, _Corp. Poet. Boreale_, II, 502: Bugge, _P.B.B._ XII, 58.
+
+[104] Boer, for example, believes that _Beowulf_ influenced the _Grettis
+saga_ (_Grettis saga_, Introduction, xliii); so, tentatively, Olrik
+(_Heltedigtning_, I, 248).
+
+[105] For this argument and the following, cf. Schück, _Studier i
+Beowulfssagan_, 21.
+
+[106] Even assuming that a MS of _Beowulf_ had found its way to Iceland, it
+would have been unintelligible. This is shown by the absurd blunders made
+when Icelanders borrowed names from the O.E. genealogies.
+
+[107] Cf. Olrik, _A. f. n. F._, VIII (N.F. IV), 368-75; and Chadwick,
+_Origin_, 125-6.
+
+[108] _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXVII, 208 _etc._
+
+[109] _Cotton. Gnomic Verses_, ll. 42-3.
+
+[110] _Fornmannas[o,]gur_, III, 204-228.
+
+[111] Hammershaimb, _Fær[=o]iske Kvoeder_, II, 1855, Nos. 11 and 12.
+
+[112] A. I. Arwidsson, _Svenska Fornsånger_, 1834-42, Nos. 8 and 9.
+
+[113] Boer, _Beowulf_, 177-180.
+
+[114] ll. 1553-6.
+
+[115] l. 455.
+
+[116] The attacks have taken place at Yule for two successive years,
+exactly as in the _Grettis saga_. [In _Beowulf_ it is, of course, "twelve
+winters" (l. 147).] Is this mere accident, or does the _Grettis saga_ here
+preserve the original time limit, which has been exaggerated in _Beowulf_?
+If so, we have another point of resemblance between the _Saga of Rolf
+Kraki_ and the earliest version of the _Beowulf_ story.
+
+[117] _Beowulf_, ll. 801-5.
+
+[118] Cf. _Beowulf_, ll. 590-606.
+
+[119] _Beowulf_, l. 679.
+
+[120] _Beowulf_, ll. 1508-9, 1524.
+
+[121] It is only in this adventure that Rolf carries the sword
+_Gullinhjalti_. His usual sword, as well known as Arthur's Excalibur, was
+_Skofnungr_. For _Gyldenhilt_, whether descriptive, or proper noun, see
+_Beowulf_, 1677.
+
+[122] Cf. Symons in _Pauls Grdr._ (2), III, 649: Züge aus dem anglischen
+Mythus von Béaw-Biar (Biarr oder Bjár?; s. Symons Lieder der Edda, I, 222)
+wurden auf den dänischen Sagenhelden (Boðvarr) Bjarki durch Ähnlichkeit der
+Namen veranlasst, übertragen. Cf. too, Heusler in _A.f.d.A._ XXX, 32.
+
+[123] See p. 87 and Appendix (A) below.
+
+[124] _Heltedigtning_, I, 1903, 135-6.
+
+[125] _Beowulf_, 1518.
+
+[126] See Heusler in _Z.f.d.A._ XLVIII, 62.
+
+[127] Cf. on this Heusler, _Z.f.d.A._ XLVIII, 64-5.
+
+[128] Cf. _Skjoldunga saga_, cap. XII; and see Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I,
+201-5; _Bjarka rímur_, VIII.
+
+[129] Similarly _Skáldskaparmál_, 41 (44).
+
+[130] Bärensohn. Jean l'Ours. The name is given to the group because the
+hero is frequently (though by no means always) represented as having been
+brought up in a bear's den. The story summarized above is a portion of
+Panzer's "Type A." See Appendix (H), below.
+
+[131] ll. 704, 729.
+
+[132] ll. 691-6.
+
+[133] In the _Beowulf_ it was even desirable, as explained above, to go
+further, and completely to exculpate the Danish watchers.
+
+[134] From the controversial point of view Panzer has no doubt weakened his
+case by drawing attention to so many of these, probably accidental,
+coincidences. It gives the critic material for attack (cf. Boer, _Beowulf_,
+14)
+
+[135] ll. 2183 _etc._
+
+[136] ll. 408-9.
+
+[137] It comes out strongly in the _Bjarki_-story.
+
+[138] It can hardly be argued that Stein is mentioned because he was an
+historic character who in some way came into contact with the historic
+Grettir: for in this case his descent would have been given, according to
+the usual custom in the sagas. (Cf. note to Boer's edition of _Grettis
+saga_, p. 233.)
+
+[139] P. E. K. Kaalund, _Bidrag til en historisk-topografisk Beskrivelse af
+Island_, Kjøbenhavn, 1877, II, 151.
+
+[140] The localization in _en stor sandhaug_ is found in a version of the
+story to which Panzer was unable to get access (see p. 7 of his _Beowulf_,
+Note 2). A copy is to be found in the University Library of Christiania, in
+a small book entitled _Nor, en Billedbog for den norske Ungdom_.
+Christiania, 1865. (_Norske Folke-Eventyr ... fortalte af P. C.
+Asbjørnsen_, pp. 65-128.)
+
+The _sandhaug_ is an extraordinary coincidence, if it _is_ a mere
+coincidence. It cannot have been imported into the modern folk-tale from
+the _Grettis saga_, for there is no superficial resemblance between the two
+tales.
+
+[141] Cf. Boer, _Beowulf_, 14.
+
+[142] Yet both Beowulf and Orm are saved by divine help.
+
+[143] Panzer exaggerates the case against his own theory when he quotes
+only six versions as omitting the princesses (p. 122). Such unanimity as
+this is hardly to be looked for in a collection of 202 kindred folk-tales.
+In addition to these six, the princesses are altogether missing, for
+example, in the versions Panzer numbers 68, 69, 77: they are only faintly
+represented in other versions (e.g. 76). Nevertheless the rescue of the
+princesses may be regarded as the most essential element in the tale.
+
+[144] I cannot agree with Panzer when (p. 319) he suggests the possibility
+of the _Beowulf_ and the _Grettir_-story having been derived independently
+from the folk-tale. For the two stories have many features in common which
+do not belong to the folk-tale: apart from the absence of the princesses we
+have the _hæft-m[=e]ce_ and the strange conclusion drawn by the watchers
+from the blood-stained water.
+
+[145] Ipse Scef cum uno dromone advectus est in insula Oceani, quae dicitur
+Scani, armis circundatus, eratque valde recens puer, & ab incolis illius
+terrae ignotus; attamen ab eis suscipitur, & ut familiarem diligenti animo
+eum custodierunt, & post in regem eligunt.
+
+Ethelwerdus, III, 3, in Savile's _Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam_,
+Francofurti, 1601, p. 842.
+
+[146] See Chadwick, _Origin_, 259-60.
+
+[147] Sceldius [fuit filius] Sceaf. Iste, ut ferunt, in quandam insulam
+Germaniae Scandzam, de qua Jordanes, historiographus Gothorum, loquitur,
+appulsus navi sine remige, puerulus, posito ad caput frumenti manipulo,
+dormiens, ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus, ab hominibus regionis illius pro
+miraculo exceptus et sedulo nutritus: adulta aetate regnavit in oppido quod
+tunc Slaswic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur. Est autem regio illa Anglia
+vetus dicta....
+
+William of Malmesbury, _De Gestis Regum Anglorum_. Lib. II, § 116, vol. I,
+p. 121, ed. Stubbs, 1887.
+
+[148] Although Saxo Grammaticus has provided some even earlier kings.
+
+[149] Cf. Müllenhoff in _Z.f.d.A._ VII, 413.
+
+[150] In _Grímnismál_, 54, Odin gives _Gautr_ as one of his names.
+
+[151] See below.
+
+[152] Excluding, of course, the Hebrew names.
+
+[153] _Scyld_ appears as _Scyldwa_, _Sce(a)ldwa_ in the _Chronicle_. The
+forms correspond.
+
+[154] See Part II.
+
+[155] _armis circundatus_.
+
+[156] For a list of the scholars who have dealt with the subject, see
+_Widsith_, p. 119.
+
+[157] _Beovulf_, p. 6 _etc._
+
+[158] _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXIV, 259 _etc._
+
+[159] This objection to the Scyld-theory has been excellently expressed by
+Olrik--at a time, too, when Olrik himself accepted the story as belonging
+to Scyld rather than Sceaf. "Binz," says Olrik, "rejects William of
+Malmesbury as a source for the Scyld story. But he has not noticed that in
+doing so he saws across the branch upon which he himself and the other
+investigators are sitting. For if William is not a reliable authority, and
+even a more reliable authority than the others, then 'Scyld with the sheaf'
+is left in the air." _Heltedigtning_, I, 238-9, note.
+
+[160] The discussion of Skjold by Olrik (_Danmarks Heltedigtning_, I,
+223-271) is perhaps the most helpful of any yet made, especially in
+emphasizing the necessity of differentiating the stages in the story. But
+it must be taken in connection with the very essential modifications made
+by Dr Olrik in his second volume (pp. 249-65, especially pp. 264-5). Dr
+Olrik's earlier interpretation made Scyld the original hero of the story:
+_Scefing_ Olrik interpreted, not as "with the sheaf," but as "son of Scef."
+To the objection that any knowledge of Scyld's parentage would be
+inconsistent with his unknown origin, Olrik replied by supposing that Scyld
+was a foundling whose origin, though unknown to the people of the land to
+which he came, was well known to the poet. The poet, Dr Olrik thought,
+regarded him as a son of the Langobardic king, Sceafa, a connection which
+we are to attribute to the Anglo-Saxon love of framing genealogies. But
+this explanation of Scyld Scefing as a human foundling does not seem to me
+to be borne out by the text of _Beowulf_. "The child is a poor foundling,"
+says Dr Olrik, "_he suffered distress from the time when he was first found
+as a helpless child_. Only as a grown man did he get compensation for his
+childhood's adversity" (p. 228). But this is certainly not the meaning of
+_egsode eorl[as]_. It is "_He inspired the earl[s] with awe_."
+
+[161] See below (App. C) for instances of ancestral names extant both in
+weak and strong forms, like _Scyld_, _Sceldwa_ (the identity of which no
+one doubts) or _Sceaf_, _Sceafa_ (the identity of which has been doubted).
+
+[162] "As for the name _Scyldungas-Skjöldungar_, we need not hesitate to
+believe that this originally meant 'the people' or 'kinsmen of the shield.'
+Similar appellations are not uncommon, e.g., _Rondingas_, _Helmingas_,
+_Brondingas_ ... probably these names meant either 'the people of _the_
+shield, _the_ helmet,' _etc._, or else the people who used shields,
+helmets, _etc._, in some special way. In the former case we may compare the
+Ancile of the Romans and the Palladion of the Greeks; in either case we may
+note that occasionally shields have been found in the North which can never
+have been used except for ceremonial purposes." Chadwick, _Origin_, p. 284:
+cf. Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 274.
+
+[163] Sweyn Aageson, _Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse_, in Langebek,
+_S.R.D._ I, 44.
+
+[164] Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 246; Lawrence, _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc._
+XXIV, 254.
+
+[165] It is odd that Binz, who has recorded so many of these, should have
+argued on the strength of these place-names that the Scyld story is not
+Danish, but an ancient possession of the tribes of the North Sea coast (p.
+150). For Binz also records an immense number of names of heroes of alien
+stock--Danish, Gothic or Burgundian--as occurring in England (_P.B.B._ XX,
+202 _etc._).
+
+[166] _Beovulf_, p. 7.
+
+[167] Chadwick, _Origin_, p. 278.
+
+[168] The scandals about King Edgar (_infamias quas post dicam magis
+resperserunt cantilenae_: see _Gesta Regum Anglorum_, II, § 148, ed.
+Stubbs, vol. I, p. 165); the story of Gunhilda, the daughter of Knut, who,
+married to a foreign King with great pomp and rejoicing, _nostro seculo
+etiam in triviis cantitata_, was unjustly suspected of unchastity till her
+English page, in vindication of her honour, slew the giant whom her
+accusers had brought forward as their champion (_Gesta_, II, § 188, ed.
+Stubbs, I, pp. 229, 230); the story of King Edward and the shepherdess,
+learnt from _cantilenis per successiones temporum detritis_ (_Gesta_, II, §
+138, ed. Stubbs, I, 155). Macaulay in the _Lays of Ancient Rome_ has
+selected William as a typical example of the historian who draws upon
+popular song. Cf. Freeman's _Historical Essays_.
+
+[169] Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 245.
+
+[170] _Origin_, pp. 279-281.
+
+[171] Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, 1813, I, 443.
+
+[172] Henderson, _Folklore of the Northern Counties_, 87-89.
+
+[173] Hone's _Every Day Book_, 1827, p. 1170.
+
+[174] _The Tamar and the Tavy_, I. 330 (1836).
+
+[175] Raymond, _Two men o' Mendip_, 1899, 259.
+
+[176] Miss M. A. Courtney, _Glossary of West Cornwall_; T. Q. Couch,
+_Glossary of East Cornwall_, s. v. Neck (_Eng. Dial. Soc._ 1880); Jago,
+_Ancient Language of Cornwall_, 1882, s. v. Anek.
+
+[177] _Notes and Queries_, 4th Ser. XII, 491 (1873).
+
+[178] Holland's _Glossary of Chester_ (_Eng. Dial. Soc._), s.v. _Cutting
+the Neck._
+
+[179] Burne, _Shropshire Folk Lore_, 1883, 371.
+
+[180] "to cry the Mare." Blount, _Glossographia_, 4th edit. 1674, s.v.
+_mare_. Cf. _Notes and Queries_, 5th Ser. VI, 286 (1876).
+
+[181] Wright, _Eng. Dial. Dict._, s.v. _neck_.
+
+[182] Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn_, 1912, I, 268. The word was understood
+as = "neck" by the peasants, because "They'm taied up under the chin laike"
+(_Notes and Queries_, 5th Ser. X, 51). But this may be false etymology.
+
+[183] Wright, _Eng. Dial. Dict._ Cf. _Notes and Queries_, 5th Ser. X, 51.
+
+[184] _Heltedigtning_, II, 252.
+
+[185] The earliest record of the term "cutting the neck" seems to be found
+in Randle Holme's _Store House of Armory_, 1688 (II, 73). It may be noted
+that Holme was a Cheshire man.
+
+[186] Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, Strassburg, 1884, 326 _etc._
+
+[187] Quod dum servi Dei propensius actitarent, inspiratum est eis salubre
+consilium et (ut pium est credere) divinitus provisum. Die etenim statuto
+mane surgentes monachi sumpserunt scutum rotundum, cui imponebant manipulum
+frumenti, et super manipulum cereum circumspectae quantitatis et
+grossitudinis. Quo accenso scutum cum manipulo et cereo, fluvio ecclesiam
+praetercurrenti committunt, paucis in navicula fratribus subsequentibus.
+Praecedebat itaque eos scutum et quasi digito demonstrans possessiones
+domui Abbendoniae de jure adjacentes nunc huc, nunc illuc divertens; nunc
+in dextra nunc in sinistra parte fiducialiter eos praeibat, usquedum
+veniret ad rivum prope pratum quod Beri vocatur, in quo cereus medium
+cursum Tamisiae miraculose deserens se declinavit et circumdedit pratum
+inter Tamisiam et Gifteleia, quod hieme et multociens aestate ex
+redundatione Tamisiae in modum insulae aqua circumdatur.
+
+_Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon_, ed. Stevenson, 1858, vol. I, p. 89.
+
+[188] Chadwick, _Origin_, 278.
+
+[189] Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, II, 251.
+
+[190] But is this so? "The word Sämpsä (now sämpsykka) 'small rush,
+_scirpus silvaticus_, forest rush,' is borrowed from the Germanic family
+(Engl. semse; Germ. simse)." Olrik, 253. But the Engl. "semse" is difficult
+to track.
+
+See also note by A. Mieler in _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_, X, 43, 1910.
+
+[191] Kaarle Krohn, "Sampsa Pellervoinen" in _Finnisch-Ugrische
+Forschungen_ IV, 231 _etc._, 1904.
+
+[192] Cf. Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, II, 252 _etc._.
+
+[193] I do not understand why Olrik (_Heltedigtning_, I, 235) declares the
+coming to land in Scani (Ethelwerd) to be inconsistent with Sceaf as a
+Longobardic king (_Widsith_). For, according to their national historian,
+the Longobardi came from "Scadinavia" [Paul the Deacon, I, 1-7]. It is a
+more serious difficulty that Paul knows of no Longobardic king with a name
+which we can equate with Sceaf.
+
+[194] So, corresponding to O.E. _tr[=i]ewe_ we have Icel. _tryggr_; to O.E.
+_gl[=e]aw_, Icel. _gl[o,]ggr_; O.E. _sc[=u]wa_, Icel. _skugg-_.
+
+[195] Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, II, 1910, pp. 254-5.
+
+An account of the worship of Pekko will be found in _Finnisch-Ugrische
+Forschungen_, VI, 1906, pp. 104-111: _Über den Pekokultus bei den
+Setukesen_, by M. J. Eisen. See also Appendix (A) below.
+
+Pellon-Pecko is mentioned by Michael Agricola, Bishop of Åbo, in his
+translation of the Psalter into Finnish, 1551. It is here that we are told
+that he "promoted the growth of barley."
+
+[196] l. 15.
+
+[197] That Heremod is a Danish king is clear from ll. 1709 _etc._ And as we
+have all the stages in the Scylding genealogy from Scyld to Hrothgar,
+Heremod must be placed earlier.
+
+[198] Of Grein in _Eberts Jahrbuch_, IV, 264.
+
+[199] A good example of this is supplied by the Assyrian records, which
+make Jehu a son of Omri--whose family he had destroyed.
+
+[200] This reconstruction is made by Sievers in the _Berichte d. k. sächs.
+Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_, 1895, pp. 180-88.
+
+[201] The god _Hermóðr_ who rides to Hell to carry a message to the dead
+Baldr is here left out of consideration. His connection with the king
+_Hermóðr_ is obscure.
+
+[202] On this see Dederich, _Historische u. geographische Studien_, 214;
+Heinzel in _A.f.d.A._ XV, 161; Chadwick, _Origin_, 148; Chadwick, _Cult of
+Othin_, 51.
+
+[203] Chadwick, _Cult of Othin_, pp. 50, _etc._
+
+[204] _puerulus ... pro miraculo exceptus_ (William of Malmesbury). Cf.
+_Beowulf_, l. 7. In Saxo, Skjold distinguishes himself at the age of
+fifteen.
+
+[205] _omnem Alemannorum gentem tributaria ditione perdomuit._ Cf.
+_Beowulf_, l. 11.
+
+[206] See above, p. 77.
+
+[207] This relationship of Frothi and Skjold is preserved by Sweyn Aageson:
+Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse.... A quo primum.... Skioldunger sunt
+Reges nuncupati. Qui regni post se reliquit haeredes Frothi videlicet &
+Haldanum. Svenonis Aggonis _Hist. Regum Dan._ in Langebek, _S.R.D._ I, 44.
+
+In Saxo Frotho is not the son, but the great grandson of Skioldus--but this
+is a discrepancy which may be neglected, because it seems clear that the
+difference is due to Saxo having inserted two names into the line at this
+point--those of Gram and Hadding. There seems no reason to doubt that
+Danish tradition really represented Frothi as son of Skjold.
+
+[208] Those who accept the identification would regard _Fróði_ (O.E.
+_Fr[=o]da_, 'the wise') as a title which has ousted the proper name.
+
+[209] Boer, _Ark. f. nord. filol._, XIX, 67, calls this theory of Sievers
+"indisputable."
+
+[210] Sievers, p. 181.
+
+[211] _Beowulf_, 2405. Cf. 2215, 2281.
+
+[212] So Regin guides Sigurd: Una the Red Cross Knight. The list might be
+indefinitely extended. Similarly with giants: "Then came to him a
+husbandman of the country, and told him how there was in the country of
+Constantine, beside Brittany, a great giant".... _Morte d'Arthur_, Book V,
+cap. V.
+
+[213] _Beowulf_, 895.
+
+[214] l. 2338.
+
+[215] ll. 2570 _etc._
+
+[216] intrepidum mentis habitum retinere memento.
+
+[217] ll. 2663 _etc._
+
+[218] Cf. _Beowulf_, 2705: _forwr[=a]t Wedra helm wyrm on middan_.
+
+[219] Cf. _Cotton. Gnomic verses_, ll. 26-7: _Draca sceal on hl[=æ]we:
+fr[=o]d, frætwum wlanc._
+
+[220] virusque profundens: _wearp wæl-f[=y]re_, 2582.
+
+[221]
+
+ implicitus gyris serpens crebrisque reflexus
+ orbibus et caudae sinuosa volumina ducens
+ multiplicesque agitans spiras.
+
+Cf. _Beowulf_, 2567-8, 2569, 2561 (_hring-boga_), 2827 (_w[=o]hbogen_).
+
+[222] _Volospá_, 172-3 in _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_. I, 200.
+
+[223] Cf. on this Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 305-15.
+
+[224] Panzer, _Beowulf_, 313.
+
+[225] A further and more specific parallel between Lotherus and Heremod has
+been pointed out by Sarrazin (_Anglia_, XIX, 392). It seems from _Beowulf_
+that Heremod went into exile (ll. 1714-15), and apparently _mid Eotenum_
+(l. 902) which (in view of the use of the word _Eotena_, _Eotenum_, in the
+_Finnsburg_ episode) very probably means "among the Jutes." A late
+Scandinavian document tells us that _Lotherus ... superatus in Jutiam
+profugit_ (Messenius, _Scondia illustrata_, printed 1700, but written about
+1620).
+
+[226] Pointed out by Panzer. A possible parallel to the old man who hides
+his treasure is discussed by Bugge and Olrik in _Dania_, I, 233-245
+(1890-92).
+
+[227] Cf. Ettmüller, _Scopas and Boceras_, 1850, p. ix; _Carmen de
+Beovvulfi rebus gestis_, 1875, p. iii.
+
+[228] _P.B.B._ XI, 167-170.
+
+[229] Sarrazin, _Der Schauplatz des ersten Beowulfliedes_ (_P.B.B._ XI, 170
+_etc._); Sievers, _Die Heimat des Beowulfdichters_ (_P.B.B._ XI, 354
+_etc._); Sarrazin, _Altnordisches im Beowulfliede_ (_P.B.B._ XI, 528
+_etc._); Sievers, _Altnordisches im Beowulf?_ (_P.B.B._ XII, 168 _etc._)
+
+[230] _Beovulf-Studien_, 68.
+
+[231] Sarrazin has countered this argument by urging that since the present
+day Swedes and Danes have better manners than the English, they therefore
+presumably had better manners already in the eighth century. I admit the
+premises, but deny the deduction.
+
+[232] Sedgefield, _Beowulf_ (1st ed.), p. 27.
+
+[233] Schück, _Studier i Beovulfsagan_, 41.
+
+[234] The brief _Fata Apostolorum_ is doubted by Sievers (_Anglia_, XIII,
+24).
+
+[235] Two of these occur twice: _h[=a]tan heolfre_, 1423, 849; _n[=i]owan
+stefne_, 1789, 2594; the rest once only, 141, 561, 963, 977, 1104, 1502,
+1505, 1542, 1746, 2102, 2290, 2347, 2440, 2482, 2492, 2692. See Barnouw,
+51.
+
+[236] 74, 99, 122, 257, 390, 412.
+
+[237] _Christ_, 510.
+
+[238] Lichtenheld omits 2011, _se m[=æ]ra mago Healfdenes_, inserting
+instead 1474, where the same phrase occurs, but with a vocative force.
+
+[239] 758, 813, 2011, 2587, 2928, 2971, 2977, 3120.
+
+[240] 1199.
+
+[241] 102, 713, 919, 997, 1016, 1448, 1984, 2255, 2264, 2675, 3024, 3028,
+3097.
+
+[242] Saintsbury in _Short History of English Literature_, I. 3.
+
+[243] Morsbach, 270.
+
+[244] Morsbach, 271.
+
+[245] Chadwick, _Heroic Age_, 4.
+
+[246] "Thus in place of the expression _to widan feore_ we find
+occasionally _widan feore_ in the same sense, and even in _Beowulf_ we meet
+with _widan feorh_, which is not improbably the oldest form of the phrase.
+Before the loss of the final _-u_ it [_widan feorhu_] would be a perfectly
+regular half verse, but the operation of this change would render it
+impossible and necessitate the substitution of a synonymous expression. In
+principle, it should be observed, the assumption of such substitutions
+seems to be absolutely necessary, unless we are prepared to deny that any
+old poems or even verses survived the period of apocope." Chadwick, _Heroic
+Age_, pp. 46-7.
+
+[247] _Heroic Age_, 46.
+
+[248] Birch, _Cart. Sax._ No. 81. See Morsbach, 260.
+
+[249] The most important examples being _breguntford_ (Birch, _Cart. Sax._
+No. 115, dating between 693 and 731; perhaps 705): _heffled_ in the life of
+St Gregory written by a Whitby monk apparently before 713: _-gar_ on the
+Bewcastle Column, earlier than the end of the first quarter of the eighth
+century and perhaps much earlier: and many names in _ford_ and _feld_ in
+the Moore MS of Bede's _Ecclesiastical History_ (a MS written about 737).
+
+[250] An English Miscellany presented to Dr Furnivall, 370.
+
+[251] Grienberger, _Anglia_, XXVII, 448.
+
+[252] i.e. _flodu ahof_ might stand for _fl[=o]d u[p] [)a]h[=o]f_, as is
+suggested by Chadwick, _Heroic Age_, 69.
+
+[253] In the Franks casket _b_ already appears as _f_, and the _n_ of
+_sefu_, "seven," has been lost.
+
+[254] Birch, _Cart. Sax._ No. 45.
+
+[255] Chadwick, _Heroic Age_, 67: "In personal names we must clearly allow
+for traditional orthography." Morsbach admits this in another connection
+(p. 259).
+
+[256] Lübke's preface to Müllenhoff's _Beovulf_. Both the tendencies
+specially associated with Müllenhoff's name--the "mythologizing" and the
+"dissecting"--are due to the influence of Lachmann. It must be frankly
+admitted that on these subjects Müllenhoff did not begin his studies with
+an open mind.
+
+[257] "Es ist einfach genug"--_Beovulf_, 110.
+
+[258] Möller, _V.E._ 140: cf. Schücking, _B.R._ 14.
+
+[259] Earle, _Deeds of Beowulf_, xlix (an excellent criticism of
+Müllenhoff).
+
+[260] Heusler, _Lied u. Epos_, 26.
+
+[261] _Epic and Romance_, Chap. II, § 2.
+
+[262] _Ballad and Epic_, 311-12.
+
+[263] _Beowulfs Rückkehr_, 1905.
+
+[264] e.g. _Genesis_.
+
+[265] Chap. IV, pp. 29-33.
+
+[266] Chap. V, pp. 34-41.
+
+[267] Chap. VI, cf. esp. p. 50.
+
+[268] In the portion which Schücking excludes, we twice have _g[=æ]ð_ =
+_g[=a]ið_ (2034, 2055). Elsewhere in the _Return_ we have _d[=o]n_ =
+_d[=o]an_ (2166) whilst _fr[=e]a_ (1934), _Hondsci[=o]_ (2076) need to be
+considered.
+
+[269] 2069.
+
+[270] 2093.
+
+[271] _Satzverknüpfung im Beowulf_, 139.
+
+[272] _Þ[=y]l[=æ]s_ = "lest" (1918); _ac_ in direct question (1990);
+_þ[=a]_ occurring unsupported late in the sentence (2192); _forþ[=a]m_
+(1957) [see Sievers in _P.B.B._ XXIX, 313]; _sw[=a]_ = "since," "because"
+(2184). But Schücking admits in his edition two other instances of
+_forþ[=a]m_ (146 and 2645), so this can hardly count.
+
+[273] _h[=y]rde ic_ as introducing a statement, 62, 2163, 2172; _sið ðan
+[=æ]rest_, 6, 1947.
+
+[274] A similar use of _þ[=a]_, 1078, 1988; cf. 1114, 1125, 2135.
+
+[275] _hæbbe_, 1928; _g[=e]ong_, 2019.
+
+[276] _þurfe_, 2495.
+
+[277] Schücking, Chap. VIII.
+
+[278] Cf. Brandl in Herrigs _Archiv_, CXV, 421 (1905).
+
+[279] e.g. Blackburn in _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XII, 204-225;
+Bradley in the _Encyc. Brit._ III, 760; Chadwick, _H.A._ 49; Clarke,
+_Sidelights_, 10.
+
+[280] Chadwick, in _Cambridge History_, I, 30.
+
+[281] We may refer especially to the account of Attila's funeral given by
+Jordanes. [Mr Chadwick's note.]
+
+[282] Chadwick in _The Heroic Age_, 53.
+
+[283] It is adopted, e.g., by Clarke, _Sidelights_, 8.
+
+[284] Yet this is very doubtful: see Leeds, _Archæology_, 27, 74.
+
+[285] Notably in Book VIII (ed. Holder, 264) and Book III (ed. Holder, 74).
+
+[286] 'Fasta fornlämningar i Beowulf,' in _Ant. Tidskrift för Sverige_,
+XVIII, 4, 64.
+
+[287] See Schücking, _Das angelsächsische Totenklaglied_, in _Engl. Stud._
+XXXIX, 1-13.
+
+[288] Blackburn, in _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ Cf. Hart, _Ballad and
+Epic_, 175.
+
+[289] Clark Hall, xlvii.
+
+[290] Blackburn, as above, p. 126.
+
+[291] Chadwick, in _Cambridge History_, I, 30.
+
+[292] Clark Hall, xlvii. See, to the contrary, Klaeber in _Anglia_, XXXVI,
+196.
+
+[293] This point is fully developed by Brandl, 1002-3. As Brandl points
+out, if we want to find a parallel to the hero Beowulf, saving his people
+from their temporal and ghostly foes, we must look, not to the other heroes
+of Old English heroic poetry, such as Waldhere or Hengest, but to Moses in
+the Old English _Exodus_. [Since this was written the essentially Christian
+character of _Beowulf_ has been further, and I think finally, demonstrated
+by Klaeber, in the last section of his article on _Die Christlichen
+Elemente im Beowulf_, in _Anglia_, XXXVI; see especially 194-199.]
+
+[294] Cf. _Beowulf_, ll. 180 _etc._
+
+[295] Bradley, in _Encyc. Brit._
+
+[296] Bradley, in _Encyc. Brit._ III, 760-1.
+
+[297] Blackburn, 218.
+
+[298] See Finnur Jónsson, _Den Norsk-Islandske Skjaldedigtning_, B. ii.
+473-4.
+
+[299] MS A, followed by Magnússon, makes Glam _bláeygðr_, "blue-eyed": Boer
+reads _gráeygðr_, considering grey a more uncanny colour.
+
+[300] MS A has _fon^m_ or _fen^m_, it is difficult to tell which. Magnússon
+reads _fenum_, "morasses."
+
+[301] Immediately inside the door of the Icelandic dwelling was the
+_anddyri_ or vestibule. For want of a better word, I translate _anddyri_ by
+"porch": but it is a porch inside the building. Opening out of this 'porch'
+were a number of rooms. Chief among which were the _skáli_ or "hall," and
+the _stufa_ or "sitting room," the latter reached by a passage (_g[o,]ng_).
+These were separated from the "porch" by panelling. In the struggle with
+Glam, Grettir is lying in the hall (_skáli_), but the panelling has all
+been broken away from the great cross-beam to which it was fixed. Grettir
+consequently sees Glam enter the outer door; Glam turns to the _skáli_, and
+glares down it, leaning over the cross-beam; then enters the hall, and the
+struggle begins. See Guðmundssen (V.), _Privatbolegen på Island i
+Sagatiden_, 1889.
+
+[302] The partition beams (_set-stokkar_) stood between the middle of the
+_skáli_ or hall and the planked daïs which ran down each side. The strength
+of the combatants is such that the _stokkar_ give way. Grettir gets no
+footing to withstand Glam till they reach the outer-door. Here there is a
+stone set in the ground, which apparently gives a better footing for a push
+than for a pull. So Grettir changes his tactics, gets a purchase on the
+stone, and at the same time pushes against Glam's breast, and so dashes
+Glam's head and shoulders against the lintel of the outer-door.
+
+[303] So MS 551 a. Magnússon reads _dvaldist þar_ "he stayed there."
+
+[304] Meaning that an attack by the evil beings would at least break the
+monotony.
+
+[305] A passage (_g[o,]ng_) had to be traversed between the door of the
+room (_stufa_) and the porch (_anddyri_).
+
+[306] MSS _bælt_. Boer reads _bolat_ "hewn down."
+
+[307] A night troll, if caught by the sunrise, was supposed to turn into
+stone.
+
+[308] _Skúta_ may be acc. of the noun _skúti_, "overhanging precipice,
+cave"; or it may be the verb, "hang over." Grettir and his companion see
+that the sides of the ravine are precipitous (_skúta upp_) and so clean-cut
+(_meitil-berg: meitill_, "a chisel") that they give no hold to the climber.
+Hence the need for the rope. The translators all take _skúta_ as acc. of
+_skúti_, which is quite possible: but they are surely wrong when they
+proceed to identify the _skúti_ with the _hellir_ behind the waterfall. For
+this cave behind the waterfall is introduced in the _saga_ as something
+which Grettir discovers _after_ he has dived beneath the fall, the fall in
+front naturally hiding it till then.
+
+The verb _skúta_ occurs elsewhere in _Grettis saga_, of the glaciers
+overhanging a valley. Boer's attempt to reconstruct the scene appears to me
+wrong: cf. Ranisch in _A.f.d.A._ XXVIII, 217.
+
+[309] The old editions read _fimm tigir faðma_ "fifty fathoms": but
+according to Boer's collation the best MS (A) read X, whilst four of the
+five others collated give XV (_fimtán_). The editors seem dissatisfied with
+this: yet sixty to ninety feet seems a good enough height for a dive.
+
+[310] _ok sat þar hjá_, not in MS A, nor in Boer's edition.
+
+[311] The two poems are given according to the version of William Morris.
+
+[312] On his first arrival at Leire, Bjarki had been attacked by, and had
+slain, the watch-dogs (_Rímur_, IV, 41): this naturally brings him now into
+disfavour, and he has to dispute with men.
+
+[313] Reading _kappana_.
+
+[314] The MSS have either _Sandeyar_ or _Saudeyar_ (_Sauðeyar_). But that
+_Sandeyar_ is the correct form is shown by the name Sandø, which is given
+still to the island of Dollsey, where Orm's fight is localized (Panzer,
+403).
+
+[315] Literally "she-cat," _ketta_; but the word may mean "giantess." It is
+used in some MSS of the _Grettis saga_ of the giantess who attacks Grettir
+at Sandhaugar.
+
+[316] See Sweet, _Oldest English Texts_, 1885, p. 170.
+
+[317] See _Catalogue of MSS. in the Library of Corpus Christi College,
+Cambridge_ by Montague Rhodes James, Camb., 1912, p. 437.
+
+[318] See _Publications of the Palæographical Society_, 1880, where a
+facsimile of part of the _Vespasian MS_ is given. (Pt. 10, Plate 165:
+subsequently Ser. I, Vol. II.)
+
+[319] So Zimmer, _Nennius Vindicatus_, Berlin, 1893, pp. 78 etc., and
+Duchesne (_Revue Celtique_, XV, 196). Duchesne sums up these genealogies as
+"un recueil constitué, vers la fin du VII^e siècle, dans le royaume de
+Strathcluyd, mais complété par diverses retouches, dont la dernière est de
+796."
+
+[320] This is shown by one of the supplementary Mercian pedigrees being
+made to end, both in the _Vespasian_ genealogy and the _Historia
+Brittonum_, in Ecgfrith, who reigned for a few months in 796. See
+Thurneysen (_Z.f.d.Ph._ XXVIII, 101).
+
+[321] Ed. Mommsen, p. 203.
+
+[322] Anno 626: a similar genealogy will be found in these MSS and in the
+Parker MS, anno 755 (accession of Offa II).
+
+[323] Zimmer (_Nennius Vindicatus_, p. 84) argues that this _Geta-Woden_
+pedigree belongs to a portion of the _Historia Brittonum_ written down A.D.
+685. Thurneysen (_Z.f.d.Ph._ XXVIII, 103-4) dates the section in which it
+occurs 679; Duchesne (_Revue Celtique_, XV, 196) places it more vaguely
+between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the eighth century; van
+Hamel (_Hoops Reallexikon_ s.v. _Nennius_) between much the same limits,
+and clearly before 705.
+
+[324] Zimmer (p. 275) says A.D. 796; Duchesne (p. 196) A.D. 800; Thurneysen
+(_Zeitschr. f. Celtische Philologie_, I, 166) A.D. 826; Skene (_Four
+Ancient Books of Wales_, 1868, I, 38) A.D. 858; van Hamel (p. 304) A.D.
+820-859. See also Chadwick, _Origin_, 38.
+
+[325] Bradshaw, _Investigations among Early Welsh, Breton and Cornish MSS._
+in _Collected Papers_, 466.
+
+[326] See above, p. 196.
+
+[327] Cf. _Bretwalda_.
+
+[328] The genealogies have recently been dealt with by E. Hackenberg, _Die
+Stammtafeln der angelsächsischen Königreiche_, Berlin, 1918; and by Brandl,
+(Herrig's _Archiv_, CXXXVII, 1-24). Most of Brandl's derivations seem to me
+to depend upon very perilous conjectures. Thus he derives _Sc[=e]fing_ from
+the Gr.-Lat. _scapha_, "a skiff": a word which was not adopted into Old
+English. This seems to be sacrificing all probability to the desire to find
+a new interpretation: and, even so, it is not quite successful. For Riley
+in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, August, 1857, p. 126, suggested the
+derivation of the name of Scef from the _schiff_ or _skiff_ in which he
+came.
+
+[329] For a list of the Icelandic versions, see Heusler, _Die gelehrte
+Urgeschichte im altisländischen Schrifttum_, pp. 18-19, in the
+_Abhandlungen d. preuss. Akad._, _Phil. Hist. Klasse_, 1908, Berlin.
+
+[330] The names are given as in the Trinity Roll (T), collated with Corpus
+(C) and Moseley (M). For Paris (P) I follow Kemble's report (_Postscript to
+Preface_, 1837, pp. vii, viii: _Stammtafel der Westsachsen_, pp. 18, 31).
+All seem to agree in writing _t_ for _c_ in Steph and Steldius, and in
+Boerinus, _obviously, as Kemble pointed out, r is written by error for
+[wynn] = Beowinus_ [or _Beowius_]; Cinrinicius T, Cinrinicus C, Cininicus
+P, Siuruncius M; Suethedus TCP, Suechedius M; Gethius T, Thecius M, Ehecius
+CP; Geate T, Geathe CM, Geathus P.
+
+[331] I follow the spelling of the Moseley roll in this note.
+
+[332] _Dacia_ = "Denmark": _Dacia_ and _Dania_ were identified.
+
+[333] _uocabitur_, Gertz; _uocatur_, all MSS.
+
+[334] This account of the peaceful reign of Ro is simply false etymology
+from Danish _ro_, "rest."
+
+[335] Note that Ro (Hrothgar), the son of Haldanus (Healfdene), is here
+represented as his father. Saxo Grammaticus, combining divergent accounts,
+as he often does, accordingly mentions two Roes--one the brother of
+Haldanus, the other his son. See above, pp. 131-2.
+
+[336] _cum piratica classe_, Langebek; the MSS have _cum pietate_ (!) with
+or without _classe_.
+
+[337] _post quem_, Holder-Egger, Gertz; _postquam_, all MSS.
+
+[338] Snyo: the viceroy whom Athisl had placed over the Danes.
+
+[339] _in_ added by Gertz; omitted in all MSS.
+
+[340] A scribal error for _transalbinas_, "beyond the Elbe."
+
+[341] Assembly.
+
+[342] Island.
+
+[343] I have substituted _u_ for _v_, and have abandoned spellings like
+_theutones_, _thezauro_, _orrifico_, _charitas_, _phas_ (for _fas_),
+_atlethas_, _choercuit_, _iocundum_, _charum_, _foelicissima_, _nanque_,
+_hæreditarii_, _exoluere_.
+
+The actual reading of the 1514 text is abandoned by substituting: p. 130,
+l. 3 _ingeniti_ for _ingenitis_ (1514); p. 132, l. 22, _iacientis_ for
+_iacentis_; p. 134, l. 2, _diutinæ_ for _diutiuæ_; p. 136, l. 11, _fudit_
+for _fugit_; p. 136, l. 20, _ut_ for _aut_; p. 137, l. 8, _ammirationi_ for
+_ammirationis_; p. 137, l. 16, _offert_ for _affert_; p. 137, l. 17,
+_Roluoni_ for _Rouolni_; p. 137, l. 27, _ministerio_ for _ministros_; p.
+137, l. 33 _diuturnus_ for _diuturnius_; p. 206, l. 22, _diutinam_ for
+_diutina_; p. 207, l. 3, _ei_ for _eique_; p. 207, l. 5, _destituat_ for
+_deficiat_; p. 209, l. 2, _latere_ for _latera_; p. 209, l. 5, _conscisci_
+for _concissi_; p. 209, l. 14, _defoderat_ for _defodera_.
+
+[344] _Above this heading_ B _has_ Gesta Offe Regis mercior_um_.
+
+[345] A _repeats_ sibi _after_ constitueret.
+
+[346] Hic Riganus binomin[i]s fuit. Vocabat_ur_ eni_m_ alio nomine Aliel.
+Rigan_us_ u_er_o a rigore. Huic erat fili_us_ Hildebrand_us_, miles
+strenuus, ab ense sic d_i_c_tu_s. Hu_n_c uoluit p_ate_r p_ro_mouere:
+_Contemporary rubric in_ A, _inserted in the middle of the sketch
+representing Riganus demanding the kingdom from Warmundus._
+
+[347] optat, B.
+
+[348] celebri, B; celibri, A.
+
+[349] hoc, B.
+
+[350] ueheement_er_, A.
+
+[351] ueheementi, A.
+
+[352] eciam, B.
+
+[353] _Added in margin in_ A; _not in_ B.
+
+[354] hec _omitted_, B.
+
+[355] _Added in margin in_ A; _not in_ B.
+
+[356] dereliqueru_n_t, B.
+
+[357] precipue _omitted_, B.
+
+[358] ei _omitted_, B.
+
+[359] Qualmhul _vel_ Q_u_almweld _in margin_, A.
+
+[360] planies, A: planicies, _perhaps corrected from_ planies, B.
+
+[361] blodifeld, B.
+
+[362] Gloria t_r_iumphi, _in margin_, A.
+
+[363] tripudium, B; tripuduum, A.
+
+[364] scis, A, B.
+
+[365] menbra, A.
+
+[366] gracias, B.
+
+[367] hosstibus, A.
+
+[368] romotis, A.
+
+[369] co_n_gnou_er_unt, A.
+
+[370] Warmandi, A.
+
+[371] habenas _repeated after_ regni _above in_ A, _but cancelled in_ B.
+
+[372] exaggeret, B.
+
+[373] pulcritudi_ni_s, B; pulch_r_itudini, A.
+
+[374] i_n_gnota, A.
+
+[375] euuangelii, B.
+
+[376] co_n_si_n_gnatas, A.
+
+[377] _from_ B, _written over erasure_.
+
+[378] scrib_itu_r, B.
+
+[379] Ep_isto_la, _in margin_, A.
+
+[380] i_n_co_n_gnita, A.
+
+[381] dicebant, B.
+
+[382] frustratim, A, B.
+
+[383] ossium, B.
+
+[384] co_n_gnouit, A.
+
+[385] hoc _omitted_, B.
+
+[386] co_n_gnic_i_one, A.
+
+[387] sui, A.
+
+[388] obtemp_er_are, B.
+
+[389] menbra, A.
+
+[390] qui, AB; quae, Wats.
+
+[391] reco_n_gnosce, A.
+
+[392] sancte _et_ dulcissime, B.
+
+[393] ut _added above line_, A, B.
+
+[394] scenobium, A; _the _s_i s erased in_ B.
+
+[395] deo, B
+
+[396] tuinfreth, B.
+
+[397] scenobio, A; s _erased_ B.
+
+[398] de tiran_n_ide Beormredi reg_is_ Mercie, B.
+
+[399] fecerat, _wanting in_ A; _added in margin_, B.
+
+[400] Pinefredum, B; Penefredum, A, _but with_ i _above in first case._
+
+[401] uariis _repeated_, A; _second_ variis _cancelled_, B.
+
+[402] considerans, B, _inserted in margin; omitted_, A.
+
+[403] Marcelline, A; Marcell, B.
+
+[404] vixisset, B, _inserted in margin_; _omitted_, A.
+
+[405] Alberto, _etc. passim_, B.
+
+[406] virtutibus, _in margin, later hand,_ A; _in_ B, _over erasure._
+
+[407] est _in margin_, A.
+
+[408] et _omitted_, B.
+
+[409] innotuerunt, B.
+
+[410] in pietatis manu, B.
+
+[411] p_re_missimis, A.
+
+[412] sinistrum, B.
+
+[413] quam _in margin_, A; _over erasure_, B.
+
+[414] _Space for cap. left vacant_, A.
+
+[415] aucmentu_m_, A.
+
+[416] facinoris, B.
+
+[417] co_n_gnouit, A.
+
+[418] celeriter, B.
+
+[419] cum _in_ A _is inserted after_ p_er_ueniss_et_, _instead of before:
+and this was probably the original reading in_ B, _although subsequently
+corrected._
+
+[420] _per_, B.
+
+[421] _corrected to_ nullaten_us_ dormire quasi suspecta_m_ p_er_misit, B.
+
+[422] Justa Vindicta, A, _in margin_.
+
+[423] Mr Mackie, in an excellent article on the _Fragment_ (_J.E.G.Ph._
+XVI, 251) objects that my criticism of Hickes' accuracy "is not altogether
+judicial." Mackie urges that, since the MS is no longer extant, we cannot
+tell how far the errors are due to Hickes, and how far they already existed
+in the MS from which Hickes copied.
+
+But we must not forget that there are other transcripts by Hickes, of MSS
+which _are_ still extant, and from these we can estimate his accuracy. It
+is no disrespect to the memory of Hickes, a scholar to whom we are all
+indebted, to recognize frankly that his transcripts are not sufficiently
+accurate to make them at all a satisfactory substitute for the original MS.
+Hickes' transcript of the _Cottonian Gnomic Verses_ (_Thesaurus_, I, 207)
+shows an average of one error in every four lines: about half these errors
+are mere matters of spelling, the others are serious. Hickes' transcript of
+the _Calendar_ (_Thesaurus_, I, 203) shows an average of one error in every
+six lines. When, therefore, we find in the _Finnsburg Fragment_
+inaccuracies of exactly the type which Hickes often commits, it would be
+"hardly judicial" to attribute these to the MS which he copied, and to
+attribute to Hickes in this particular instance an accuracy to which he has
+really no claim.
+
+Mr Mackie doubts the legitimacy of emending _Garulf_ to _Garulf[e]_: but
+we must remember that Hickes (or his printer) was systematically careless
+as to the final _e_: cf. _Calendar_, 15, 23, 41, 141, 144, 171, 210;
+_Gnomic Verses_, 45. Other forms in the _Finnsburg Fragment_ which can be
+easily paralleled by Hickes' miswritings in the _Calendar_ and _Gnomic
+Verses_ are
+
+ Confusion of _u_ and _a_ (_Finn._ 3, 27, perhaps 44) cf. _Gn._ 66.
+ " " _c_ " _e_ (_Finn._ 12) cf. _Cal._ 136, _Gn._ 44.
+ " " _e_ " _æ_ (_Finn._ 41) cf. _Cal._ 44, 73, _Gn._ 44.
+ " " _e_ " _a_ (_Finn._ 22) cf. _Cal._ 74.
+ " " _eo_ " _ea_ (_Finn._ 28) cf. _Cal._ 121.
+ " " letters involving long down stroke, e.g., _f_, _s_, _r_,
+ _þ_, _w_, _p_ (_Finn._ 2, 36) cf. _Cal._ 97, 142, 180, 181,
+ _Gn._ 9.
+ Addition of _n_ (_Finn._ 22) cf. _Cal._ 161.
+
+[424] _Heimskringla_, chap. 220.
+
+[425] It has been suggested that the phrase "Hengest himself" indicates
+that Hengest is the "war-young king." But surely the expression merely
+marks Hengest out as a person of special interest. If we _must_ assume that
+he is one of the people who have been speaking, then it would be just as
+natural to identify him with the watcher who has warned the king, as with
+the king himself. The difficulties which prevent us from identifying
+Hengest with the king are explained below.
+
+[426] Garulf must be an assailant, since he falls at the beginning of the
+struggle, whilst we are told that for five days none of the defenders fell.
+
+[427] Very possibly Guthere is uncle of Garulf. For Garulf is said to be
+son of Guthlaf (l. 35) and a _Guth_ere would be likely to be a brother of a
+_Guth_laf. Further, as Klaeber points out (_Engl. Stud._ XXXIX, 307) it is
+the part of the uncle to protect and advise the nephew.
+
+[428] Koegel, _Geschichte d. deut. Litt._ I, i, 165.
+
+[429] Klaeber (_Engl. Stud._ XXXIX, 308) reminds us that, as there are two
+warriors named Godric in the _Battle of Maldon_ (l. 325), so there may be
+two warriors named Guthlaf here. But to this it might possibly be replied
+that "Godric" was, in England, an exceedingly common name, "Guthlaf" an
+exceedingly rare one.
+
+[430] Finn is called the _bana_, "slayer" of Hnæf. But this does not
+necessarily mean that he slew him with his own hand; it would be enough if
+he were in command of the assailants at the time when Hnæf was slain. Cf.
+_Beowulf_, l. 1968.
+
+[431] The idea that Finn's Frisians are the "North Frisians" of Schleswig
+has been supported by Grein (_Eberts Jahrbuch_, IV, 270) and, following
+him, by many scholars, including recently Sedgefield (_Beowulf_, p. 258).
+The difficulties of this view are very many: one only need be emphasized.
+We first hear of these North Frisians of Schleswig in the 12th century, and
+Saxo Grammaticus tells us expressly that they were a colony from the
+greater Frisia (Book XIV, ed. Holder, p. 465). At what date this colony was
+founded we do not know. The latter part of the 9th century has been
+suggested by Langhans: so has the end of the 11th century by Lauridsen.
+However this may be, all the evidence precludes our supposing this North
+Friesland, or, as Saxo calls it, Fresia Minor, to have existed at the date
+to which we must attribute the origin of the Finn story. On this point the
+following should be consulted: Langhans (V.), _Ueber den Ursprung der
+Nordfriesen_, Wien, 1879 (most valuable on account of its citation of
+documents: the latter part of the book, which consists of an attempt to
+rewrite the Finn story by dismissing as corrupt or spurious many of the
+data, must not blind us to the value of the earlier portions): Lauridsen,
+_Om Nordfrisernes Indvandring i Sønderjylland, Historisk Tidsskrift_, 6 R,
+4 B. II, 318-67, Kjøbenhavn, 1893: Siebs, _Zur Geschichte der
+Englisch-Friesischen Sprache_, 1889, 23-6: Chadwick, _Origin_, 94: Much in
+_Hoops Reallexikon_, s.v. _Friesen_; and Bremer in _Pauls Grdr._ (2), III,
+848, where references will be found to earlier essays on the subject.
+
+[432] The theory that Hnæf is a captain of Healfdene is based upon a
+rendering of l. 1064 which is in all probability wrong.
+
+[433] The view that the _Eotenas_ are the men of Hnæf and Hengest has been
+held by Thorpe (_Beowulf_, pp. 76-7), Ettmüller (_Beowulf_, 1840, p. 108),
+Bouterwek (_Germania_, I, 389), Holtzmann (_Germania_, VIII, 492), Möller
+(_Volksepos_, 94-5), Chadwick (_Origin_, 53), Clarke (_Sidelights_, 184).
+
+[434] "And therefore, said the King ... much more I am sorrier for my good
+knights' loss, than for the loss of my fair queen. For queens I might have
+enow: but such a fellowship of good knights shall never be together in no
+company." Malory, _Morte Darthur_, Bk. XX, chap. ix.
+
+[435] The argument of Bugge (_P.B.B._ XII, 37) that the Eotens here (l.
+1088) must be the Frisians, is inconclusive: but so is Miss Clarke's
+argument that they must be Danes (_Sidelights_, 181), as is shown by
+Lawrence (_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXX, 395).
+
+[436] I say "son" in what follows, without prejudice to the possibility of
+more than one son having fallen. It in no wise affects the argument.
+
+[437] For example, it might well be said of Achilles, whilst thirsting for
+vengeance upon the Trojans for the death of Patroclus, that "he could not
+get the children of the Trojans out of his mind." But surely it would be
+unintelligible to say that "he could not get the child of the Achaeans out
+of his mind," meaning Patroclus, for "child of the Achaeans" is not
+sufficiently distinctive to denote Patroclus. Cf. Boer in _Z.f.d.A._ XLVII,
+134.
+
+[438] In the _Skjoldunga Saga_ [extant in a Latin abstract by Arngrim
+Jonsson, ed. Olrik, 1894], cap. IV, mention is made of a king of Denmark
+named Leifus who had six sons, three of whom are named Hunleifus, Oddleifus
+and Gunnleifus--corresponding exactly to O.E. _H[=u]nl[=a]f_, _Ordl[=a]f_
+and _G[=u]ðl[=a]f_. That Hunlaf was well known in English story is proved
+by a remarkable passage unearthed by Dr Imelmann from _MS Cotton Vesp. D.
+IV_ (fol. 139 _b_) where Hunlaf is mentioned together with a number of
+other heroes of Old English story--Wugda, Hama, Hrothulf, Hengest, Horsa
+(_Hoc testantur gesta rudolphi et hunlapi, Unwini et Widie, horsi et
+hengisti, Waltef et hame_). See Chadwick, _Origin_, 52: R. Huchon, _Revue
+Germanique_, III, 626: Imelmann, in _D.L.Z._ XXX, 999: April, 1909. This
+disposes of the translation "Hun thrust or placed in his bosom Lafing, best
+of swords," which was adopted by Bugge (_P.B.B._ XII, 33), Holder, ten
+Brink and Gering. Hun is mentioned in _Widsith_ (l. 33) and in the
+Icelandic _Thulor_.
+
+That Guthlaf, Ordlaf and Hunlaf must be connected together had been noted
+by Boer (_Z.f.d.A._ XLVII, 139) before this discovery of Chadwick's
+confirmed him.
+
+[439] The fragment which tells of the fighting in the hall is so imperfect
+that there is nothing impossible in the assumption, though it is too
+hazardous to make it.
+
+[440] Cf. _Beowulf_, ll. 1900 _etc._
+
+[441] _Das Altenglische Volksepos_, 46-99.
+
+[442] C. P. Hansen, _Uald' Söld'ring tialen_, Møgeltønder, 1858. See
+Möller, _Volksepos_, 75 _etc._
+
+[443] See Müllenhoff in _A.f.d.A._ VI, 86.
+
+[444] So Möller, _Volksepos_, 152.
+
+[445] See _Beowulf_, ed. Wyatt, 1894, p. 145.
+
+[446] _Volksepos_, 71 _etc._
+
+[447] e.g., Sedgefield, _Beowulf_, 2nd ed., p. 258. So 1st ed., p. 13
+(_Hoc_ being an obvious misprint).
+
+[448] On the poet's use of plural for singular here, see Osthoff, _I.F._
+XX, 202-7.
+
+[449] I have thought it necessary to give fully the reasons why Möller's
+view cannot be accepted, because in whole or in part it is still widely
+followed in England. Chadwick (_Origin_, 53) still interprets "Eotens" as
+"Danes"; and Sedgefield (_Beowulf_ (2), p. 258) gives Möller's view the
+place of honour.
+
+[450] The treachery of Finn is emphasized, for example, by Bugge (_P.B.B._
+XII, 36), Koegel (_Geschichte d. deut. Litt._ 164), ten Brink (_Pauls
+Grdr._ (1), II, 545), Trautmann (_Finn und Hildebrand,_ 59), Lawrence
+(_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXX, 397, 430), Ayres (_J.E.G.Ph._ XVI,
+290).
+
+[451]
+
+ syþðan morgen c[=o]m
+ ð[=a] h[=e]o under swegle ges[=e]on meahte, _etc._
+
+[452] l. 36. The swords flash _swylce eal Finnsburuh f[=y]renu w[=æ]re_,
+"as if all Finnsburg were afire." I think we may safely argue from this
+that the swords are flashing near Finnsburg. It would be just conceivable
+that the poet's mind travels back from the scene of the battle to Finn's
+distant home: "the swords made as great a flash as would have been made had
+Finn's distant capital been aflame": but this is a weak and forced
+interpretation, which we have no right to assume, though it may be
+conceivable.
+
+[453] _Beowulf_, ll. 1125-7. I doubt whether it is possible to explain the
+difficulty away by supposing that "the warriors departing to see Friesland,
+their homes and their head-town" simply means that Finn's men, "summoned by
+Finn in preparation for the encounter with the Danes, return to their
+respective homes in the country," and that "_h[=e]aburh_ is a high sounding
+epic term that should not be pressed." This is the explanation offered by
+Klaeber (_J.E.G.Ph._ VI, 193) and endorsed by Lawrence (_Pub. Mod. Lang.
+Assoc. Amer._ XXX, 401). But it seems to me taking a liberty with the text
+to interpret _h[=e]aburh_ (singular) as the "respective homes in the
+country" to which Finn's warriors resort on demobilisation. And the
+statement of ll. 1125-7, that the warriors departed from the place of
+combat to see Friesland, seems to necessitate that such place of combat was
+not in Friesland. Klaeber objects to this (surely obvious) inference: "If
+we are to infer [from ll. 1125-7] that Finnsburg lies outside Friesland
+proper, we might as well conclude that _Dyflen_ (Dublin) is not situated in
+Ireland according to the _Battle of Brunanburh (gewitan him þ[=a] Norðmenn
+... Dyflen s[=e]can and eft [=I]raland_)." But how could anyone infer this
+from the _Brunanburh_ lines? What we _are_ justified in inferring, is,
+surely, that the _site of the battle of Brunanburh_ (from which the
+Northmen departed to visit Ireland and Dublin) was not identical with
+Dublin, and did not lie in Ireland. And by exact parity of reason, we are
+justified in arguing that Finnsburg, the site of the first battle in which
+Hnæf fell (from which site the warriors depart to visit Friesland and the
+_h[=e]aburh_) was not identical with the _h[=e]aburh_, and did not lie in
+Friesland. Accordingly the usual view, that Finnsburg is situated outside
+Friesland, seems incontestable. See Bugge (_P.B.B._ XII, 29-30), Trautmann
+(_Finn und Hildebrand_, 60) and Boer (_Z.f.d.A._ XLVII, 137). Cf. Ayres
+(_J.E.G.Ph._ XVI, 294).
+
+[454] See below, p. 289.
+
+[455] So Brandl, 984, and Heinzel.
+
+[456] Or just as the attack on the Danes began at night, we might suppose
+(as does Trautmann) that it equally culminated in a night assault five days
+later. There would be obvious advantage in night fighting when the object
+was to storm a hall: Flugumýrr was burnt by night, and so was the hall of
+Njal. So, too, was the hall of Rolf Kraki. It would be, then, on the
+morning after this second night assault, that Hildeburh found her kinsfolk
+dead.
+
+[457] _Beowulf_, l. 1831: cf. l. 409.
+
+[458] Leo (_Beowulf_, 1839, 67), Müllenhoff (_Nordalbingische Studien_, I,
+157), Rieger (_Lesebuch; Z.f.d.Ph._ III, 398-401), Dederich (_Studien_,
+1877, 96-7), Heyne (in his fourth edition) and in recent times Holthausen
+have interpreted _eoten_ as a common noun "giant," "monster," and
+consequently "foe" in general. But they have failed to produce any adequate
+justification for interpreting _eoten_ as "foe," and Holthausen, the modern
+advocate of this interpretation, has now abandoned it. Grundtvig
+(_Beowulfes Beorh_, 1861, pp. 133 _etc._) and Möller (_Volksepos_, 97
+_etc._) also interpret "giant," Möller giving an impossible mythological
+explanation, which was, at the time, widely followed.
+
+[459] Like _oxnum_, _nefenum_ (cf. Sievers, § 277, Anm. 1).
+
+[460] I do not attach much importance to the argument which might be drawn
+from the statement of Binz (_P.B.B._ XX, 185) that the evidence of proper
+names shows that in the Hampshire district (which was colonized by Jutes)
+the legend of _Finnsburg_ was particularly remembered. For on the other
+hand, as Binz points out, similar evidence is markedly lacking for Kent.
+And why, indeed, should the Jutes have specially commemorated a legend in
+which their part appears not to have been a very creditable one?
+
+[461] p. 97, note 225.
+
+[462] See above, p. 200. Zimmer, _Nennius Vindicatus_, 84, assumes that the
+Kentish pedigree borrowed these names from the Bernician: but there is no
+evidence for this.
+
+[463] Among those who have so held are Kemble, Thorpe (_Beowulf_, pp.
+76-7), Ettmüller (_Beowulf_, 1840, p. 23), Bouterwek (_Germania_, I, 389),
+Grein (_Eberts Jahrbuch_, IV, 270), Köhler (_Germania_, XIII, 155), Heyne
+(in first three editions), Holder (_Beowulf_, p. 128), ten Brink (_Pauls
+Grdr_. (1), II, 548), Heinzel (_A.f.d.A._ X. 228), Stevenson (_Asser_,
+1904, p. 169), Schücking (_Beowulf_, 1913, p. 321), Klaeber (_J.E.G.Ph._
+XIV, 545), Lawrence (_Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXX, 393), Moorman
+(_Essays and Studies_, V, 99), Björkman (_Eigennamen im Beowulf_, 21).
+
+So too, with some hesitation, Chadwick (_Orgin_, 52-3): with much more
+hesitation, Bugge (_P.B.B._ XII, 37). Whilst this is passing through the
+press Holthausen has withdrawn his former interpretation _eotena_,
+"enemies," in favour of _Eotena_=_[=E]otna_, "Jutes" (_Engl. Stud._ LI,
+180).
+
+[464] _P.B.B._ XII, 37.
+
+[465] The cognate of O.E. _f[=æ]r_ (Mod. Eng. "fear") in other Germanic
+languages, such as Old Saxon and Old High German, has the meaning of
+"ambush." In the nine places where it occurs in O.E. verse it has always
+the meaning of a peril which comes upon one suddenly, and is applied, e.g.
+to the Day of Judgement (twice) or some unexpected flood (three times). In
+compounds _f[=æ]r_ conveys an idea of suddenness: "_f[=æ]r-d[=e]að_,
+repentina mors."
+
+[466] _Volksepos_, 69.
+
+[467] It has been surmounted in two ways. (1) By altering _eaferum_ to
+_eaferan_ (a very slight change) and then making _f[=æ]r_ refer to the
+_final_ attack upon Finn, in which he certainly _was_ on the defensive
+(Lawrence, 397 _etc._, Ayres, 284, Trautmann, _BB._ II, Klaeber, _Anglia_,
+XXVIII, 443, Holthausen). (2) By making _h[=i][=e]_ refer to _hæleð
+Healf-Dena_ which follows (Green in _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXXI,
+759-97); but this is forced. See also below, p. 284.
+
+[468] Cf. Tacitus, _Germania_, XIV.
+
+[469] For examples of this see pp. 278-82 below.
+
+[470] _Fragment_, 40-1.
+
+[471] See above, p. 30.
+
+[472] Book II (ed. Holder, p. 67).
+
+[473] _P.B.B._ XII, 34.
+
+[474] For a discussion of the interpretation of the difficult _forþringan_,
+see Carlton Brown in _M.L.N._ XXXIV, 181-3.
+
+[475] _J.E.G.Ph._ XVI, 291-2.
+
+[476] _Ib._ 293-4.
+
+[477] I wish I could feel convinced, with Ayres, that the person whom
+Guthlaf and Oslaf blame for their woes is Hengest rather than Finn. Such an
+interpretation renders the story so much more coherent; but if the poet
+really meant this, he assuredly did not make his meaning quite clear.
+
+[478] See below, pp. 276, 288-9.
+
+[479] Ne h[=u]ru Hildeburh herian þorfte Eotena tr[=e]owe.
+
+[480] Ayres, in _J.E.G.Ph._ XVI, 286. So Lawrence in a private
+communication.
+
+[481] ll. 2910, _etc._
+
+[482] We can construct the situation from such historical information as we
+can get from Gregory of Tours and other sources. The author of _Beowulf_
+may not have been clear as to the exact relation of the different tribes.
+We cannot tell, from the vague way he speaks, how much he knew.
+
+[483] I have argued this at some length below, but I do not think anyone
+would deny it. Bugge recognized it to be true (_P.B.B._ XII, 29-30) as does
+Lawrence (392). See below, pp. 288-9.
+
+[484] We can never argue that words are synonymous because they are
+parallel. Compare Psalm cxiv; in the first verse the parallel words are
+synonymous, but in the second and third not:
+
+"When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from among the
+strange people" [Israel = house of Jacob: Egypt = strange people].
+
+"Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion." [Judah is only one of
+the tribes of Israel.]
+
+"The sea saw that and fled: Jordan was driven back." [The Red Sea and
+Jordan are distinct, though parallel, examples.]
+
+[485] _J.E.G.Ph._ XVI, 288.
+
+[486] _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXX, 430.
+
+[487] Plummer, _Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel_, II, 47.
+
+[488] _Njáls Saga_, cap. 45.
+
+[489] _Pauls Grdr._ (2), II, 524.
+
+[490] Helmhold.
+
+[491] I know of only one parallel for such assumed adoption of a name: that
+also concerns the Jutes. The Angles, says Bede, dwelt between the Saxons
+and Jutes: the Jutes must, then, according to Bede, have dwelt north of the
+Angles, since the Saxons dwelt south. But the people north of the Angles
+are now, and have been from early times, Scandinavian in speech, whilst the
+Jutes who settled Kent obviously were not. The best way of harmonizing
+known linguistic facts with Bede's statement is, then, to assume that
+Scandinavians settled in the old continental home of these Jutes and took
+over their name, whilst introducing the Scandinavian speech.
+
+Now many scholars have regarded this as so forced and unlikely an
+explanation that they reject it, and refuse to believe that the Jutes who
+settled Kent can have dwelt north of the Angles, in spite of Bede's
+statement. If we are asked to reject the "Scandinavian-Jute" theory, as too
+unlikely on _a priori_ grounds, although it is demanded by the express
+evidence of Bede, it is surely absurd to put forward a precisely similar
+theory in favour of "Frisian-Jutes" upon no evidence at all.
+
+[492] Koegel (164), Lawrence (382).
+
+[493] Björkman (_Eigennamen im Beowulf_, 23) interprets the _Eotenas_ as
+Jutist subjects of Finn. This suggestion was made quite independently of
+anything I had written, and confirms me in my belief that it is a
+reasonable interpretation.
+
+[494] Ayres in _J.E.G.Ph._ XVI, 288.
+
+[495] e.g. _Njáls Saga_, cap. 144: _Laxdæla Saga_, cap. 51.
+
+[496] Of course a primitive stage can be conceived at which homicide is
+regarded as worse than murder. Your brother shoots _A_ intentionally: he
+must therefore have had good reasons, and you fraternally support him. But
+you may feel legitimate annoyance if he aims at a stag, and shooting _A_ by
+mere misadventure, involves you in a blood-feud.
+
+[497] _Heimskringla, Ól. Tryggv._ K. 111; _Saga Olafs Tryggvasonar_, K. 70
+(_Fornmanna S[o,]gur_, 1835, X.)
+
+[498] Saxo Grammaticus (ed. Holder, p. 67).
+
+[499] _Heimskringla, Ól. Tryggv._ K. 41.
+
+[500] _lýsti vígi á hendr sér._ _Laxdæla Saga_, cap. 49.
+
+[501] Cap. 55.
+
+[502] Cap. 85.
+
+[503] _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, anno 755.
+
+[504] _Njáls Saga_, cap. 158.
+
+[505] _Fragment_, ll. 40-1.
+
+[506] p. 213 (ed. Holder).
+
+[507] Finn may perhaps be holding a meeting of chieftains. For similar
+meetings of chieftains, compare _S[o,]rla þáttr_, cap. 4; _Laxdæla Saga_,
+cap. 12; _Skáldskaparmál_, cap. 47 (50).
+
+[508] There is assuredly a considerable likeness between the Finn story and
+the Nibelungen story: this has been noted often enough. It is more open to
+dispute whether the likeness is so great as to justify us in believing that
+the Nibelungen story is _copied_ from the Finn story, and may therefore
+safely be used as an indication how gaps in our existing versions of that
+story may be filled. See Boer in _Z.f.d.A._ XLVII, 125 _etc._
+
+[509] The fact that both sides have suffered about equally facilitates a
+settlement in the Teutonic feud, just as it does among the Afridis or the
+Albanians at the present day.
+
+[510] The situation would then be parallel to that in _Laxdæla Saga_, cap.
+60-5, where the boy Thorleik, aged fifteen, is nominally in command of the
+expedition which avenges his father Bolli, but is only able to accomplish
+his revenge by enlisting the great warrior Thorgils, who is the real leader
+of the raid.
+
+[511] Bugge (_P.B.B._ XII, 36) interpreted this _swylce_ as meaning that
+sword-bale came upon Finn in like manner as it had previously come upon
+Hnæf. But this is to make _swylce_ in l. 1146 refer back to the death of
+Hnæf mentioned (72 lines previously) in l. 1074. Möller (_Volksepos_, 67)
+tries to explain _swylce_ by supposing the passage it introduces to be a
+fragment detached from its context.
+
+[512] f, r, s, þ, w, p ([Old English Letters]), all letters involving a
+long down stroke, are constantly confused. For examples, see above, p. 245,
+and cf. e.g. _Beowulf_, l. 2882 (_fergendra_ for _wergendra_); _Crist_, 12
+(_cræstga_ for _cræftga_); _Phoenix_, 15 (_fnæft_ for _fnæst_); Riddles III
+(IV), 18 (_þyran_ for _þywan_); XL (XLI), 63 (_þyrre_ for _þyrse_); XLII
+(XLIII), 4 (_speop_ for _sp[=e]ow_), 11 (_wæs_ for _þæs_); LVII (LVIII), 3
+(_rope_ for _r[=o]fe_ or _r[=o]we_), _etc._
+
+[513] p. 392.
+
+[514] p. 431.
+
+[515] _Nennius Interpretatus_, ed. Mommsen (_Chronica Minora_, III, 179, in
+_Mon. Germ. Hist._)
+
+[516] "De norske oldsager synes at vidne om, at temmelig livlige
+handelsforbindelser i den ældre jernalder har fundet sted mellem Norge og
+de sydlige Nordsøkyster." Undset, _Fra Norges ældre Jernalder_ in the
+_Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie_, 1880, 89-184, esp. p. 173.
+See also Chadwick, _Origin_, 93. I am indebted to Chadwick's note for this
+reference to Undset.
+
+[517] _Ravennatis anonymi cosmographia_, ed. Pinder et Parthey, Berolini,
+1860, pp. 27, 28 (§ I, 11).
+
+[518] The modern Wijk bij Duurstede, not far from Utrecht, on the Lower
+Rhine.
+
+[519] An account of the numerous coins found among the ruins of the old
+town will be found in the _Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte_, IV
+(1864), pp. 301-303. They testify to its commercial importance.
+
+[520] So Adam of Bremen, following Alcuin. Concerning "Heiligland" Adam
+says: "Hanc in vita Sancti Willebrordi Fosetisland appellari discimus, quae
+sita est in confinio Danorum et Fresonum." Adam of Bremen in Pertz,
+_Scriptores_, VII, 1846, p. 369.
+
+[521] Alcuin's _Life of Willibrord_ in Migne (1851)--Alcuini _Opera_, vol.
+II, 699-702.
+
+[522] See above, pp. 199-200.
+
+[523] It had been disputed by Skeat, Earle, Boer, and others, but never
+with such strong reasons.
+
+[524] I use below the form "Beow," which I believe to be the correct one.
+"Beaw" is the form in the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_. But as the name of
+Sceldwa, Beaw's father, is there given in a form which is not West-Saxon
+(_sceld_, not _scield_ or _scyld_), it may well be that "Beaw" is also the
+Anglian dialect form, if it be not indeed a mere error: and this is
+confirmed by _Beo_ (Ethelwerd), _Beowius_ (William of Malmesbury),
+_Boerinus_ (for _Beowinus_: Chronicle Roll), perhaps too by _Beowa_
+(Charter of 931) and _Beowi_, (_MS Cott. Tib. B. IV_). For the significance
+of this last, see pp. 303-4, below, and Björkman in _Engl. Stud._ LII, 171,
+_Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXX, 23.
+
+[525] Vol. LXXXI, p. 517.
+
+[526] It has indeed been so argued by Brandl: "Beowulf ... ist nur der
+Erlöser seines Volkes ... und dankt es schliesslich dem Himmel, in einer an
+den Heiland gemahnenden Weise, dass er die Seinen um den Preis des eigenen
+Lebens mit Schätzen beglücken konnte." _Pauls Grdr._ (2), II, l. 1002.
+
+[527] _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 11th edit., III, 760-1.
+
+[528] l. 2039, where a capital O occurs, but without a section number.
+
+[529] _Moore, Namur, Cotton._
+
+[530] _Cotton Tiberius B. XI._
+
+[531] _Hatton_, 20.
+
+[532] See above, pp. 92-7.
+
+[533] See above, pp. 43-4.
+
+[534] Ethelwerd.
+
+[535] _Chronicle._
+
+[536] Boer, _Beowulf_, 135, 143: _Arkiv f. nord. Filologi_, XIX, 29.
+
+[537] _Heroic Age_, 126.
+
+[538] _Postscript to Preface_, p. ix.
+
+[539] _Postscript_, pp. xi, xiv.
+
+[540] See _Lokasenna_ in _Die Lieder der Edda_, herausg. von Sijmons u.
+Gering, I, 134.
+
+ Byggvir kvaþ:
+ "[Veiztu] ef [ek] øþle ættak sem Ingunar-Freyr,
+ ok svá sællekt setr,
+ merge smæra mølþak [þá] meinkr[ó,]ko
+ ok lemþa alla í liþo."
+
+[541] Lines corresponding to these of Burns are found both in the Scotch
+ballad recorded by Jamieson, and in the English ballad (Pepys Collection).
+See Jamieson, _Popular Ballads and Songs_, 1806, II, 241, 256.
+
+[542]
+
+ Loki kvaþ:
+ "Hvat's þat et lítla, es [ek] þat l[o,]ggra sék,
+ ok snapvíst snaper?
+ at eyrom Freys mont[u] æ vesa
+ ok und kvernom klaka."
+
+[543] Jamieson, II, 239. So Burns: "John Barleycorn was a hero bold," and
+the ballad
+
+ John Barleycorn is the wightest man
+ That ever throve in land.
+
+[544]
+
+ Byggvir kvaþ:
+ "Byggver ek heite, en mik bráþan kveþa
+ goþ [o,]ll ok gumar;
+ því emk hér hróþogr, at drekka Hrópts meger
+ aller [o,]l saman."
+
+[545]
+
+ Loki kvaþ:
+ "þege þú, Byggver! þú kunner aldrege
+ deila meþ m[o,]nnom mat;
+ [ok] þik í flets strae finna né m[ó,]tto,
+ þás v[ó,]go verar."
+
+[546] This follows from the allusive way in which he and his wife are
+introduced--there must be a background to allusions. If the poet were
+inventing this figure, and had no background of knowledge in his audience
+to appeal to, he must have been more explicit. Cf. Olsen in Christiania
+_Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter_, 1914, II, 2, 107.
+
+[547] p. 87.
+
+[548] See Olrik, "Nordisk og Lappisk Gudsdyrkelse," _Danske Studier_, 1905,
+pp. 39-57; "Tordenguden og hans dreng," 1905, pp. 129-46; "Tordenguden og
+hans dreng i Lappernes myteverden," 1906, pp. 65-9; Krohn, "Lappische
+beiträge zur germ. mythologie," _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_, VI, 1906,
+pp. 155-80.
+
+[549] See Axel Olrik in _Festgabe f. Vilh. Thomsen_, 1912 (=
+_Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_, XII, 1, p. 40). Olrik refers therein to
+his earlier paper on the subject in _Danske Studier_, 1911, p. 38, and to a
+forthcoming article in the _Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift_, which
+has, I think, never appeared. See also K. Krohn in _Göttingische gelehrte
+Anzeigen_, 1912, p. 211. Reviewing Meyer's _Altgermanische
+Religionsgeschichte_, Krohn, after referring to the Teutonic gods of
+agriculture, continues "Ausser diesen agrikulturellen Gottheiten sind aus
+der finnischen Mythologie mit Hülfe der Linguistik mehrere germanische
+Naturgötter welche verschiedene Nutzpflanzen vertreten, entdeckt worden:
+der Roggengott Runkoteivas oder Rukotivo, der Gerstengott Pekko (nach
+Magnus Olsen aus urnord. Beggw-, vgl. Byggwir) und ein Gott des
+Futtergrases Sämpsä (vgl. Semse od. Simse, 'die Binse')." See also Krohn,
+"Germanische Elemente in der finnischen Volksdichtung," _Z.f.d.A._ LI,
+1909, pp. 13-22; and Karsten, "Einige Zeugnisse zur altnordischen
+Götterverehrung in Finland," _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_, XII, 307-16.
+
+[550] As proposed by K. Krohn in a publication of the Finnish Academy at
+Helsingfors which I have not been able to consult, but as to which see
+Setälä in _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_, XIII, 311, 424. Setälä accepts
+the derivation from _beggwu-_, rejecting an alternative derivation of Pekko
+from a Finnish root.
+
+[551] This is proposed by J. J. Mikkola in a note appended to the article
+by K. Krohn, "Sampsa Pellervoinen < Njordr, Freyr?" in _Finnisch-Ugrische
+Forschungen_, IV, 231-48. See also Olrik, "Forårsmyten hos Finnerne," in
+_Danske Studier_, 1907, pp. 62-4.
+
+[552] See note by K. Krohn, _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_, VI, 105.
+
+[553] See above, p. 87, and M. J. Eisen, "Ueber den Pekokultus bei den
+Setukesen," _Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen_, VI, 104-11.
+
+[554] See M. Olsen, _Hedenske Kultminder i Norske Stedsnavne_, Christiania
+_Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter_, II, 2, 1914, pp. 227-8.
+
+[555] See above, p. 84.
+
+[556] Mannhardt, _Mythologische Forschungen_, 332.
+
+[557] In view of the weight laid upon this custom by Olrik as illustrating
+the story of Sceaf, it is necessary to note that it seems to be confined to
+parts of England bordering on the "Celtic fringe." See above, pp. 81,
+_etc._ Olrik and Olsen quote it as Kentish (see _Heltedigtning_, II, 252)
+but this is certainly wrong. Frazer attributes the custom of "crying the
+mare" to Hertfordshire and Shropshire (_Spirits of the Corn_, I, 292 =
+_Golden Bough_, 3rd edit., VII, 292). In this he is following Brand's
+_Popular Antiquities_ (1813, I, 443; 1849, II, 24; also Carew Hazlitt,
+1905, I, 157). But Brand's authority is Blount's _Glossographia_, 1674, and
+Blount says _Herefordshire_.
+
+[558] Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, 1849, II, 24.
+
+[559] Frazer in the _Folk-Lore Journal_, VII, 1889, pp. 50, 51; _Adonis,
+Attis and Osiris_, I, 237.
+
+[560] Frazer, _Adonis, Attis and Osiris_, I, 238 (_Golden Bough_, 3rd
+edit.).
+
+[561] Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild_, I, 143-4.
+
+[562] Frazer in the _Folk-Lore Journal_, VII, 1889, pp. 50, 51.
+
+[563] Mannhardt, _Forschungen_, 317.
+
+[564] Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn_, I, 138.
+
+[565] Mannhardt, 323; Fraser, _Adonis_, I, 238.
+
+[566] Mannhardt, 330.
+
+[567] Mannhardt, 24; Frazer, _Adonis_, I, 238.
+
+[568] Frazer, _Adonis_, I, 237.
+
+[569] Frazer, _Spirits of the Corn_, I, 217.
+
+[570] See Björkman in _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXX, 1919, p. 23. In a similar
+way Sceaf appears twice in William of Malmesbury, once as Sceaf and once as
+Strephius.
+
+[571] Vol. LII, p. 145.
+
+[572] _MS Cott. Vesp. B. XXIV_, fol. 32 (Evesham Cartulary). See Birch,
+_Cart. Sax._ I, 176 (No. 120); Kemble, _Cod. Dipl._ III, 376. Kemble prints
+_þæt æft_ for _þ[=a] æft_ (MS "[=þ] æft"). For examples of "[=þ]" for
+_þ[=a]_, see _Ælfrics Grammatik_, herausg. Zupitza, 1880; 38, 3; 121, 4;
+291, 1.
+
+[573] There are two copies, one of the tenth and one of the eleventh
+century, among the Crawford Collection in the Bodleian. See Birch, _Cart.
+Sax._ III, ..7 (No. 1331); Napier and Stevenson, _The Crawford Collection_
+(_Anecdota Oxoniensia_), 1895, pp. 1, 3, 50.
+
+[574] _MS Cotton Ch. VIII_, 16. See Birch, _Cart. Sax._ II, 363 (No. 677);
+Kemble, _Cod. Dipl._ II, 172.
+
+[575] A nearly contemporary copy: _Westminster Abbey Charters_, III. See
+Birch, _Cart. Sax._ III, 189 (No. 994), and W. B. Sanders, _Ord. Surv.
+Facs._ II, plate III.
+
+[576] A fourteenth to fifteenth century copy preserved at Wells Cathedral
+(_Registr. Album_, f. 289 _b_). See Birch, _Cart. Sax._ III, 223 (No.
+1023).
+
+[577] _MS Cotton Aug. II_, 6. See Birch, _Cart. Sax._ III, 588 (No. 1282).
+
+[578] _Brit. Mus. Stowe Chart._ No. 32. See Birch, _Cart. Sax._ III, 605
+(No. 1290).
+
+[579] Cf. the _Victoria History_, Middlesex, II, p. 1.
+
+[580] "_Grendeles gate_ har väl snarast varit någon naturbildning t. ex.
+ett trångt bergpass eller kanske en grotta": C. W. von Sydow, in an
+excellent article on _Grendel i anglosaxiska ortnamn_, in _Nordiska
+Ortnamn: Hyllningsskrift tillägnad A. Noreen_, Upsala, 1914, pp. 160-4.
+
+[581] Près du _Neckersgat molen_, il y avait jadis, antérieurement aux
+guerres de religion, des maisons entourées d'eau et appelées _de hoffstede
+te Neckersgate_: Wauters (A.), _Histoire des Environs de Bruxelles_, 1852,
+III, 646.
+
+[582] Peg Powler lived in the Tees, and devoured children who played on the
+banks, especially on Sundays: Peg o' Nell, in the Ribble, demanded a life
+every seven years. See Henderson (W.), _Notes on the Folk-Lore of the
+Northern Counties of England_, 1879 (_Folk-Lore Society_), p. 265.
+
+[583] See Kisch (G.), _Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der siebenbürgischen und
+moselfränkischluxemburgischen Mundart, nebst
+siebenbürgischniederrheinischem Ortsund Familiennamen-verzeichnis_ (vol.
+XXXIII, 1 of the _Archiv des Vereins f. siebenbürg_. _Landeskunde_, 1905).
+
+[584] See _Grindel_ in Förstemann (E.), _Altdeutsches Namenbuch_, Dritte
+Aufl., herausg. Jellinghaus, II, 1913, and in Fischer (H.), _Schwäbisches
+Wörterbuch_, III, 1911 (nevertheless Rooth legitimately calls attention to
+the names recorded by Fischer in which _Grindel_ is connected with _bach_,
+_teich_ and _moos_).
+
+[585] There is an account of this by G. Kisch in the _Festgabe zur Feier
+der Einweihung des neuen evang. Gymnasial Bürger- und
+Elementar-schulgebäudes in Besztercze (Bistritz) am 7 Oct. 1911_; a
+document which I have not been able to procure.
+
+[586] Such a connection is attempted by W. Benary in Herrig's _Archiv_,
+CXXX, 154. Alternative suggestions, which would exclude any connection with
+the Grendel of _Beowulf_, are made by Klaeber, in _Archiv_, CXXXI, 427.
+
+[587] A very useful summary of the different etymologies proposed is made
+by Rooth in _Anglia, Beiblatt_, XXVIII (1917), 335-8.
+
+[588] So Skeat, "On the significance of the monster Grendel," _Journal of
+Philology_, Cambridge, XV (1886), p. 123; Laistner, _Rätsel der Sphinx_,
+1889, p. 23; Holthausen, in his edition.
+
+[589] So Weinhold in the _SB. der k. Akad. Wien, Phil.-Hist. Classe_, XXVI,
+255.
+
+[590] Cf. Gollancz, _Patience_, 1913, Glossary. For _grindill_ as one of
+the synonyms for "storm," see _Edda Snorra Sturlusonar_, Hafniae, 1852, II,
+486, 569.
+
+[591] This will be found in several of the vocabularies of Low German
+dialects published by the _Verein für Niederdeutsche Sprachforschung_.
+
+[592] See _grand_ in Falk and Torp, _Etymologisk Ordbog_, Kristiania,
+1903-6.
+
+[593] See Feist, _Etymol. Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache_, Halle, 1909;
+_grunduwaddjus._
+
+[594] With Grendel, thus explained, Rooth would connect the "Earth man" of
+the fairy-tale "Dat Erdmänneken" (see below, p. 370) and the name
+_Sandhaug_, _Sandey_, which clings to the Scandinavian _Grettir-_ and
+_Orm-_stories. We have seen that a _sandhaug_ figures also in one of the
+Scandinavian cognates of the folk-tale (see above, p. 67). These
+resemblances may be noted, though it would be perilous to draw deductions
+from them.
+
+[595] _Schweizerisches Idiotikon_, II, 1885, p. 776.
+
+[596] See above, pp. 43, _etc._; below, p. 311.
+
+[597] Duignan, _Warwickshire Place Names_, p. 22. Duignan suggests the same
+etymology for _Beoshelle_, _beos_ being "the Norman scribe's idea of the
+gen. plu." This, however, is very doubtful.
+
+[598] _Engl. Stud._ LII, 177.
+
+[599] _Heltedigtning_, II, 255. See above, pp. 81-7.
+
+[600] Binz in _P.B.B._ XX, 148; Chadwick, _Origin_, 282. So Clarke,
+_Sidelights_, 128. Cf. Heusler in _A.f.d. A._ XXX, 31.
+
+[601] _A.-S. Chronicle._
+
+[602] _Historia Brittonum._
+
+[603] "hrædlan" (gen.), _Beowulf_, 454.
+
+[604] "hrædles," _Beowulf_, 1485.
+
+[605] _A.-S. Chronicle._
+
+[606] _Beowulf_, Ethelwerd.
+
+[607] Geata, Geta, _Historia Brittonum_; Asser; _MS Cott. Tib. A. VI;
+Textus Roffensis_.
+
+[608] _A.-S. Chronicle._
+
+[609] Charter of 931.
+
+[610] _A.-S. Chronicle_, Ethelwerd.
+
+[611] _Origin_, 273.
+
+[612] _Origin_, 282.
+
+[613] Some O.H.G. parallels will be found in _Z.f.d.A._ XII, 260. The weak
+form _G[=e]ata_, Mr Stevenson argues, is due to Asser's attempt to
+reconcile the form _G[=e]at_ with the Latin _Geta_ with which he identifies
+it (Asser, pp. 160-161). See also Chadwick, _Heroic Age_, 124 footnote. Yet
+we get _G[=e]ata_ in one text of the _Chronicle_, and in other documents.
+
+[614] This is the view taken by Plummer, who does not seem to regard any
+solution as possible other than that the names are missing from the _Parker
+MS_ by a transcriber's slip (see _Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel_, II, p.
+xciv).
+
+[615] Plummer, II, pp. xxix, xxxi, lxxxix.
+
+[616] Plummer, II, p. lxxi. Note _Beowi_ for _Bedwig_.
+
+[617] This table shows the relationship of the genealogies only, not of the
+whole MSS, of which the genealogies form but a small part. MS-relationships
+are always liable to fluctuation, as we pass from one part of a MS to
+another, and for obvious reasons this is peculiarly the case with the
+_Chronicle_ MSS.
+
+[618] _Origin_, 295.
+
+[619] _Origin_, 292.
+
+[620] _Origin_, 296.
+
+[621] The absence of the West-Saxon pedigree may be due to the document
+from which the _Historia Brittonum_ and the _Vespasian MS_ derive these
+pedigrees having been drawn up in the North: Wessex may have been outside
+the purview of its compiler; though against this is the fact that it
+contains the Kentish pedigree. But another quite possible explanation is,
+that Cerdic, with his odd name, was not of the right royal race, but an
+adventurer, and that it was only later that a pedigree was made up for his
+descendants, on the analogy of those possessed by the more blue-blooded
+monarchs of Mercia and Northumbria.
+
+[622] See _M.L.N._ 1897, XII, 110-11.
+
+[623] It is prefixed to the _Parker MS_ of the _Chronicle_, and is found
+also in the Cambridge MS of the Anglo-Saxon Bede (_Univ. Lib. Kk._ 3. 18)
+printed in Miller's edition; in _MS Cott. Tib. A. III_, 178 (printed in
+Thorpe's _Chronicle_): and in _MS Add._ 34652, printed by Napier in
+_M.L.N._ 1897, XII, 106 _etc._ There are uncollated copies in _MS C.C.C.C._
+383, fol. 107, and according to Liebermann (Herrig's _Archiv_, CIV, 23) in
+the _Textus Roffensis_, fol. 7 b. There is also a fragment, which does not
+however include the portion under consideration, in _MS Add._ 23211 (_Brit.
+Mus._) printed in Sweet's _Oldest English Texts_, p. 179. The statement,
+sometimes made, that there is a copy in _MS C.C.C.C._ 41, rests on an error
+of Whelock, who was really referring to the _Parker MS_ of the _Chronicle_
+(_C.C.C.C._ 173).
+
+[624] p. 73.
+
+[625] See above, p. 70.
+
+[626] Brandl in Herrig's _Archiv_, CXXXVII, 12-13.
+
+[627] _Origin_, p. 272.
+
+[628] So Ethelwerd (_Lib._ I) sees in Woden a _rex multitudinis
+Barbarorum_, in error deified. It is the usual point of view, and persists
+down to Carlyle (_Heroes_).
+
+[629] _Origin_, p. 293.
+
+[630] _Beowulf_, p. 5. For a further examination of this "Beowa-myth" see
+Appendix A, above.
+
+[631] Cf. Tupper in _Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer._ XXVI, 275.
+
+[632] _P.B.B._ XLII, 347-410. A theory as to the date of _Beowulf_, in some
+respects similar, was put forward by Mone in 1836: _Untersuchungen zur
+Geschichte der teutschen Heldensage_, p. 132.
+
+[633] See above, p. 103; and Brandl in _Pauls Grdr._ (2) II, 1000, where
+the argument is excellently stated.
+
+[634] See Olrik, _Sakses Oldhistorie_, 1894, 190-91.
+
+[635] See Björkman, _Eigennamen im Beowulf_, 77.
+
+[636] Sarrazin's attempt to prove such corruption is an entire failure. Cf.
+Brandl in Herrig's _Archiv_, CXXVI, 234; Björkman, _Eigennamen im Beowulf_,
+58 (_Heaðo-Beardan_).
+
+[637] A few Geatic adventurers may have taken part in the Anglo-Saxon
+invasion, as has been argued by Moorman (_Essays and Studies_, V). This is
+likely enough on _a priori_ grounds, though many of the etymologies of
+place-names quoted by Moorman in support of his thesis are open to doubt.
+
+[638] _P.B.B._ XLII, 366-7.
+
+[639] _History of England to the Norman Conquest_, I, 245.
+
+[640] _Heroic Age_, 52-6. I have tried to show (Appendix F) that these
+accounts of cremation are not so archaeologically correct as has sometimes
+been claimed.
+
+[641] Oman, _England before the Norman Conquest_, 319.
+
+[642] Bede, _Hist. Eccles._ IV, 26.
+
+[643] "Nunc qui Roma veniunt idem allegant, ut qui Haugustaldensem fabricam
+vident ambitionem Romanam se imaginari jurent." William of Malmesbury,
+_Gesta Pontificum_, Rolls Series, p. 255.
+
+[644] Baldwin Brown, _The Arts in Early England_, II, 1903, p. 325.
+
+[645] p. 407.
+
+[646] _Beowulf_, ll. 201, 601-3.
+
+[647] Cf. _Beowulf_, l. 1018.
+
+[648] Bede, _Eccles. Hist._ III, 21.
+
+[649] See Oman, pp. 460, 591, for the honour done to this saint by
+converted Danes.
+
+[650] p. 393.
+
+[651] _Æneid_, X, 467-9.
+
+[652] In the two admirable articles by Klaeber (_Archiv_, CCXVI, 40 _etc._,
+399 _etc._) every possible parallel is drawn: the result, to my mind, is
+not complete conviction.
+
+[653] Chadwick, _Heroic Age_, 74.
+
+[654] "Litteris itaque ad plenum instructus, nativae quoque linguae non
+negligebat carmina; adeo ut, teste libro Elfredi, de quo superius dixi,
+nulla umquam aetate par ei fuerit quisquam. Poesim Anglicam posse facere,
+cantum componere, _eadem apposite vel canere vel dicere_. Denique
+commemorat Elfredus carmen triviale, quod adhuc vulgo cantitatur, Aldelmum
+fecisse, aditiens causam qua probet rationabiliter tantum virum his quae
+videantur frivola institisse. Populum eo tempore semibarbarum, parum
+divinis sermonibus intentum, statim, cantatis missis, domos cursitare
+solitum. Ideo sanctum virum, super pontem qui rura et urbem continuat,
+abeuntibus se opposuisse obicem, quasi artem cantitandi professum. Eo
+plusquam semel facto, plebis favorem et concursum emeritum. Hoc commento
+sensim inter ludicra verbis Scripturarum insertis, cives ad sanitatem
+reduxisse." William of Malmesbury, _De gestis pontificum Anglorum_, ed.
+Hamilton, _Rolls Series_, 1870, 336.
+
+[655] "Reverentissimo patri meaeque rudis infantiae venerando praeceptori
+Adriano." _Epist._ (Aldhelmi _Opera_, ed. Giles, 1844, p. 330).
+
+[656] Faricius, Life, in Giles' edition of Aldhelm, 1844, p. 357.
+
+[657] Letter of Cuthbert to Cuthwine, describing Bede's last illness. "Et
+in nostra lingua, hoc est anglica, ut erat doctus in nostris carminibus,
+nonnulla dixit. Nam et tunc Anglico carmine componens, multum compunctus
+aiebat, _etc._" The letter is quoted by Simeon of Durham, ed. Arnold,
+_Rolls Series_, 1882, I, pp. 43-46, and is extant elsewhere, notably in a
+ninth century MS at St Gall.
+
+[658] "quid Hinieldus cum Christo."
+
+[659] "Þæt [=æ]nig pr[=e]ost ne b[=e]o ealuscop, ne on [=æ]nige w[=i]san
+gl[=i]wige, mid him sylfum oþþe mid [=o]þrum mannum"--Thorpe, _Ancient Laws
+and Institutes of England_, 1840, p. 400 (Laws of Edgar, cap. 58).
+
+[660] "avitae gentilitatis vanissima didicisse carmina." This charge is
+dismissed as "scabiem mendacii." _Vita Sancti Dunstani_, by "B," in
+_Memorials of Dunstan_, ed. Stubbs, _Rolls Series_, 1874, p. 11. Were these
+songs heroic or magic?
+
+[661] _The Heroic Legends of Denmark_, New York, 1919, p. 32 (footnote).
+
+[662] _Ibid._ p. 39.
+
+[663] Thus, much space has been devoted to discussing whether "Gotland," in
+the eleventh century Cotton MS of Alfred's Orosius, signifies Jutland. I
+believe that it does; but fail to see how it can be argued from this that
+Alfred believed the Jutes to be "Geatas." Old English had no special symbol
+for the semi-vowel _J_; so, to signify _J[=o]tland_, Alfred would have
+written "Geotland" (Sievers, _Gram._ §§ 74, 175). Had he meant "Land of the
+Geatas" he would have written "Geataland" or "Geatland." Surely "Gotland"
+is nearer to "Geotland" than to "Geatland."
+
+[664] _P.B.B._ XII, 1-10.
+
+[665] See above, p. 8. Fahlbeck has recently revised and re-stated his
+arguments.
+
+[666] _Danmarks Riges Historie_, I, 79 _etc._
+
+[667] _Beowulf_, übersetzt von H. Gering, 1906, p. vii.
+
+[668] See above, also _Nordisk Aandsliv_, 10, where Olrik speaks of the
+Geatas as "Jyderne." His arguments as presented to the Copenhagen
+_Philologisk-historisk Samfund_ are summarized by Schütte, _J.E.G. Ph._ XI,
+575-6. Clausen also supports the Jute-theory, _Danske Studier_, 1918,
+137-49.
+
+[669] _J.E.G. Ph._ XI, 574-602.
+
+[670] _Beowulf, et Bidrag til Nordens Oldhistorie_ af Chr. Kier, København,
+1915.
+
+[671] This is admitted by Bugge, _P.B.B._ XII, 6. "_Geátas_ ... ist
+sprachlich ein ganz anderer name als altn. _Jótar_, _Jútar_, bei Beda
+_Jutae_, und nach Beda im _Chron. Sax._ 449 _Jotum_, _Jutna_ ... Die
+_Geátas_ ... tragen einen namen der sprachlich mit altn. _Gautar_ identisch
+ist."
+
+[672] From a presumed Prim. Germ. _*Eutiz_, _*Eutjaniz_. The word in O.E.
+seems to have been declined both as an _i_-stem and an _n_-stem, the
+_n_-stem forms being used more particularly in the gen. plu., just as in
+the case of the tribal names, _Seaxe_, _Mierce_ (Sievers, § 264). The
+Latinized forms show the same duplication, the dat. _Euciis_ pointing to an
+_i_-stem, the nom. _Euthio_ to an _n_-stem, plu. _*Eutiones_. For a
+discussion of the relation of the O.E. name to the Danish _Jyder_, see
+Björkman in _Anglia, Beiblatt,_ XXVIII, 274-80: "Zu ae. _Eote_, _Yte_, dän.
+_Jyder_ 'Jüten'."
+
+[673] I regard it as simply an _error_ of the translator, possibly because
+he had before him a text in which Bede's _Iutis_ had been corrupted in this
+place into _Giotis_, as it is in Ethelwerd: _Cantuarii de Giotis traxerunt
+originem, Vuhtii quoque_. (Bk. I: other names which Ethelwerd draws from
+Bede in this section are equally corrupt.)
+
+Bede's text runs: (I, 15) _Aduenerant autem de tribus Germaniae populis
+fortioribus, id est Saxonibus, Anglis, Iutis. De Iutarum origine sunt
+Cantuarii et Victuarii_; in the translation: "Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam
+strangestan Germanie, þæt [is] of Seaxum and of Angle and of Geatum. Of
+Geata fruman syndon Cantware and Wihtsætan": (IV, 16) _In proximam Iutorum
+prouinciam translati ... in locum, qui uocatur Ad Lapidem_; "in þa
+neahmægðe, seo is gecegd Eota lond, in sume stowe seo is nemned Æt Stane"
+(Stoneham, near Southampton). _MS C.C.C.C._ 41 reads "Ytena land": see
+below.
+
+[674] _Two Saxon Chronicles_, ed. Plummer, 1899. _Introduction_, pp. lxx,
+lxxi.
+
+[675] _The O.E. version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History_, ed. Miller, II,
+xv, xvi, 1898.
+
+[676] Florentii Wigorn. _Chron._, ed. Thorpe, II, 45; I, 276.
+
+[677] It cannot be said that this is due to textual corruption in our late
+copy, for the alliteration constantly demands a G-form, not a vowel-form.
+
+[678] See pp. 8, 9 above, §§ 2-7.
+
+[679] Just as, for example, in _Heimskringla: Haraldz saga ins hárfagra_,
+13-17, the Götar are constantly mentioned, because the kingdom of Sweden is
+being attacked from their side.
+
+[680] Procopius tells us that there were in Thule (i.e. the Scandinavian
+peninsula) thirteen nations, each under its own king: [Greek: basileis te
+eisi kata ethnos hekaston ... hôn ethnos hen poluanthrôpon hoi Gautoi eisi]
+(_Bell. Gott._ ii, 15).
+
+[681] On this alliteration-test, which is very important, see above, pp.
+10-11.
+
+[682] _Geta_ was the recognized Latin synonym for _Gothus_, and is used in
+this sense in the sixth century, e.g. by Venantius Fortunatus and Jordanes.
+And the Götar are constantly called _Gothi_, e.g. in the formula _rex
+Sueorum et Gothorum_ (for the date of this formula see Söderqvist in the
+_Historisk Tidskrift_, 1915: _Ägde Uppsvearne rätt att taga och vräka
+konung_); or Saxo, Bk. XIII (ed. Holder, p. 420, describing how the _Gothi_
+invited a candidate to be king, and slew the rival claimant, who was
+supported by the legally more constitutional suffrages of the Swedes); or
+Adam of Bremen (as quoted below).
+
+[683] _Folknamnet Geatas_, p. 5 _etc._
+
+[684] Speaking of the Götaelv, Adam says "Ille oritur in praedictis
+alpibus, perque _medios Gothorum populos_ currit in Oceanum, unde et
+Gothelba dicitur." Adami Canonici Bremensis, _Gesta Hamm. eccl.
+pontificum_, Lib. IV, in Migne, CXLVI, 637. Modern scholars are of the
+opinion that the borrowing has been rather the other way. According to
+Noreen the river Götaelv (Gautelfr) gets its name as the outflow from Lake
+Væner. (Cf. O.E. _g[=e]otan_, _g[=e]at_, "pour.") Götland (Gautland) is the
+country around the river, and the Götar (Gautar) get their name from the
+country. See Noreen, _Våra Ortnamn och deras Ursprungliga Betydelse_, in
+_Spridda Studier_, II, 91, 139.
+
+[685] The Scholiast, in his commentary on Adam, records the later state of
+things, when the Götar were confined to the south of the river: "Gothelba
+fluvius a Nordmannis Gothiam separat."
+
+[686] _Heimskringla_, cap. 17.
+
+[687] "Hann [Haraldr] er úti á herskipum allan vetrinn ok herjar á Ránríki"
+(cap. 15). "Haraldr konungr fór víða um Gautland herskildi, ok átti þar
+margar orrostur tveim megin elfarinnar.... Síðan lagði Haraldr konungr land
+alt undir sik fyrir norðan elfina ok fyrir vestan Væni" (cap. 17).
+_Heimskringla: Haraldz saga ins hárfagra_, udgiv. F. Jónsson, København,
+1893-1900.
+
+[688] Baltzer (L.), _Glyphes des rochers du Bohuslän, avec une préface de
+V. Rydberg_, Gothembourg, 1881. See also Baltzer, _Några af de viktigaste
+Hällristningarna_, Göteborg, 1911.
+
+[689] Guinchard, _Sweden: Historical and Statistical Handbook_, 1914, II,
+549.
+
+[690] See Chadwick, _Origin_, 93; _Heroic Age_, 51.
+
+[691] ll. 2910-21. See Schütte, 579, 583.
+
+[692] ll. 2922-3007.
+
+[693] ll. 3018-27.
+
+[694] ll. 3029-30.
+
+[695] pp. 575, 581.
+
+[696] The reason for locating the _Eudoses_ in Jutland is that the name
+has, very hazardously, been identified with that of the Jutes, _Eutiones_.
+Obviously this argument could no longer be used, if the _Eudoses_ were the
+"Wederas."
+
+[697] See e.g. Schütte, 579-80.
+
+[698] _Beowulf_, 1856.
+
+[699] _Beowulf_, 1830 _etc._
+
+[700] _Beowulf_, 2394. See Schütte, 576-9.
+
+[701] _S[=e]o [=e]a þ[=æ]r wyrcþ micelne s[=æ]._ Orosius, ed. Sweet, 12,
+24.
+
+[702] See above, p. 7.
+
+[703] As Miss Paues, herself a _Geat_, points out to me.
+
+[704] Kier, 39; Schütte, 582, 591 _etc._
+
+[705] See above, pp. 99, 100.
+
+[706] _Vendel och Vendelkråka_ in _A.f.n.F._ XXI, 71-80: see _Essays_,
+trans. Clark Hall, 50-62.
+
+[707] This grave mound is mentioned as "Kong Ottars Hög" in _Ättartal för
+Swea och Götha Kununga Hus_, by J. Peringskiöld, Stockholm, 1725, p. 13,
+and earlier, in 1677, it is mentioned by the same name in some notes of an
+antiquarian survey. That the name "Vendel-crow" is now attached to it is
+stated by Dr Almgren. These early references seem conclusive: little weight
+could, of course, be carried by the modern name alone, since it might
+easily be of learned origin. The mound was opened in 1914-16, and the
+contents showed it to belong to about 500 to 550 A.D., which agrees
+excellently with the date of Ohthere. See two articles in _Fornvännen_ for
+1917: an account of the opening of the mound by S. Lindqvist entitled
+"Ottarshögen i Vendel" (pp. 127-43) and a discussion of early Swedish
+history in the light of archaeology, by B. Nerman, "Ynglingasagan i
+arkeologisk belysning" (esp. pp. 243-6). See also Björkman in _Nordisk
+Tidskrift_, Stockholm, 1917, p. 169, and _Eigennamen im Beowulf_, 1920, pp.
+86-99.
+
+[708] See Appendix F: _Beowulf_ and the Archæologists, esp. p. 356, below.
+
+[709] By the Early Iron Age, Engelhardt meant from 250 to 450 A.D.: but
+more recent Danish scholars have placed these deposits in the fifth
+century, with some overlapping into the preceding and succeeding centuries
+(Müller, _Vor Oldtid_, 561; Wimmer, _Die Runenschrift_, 301, _etc._). The
+Swedish archæologists, Knut Stjerna and O. Almgren, agree with Engelhardt,
+dating the finds between about 250 and 450 A.D. (Stjerna's _Essays_, trans.
+Clark Hall, p. 149, and _Introduction_, xxxii-iii).
+
+[710] _Essays on questions connected with the O.E. poem of Beowulf_, trans.
+and ed. by John R. Clark Hall, (Viking Club), Coventry. (Reviews by
+Klaeber, _J.E.G.Ph._ XIII, 167-73, weighty; Mawer, _M.L.N._ VIII, 242-3;
+_Athenæum_, 1913, I, 459-60; _Archiv_, CXXXII, 238-9; Schütte, _A.f.n.F._
+XXXIII, 64-96, elaborate.)
+
+[711] An account of these was given at the time by H. Stolpe, who undertook
+the excavation. See his _Vendelfyndet_, in the _Antiqvarisk Tidskrift för
+Sverige_, VIII, 1, 1-34, and Hildebrand (H.) in the same, 35-64 (1884).
+Stolpe did not live to issue the definitive account of his work,
+_Graffältet vid Vendel, beskrifvet af_ H. Stolpe och T. J. Arne, Stockholm,
+1912.
+
+[712] Also added as an Appendix to his _Beowulf_ translation, 1911.
+
+[713] Clark Hall's _Preface_ to Stjerna's _Essays_, p. xx.
+
+[714] _J.E.G.Ph._ XIII, 1914, p. 172.
+
+[715] _Essays_, p. 239: cf. p. 84.
+
+[716] p. 39.
+
+[717] _Germania_, cap. XV.
+
+[718] ll. 378, 470.
+
+[719] Cassiodorus, _Variae_, V, 1.
+
+[720] Walter, _Corpus juris Germanici antiqui_, 1824, II, 125.
+
+[721] _Heimskringla, Haraldz saga_, cap. 38-40.
+
+[722] "The idea of a gold hoard undoubtedly points to the earlier version
+of the _Beowulf_ poem having originated in Scandinavia. No such 'gold
+period' ever existed in Britain." _Essays_, p. 147.
+
+[723] _Cottonian Gnomic Verses_, ll. 26-7.
+
+[724] l. 14.
+
+[725] _Exeter Gnomic Verses_, l. 126.
+
+[726] Baldwin Brown, III, 385, IV, 640.
+
+[727] _B._ l. 19.
+
+[728] l. 339.
+
+[729] l. 991.
+
+[730] Cf. Falk, _Altnordische Waffenkunde_, 28.
+
+[731] I would suggest this as the more likely because, if the ring were
+inserted for a practical purpose, it is not easy to see why it later
+survived in the form of a mere knob, which is neither useful nor
+ornamental. But if it were used to attach the symbolical "peace bands," it
+may have been retained, in a "fossilized form," with a symbolical meaning.
+
+[732] Most editors indeed do take it in this sense, though recently
+Schücking has adopted Stjerna's explanation of "ring-sword." In l. 322,
+Falk (27) takes _hring-[=i]ren_ to refer to a "ring-adorned sword," though
+it may well mean a ring-byrnie.
+
+[733] Actually, I believe, more: for two ring-swords were found at
+Faversham, and are now in the British Museum. For an account of one of them
+see Roach Smith, _Collectanea Antiqua_, 1868, vol. VI, 139. In this
+specimen both the fixed ring and the ring which moves within it are
+complete circles. But in the Gilton sword (_Archæologia_, XXX, 132) and in
+the sword discovered at Bifrons (_Archæologia Cantiana_, X, 312) one of the
+rings no longer forms a complete circle, and in the sword discovered at
+Sarre (_Archæol. Cant._ VI, 172) the rings are fixed together, and one of
+them has little resemblance to a ring at all.
+
+[734] At Concevreux. It is described by M. Jules Pilloy in _Mémoires de la
+Société Académique de St Quentin_, 4^e Sér. tom. XVI, 1913; see esp. pp.
+36-7.
+
+[735] See Lindenschmit, "Germanisches Schwert mit ungewöhnlicher Bildung
+des Knaufes," in _Die Altertümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit_, V Bd., V
+Heft, Taf. 30, p. 165, Mainz, 1905.
+
+[736] Salin has no doubt that the Swedish type from Uppland (his figure
+252) is later than even the latest type of English ring-sword (the Sarre
+pommel, 251) which is itself later than the Faversham (249) or Bifrons
+(250) pommel. See Salin (B.), _Die Altgermanische Thierornamentik_,
+Stockholm, 1904, p. 101. The same conclusion is arrived at by Lindenschmit:
+"Die ursprüngliche Form ist wohl in dem, unter Nr. 249 von Salin
+abgebildeten Schwertknopf aus Kent zu sehen"; and even more emphatically by
+Pilloy, who pronounces the Swedish Vendel sword both on account of its
+"ring" and other characteristics, as "inspirée par un modèle venu de cette
+contrée [Angleterre]."
+
+[737] The Benty Grange helmet; see below, p. 358.
+
+[738] Depicted by Clark Hall, Stjerna's _Essays_, p. 258.
+
+[739] Clark Hall's _Beowulf_, p. 227.
+
+[740] "Von Skandinavien gibt es aus der Völkerwanderungszeit und
+Wikingerepoche keine archäologischen Anhaltspunkte für das Tragen des
+Panzers, weder aus Funden noch aus Darstellungen," Max Ebert in Hoops'
+_Reallexikon_, III, 395 (1915-16). But surely this is too sweeping.
+Fragments of an iron byrnie, made of small rings fastened together, were
+found in the Vendel grave 12 (seventh century). See _Graffältet vid Vendel,
+beskrifvet af_ H. Stolpe och T. J. Arne, pp. 49, 60, plates xl, xli, xlii.
+
+[741] 54-I. Liebermann, p. 114.
+
+[742] _Essays_, 34-5.
+
+[743] _Elene_, 264.
+
+[744] Engelhardt, _Denmark in the Early Iron Age_, p. 66.
+
+[745] _Andreas_, 303.
+
+[746] l. 2869.
+
+[747] "Few have corslets and only one here and there a helmet" (_Germania_,
+6). In the _Annals_ (II, 14) Tacitus makes Germanicus roundly deny the use
+of either by the Germans: _non loricam Germano, non galeam_.
+
+[748] See above, p. 124.
+
+[749] See Chifflet, J. J., _Anastasis Childerici I ... sive thesaurus
+sepulchralis_, Antverpiæ, _Plantin_, 1655.
+
+[750] That _both_ sword and scramasax were buried with Childeric is shown
+by Lindenschmit, _Handbuch_, I, 236-9: see also pp. 68 _etc._
+
+[751] l. 2762-3.
+
+[752] Worsaae, _Nordiske Oldsager_, Kjøbenhavn, 1859; see No. 499; Roach
+Smith, _Collectanea Antiqua_, 1852, II, 164; Montelius, _Antiq. Suéd._
+1873, No. 294 (p. 184).
+
+[753] _Essays_, p. 198. See also above, p. 124. Mr Reginald Smith writes to
+me: "Unburnt objects with cremated burials in prehistoric times (Bronze,
+Early and late Iron Ages) are the exception, and are probably accidental
+survivals from the funeral pyre. In such an interpretation of _Beowulf_ I
+agree with the late Knut Stjerna, who was an archæologist of much
+experience."
+
+[754] Forming vols. 3 and 4 of _The Arts in Early England_, 1903-15.
+
+[755] It was, however, necessary to leave over for a supplementary volume
+some of the contributions most interesting from the point of view of the
+archæology of _Beowulf_: e.g. spatha, speer, schild.
+
+[756] B. E. Hildebrand, _Grafhögarne vid Gamla Upsala, Kongl. Vitterhets
+Historie och Antiqvitets Akademiens Månadsblad_, 1875-7, pp. 250-60.
+
+[757] _Fasta fornlämningar i Beovulf_, in _Antiqvarisk Tidskrift för
+Sverige_, XVIII, 48-64.
+
+[758] _Heimskringla: Ynglingasaga_, cap. 25, 26, 29.
+
+[759] See B. Nerman, _Vilka konungar ligga i Uppsala högar?_ Uppsala, 1913,
+and the same scholar's _Ynglingasagan i arkeologisk belysning_, in
+_Fornvännen_, 1917, 226-61.
+
+[760] _Heimskringla: Ynglingasaga_, cap. 27.
+
+[761] A discovery made by Otto v. Friesen in 1910: see S. Lindqvist in
+_Fornvännen_, 1917, 129. Two years earlier (1675) "Utters högen i Wändell"
+is mentioned in connection with an investigation into witchcraft. See
+Linderholm, _Vendelshögens konunganamn_, in _Namn och Bygd_, VII, 1919, 36,
+40.
+
+[762] For a preliminary account of the discovery, see _Ottarshögen i
+Vendel_, by S. Lindqvist in _Fornvännen_, 1917, 127-43, and for discussion
+of the whole subject, B. Nerman, _Ottar Vendelkråka och Ottarshögen i
+Vendel_, in _Upplands Fornminnesförenings Tidskrift_, VII, 309-34.
+
+[763] Baldwin Brown, III, 216.
+
+[764] 213.
+
+[765] 218.
+
+[766] So Baldwin Brown, III, 213; Lorange, _Den Yngre Jernalders Sværd_,
+Bergen, 1889, passim.
+
+[767] Baldwin Brown, III, 215.
+
+[768] It is somewhat similar in Norse literature, where swords are
+constantly indicated as either inherited from of old, or coming from
+abroad: cf. Falk, 38-41.
+
+[769] _Beowulf_, 1489, _w[=æ]gsweord_; cf. _Vægir_ as a sword-name in the
+_Thulur_. In ll. 1521, 1564, 2037, _hringm[=æ]l_ may refer to the ring in
+the hilt, and terms like _wunden_- are more likely to refer to the
+serpentine ornament of the hilt. This must be the case with _wyrm-f[=a]h_
+(1698) as it is a question of the hilt alone. Stjerna (p. 111 = _Essays_,
+20) and others take _[=a]ter-t[=a]num f[=a]h_ (1459) as referring to the
+damascened pattern (cf. _eggjar ... eitrdropom innan fáþar; Brot af
+Sigurðarkviðu_). It is suggested however by Falk (p. 17) that _t[=a]n_ here
+refers to an edge welded-on: the Icelandic _egg-teinn_.
+
+[770] The only certainly Anglo-Saxon helmet as yet discovered: traces of
+what may have been a similar head-piece were found near Cheltenham: Roach
+Smith, _Collectanea Antiqua_, II, 1852, 238.
+
+[771] _Coll. Ant._ II, 1852, 239; Bateman, _Ten Years' Diggings_, 30;
+_Catalogue of the Antiquities preserved in the Museum of Thomas Bateman_,
+Bakewell, 1855.
+
+[772] A very good description of these continental "Spangenhelme" is given
+in the magnificent work of I. W. Gröbbels, _Der Reihengräberfund von
+Gammertingen_, München, 1905. These helms had long been known from a
+specimen (place of origin uncertain) in the Hermitage at Petrograd, and
+another example, that of Vézeronce, supposed to have been lost in the
+battle between Franks and Burgundians in 524. Seven other examples have
+been discovered in the last quarter of a century, including those of
+Baldenheim (for which see Henning (R.), _Der helm von Baldenheim und die
+verwandten helme des frühen mittelalters_, Strassburg, 1907, cf. Kauffmann,
+_Z.f.d.Ph._ XL, 464-7) and Gammertingen. They are not purely Germanic, and
+may have been made in Gaul, or among the Ostrogoths in Ravenna, or further
+east.
+
+[773] Stjerna, _Essays_, p. 11 = _Studier tillägnade Oscar Montelius af
+Lärjungar_, 1903, p. 104: Clark Hall, _Beowulf_, 1911, p. 228.
+
+[774] See also _Graffältet vid Vendel, beskrifvet af_ H. Stolpe och T. J.
+Arne, Stockholm, 1912, pp. 13, 54; Pl. v, xli.
+
+[775] ll. 396, 2049, 2257, 2605; cf. _gr[=i]mhelm_, 334.
+
+[776] 2811, 304, 1111 (cf. Falk, 156).
+
+[777] 1453-4 (cf. Falk, 157-9).
+
+[778] _securum etiam inter hostes praestat._ _Germ._ cap. 45.
+
+[779] 1031 (cf. Falk, 158).
+
+[780] 1630, 2723. Cf. _Exodus_, 174, _gr[=i]mhelm gesp[=e]on cyning
+cinberge_, and _Genesis_, 444. (See Falk, 166.)
+
+[781] Cf. ll. 1503, 1548, 2260, 2754.
+
+[782] Cf. ll. 322, 551, 1443.
+
+[783] Bateman, _Ten Years' Diggings_, 1861, p. 32.
+
+[784] Cf. _Beowulf_, 330, 1772, 2042.
+
+[785] "ne scuta quidem ferro neruoue firmata, sed ... tenuis et fucatas
+colore tabulas," _Annals_, II, 14; cf. _Germania_, 6, "scuta tantum
+lectissimis coloribus distinguunt."
+
+[786] _Njáls Saga_, cap. XXX.
+
+[787] It is the guess of A. Haupt, _Die Älteste Kunst der Germanen_, p.
+213.
+
+[788] ll. 773-5, 998.
+
+[789] _Hist. Eccl._ II, 13. The life of man is compared to the transit of a
+sparrow flying from door to door of the hall where the king sits feasting
+with his thanes and warriors, with a fire in the midst.
+
+[790] ll. 617-24, 2011-3.
+
+[791] 995.
+
+[792] 725.
+
+[793] 1035 _etc._
+
+[794] _Proc. Soc. Ant., Sec. Ser._ II, 177-82.
+
+[795] Jonckheere (É.), _L'origine de la Côte de Flandre et le Bateau de
+Bruges_, Bruges, 1903.
+
+[796] Engelhardt (H. C. C.), _Nydam Mosefund_, Kjöbenhavn, 1865.
+
+[797] Nicolaysen (N.), _Langskibet fra Gokstad_, Kristiania, 1882.
+
+[798] _Osebergfundet. Udgit av den Norske Stat, under redaktion av_ A. W.
+Brøgger, Hj. Falk, H. Schetelig. Bd. I, Kristiania, 1917.
+
+[799] _Beowulf_, ll. 32, 1131, 1897.
+
+[800] 1862.
+
+[801] 220.
+
+[802] Noreen, _Altschwedische Grammatik_, 1904, p. 499.
+
+[803] All these places are in Gotland. The Stenkyrka stone is reproduced in
+Stjerna's _Essays_, transl. Clark Hall, fig. 24.
+
+[804] The same, fig. 27.
+
+[805] Reproduced in Montelius, _Sveriges Historia_, p. 283.
+
+[806] _Deutsche Mythologie_, 3te Ausgabe, 1854, pp. 342, 639.
+
+[807] _Academy_, XI, 1877, p. 163.
+
+[808] _Engl. Stud._ II, 314.
+
+[809] _Beowulf_, p. 177.
+
+[810] _Aanteekeningen op den Beowulf_, 1892, p. 42.
+
+[811] _P.B.B._ XVIII, 413.
+
+[812] _Z.f.ö.G._ LVI, 759.
+
+[813] _Beowulf_, p. 392.
+
+[814] _Engl. Stud._ LII, 191. Among the many who have accepted the
+explanation "bee-wolf," without giving additional reasons, may be mentioned
+R. Müller, _Untersuchungen über die Namen des Liber Vitae_, 1901, p. 94.
+
+[815] Both Grimm and Skeat suggested the woodpecker, which feeds upon bees
+and their larvae: Grimm appealing to classical mythology, Skeat instancing
+the bird's courage. But nothing seems forthcoming from Teutonic mythology
+to favour this interpretation. Cosijn, following Sijmons, _Z.f.d.Ph._ XXIV,
+17, thought bees might have been an omen of victory. But there is no
+satisfactory evidence for this. The term _sigew[=i]f_ applied to the
+swarming bees in the _Charms_ (Cockayne's _Leechdoms_, I, 384) is
+insufficient.
+
+[816] _Tidskr. f. Philol. og Pædag._ VIII, 289.
+
+[817] _Deutsches Wörterbuch_, 1854, I, 1122.
+
+[818] "Das compositum Beóvulf, wie Gôzolf, Irminolf, Reginolf, und andre
+gebildet, zeigt nur einen helden und krieger im geist und sinn oder von der
+art des Beówa an. Ihm entspricht altn. Biôlfr." (Müllenhoff, in _Z.f.d.A._
+XII, 284.) But certainly this interpretation is impossible for O.N.
+_Biólfr_: "warrior of Beowa" would be _*Byggulfr_, which we nowhere find.
+See Björkman in _Engl. Stud._ LII, 191. Müllenhoff at this date, whilst not
+connecting _B[=e]owulf_ directly with _b[=e]o_, "bee," did so connect
+_B[=e]owa_, whom he interpreted as a bee-god or bee-father. But there is no
+evidence for this, and the _w_ of _B[=e]owa_ tells emphatically against it.
+Müllenhoff subsequently abandoned this explanation.
+
+[819] It is actually written _Biu^uulf_.
+
+[820] _Biu_ in _Biuuulf_ cannot stand for _B[=e]o_ [older _Beu_] because in
+Old Northumbrian _iu_ and _eo_ are rigidly differentiated, as an
+examination of all the other names in the _Liber Vitae_ shows. As Sievers
+points out, if _Biuuulf_ is to be derived from _*Beuw (w)ulf_, then it
+would afford an isolated and inexplicable case of _iu_ for _eo[eu]_, unique
+in the _Liber Vitae_, as in the whole mass of the oldest English texts:
+"Soll ein zusammenhang mit st. _beuwa-_ stattfinden, so muss man auch
+diesen stamm für einen urspr. s-stamm erklären, und unser _biu-_ auf die
+stammform _biuwi(z)-_ nicht auf _beuwa(z)-_ zurückführen." (Sievers,
+_P.B.B._ XVIII, 413.) The word however is a neut. _wa_-stem, whether in
+O.E. (_b[=e]ow_), Old Saxon (_b[=e]o_) or Icelandic (_bygg_): see Sievers,
+_Ags. Grammatik_, 3te Aufl. § 250; Gallée, _Altsächsische Grammatik_, 2te
+Aufl. § 305; Noreen, _Altisländische Grammatik_, 3te Aufl. § 356. The word
+is extant in Old English only in the Glossaries, in the gen. sing.,
+"handful beouaes," _etc._, and in Old Saxon only in the gen. plu. _beuuo_.
+It is thought to have been originally a _wu_-stem, which subsequently, as
+e.g. in O.E., passed into a _wa_-stem. (See Noreen, _A.f.n.F._ I, 166,
+arguing from the form _begg_ in the Dalecarlian dialect.) The presumed
+Primitive Norse form is _beggwu_, whence the various Scandinavian forms,
+Icel. _bygg_, Old Swedish and Old Danish _biug(g)_. See Hellquist in
+_A.f.n.F._ VII, 31; von Unwerth, _A.f.n.F._ XXXIII, 331; Binz, _P.B.B._ XX,
+153; von Helten, _P.B.B._ XXX, 245; Kock, _Umlaut u. Brechung im Aschw._ p.
+314, in _Lunds Universitets årsskrift_, Bd. XII. The proper name _Byggvir_
+is a _ja_-stem, but _B[=e]ow_ cannot have been so formed, as a _ja_-stem
+would give the form _B[=e]owe_. Cosijn (_Aanteekeningen_, 42) was
+accordingly justified in pointing to the form _Biuuulf_ as refuting Kögel's
+attempt to connect _B[=e]owulf_ with _B[=e]ow_ through a form _*Bawiwulf_
+(_A.f.d.A._ XVIII, 56). Kögel replied with a laboured defence (_Z.f.d.A._
+XXXVII, 268): he starts by assuming that _B[=e]ow_ and _B[=e]owulf_ are
+etymologically connected, which is the very point which has to be proved:
+he has to admit that, if his etymology be correct, the _Biuuulf_ of the
+_Liber Vitae_ is not the same form as _B[=e]owulf_, which is the very point
+Cosijn urged as telling against his etymology: and even so his etymological
+explanations depend upon stages which cannot be accepted in the present
+state of our knowledge (see especially Sievers in _P.B.B._ XVIII, 413;
+Björkman in _Engl. Stud._ LII, 150).
+
+[821] _Tidskr. f. Philol og Pædag._ VIII, 289.
+
+[822] First pointed out by Grundtvig in Barfod's _Brage og Idun_, IV, 1841,
+p. 500, footnote.
+
+[823] "Lodmundr hinn gamli het madr enn annarr. Biólfr fostbrodir hans.
+Þeir foru til Islands af Vors af Þvlvnesi" (Voss in Norway). See
+_Landnámabók_, København, 1900, p. 92.
+
+[824] Noreen, _Altisländische Grammatik_, 3te Aufl. p. 97. See also Noreen
+in _Festskrift til H. F. Feilberg_, 1911, p. 283. Noreen seems to have no
+doubt as to the explanation of _Bjólfr_ as _Bý-olfr_, "Bee-wolf."
+
+[825] Bugge, has, however, been followed by Gering, _Beowulf_, 1906, p.
+100.
+
+[826] Ferguson in the _Athenæum_, June 1892, p. 763: "Beadowulf by a common
+form of elision (!) would become Beowulf." Sarrazin admits "Freilich ist
+das eine ungewöhnliche verkürzung" (_Engl. Stud._ XLII, 19). See also
+Sarrazin in _Anglia_, V, 200; _Beowulf-Studien_, 33, 77; _Engl. Stud._ XVI,
+79.
+
+[827] This incompatibility comes out very strongly in ll. 2499-2506, where
+Beowulf praises his sword particularly for the services it has _not_ been
+able to render him.
+
+[828] See above, pp. 60-1.
+
+[829] Olrik, _Heltedigtning_, I, 140: F. Jónsson, _Hrólfs Saga Kraka_,
+1904, _Inledning_, XX.
+
+[830] _Hrólfs Saga Kraka_, cap. 17-20.
+
+[831] The trait is wanting in the _Grettis saga_: Grettir son of Asmund was
+too historical a character for such features to be attributed to him.
+
+[832] See pp. 62-7.
+
+[833] No. 166. Translated as "Strong Hans." (_Grimm's Household Tales,
+trans. by M. Hunt, with introduction by A. Lang_, 1884.)
+
+[834] As, for example, by Cosquin, _Contes populaires de Lorraine_, I, 7. A
+comparison of the different versions in which the "strange theme" is toned
+down, in a greater or less degree, seems to make this certain.
+
+[835] No. 91.
+
+[836] Edinburgh, 1860, vol. I, No. XVI, "The king of Lochlin's three
+daughters": vol. III, No. LVIII, "The rider of Grianaig."
+
+[837] London, 1866: p. 43, "The Three Crowns."
+
+[838] Notably by von Sydow.
+
+[839] Asbjørnsen og Moe, _Norske Folkeeventyr_, Christiania, 1852, No. 3.
+
+[840] _Popular Tales from the Norse_ (third edit., Edinburgh, 1888, p.
+382).
+
+[841] Visentini, _Fiabe Mantovane_, 1879, No. 32, 157-161.
+
+[842] "fino a che col capo tocca le travi." Cf. Glam in the _Grettis Saga_.
+
+[843] "e qui vede il gigante seduto, che detteva il suo testamento."
+
+[844] p. 153. This is Panzer's version 97.
+
+[845] "A fabulous creature, but zoologically the name Norka (from _nora_, a
+hole) belongs to the otter," Ralston, _Russian Folk Tales_, p. 73.
+
+[846] Afanasief (A. N.), _Narodnuiya Russkiya Skazki_, Moscow, 1860-63, I,
+6. See Ralston, p. 73.
+
+[847] Afanasief, VIII, No. 6.
+
+[848] For example, "Shepherd Paul," in _The Folk-Tales of the Magyars_, by
+W. H. Jones and L. L. Knopf, _Folk-Lore Society_, 1889, p. 244. The latest
+collection contains its version, 'The Story of T[=a]ling, the Half-boy' in
+_Persian Tales, written down for the first time and translated_ by D. L. R.
+and E. O. Lorimer, London, 1919.
+
+[849] Cf. von Sydow in _A.f.d.A._ XXXV, 126.
+
+[850] Ión Arnason's MSS, No. 536, 4^o.
+
+[851] Rittershaus (A.), _Die Neuisländischen Volksmärchen_, Halle, 1902,
+No. 25.
+
+[852] _Færøske Folkesagn og Æventyr_, ed. by Jakob Jakobsen, 1898-1901, pp.
+241-4 (_Samfund til Udgivelse af gammel Nordisk Litteratur._)
+
+[853] This folk-tale is given in a small book, to be found in the
+Christiania University Library, and no doubt elsewhere in Norway: _Nor, en
+Billedbog for den norske Ungdom_ (Tredie Oplag, Christiania, 1865). _Norske
+Folke-Eventyr og Sagn_, fortalte af P. Chr. Asbjørnsen. A copy of the
+story, slightly altered, occurs in the _Udvalgte Eventyr og Sagn for Børn_,
+of Knutsen, Bentsen and Johnsson, Christiania, 1877, p. 58 _etc._
+
+[854] pp. 66-7.
+
+[855] Berntsen (K.), _Folke-Æventyr_, 1873, No. 12, pp. 109-115.
+
+[856] Grundtvig (Sv.), _Gamle Danske Minder_, 1854, No. 34, p. 33: from
+Næstved.
+
+[857] _Hans mit de ysern Stang'_, Müllenhoff, _Sagen, Märchen u. Lieder_
+... 1845, No. XVI, p. 437.
+
+[858] Colshorn (C. and Th.), _Märchen u. Sagen_, Hannover, 1854, No. V, pp.
+18-30.
+
+[859] Cf. _Beowulf_, ll. 2183-8.
+
+[860] Cf. _Beowulf_, ll. 815 _etc._
+
+[861] Cf. _Beowulf_, ll. 1516-17; cf. _Grettis Saga_, LXVI.
+
+[862] Cf. _Grettis Saga_, LXVI, _hann kveikti ljós_; cf. _Beowulf_, 1570.
+
+[863] _Contes du roi Cambrinus_, par C. Deulin, Paris, 1874 (I.
+_L'intrépide Gayant_). The story is associated with Gayant, the traditional
+hero of Douai.
+
+[864] Cf. Schmidt, _Geschichte der deutschen Stämme_, II, 495, 499, _note_
+4.
+
+[865] III, 1.
+
+[866] II, 43.
+
+[867] [Greek: Pais ... neos ên komidêi, kai eti hupo paidokomôi
+tithênoumenos], Agathias, I, 4: _parvulus_, Gregory, IV, 6.
+
+[868] Gregory, III, 20.
+
+[869] III, 22.
+
+[870] III, 23.
+
+[871] III, 27.
+
+[872] Many recent historians have expressed doubts as to the conventional
+date, 515, for Hygelac's death. J. P. Jacobsen, in the Danish translation
+of Gregory (1911) suggested 525-30: following him Severinsen (_Danske
+Studier_, 1919, 96) suggested c. 526, as did Fredborg, _Det första årtalet
+i Sveriges historia_. L. Schmidt (_Geschichte der deutschen Stämme_, II,
+500, _note_, 1918) suggested c. 528.
+
+[873] Archæological works bearing less directly upon _Beowulf_ are
+enumerated in _Appendix F_; that enumeration is not repeated here.
+
+[874] Most students nowadays will probably agree with v. Sydow's contention
+that the struggle of Beowulf, first above ground and then below, is a
+folk-story, one and indivisible, and that therefore there is no reason for
+attributing the two sections to different authors, as do Boer, Müllenhoff
+and ten Brink. But that the folk-tale is exclusively Celtic remains to be
+proved; v. Sydow's contention that Celtic influence is shown in _Beowulf_
+by the inhospitable shamelessness of Unferth (compare that of Kai) is
+surely fanciful. Also the statement that the likeness of Bjarki and Beowulf
+is confined to the freeing of the Danish palace from a dangerous monster by
+a stranger from abroad, and that "das sonstige Beiwerk völlig verschieden
+ist" surely cannot be maintained. As argued above (pp. 54-61) there are
+other distinct points of resemblance.
+
+v. Sydow's statement no doubt suffers from the brevity with which it is
+reported, and his forthcoming volume of _Beowulf studien_ will be awaited
+with interest.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+[Illustration: SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA IN THE SIXTH CENTURY]
+
+[Illustration: ENGLISH BOAR-HELMET AND RING-SWORDS
+
+I. Benty Grange Helmet (Roach Smith, _Collectanea Antiqua_, II, 238).
+
+II. Pommel of Ring-Sword from Faversham, Kent (_Ibid._, VI, 139).
+
+III. Pommel of Ring-Sword from Gilton, Kent (_Archæologia_, XXX, 132). ]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Beowulf, by R. W. Chambers
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