XXVII.
Cwōm þā tō flōde fela mōdigra
hæg-stealdra;[1] hring-net bǣron,
1890locene leoðo-syrcan. Land-weard onfand
eft-sīð eorla, swā hē ǣr dyde;
nō hē mid hearme of hliðes nosan
*gæs[tas][2] grētte, ac him tōgēanes rād,Fol. 171b.
cwæð þæt wilcuman Wedera lēodum
1895scaþan[3] scīr-hame tō scipe fōron.
Þā wæs on sande sǣ-gēap naca
hladen here-wǣdum, hringed-stefna
mēarum ond māðmum; mæst hlīfade
ofer Hrōðgāres hord-gestrēonum.
1900Hē þǣm bāt-wearde bunden golde
swurd gesealde, þæt hē syðþan wæs
on meodu-bence māþme þȳ weorþra,[4]
yrfe-lāfe. Gewāt him on nacan[5]
drēfan dēop wæter, Dena land ofgeaf.
- ↑ 1888—9. Wülcker and Heyne ‘fela-mōdigra/hæg-stealdra [hēap]’; cf. l. 1637.
- ↑ 1893. MS. defective at corner. A ‘gæs’ (followed by a blank space); Grundtvig ‘gæs[tas].’
- ↑ 1895. MS. defective at edge. A ‘scawan’ (so Heyne); B ‘scaþan' (so Zupitza and Wülcker). The first syllable sca- is still perfectly distinct; but the second syllable is missing at the beginning of the next line. The word scawa is not found elsewhere; scaþan occurs with the same meaning as here in l. 1803.
- ↑ 1902. MS. ‘maþma þy weorþre,’ which Thorpe emended.
- ↑ 1903. Grein ‘[ȳð-]nacan,’ for the alliteration. Sievers is contented to let on alliterate.
what follows is “the gist of their talk as they went.” I take it to be a reflection of the scop. How could the Geats say: “until old age deprived him, &c.”?
