hēt [h]ine[1] mid þǣm lācum lēode swǣse
sēcean on gesyntum, snūde eft cuman.
1870Gecyste þā cyning æþelum gōd,
þēoden Scyldinga, ðegn betstan,
ond be healse genam; hruron him tēaras
blonden-feaxum. Him wæs bēga wēn,
ealdum, in-*frōdum, ōþres swīðor,Fol. 171a.
1875þæt h[ī]e[2] seoððan gesēon mōston,
mōdige on meþle. Wæs him se man tō þon lēof,
þæt hē þone brēost-wylm forberan ne mehte,
ac him on hreþre hyge-bendum fæst
æfter dēorum men dyrne langað
1880bearn[3] wið blōde. Him Bēowulf þanan,
gūð-rinc gold-wlanc, græs-moldan træd
since hrēmig; sǣ-genga bād
āge[n]d-frēan,[4] sē þe on ancre rād.
Þā wæs on gange gifu Hrōðgāres
1885oft geæhted.[5] Þæt wæs ān cyning
ǣghwses orleahtre, oþ þæt hine yldo benam
mægenes wynnum, sē þe oft manegum scōd.
- ↑ 1868. MS. ‘inne.’
- ↑ 1875. MS. ‘he.’
- ↑ 1879–80. MS. ‘beorn’; Grein ‘bearn.’ Heyne takes dyrne langað beorn to mean “the hero secretly longeth” (he makes beorn nom., whereas langian is an impers. verb and takes an accus. of the person). Thorpe and Grein render: “a secret longing burnt.” Neither rendering is free from objection. Beorn is an unexampled form of the pret. of beornan (Sievers § 386, N. 2). But on the other hand, I can find no example of dyrne used as an adv.; fæst agrees with langað much better than with beorn, even if the latter could be nom.; the rare occurrence of a pres. tense amid a succession of preterites: these considerations seem decisive against Heyne’s interpretation.
- ↑ 1883. MS. ‘agedfrean.’
- ↑ 1885. A colon is usually placed after geæhted, and Earle remarks that
