BEOWULF.
43
swīð-hicgende,on sele þām hēan,
Hrōðgār ond Hrōþulf.Heorot innan wæs
frēondum āfylled;nalles fācen-stafas
Þēod-Scyldingasþenden fremedon.
1020Forgeaf þā Bēowulfebearn[1] Healfdenes
segen gyldennesigores tō lēane,
hroden hilte-cumbor,helm ond byrnan;
mǣre māðþum-sweordmanige gesāwon
beforan beorn beran.Bēowulf geþah
1025ful on flette.Nō hē þǣre feoh-gyfte
for scotenum[2]scamigan ðorfte;
ne gefrægn ic frēondlīcorfēower mādmas
golde gegyredegum-manna fela
in ealo-benceōðrum gesellan.
1030Ymb þæs helmes hrōfhēafod-beorge
wīrum bewundenwala utan heold,[3]
þæt him fēla *lāfe[4]frēcne ne meahtonFol. 152b.
- ↑ 1020. MS. ‘brand.’
- ↑ 1026. MS. ‘scotenum’; Grein 2 ‘scoterum’; Wülcker ‘scēotendum,’ for which cf. ll. 703, 1154. Heyne quotes oxenum, nefenum, as examples of similar weak dat. pls.
- ↑ 1030—1. The MS. has ‘heafod beorge wirum be wunden walan utan heold.’ Ettmüller ‘wala,’ adopted by Grein. If we leave the MS. reading unaltered, there is a choice of difficulties. Either we must take walan as subject and hēafod-beorge as object, with a striking violation of grammatical concord in the verb hēold; or we must (with Heyne and Socin) take hēafod-beorge as a weak fem. noun in the nom. and walan as object, with considerable loss to the sense. The nom. pl. scūr-beorge (“Ruin” 5) also tells against the latter view, which has no support from analogy.
- ↑ 1032. Thorkelin ‘laf’ (now gone in the MS.). On account of this reading, Bugge (“Beiträge” xii. 92) supports Thorpe’s emendation meahte, confirming it by the form scūr-heard in the next line, and by a reference to Sievers: “der erste halbvers ist nach den untersuchungen
where everyone was doubtless related to everyone else, as in a Scotch clan?
