and the various passages in which Heyne fails to indicate whether a given verb is weak or strong, or fails to point out the number, etc., of the illustrative form, have been corrected and made to harmonize with the general plan of the work. Numerous misprints in the glossary have also been corrected, and a brief glossary to the Finnsburh-fragment, prepared by Dr. Wm. Hand Browne, and supplemented and adapted by the editor-in-chief, has been added.
The editors think that they may without immodesty put forth for themselves something more than the claim of being re-translators of a translation: the present edition is, so far as they were able to make it so, an adaptation, correction, and extension of the work of the great German scholar to whose loving appreciation of the Anglo-Saxon epic all students of Old English owe a debt of gratitude. While following his usually sure and cautious guidance, and in the main appropriating his results, they have thought it best to deviate from him in the manner above indicated, whenever it seemed that he was wrong. The careful reader will notice at once the marks of interrogation which point out these deviations, or which introduce a point of view illustrative of, or supplementary to, the one given by the German editor. No doubt the editors are wrong themselves in many places, — “Beówulf” is a most difficult poem, — but their view may at least be defended by a reference to the original text, which they have faithfully and constantly consulted.
A good many cognate Modern English words have been introduced here and there in the Glossary with a view to illustration, and other addenda will be found between brackets and parenthetical marks.
It is hoped that the present edition of the most famous of Old English poems will do something to promote a valuable and interesting study.
James A. Harrison,
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.
Robert Sharp,
University of Louisiana, New Orleans.
April, 1883.
The responsibility of the editors is as follows: H. is responsible for
the Text, and for the Glossary from hrînan on; S. for the list of
Names, and for the Glossary as far as hrînan.
