wǣron æþelingas eft tō lōodum
1805fūse tō farenne;[1] wolde feor þanon
cuma collen-ferhð cēoles nēosan.
Heht þā se hearda Hrunting beran
sunu Ecglāfes, heht his sweord niman,
lēoflīc īren; sægde him þæs lǣnes[2] þanc,
1810cwæð, hē þone gūð-wine gōdne tealde,
wīg-cræftigne; nales wordiim lōg
mēces ecge. Þæt wæs mōdig secg.
Ond þā sīð-frome, searwum gearwe,
wīgend wǣron, ēode weorð Denum
1815æþeling tō yppan, þǣr se ōþer wæs,
hæle[3] hilde-dēor Hrōðgār grētte.
XXVI.
Bēowulf maþelode, bearn Ecgþēowes:
“Nū wē sǣ-līðend secgan wyllað
feorran-cumene, þæt wē fundiaþ
1820Higelāc sēcan; wǣron hēr tela
willum bewenede; þū ūs wel dohtest.
- ↑ 1805. MS, ‘farene ne.’ [In reality, far is now gone; but there is no doubt, from Thorkelin’s transcript, what the MS. reading was. In all such cases, in order to avoid needless detail, I give the indubitable reading as that of the extant MS.]
- ↑ 1809. MS. ‘leanes’; Mūllenhoff ‘lǣnes.’ It is possible that the passage means that Unferth gave his sword to Beowulf. Grein takes this view, for he glosses sunu (1808) as nom.; and so apparently do Heyne and Socin (though they gloss sunu as accus.!). But se hearda applies to Beowulf much better than to Unferth; cf. ll. 401, 1963.
- ↑ 1816. MS. ‘helle.’
pose two lacunae instead of one. To avoid this, I have interchanged sunne and scacan in Heyne’s reading; of the consequent separation of adj. and noun there are frequent examples in the poem (cf. l. 255).
