ǣr swylt-dæge swylc gestrȳnan.
Nū ic on māðma hord mīne[1] bebohte
2800frōde feorh-lege, fremmað gēna[2]
lēoda þearfe; ne mæg ic hēr leng wesan.
Hātað heaðo-mǣre hlǣw gewyrcean
beorhtne æfber bǣle æt brimes nosan;
sē scel tō gemyndum mīnum lēodum
2805hēah hlīfian on Hrones næsse,
þæt hit sǣ-līðend syððan hātan
Bīowulfes biorh, ðā ðe brentingas
ofer *flōda genipu feorran drīfað.”Fol. 191a..
Dyde him of healse hring gyldenne
2810þīoden þrīst-hȳdig; þegne gesealde,
geongum gār-wigan, gold-fāhne helm,
bēah ond byrnan, hēt hyne brūcan well.
“Þū eart ende-lāf usses cynnes,
Wǣgmundinga; ealle wyrd forswēop[3]
2815mīne māgas tō metod-sceafte,
eorlas on elne; ic him æfter sceal.”
Þæt wæs þām gomelan gingæste word
brēost-gehygdum, ǣr hē bǣl cure,
hāte heaðo-wylmas; him of hreðre[4] gewāt
2820sāwol sēcean sōð-fæstra dōm.[5]}}
- ↑ 2799. MS. ‘minne,’
- ↑ 2800. Thorpe ‘gē nū’; so Grein and Heyne. Why?
- ↑ 2814. MS. ‘for/speof.’ Kemble ‘forswēof’ (so Grein and Heyne). But when the MS. reading is certainly wrong, it is surely better, by a change of two letters, to obtain the pret. of a verb already used in this poem (l. 477), and found in the past part, in “Genesis” 391, than, by a change of one letter only, to set up a verb, of whose existence there is no other evidence.
- ↑ 2819. MS. ‘hwæðre.’ Kemble’s emendation.
- ↑ 2820. No number in the MS. after this hne, but there is a space, and l. 2821 begins with a large capital.
