Page:Beowulf (Wyatt).djvu/66

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42

BEOWULF.

heorras tōhlidene;⁠hrōf āna genæs
1000ealles ansund,⁠þā^[1] se āglǣca
fyren-dǣdum fāg⁠on flēam gewand,
aldres orwēna.⁠Nō þæt ȳðe byð
tō beflēonne,⁠fremme sē þe wille;
ac gesacan sceal⁠sāwl-berendra,
1005nȳde genȳdde,⁠niþða bearna,^[2]
grund-būendra,⁠gearwe stōwe,
þǣr his līc-homa⁠leger-bedde fæst
swefeþ æfter symle.⁠Þā wæs sǣl ond mǣl,
þæt tō healle *gang⁠Healfdenes sunu;Fol. 152a.
1010wolde self cyning⁠symbel þicgan.
Ne gefrægen ic þā mǣgþe⁠māran weorode
ymb hyra sinc-gyfan⁠sēl gebǣran.
Bugon þā tō bence⁠blǣd-āgende,^[3]
fylle gefǣgon;⁠fægere geþǣgon
1015medo-ful manig⁠māgas þāra,^[4]

↑ 1000. MS. ‘þe’
↑ 1002—5. These lines, as given in Holder’s edition, show the principal emendations that have been suggested:

⁠Nō þæt ȳðe byð
tō beflēonne⁠(fremme sē þe wille!),
ac gesēcan sceal⁠sāwl-berendra [gehwā],
nȳde genȳded⁠niþða bearna.
↑ 1013. Thorkelin A ‘blæd agande,’ B ‘blædagande.’ The MS. now has only blæd left, and de on the next line.
↑ 1014—5. Bugge proposed to put these two lines in parentheses, because of “the difficulty of finding an antecedent for þāra.” Heyne (5th edition) and Earle adopt the suggestion. This can only be on the principle—of two difficulties choose the greater. What a master of the parenthesis-style the “scop” must have been, to keep his hearers waiting for the subject of bugon, past two other finite verbs with a different subject, until four lines lower down! And what is to hinder the antecedent of þāra being implied in blǣd-āgende, in speaking of a court

[1] 1000. MS. ‘þe’

[2] 1002—5. These lines, as given in Holder’s edition, show the principal emendations that have been suggested:

⁠Nō þæt ȳðe byð
tō beflēonne⁠(fremme sē þe wille!),
ac gesēcan sceal⁠sāwl-berendra [gehwā],
nȳde genȳded⁠niþða bearna.

[3] 1013. Thorkelin A ‘blæd agande,’ B ‘blædagande.’ The MS. now has only blæd left, and de on the next line.

[l1014-4] 1014—5. Bugge proposed to put these two lines in parentheses, because of “the difficulty of finding an antecedent for þāra.” Heyne (5th edition) and Earle adopt the suggestion. This can only be on the principle—of two difficulties choose the greater. What a master of the parenthesis-style the “scop” must have been, to keep his hearers waiting for the subject of bugon, past two other finite verbs with a different subject, until four lines lower down! And what is to hinder the antecedent of þāra being implied in blǣd-āgende, in speaking of a court

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]