FOOTNOTES:
[670] As shown by Dr Richter's lists (pp. [9] ff., [24] ff. and 13 ff., 27 f.).
[671] So far as I can see the only argument for this inconsistency which Prof. Olrik brings forward is the statement (Vol. I, p. 16; cf. Vol. II, p. 38, note 1, and p. 39, note 1) that the fight at the marriage precedes Beowulf's visit to the king's hall. This however seems to mean that the present tense, which is used throughout the episode (nearly a score of examples), must be taken as a historic present—a construction which is rarely or never found elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry. In Beowulf only one instance (v. 1879) is cited by Nader (Anglia, X 547), and this is clearly erroneous. A possible case does occur in v. 1923 (wunað); but most recent editors either emend (to wunade) or regard the passage as a speech.