NOTES
[1] The exact equivalent to Hrōðgar is found in O.N., in the form Hróðgeirr. The by-form Hróarr, which is used of the famous Danish king, is due to a number of rather irregular changes, which can however be paralleled. The Primitive Germanic form of the name would have been *Hrōþugaisaz: for the loss of the g at the beginning of the second element we may compare Aðils with Ēadgils (Noreen, Altisländische Grammatik, 1903, § 223); for the loss of ð before w compare Hrólfr with Hrōðwulf (Noreen, § 222); for the absence of R- umlaut in the second syllable, combined with loss of the g, compare O.N. nafarr with O.E. nafugār (Noreen, § 69).
[2] Corresponding to O.N. Aðils we should expect O.E. Æðgils, Æðgisl. The form Ēadgils may be due to confusion with the famous Eadgils, king of the Myrgingas, who is mentioned in Widsith. The name comes only once in Beowulf (l. 2392) and may owe its form there to a corruption of the scribe. That the O.E. form is corrupt seems more likely than that the O.N. Aðils, so well known and so frequently recorded, is a corruption of Auðgisl.
[3] It must be remembered that the sound changes of the Germanic dialects have been worked out so minutely that it is nearly always possible to decide quite definitely whether two names do or do not exactly correspond. Only occasionally is dispute possible [e.g. whether Hrothgar is or is not phonetically the exact equivalent of Hroarr].
[4] See below, pp. 8-10.
[5] Chochilaicus, which appears to be the correct form, corresponds to Hygelac (in the primitive form Hugilaikaz) as Chlodovechus to Hludovicus.
[6] The passages in Beowulf referring to this expedition are:
1202 etc.. Frisians (adjoining the Hetware) and Franks mentioned as the foes.
2354 etc. Hetware mentioned.
2501 etc. Hugas (= Franks) and the Frisian king mentioned.
2914 etc. Franks, Frisians, Hugas, Hetware and "the Merovingian" mentioned.
[7] The identification of Chochilaicus with Hygelac is the most important discovery ever made in the study of Beowulf, and the foundation of our belief in the historic character of its episodes. It is sometimes attributed to Grundtvig, sometimes to Outzen. It was first vaguely suggested by Grundtvig (Nyeste Skilderie af Kjøbenhavn, 1815, col. 1030): the importance of the identification was worked out by him fully, two years later (Danne-Virke, II, 285). In the meantime the passage from Gregory had been quoted by Outzen in his review of Thorkelin's Beowulf (Kieler Blätter, iii, 312). Outzen's reference was obviously made independently, but he failed to detect the real bearing of the passage upon Beowulf. Credit for the find accordingly belongs solely to Grundtvig.
[8] Ongentheow is mentioned in Widsith (l. 31) as a famous king of the Swedes. Many of the kings mentioned in the same list can be proved to be historical, and the reference in Widsith therefore supports Ongentheow's historic character, but is far, in itself, from proving it.
[9] Strictly Anganþér. See Heusler, Heldennamen in mehrfacher Lautgestalt, Z.f.d.A. LII, 101.
[10] ll. 2382-4.
[11] ll. 2612-9.
[12] Whether it be accuracy or accident, these names Ottar and Athils come just at that place in the list of the Ynglinga tal which, when we reckon back the generations, we find to correspond to the beginning of the sixth century. And this is the date when we know from Beowulf that they should have been reigning.
[13] But the accounts are quite inconsistent. Saxo (ed. Holder, pp. 56-7) implies a version in which Athils was deposed, if not slain, by Bothvar Bjarki, which is quite at variance with other information given by Saxo.
[14] Unless they are among the fragments carried off to the Stockholm Museum. Little of interest was found in these mounds when they were opened: everything had been too thoroughly burnt.
[15] See Schück, Folknamnet Geatas, 22 etc.
[16] See below, p. [98] and [Appendix (E)]; The "Jute-Question."
[18] Olrik (Heltedigtning, I, 22 etc.). The Danish house—Healfdene, Heorogar, Hrothgar, Halga, Heoroweard, Hrethric, Hrothmund, Hrothulf: the Swedish—Ongentheow, Onela, Ohthere, Eanmund, Eadgils: the Geatic—Hrethel, Herebeald, Hætheyn, Hygelac, Heardred. The same principle is strongly marked in the Old English pedigrees.
[19] ll. 3018 etc.
[20] As is done, e.g., by Schück (Studier i Beowulf-sagan, 27).
[21] "Dragon fights are more frequent, not less frequent, the nearer we come to historic times": Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 313. The dragon survived much later in Europe than has been generally recognized. He was flying from Mount Pilatus in 1649. (See J. J. Scheuchzer, Itinera per Helvetiae Alpinas regiones, 1723, III, p. 385.) The same authority quotes accounts of dragons authenticated by priests, his own contemporaries, and supplies many bloodcurdling engravings of the same.
[22] Cf. on this point Klaeber in Anglia, XXXVI (1912) p. 190.
[23] l. 2382.
[24] l. 2393.
[25] Of course, even if Beowulf's reign over the Geatas is not historic, this does not exclude the possibility of his having some historic foundation.
[26] Attempts at working out the chronology of Beowulf have been made by Gering (in his translation) and by Heusler (Archiv, CXXIV, 9-14). On the whole the chronology of Beowulf is self-consistent, but there are one or two discrepancies which do not admit of solution.
[27] l. 468.
[28] l. 2161.
[29] Widsith, l. 46.
[30] Beowulf, l. 2160. Had Hrothulf been a son of Heorogar he could not have been passed over in silence here. Neither can Hrothulf be Hrothgar's sister's son: for since the sister married the Swedish king, Hrothulf would in that case be a Swedish prince, and presumably would be living at the Swedish court, and bearing a name connected by alliteration with those of the Swedish, not the Danish house. Besides, had he been a Swedish prince, he must have been heard of in connection with the dynastic quarrels of the Swedish house.
[31] ll. 1163-5.
[32] ll. 1188-91.
[33] ll. 1180 etc.
[34] Doubts are expressed, for example, in Trap's monumental topographical work (Kongeriket Danmark, II, 328, 1898).
[35] For example Sweyn Aageson (c. 1200) had no doubt that the little village of Leire near Roskilde was identical with the Leire of story: Rolf Kraki, occisus in Lethra, qvae tunc famosissima Regis extitit curia, nunc autem Roskildensi vicina civitati, inter abjectissima ferme vix colitur oppida. Svenonis Aggonis Historia Regum Daniae, in Langebek, I, 45.
[36] Ro ... patrem vero suum Dan colle apud Lethram tumulavit Sialandie ubi sedem regni pro eo pater constituit, qvam ipse post eum divitiis multiplicibus ditavit. In the so-called Annales Esromenses, in Langebek, I, 224. Cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 188, 194. For further evidence, see [Appendix (G)] below.
[37] We must not think of Heorot as an isolated country seat. The Royal Hall would stand in the middle of the Royal Village, as in the case of the halls of Attila (Priscus in Möller's Fragmenta, IV, 85) or Cynewulf (A.S. Chronicle, Anno 755).
[38] Lethram pergitur, quod oppidum, a Roluone constructum eximiisque regni opibus illustratum, ceteris confinium prouinciarum urbibus regie fundacionis et sedis auctoritate prestabat. Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p. 58).
[39] His cognitis Helgo filium Roluonem Lethrica arce conclusit, heredis saluti consulturus (p. 52).
[40] A Roe Roskildia condita memoratur. Saxo, Book II (ed. Holder, p. 51). Roe's spring, after being a feature of the town throughout the ages, is now (owing perhaps to its sources having been tapped by a neighbouring mineral-water factory) represented only by a pump in a market-garden.
[41] I owe this paragraph to information kindly supplied me by Dr Sofus Larsen, librarian of the University Library, Copenhagen.
[42] It was once believed that, in prehistoric times, the sea came up to Leire also (Forchhammer, Steenstrup and Worsaae: Undersøgelser i geologisk-antiqvarisk Retning, Kjøbenhavn, 1851). A most exact scrutiny of the geology of the coast-line has proved this to be erroneous. (Danmarks geologiske Undersøgelse I.R. 6. Beskrivelse til Kaartbladene Kjøbenhavn og Roskilde, af K. Rørdam, Kjøbenhavn, 1899.)
[43] The presence at Leire of early remains makes it tempting to suppose that it may have been from very primitive times a stronghold or sacred place. It is impossible here to examine these conjectures, which would connect Heorot ultimately with the "sacred place on the isle of the ocean" mentioned by Tacitus. The curious may be referred to Much in P.B.B. XVII, 196-8; Mogk in Pauls Grdr. (2) III, 367; Kock in the Swedish Historisk Tidskrift, 1895, 162 etc.; and particularly to the articles by Sarrazin: Die Hirsch Halle in Anglia, XIX, 368-91, Neue Beowulfstudien (Der Grendelsee) in Engl. Stud. XLII, 6-15.
[44] This seems to me much more probable than, as Olrik supposes, that Froda fell in battle against Healfdene (Skjoldungasaga, 162 [80]).
[45] Saga of Rolf Kraki, cap. IV.
[46] Olrik wishes to read the whole of this account, not as a prediction in the present future tense, but as a narrative of past events in the historic present. (Heltedigtning, I, 16; II, 38.) Considering the rarity of the historic present idiom in Old English poetry, this seems exceedingly unlikely.
[47] ll. 2047-2056.
[48] Verba dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio; ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam, sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid Hinieldus cum Christo? See Jaffé's Monumenta Alcuiniana (Bibliotheca Rer. Germ. VI), Berlin, 1873, p. 357; Epistolae, 81.
[49] Saxo, Book VI (ed. Holder, 205, 212-13).
The contrast between this lyrical outburst, and the matter-of-fact speech in which the old warrior in Beowulf eggs on the younger man, is thoroughly characteristic of the difference between Old English and Old Scandinavian heroic poetry. This difference is very noticeable whenever we have occasion to compare a passage in Beowulf with any parallel passage in a Scandinavian poem, and should be carefully pondered by those who still believe that Beowulf is, in its present form, a translation from the Scandinavian.
[50] Saxo, Book VIII (ed. Holder, p. 274); Helga kviþa Hundingsbana, II, 19. See also Bugge, Helge-digtene, 157.
[51] Þáttr Þorsteins Skelks in Flateyarbók (ed. Vigfússon and Unger), I, 416.
[52] Similarly, there is certainly a primitive connection between the names of the Geatas (Gautar) and of the Goths: but they are quite distinct peoples: we should not be justified in speaking of the Geatas as identical with the Goths.
[53] Müllenhoff (Beovulf, 29-32) followed by Much (P.B.B. XVII, 201) and Heinzel (A.f.d.A. XVI, 271). The best account of the Heruli is in Procopius (Bell. Gott. II, 14, 15).
[54] See also Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 21, 22: Sarrazin in Engl. Stud. XLII, 11: Bugge, Helgi-digtene, 151-63; 181: Chambers, Widsith, p. 82 (note), pp. 205-6.
[55] Saga of Rolf Kraki: Skjoldungasaga.
[56] Best represented in Saxo.
[58] ll. 1180-87.
[59] ll. 1188-91.
[60] ll. 1163-5.
[61] ll. 1017-19.
[62] ll. 45-6.
[63] For a contrary view see Clarke, Sidelights, 100.
[64] Saxo has mistaken a title hnøggvanbaugi for a father's name, (hins) hnøggva Baugs "(son of the) covetous Baug."
[65] Langfeðgatal in Langebek, I, 5. The succession given in Langfeðgatal is Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Rolf, Hrærek: it should, of course, run Halfdan, Helgi and Hroar, Hrærek, Rolf. Hrærek has been moved from his proper place in order to clear Rolf of any suspicion of usurpation.
[66] l. 1189.
[67] See Olrik, Episke Love in Danske Studier, 1908, p. 79. Compare the remark of Goethe in Wilhelm Meister, as to the necessity of there being both a Rosencrantz and a Guildenstern (Apprenticeship, Book V, chap. v).
[68] ll. 587-9.
[69] ll. 1165-8.
[70] Perhaps such murder of kin was more common among the aristocratic houses than among the bulk of the population (Chadwick, H.A. 348). In some great families it almost becomes the rule, producing a state of things similar to that in present day Afghanistan, where it has become a proverb that a man is "as great an enemy as a cousin" (Pennell, Afghan Frontier, 30).
[71] This is proposed by Cosijn (Aanteekeningen, 21) and again independently by Lawrence in M.L.N. XXV, 157.
[72] ll. 467-9.
[73] ll. 2155-62.
[74] See Widsith, ed. Chambers, pp. 92-4.
[75] See Rickert, "The Old English Offa Saga" in Mod. Phil. II, esp. p. 75.
[76] The common ascription of the Lives of the Offas to Matthew Paris is erroneous: they are somewhat earlier.
[77] The identification of Fifeldor with the Eider has been doubted, notably by Holthausen, though he seems less doubtful in his latest edition (third edit. II, 178). The reasons for the identification appear to me the following. Place names ending in dor are exceedingly rare. When, therefore, two independent authorities tell us that Offa fought at a place named Fifel-dor or Egi-dor, it appears unlikely that this can be a mere coincidence: it seems more natural to assume that the names are corruptions of one original. But further, the connection is not limited to the second element in the name. For the Eider (Egidora, Ægisdyr) would in O.E. be Egor-dor: and Egor-dor stands to Fifel-dor precisely as egor-stream (Boethius, Metra, XX, 118) does to fifel-stream (Metra, XXVI, 26), "egor" and "fifel" being interchangeable synonyms. See note to Widsith, l. 43 (p. 204). It is objected that the interchange of fifel and egor, though frequent in common nouns, would be unusual in the name of a place. The reply is that the Old English scop may not have regarded it as a place-name. He may have substituted fifel-dor for the synonymous egor-dor, "the monster gate," without realizing that it was the name of a definite place, just as he would have substituted fifel-stream for egor-stream, "the monster stream, the sea," if alliteration demanded the change.
[78] The Deeds of Beowulf, LXXXV.
[79] See below, pp. [105]-12, and [Appendix (D)] below.
[80] Wihtlæg appears in Saxo as Vigletus (Book IV, ed. Holder, p. 105).
[81] Nibelungen Lied, ed. Piper, 328.
[82] Book IV (ed. Holder, p. 102).
[83] Kemble, Beowulf, Postscript IX; followed by Müllenhoff, etc. So, lately, Chadwick (H.A. 126): cf. also Sievers ('Beowulf und Saxo' in the Berichte d. k. sächs. Gesell. d. Wissenschaften, 1895, pp. 180-88); Bradley in Encyc. Brit. III, 761; Boer, Beowulf, 135. See also Olrik, Danmarks Heltedigtning, I, 246. For further discussion see below, [Appendix (A)].
[84] Beo—Scyld—Scef in Ethelwerd: Beowius—Sceldius—Sceaf in William of Malmesbury. But in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle five generations intervene between Sceaf and his descendant Scyldwa, father of Beaw.
[85] "Item there is vii acres lond lying by the high weye toward the grendyll": Bury Wills, ed. S. Tymms (Camden Soc. XLIX, 1850, p. 31).
[86] I should hardly have thought it worth while to revive this old "cesspool" theory, were it not for the statement of Dr Lawrence that "Miller's argument that the word grendel here is not a proper name at all, that it means 'drain,' has never, to my knowledge, been refuted." (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 253.)
Miller was a scholar whose memory should be reverenced, but the letter to the Academy was evidently written in haste. The only evidence which Miller produced for grendel standing alone as a common noun in Old English was a charter of 963 (Birch, 1103: vol. III, p. 336): þanon forð eft on grendel: þanon on clyst: grendel here, he asserted, meant "drain": and consequently gryndeles sylle and grendles mere in the other charters must mean "cesspool." But the locality of this charter of 963 is known (Clyst St Mary, a few miles east of Exeter), and the two words exist there as names of streams to this day—"thence again along the Greendale brook, thence along the river Clyst." The Grindle or Greendale brook is no sewer, but a stream some half dozen miles in length which "winds tranquilly through a rich tract of alluvial soil" (Journal of the Archaeol. Assoc. XXXIX, 273), past three villages which bear the same name, Greendale, Greendale Barton and Higher Greendale, under Greendale Bridge and over the ford by Greendale Lane, to its junction with the Clyst. Why the existence of this charming stream should be held to justify the interpretation of Grendel or Gryndel as "drain" and grendles mere as "cesspool" has always puzzled me. Were a new Drayton to arise he might, in a new Polyolbion, introduce the nymph complaining of her hard lot at the hands of scholars in the Hesperides. I hope, when he next visits England, to conduct Dr Lawrence to make his apologies to the lady. Meantime a glance at the "six inch" ordnance map of Devon suffices to refute Miller's curious hypothesis.
[87] It is often asserted that the same Beowa appears as a witness to a charter (Müllenhoff, Beovulf, p. 8: Haak, Zeugnisse zur altenglischen Heldensage, 53). But this rests upon a misprint of Kemble (C.D.S. V, 44). The name is really Beoba (Birch, Cart. Sax. I, 212).
[88] Beaf er ver kollum Biar, in the descent of Harold Fairhair from Adam, in Flateyarbók, ed. Vigfússon and Unger, Christiania, 1859, I, 27. [The genealogy contains many names obviously taken from a MS of the O.E. royal pedigrees, not from oral tradition, as is shown by the miswritings, e.g., Beaf for Beaw, owing to mistaking the O.E. w for f.] "This is no proof," Dr Lawrence urges, "of popular acquaintance with Bjár as a Scandinavian figure." (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 246.) But how are we to account for the presence of his name among a mnemonic list of some of the most famous warriors and their horses—mention along with heroes like Sigurd, Gunnar, Atli, Athils and Ali, unless Bjar was a well-known figure?
[89] en Bjárr [reið] Kerti. Kortr, "short" (Germ. Kurz), if indeed we are so to interpret it, is hardly an Icelandic word, and seems strange as the name of a horse. Egilsson (Lex. Poet. 1860) suggests kertr, "erect," "with head high" (cf. Kahle in I.F. XIV, 164).
[90] See [Appendix (A)] below.
[91] Müllenhoff derived Beaw from the root bhū, "to be, dwell, grow": Beaw therefore represented settled dwelling and culture. Müllenhoff's mythological explanation (Z.f.d.A. VII, 419, etc., Beovulf, 1, etc.) has been largely followed by subsequent scholars, e.g., ten Brink (Pauls Grdr. II, 533: Beowulf, 184), Symons (Pauls Grdr. (2), III, 645-6) and, in general outline, E. H. Meyer (Mythol. der Germanen, 1903, 242).
[92] Uhland in Germania, II, 349.
[93] Laistner (Nebelsagen, 88, etc., 264, etc.), Kögel (Z.f.d.A. XXXVII, 274: Geschichte d. deut. Litt. I, 1, 109), and Golther (Handbuch der germ. Mythologie, 1895, 173) see in Grendel the demon of combined storm and pestilence.
[94] E. H. Meyer (Germ. Mythol. 1891, 299).
[95] Mogk (Pauls Grdr. (2), III, 302) regards Grendel as a "water-spirit."
[96] Boer (Ark. f. nord. Filol. XIX, 19).
[97] This suggestion is made (very tentatively) by Brandl, in Pauls Grdr. (2), II, i, 992.
[98] This view has been enunciated by Wundt in his Völkerpsychologie, II, i, 326, etc., 382. For a discussion see A. Heusler in Berliner Sitzungsberichte, XXXVII, 1909, pp. 939-945.
[99] Cf. Lawrence in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 265, etc., and Panzer's "Beowulf" throughout.
[100] The tradition of "the devil and his dam" resembles that of Grendel and his mother in its coupling together the home-keeping female and the roving male. See E. Lehmann, "Fandens Oldemor" in Dania, VIII, 179-194; a paper which has been undeservedly neglected in the Beowulf bibliographies. But the devil beats his dam (cf. Piers Plowman, C-text, XXI, 284): conduct of which one cannot imagine Grendel guilty. See too Lehmann in Arch. f. Religionswiss. VIII, 411-30: Panzer, Beowulf, 130, 137, etc.: Klaeber in Anglia, XXXVI, 188.
[101] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 1282-7.
[102] There are other coincidences which may be the result of mere chance. In each case, before the adventure with the giants, the hero proves his strength by a feat of endurance in the ice-cold water. And, at the end of the story, the hero in each case produces, as evidence of his victory, a trophy with a runic inscription: in Beowulf an engraved sword-hilt; in the Grettis saga bones and a "rune-staff."
[103] Vigfússon, Corp. Poet. Boreale, II, 502: Bugge, P.B.B. XII, 58.
[104] Boer, for example, believes that Beowulf influenced the Grettis saga (Grettis saga, Introduction, xliii); so, tentatively, Olrik (Heltedigtning, I, 248).
[105] For this argument and the following, cf. Schück, Studier i Beowulfssagan, 21.
[106] Even assuming that a MS of Beowulf had found its way to Iceland, it would have been unintelligible. This is shown by the absurd blunders made when Icelanders borrowed names from the O.E. genealogies.
[107] Cf. Olrik, A. f. n. F., VIII (N.F. IV), 368-75; and Chadwick, Origin, 125-6.
[108] Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXVII, 208 etc.
[109] Cotton. Gnomic Verses, ll. 42-3.
[110] Fornmannasǫgur, III, 204-228.
[111] Hammershaimb, Færōiske Kvœder, II, 1855, Nos. 11 and 12.
[112] A. I. Arwidsson, Svenska Fornsånger, 1834-42, Nos. 8 and 9.
[113] Boer, Beowulf, 177-180.
[114] ll. 1553-6.
[115] l. 455.
[116] The attacks have taken place at Yule for two successive years, exactly as in the Grettis saga. [In Beowulf it is, of course, "twelve winters" (l. 147).] Is this mere accident, or does the Grettis saga here preserve the original time limit, which has been exaggerated in Beowulf? If so, we have another point of resemblance between the Saga of Rolf Kraki and the earliest version of the Beowulf story.
[117] Beowulf, ll. 801-5.
[118] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 590-606.
[119] Beowulf, l. 679.
[120] Beowulf, ll. 1508-9, 1524.
[121] It is only in this adventure that Rolf carries the sword Gullinhjalti. His usual sword, as well known as Arthur's Excalibur, was Skofnungr. For Gyldenhilt, whether descriptive, or proper noun, see Beowulf, 1677.
[122] Cf. Symons in Pauls Grdr. (2), III, 649: Züge aus dem anglischen Mythus von Béaw-Biar (Biarr oder Bjár?; s. Symons Lieder der Edda, I, 222) wurden auf den dänischen Sagenhelden (Boðvarr) Bjarki durch Ähnlichkeit der Namen veranlasst, übertragen. Cf. too, Heusler in A.f.d.A. XXX, 32.
[123] See p. [87] and [Appendix (A)] below.
[124] Heltedigtning, I, 1903, 135-6.
[125] Beowulf, 1518.
[126] See Heusler in Z.f.d.A. XLVIII, 62.
[127] Cf. on this Heusler, Z.f.d.A. XLVIII, 64-5.
[128] Cf. Skjoldunga saga, cap. XII; and see Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 201-5; Bjarka rímur, VIII.
[129] Similarly Skáldskaparmál, 41 (44).
[130] Bärensohn. Jean l'Ours. The name is given to the group because the hero is frequently (though by no means always) represented as having been brought up in a bear's den. The story summarized above is a portion of Panzer's "Type A." See [Appendix (H)], below.
[131] ll. 704, 729.
[132] ll. 691-6.
[133] In the Beowulf it was even desirable, as explained above, to go further, and completely to exculpate the Danish watchers.
[134] From the controversial point of view Panzer has no doubt weakened his case by drawing attention to so many of these, probably accidental, coincidences. It gives the critic material for attack (cf. Boer, Beowulf, 14)
[135] ll. 2183 etc.
[136] ll. 408-9.
[137] It comes out strongly in the Bjarki-story.
[138] It can hardly be argued that Stein is mentioned because he was an historic character who in some way came into contact with the historic Grettir: for in this case his descent would have been given, according to the usual custom in the sagas. (Cf. note to Boer's edition of Grettis saga, p. 233.)
[139] P. E. K. Kaalund, Bidrag til en historisk-topografisk Beskrivelse af Island, Kjøbenhavn, 1877, II, 151.
[140] The localization in en stor sandhaug is found in a version of the story to which Panzer was unable to get access (see p. 7 of his Beowulf, Note 2). A copy is to be found in the University Library of Christiania, in a small book entitled Nor, en Billedbog for den norske Ungdom. Christiania, 1865. (Norske Folke-Eventyr ... fortalte af P. C. Asbjørnsen, pp. 65-128.)
The sandhaug is an extraordinary coincidence, if it is a mere coincidence. It cannot have been imported into the modern folk-tale from the Grettis saga, for there is no superficial resemblance between the two tales.
[141] Cf. Boer, Beowulf, 14.
[142] Yet both Beowulf and Orm are saved by divine help.
[143] Panzer exaggerates the case against his own theory when he quotes only six versions as omitting the princesses (p. 122). Such unanimity as this is hardly to be looked for in a collection of 202 kindred folk-tales. In addition to these six, the princesses are altogether missing, for example, in the versions Panzer numbers 68, 69, 77: they are only faintly represented in other versions (e.g. 76). Nevertheless the rescue of the princesses may be regarded as the most essential element in the tale.
[144] I cannot agree with Panzer when (p. 319) he suggests the possibility of the Beowulf and the Grettir-story having been derived independently from the folk-tale. For the two stories have many features in common which do not belong to the folk-tale: apart from the absence of the princesses we have the hæft-mēce and the strange conclusion drawn by the watchers from the blood-stained water.
[145] Ipse Scef cum uno dromone advectus est in insula Oceani, quae dicitur Scani, armis circundatus, eratque valde recens puer, & ab incolis illius terrae ignotus; attamen ab eis suscipitur, & ut familiarem diligenti animo eum custodierunt, & post in regem eligunt.
Ethelwerdus, III, 3, in Savile's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam, Francofurti, 1601, p. 842.
[146] See Chadwick, Origin, 259-60.
[147] Sceldius [fuit filius] Sceaf. Iste, ut ferunt, in quandam insulam Germaniae Scandzam, de qua Jordanes, historiographus Gothorum, loquitur, appulsus navi sine remige, puerulus, posito ad caput frumenti manipulo, dormiens, ideoque Sceaf nuncupatus, ab hominibus regionis illius pro miraculo exceptus et sedulo nutritus: adulta aetate regnavit in oppido quod tunc Slaswic, nunc vero Haithebi appellatur. Est autem regio illa Anglia vetus dicta....
William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Regum Anglorum. Lib. II, § 116, vol. I, p. 121, ed. Stubbs, 1887.
[148] Although Saxo Grammaticus has provided some even earlier kings.
[149] Cf. Müllenhoff in Z.f.d.A. VII, 413.
[150] In Grímnismál, 54, Odin gives Gautr as one of his names.
[151] See below.
[152] Excluding, of course, the Hebrew names.
[153] Scyld appears as Scyldwa, Sce(a)ldwa in the Chronicle. The forms correspond.
[154] See Part II.
[155] armis circundatus.
[156] For a list of the scholars who have dealt with the subject, see Widsith, p. 119.
[157] Beovulf, p. 6 etc.
[158] Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXIV, 259 etc.
[159] This objection to the Scyld-theory has been excellently expressed by Olrik—at a time, too, when Olrik himself accepted the story as belonging to Scyld rather than Sceaf. "Binz," says Olrik, "rejects William of Malmesbury as a source for the Scyld story. But he has not noticed that in doing so he saws across the branch upon which he himself and the other investigators are sitting. For if William is not a reliable authority, and even a more reliable authority than the others, then 'Scyld with the sheaf' is left in the air." Heltedigtning, I, 238-9, note.
[160] The discussion of Skjold by Olrik (Danmarks Heltedigtning, I, 223-271) is perhaps the most helpful of any yet made, especially in emphasizing the necessity of differentiating the stages in the story. But it must be taken in connection with the very essential modifications made by Dr Olrik in his second volume (pp. 249-65, especially pp. 264-5). Dr Olrik's earlier interpretation made Scyld the original hero of the story: Scefing Olrik interpreted, not as "with the sheaf," but as "son of Scef." To the objection that any knowledge of Scyld's parentage would be inconsistent with his unknown origin, Olrik replied by supposing that Scyld was a foundling whose origin, though unknown to the people of the land to which he came, was well known to the poet. The poet, Dr Olrik thought, regarded him as a son of the Langobardic king, Sceafa, a connection which we are to attribute to the Anglo-Saxon love of framing genealogies. But this explanation of Scyld Scefing as a human foundling does not seem to me to be borne out by the text of Beowulf. "The child is a poor foundling," says Dr Olrik, "he suffered distress from the time when he was first found as a helpless child. Only as a grown man did he get compensation for his childhood's adversity" (p. 228). But this is certainly not the meaning of egsode eorl[as]. It is "He inspired the earl with awe."
[161] See below ([App. C]) for instances of ancestral names extant both in weak and strong forms, like Scyld, Sceldwa (the identity of which no one doubts) or Sceaf, Sceafa (the identity of which has been doubted).
[162] "As for the name Scyldungas-Skjöldungar, we need not hesitate to believe that this originally meant 'the people' or 'kinsmen of the shield.' Similar appellations are not uncommon, e.g., Rondingas, Helmingas, Brondingas ... probably these names meant either 'the people of the shield, the helmet,' etc., or else the people who used shields, helmets, etc., in some special way. In the former case we may compare the Ancile of the Romans and the Palladion of the Greeks; in either case we may note that occasionally shields have been found in the North which can never have been used except for ceremonial purposes." Chadwick, Origin, p. 284: cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 274.
[163] Sweyn Aageson, Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse, in Langebek, S.R.D. I, 44.
[164] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 246; Lawrence, Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. XXIV, 254.
[165] It is odd that Binz, who has recorded so many of these, should have argued on the strength of these place-names that the Scyld story is not Danish, but an ancient possession of the tribes of the North Sea coast (p. 150). For Binz also records an immense number of names of heroes of alien stock—Danish, Gothic or Burgundian—as occurring in England (P.B.B. XX, 202 etc.).
[166] Beovulf, p. 7.
[167] Chadwick, Origin, p. 278.
[168] The scandals about King Edgar (infamias quas post dicam magis resperserunt cantilenae: see Gesta Regum Anglorum, II, § 148, ed. Stubbs, vol. I, p. 165); the story of Gunhilda, the daughter of Knut, who, married to a foreign King with great pomp and rejoicing, nostro seculo etiam in triviis cantitata, was unjustly suspected of unchastity till her English page, in vindication of her honour, slew the giant whom her accusers had brought forward as their champion (Gesta, II, § 188, ed. Stubbs, I, pp. 229, 230); the story of King Edward and the shepherdess, learnt from cantilenis per successiones temporum detritis (Gesta, II, § 138, ed. Stubbs, I, 155). Macaulay in the Lays of Ancient Rome has selected William as a typical example of the historian who draws upon popular song. Cf. Freeman's Historical Essays.
[169] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 245.
[170] Origin, pp. 279-281.
[171] Brand, Popular Antiquities, 1813, I, 443.
[172] Henderson, Folklore of the Northern Counties, 87-89.
[173] Hone's Every Day Book, 1827, p. 1170.
[174] The Tamar and the Tavy, I. 330 (1836).
[175] Raymond, Two men o' Mendip, 1899, 259.
[176] Miss M. A. Courtney, Glossary of West Cornwall; T. Q. Couch, Glossary of East Cornwall, s. v. Neck (Eng. Dial. Soc. 1880); Jago, Ancient Language of Cornwall, 1882, s. v. Anek.
[177] Notes and Queries, 4th Ser. XII, 491 (1873).
[178] Holland's Glossary of Chester (Eng. Dial. Soc.), s.v. Cutting the Neck.
[179] Burne, Shropshire Folk Lore, 1883, 371.
[180] "to cry the Mare." Blount, Glossographia, 4th edit. 1674, s.v. mare. Cf. Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. VI, 286 (1876).
[181] Wright, Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v. neck.
[182] Frazer, Spirits of the Corn, 1912, I, 268. The word was understood as = "neck" by the peasants, because "They'm taied up under the chin laike" (Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. X, 51). But this may be false etymology.
[183] Wright, Eng. Dial. Dict. Cf. Notes and Queries, 5th Ser. X, 51.
[184] Heltedigtning, II, 252.
[185] The earliest record of the term "cutting the neck" seems to be found in Randle Holme's Store House of Armory, 1688 (II, 73). It may be noted that Holme was a Cheshire man.
[186] Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, Strassburg, 1884, 326 etc.
[187] Quod dum servi Dei propensius actitarent, inspiratum est eis salubre consilium et (ut pium est credere) divinitus provisum. Die etenim statuto mane surgentes monachi sumpserunt scutum rotundum, cui imponebant manipulum frumenti, et super manipulum cereum circumspectae quantitatis et grossitudinis. Quo accenso scutum cum manipulo et cereo, fluvio ecclesiam praetercurrenti committunt, paucis in navicula fratribus subsequentibus. Praecedebat itaque eos scutum et quasi digito demonstrans possessiones domui Abbendoniae de jure adjacentes nunc huc, nunc illuc divertens; nunc in dextra nunc in sinistra parte fiducialiter eos praeibat, usquedum veniret ad rivum prope pratum quod Beri vocatur, in quo cereus medium cursum Tamisiae miraculose deserens se declinavit et circumdedit pratum inter Tamisiam et Gifteleia, quod hieme et multociens aestate ex redundatione Tamisiae in modum insulae aqua circumdatur.
Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon, ed. Stevenson, 1858, vol. I, p. 89.
[188] Chadwick, Origin, 278.
[189] Olrik, Heltedigtning, II, 251.
[190] But is this so? "The word Sämpsä (now sämpsykka) 'small rush, scirpus silvaticus, forest rush,' is borrowed from the Germanic family (Engl. semse; Germ. simse)." Olrik, 253. But the Engl. "semse" is difficult to track.
See also note by A. Mieler in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, X, 43, 1910.
[191] Kaarle Krohn, "Sampsa Pellervoinen" in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen IV, 231 etc., 1904.
[192] Cf. Olrik, Heltedigtning, II, 252 etc..
[193] I do not understand why Olrik (Heltedigtning, I, 235) declares the coming to land in Scani (Ethelwerd) to be inconsistent with Sceaf as a Longobardic king (Widsith). For, according to their national historian, the Longobardi came from "Scadinavia" [Paul the Deacon, I, 1-7]. It is a more serious difficulty that Paul knows of no Longobardic king with a name which we can equate with Sceaf.
[194] So, corresponding to O.E. trīewe we have Icel. tryggr; to O.E. glēaw, Icel. glǫggr; O.E. scūwa, Icel. skugg-.
[195] Olrik, Heltedigtning, II, 1910, pp. 254-5.
An account of the worship of Pekko will be found in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, VI, 1906, pp. 104-111: Über den Pekokultus bei den Setukesen, by M. J. Eisen. See also [Appendix (A)] below.
Pellon-Pecko is mentioned by Michael Agricola, Bishop of Åbo, in his translation of the Psalter into Finnish, 1551. It is here that we are told that he "promoted the growth of barley."
[196] l. 15.
[197] That Heremod is a Danish king is clear from ll. 1709 etc. And as we have all the stages in the Scylding genealogy from Scyld to Hrothgar, Heremod must be placed earlier.
[198] Of Grein in Eberts Jahrbuch, IV, 264.
[199] A good example of this is supplied by the Assyrian records, which make Jehu a son of Omri—whose family he had destroyed.
[200] This reconstruction is made by Sievers in the Berichte d. k. sächs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1895, pp. 180-88.
[201] The god Hermóðr who rides to Hell to carry a message to the dead Baldr is here left out of consideration. His connection with the king Hermóðr is obscure.
[202] On this see Dederich, Historische u. geographische Studien, 214; Heinzel in A.f.d.A. XV, 161; Chadwick, Origin, 148; Chadwick, Cult of Othin, 51.
[203] Chadwick, Cult of Othin, pp. 50, etc.
[204] puerulus ... pro miraculo exceptus (William of Malmesbury). Cf. Beowulf, l. 7. In Saxo, Skjold distinguishes himself at the age of fifteen.
[205] omnem Alemannorum gentem tributaria ditione perdomuit. Cf. Beowulf, l. 11.
[207] This relationship of Frothi and Skjold is preserved by Sweyn Aageson: Skiold Danis primum didici praefuisse.... A quo primum.... Skioldunger sunt Reges nuncupati. Qui regni post se reliquit haeredes Frothi videlicet & Haldanum. Svenonis Aggonis Hist. Regum Dan. in Langebek, S.R.D. I, 44.
In Saxo Frotho is not the son, but the great grandson of Skioldus—but this is a discrepancy which may be neglected, because it seems clear that the difference is due to Saxo having inserted two names into the line at this point—those of Gram and Hadding. There seems no reason to doubt that Danish tradition really represented Frothi as son of Skjold.
[208] Those who accept the identification would regard Fróði (O.E. Frōda, 'the wise') as a title which has ousted the proper name.
[209] Boer, Ark. f. nord. filol., XIX, 67, calls this theory of Sievers "indisputable."
[210] Sievers, p. 181.
[211] Beowulf, 2405. Cf. 2215, 2281.
[212] So Regin guides Sigurd: Una the Red Cross Knight. The list might be indefinitely extended. Similarly with giants: "Then came to him a husbandman of the country, and told him how there was in the country of Constantine, beside Brittany, a great giant".... Morte d'Arthur, Book V, cap. V.
[213] Beowulf, 895.
[214] l. 2338.
[215] ll. 2570 etc.
[216] intrepidum mentis habitum retinere memento.
[217] ll. 2663 etc.
[218] Cf. Beowulf, 2705: forwrāt Wedra helm wyrm on middan.
[219] Cf. Cotton. Gnomic verses, ll. 26-7: Draca sceal on hlǣwe: frōd, frætwum wlanc.
[220] virusque profundens: wearp wæl-fȳre, 2582.
implicitus gyris serpens crebrisque reflexus
orbibus et caudae sinuosa volumina ducens
multiplicesque agitans spiras.
Cf. Beowulf, 2567-8, 2569, 2561 (hring-boga), 2827 (wōhbogen).
[222] Volospá, 172-3 in Corpus Poeticum Boreale. I, 200.
[223] Cf. on this Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 305-15.
[224] Panzer, Beowulf, 313.
[225] A further and more specific parallel between Lotherus and Heremod has been pointed out by Sarrazin (Anglia, XIX, 392). It seems from Beowulf that Heremod went into exile (ll. 1714-15), and apparently mid Eotenum (l. 902) which (in view of the use of the word Eotena, Eotenum, in the Finnsburg episode) very probably means "among the Jutes." A late Scandinavian document tells us that Lotherus ... superatus in Jutiam profugit (Messenius, Scondia illustrata, printed 1700, but written about 1620).
[226] Pointed out by Panzer. A possible parallel to the old man who hides his treasure is discussed by Bugge and Olrik in Dania, I, 233-245 (1890-92).
[227] Cf. Ettmüller, Scopas and Boceras, 1850, p. ix; Carmen de Beovvulfi rebus gestis, 1875, p. iii.
[228] P.B.B. XI, 167-170.
[229] Sarrazin, Der Schauplatz des ersten Beowulfliedes (P.B.B. XI, 170 etc.); Sievers, Die Heimat des Beowulfdichters (P.B.B. XI, 354 etc.); Sarrazin, Altnordisches im Beowulfliede (P.B.B. XI, 528 etc.); Sievers, Altnordisches im Beowulf? (P.B.B. XII, 168 etc.)
[230] Beovulf-Studien, 68.
[231] Sarrazin has countered this argument by urging that since the present day Swedes and Danes have better manners than the English, they therefore presumably had better manners already in the eighth century. I admit the premises, but deny the deduction.
[232] Sedgefield, Beowulf (1st ed.), p. 27.
[233] Schück, Studier i Beovulfsagan, 41.
[234] The brief Fata Apostolorum is doubted by Sievers (Anglia, XIII, 24).
[235] Two of these occur twice: hātan heolfre, 1423, 849; nīowan stefne, 1789, 2594; the rest once only, 141, 561, 963, 977, 1104, 1502, 1505, 1542, 1746, 2102, 2290, 2347, 2440, 2482, 2492, 2692. See Barnouw, 51.
[236] 74, 99, 122, 257, 390, 412.
[237] Christ, 510.
[238] Lichtenheld omits 2011, se mǣra mago Healfdenes, inserting instead 1474, where the same phrase occurs, but with a vocative force.
[239] 758, 813, 2011, 2587, 2928, 2971, 2977, 3120.
[240] 1199.
[241] 102, 713, 919, 997, 1016, 1448, 1984, 2255, 2264, 2675, 3024, 3028, 3097.
[242] Saintsbury in Short History of English Literature, I. 3.
[243] Morsbach, 270.
[244] Morsbach, 271.
[245] Chadwick, Heroic Age, 4.
[246] "Thus in place of the expression to widan feore we find occasionally widan feore in the same sense, and even in Beowulf we meet with widan feorh, which is not improbably the oldest form of the phrase. Before the loss of the final -u it [widan feorhu] would be a perfectly regular half verse, but the operation of this change would render it impossible and necessitate the substitution of a synonymous expression. In principle, it should be observed, the assumption of such substitutions seems to be absolutely necessary, unless we are prepared to deny that any old poems or even verses survived the period of apocope." Chadwick, Heroic Age, pp. 46-7.
[247] Heroic Age, 46.
[248] Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 81. See Morsbach, 260.
[249] The most important examples being breguntford (Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 115, dating between 693 and 731; perhaps 705): heffled in the life of St Gregory written by a Whitby monk apparently before 713: -gar on the Bewcastle Column, earlier than the end of the first quarter of the eighth century and perhaps much earlier: and many names in ford and feld in the Moore MS of Bede's Ecclesiastical History (a MS written about 737).
[250] An English Miscellany presented to Dr Furnivall, 370.
[251] Grienberger, Anglia, XXVII, 448.
[252] i.e. flodu ahof might stand for flōd u[p] ăhōf, as is suggested by Chadwick, Heroic Age, 69.
[253] In the Franks casket b already appears as f, and the n of sefu, "seven," has been lost.
[254] Birch, Cart. Sax. No. 45.
[255] Chadwick, Heroic Age, 67: "In personal names we must clearly allow for traditional orthography." Morsbach admits this in another connection (p. 259).
[256] Lübke's preface to Müllenhoff's Beovulf. Both the tendencies specially associated with Müllenhoff's name—the "mythologizing" and the "dissecting"—are due to the influence of Lachmann. It must be frankly admitted that on these subjects Müllenhoff did not begin his studies with an open mind.
[257] "Es ist einfach genug"—Beovulf, 110.
[258] Möller, V.E. 140: cf. Schücking, B.R. 14.
[259] Earle, Deeds of Beowulf, xlix (an excellent criticism of Müllenhoff).
[260] Heusler, Lied u. Epos, 26.
[261] Epic and Romance, Chap. II, § 2.
[262] Ballad and Epic, 311-12.
[263] Beowulfs Rückkehr, 1905.
[264] e.g. Genesis.
[265] Chap. IV, pp. 29-33.
[266] Chap. V, pp. 34-41.
[267] Chap. VI, cf. esp. p. 50.
[268] In the portion which Schücking excludes, we twice have gǣð = gāið (2034, 2055). Elsewhere in the Return we have dōn = dōan (2166) whilst frēa (1934), Hondsciō (2076) need to be considered.
[269] 2069.
[270] 2093.
[271] Satzverknüpfung im Beowulf, 139.
[272] Þȳlǣs = "lest" (1918); ac in direct question (1990); þā occurring unsupported late in the sentence (2192); forþām (1957) [see Sievers in P.B.B. XXIX, 313]; swā = "since," "because" (2184). But Schücking admits in his edition two other instances of forþām (146 and 2645), so this can hardly count.
[273] hȳrde ic as introducing a statement, 62, 2163, 2172; sið ðan ǣrest, 6, 1947.
[274] A similar use of þā, 1078, 1988; cf. 1114, 1125, 2135.
[275] hæbbe, 1928; gēong, 2019.
[276] þurfe, 2495.
[277] Schücking, Chap. VIII.
[278] Cf. Brandl in Herrigs Archiv, CXV, 421 (1905).
[279] e.g. Blackburn in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XII, 204-225; Bradley in the Encyc. Brit. III, 760; Chadwick, H.A. 49; Clarke, Sidelights, 10.
[280] Chadwick, in Cambridge History, I, 30.
[281] We may refer especially to the account of Attila's funeral given by Jordanes. [Mr Chadwick's note.]
[282] Chadwick in The Heroic Age, 53.
[283] It is adopted, e.g., by Clarke, Sidelights, 8.
[284] Yet this is very doubtful: see Leeds, Archæology, 27, 74.
[285] Notably in Book VIII (ed. Holder, 264) and Book III (ed. Holder, 74).
[286] 'Fasta fornlämningar i Beowulf,' in Ant. Tidskrift för Sverige, XVIII, 4, 64.
[287] See Schücking, Das angelsächsische Totenklaglied, in Engl. Stud. XXXIX, 1-13.
[288] Blackburn, in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. Cf. Hart, Ballad and Epic, 175.
[289] Clark Hall, xlvii.
[290] Blackburn, as above, p. 126.
[291] Chadwick, in Cambridge History, I, 30.
[292] Clark Hall, xlvii. See, to the contrary, Klaeber in Anglia, XXXVI, 196.
[293] This point is fully developed by Brandl, 1002-3. As Brandl points out, if we want to find a parallel to the hero Beowulf, saving his people from their temporal and ghostly foes, we must look, not to the other heroes of Old English heroic poetry, such as Waldhere or Hengest, but to Moses in the Old English Exodus. [Since this was written the essentially Christian character of Beowulf has been further, and I think finally, demonstrated by Klaeber, in the last section of his article on Die Christlichen Elemente im Beowulf, in Anglia, XXXVI; see especially 194-199.]
[294] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 180 etc.
[295] Bradley, in Encyc. Brit.
[296] Bradley, in Encyc. Brit. III, 760-1.
[297] Blackburn, 218.
[298] See Finnur Jónsson, Den Norsk-Islandske Skjaldedigtning, B. ii. 473-4.
[299] MS A, followed by Magnússon, makes Glam bláeygðr, "blue-eyed": Boer reads gráeygðr, considering grey a more uncanny colour.
[300] MS A has fonm or fenm, it is difficult to tell which. Magnússon reads fenum, "morasses."
[301] Immediately inside the door of the Icelandic dwelling was the anddyri or vestibule. For want of a better word, I translate anddyri by "porch": but it is a porch inside the building. Opening out of this 'porch' were a number of rooms. Chief among which were the skáli or "hall," and the stufa or "sitting room," the latter reached by a passage (gǫng). These were separated from the "porch" by panelling. In the struggle with Glam, Grettir is lying in the hall (skáli), but the panelling has all been broken away from the great cross-beam to which it was fixed. Grettir consequently sees Glam enter the outer door; Glam turns to the skáli, and glares down it, leaning over the cross-beam; then enters the hall, and the struggle begins. See Guðmundssen (V.), Privatbolegen på Island i Sagatiden, 1889.
[302] The partition beams (set-stokkar) stood between the middle of the skáli or hall and the planked daïs which ran down each side. The strength of the combatants is such that the stokkar give way. Grettir gets no footing to withstand Glam till they reach the outer-door. Here there is a stone set in the ground, which apparently gives a better footing for a push than for a pull. So Grettir changes his tactics, gets a purchase on the stone, and at the same time pushes against Glam's breast, and so dashes Glam's head and shoulders against the lintel of the outer-door.
[303] So MS 551 a. Magnússon reads dvaldist þar "he stayed there."
[304] Meaning that an attack by the evil beings would at least break the monotony.
[305] A passage (gǫng) had to be traversed between the door of the room (stufa) and the porch (anddyri).
[306] MSS bælt. Boer reads bolat "hewn down."
[307] A night troll, if caught by the sunrise, was supposed to turn into stone.
[308] Skúta may be acc. of the noun skúti, "overhanging precipice, cave"; or it may be the verb, "hang over." Grettir and his companion see that the sides of the ravine are precipitous (skúta upp) and so clean-cut (meitil-berg: meitill, "a chisel") that they give no hold to the climber. Hence the need for the rope. The translators all take skúta as acc. of skúti, which is quite possible: but they are surely wrong when they proceed to identify the skúti with the hellir behind the waterfall. For this cave behind the waterfall is introduced in the saga as something which Grettir discovers after he has dived beneath the fall, the fall in front naturally hiding it till then.
The verb skúta occurs elsewhere in Grettis saga, of the glaciers overhanging a valley. Boer's attempt to reconstruct the scene appears to me wrong: cf. Ranisch in A.f.d.A. XXVIII, 217.
[309] The old editions read fimm tigir faðma "fifty fathoms": but according to Boer's collation the best MS (A) read X, whilst four of the five others collated give XV (fimtán). The editors seem dissatisfied with this: yet sixty to ninety feet seems a good enough height for a dive.
[310] ok sat þar hjá, not in MS A, nor in Boer's edition.
[311] The two poems are given according to the version of William Morris.
[312] On his first arrival at Leire, Bjarki had been attacked by, and had slain, the watch-dogs (Rímur, IV, 41): this naturally brings him now into disfavour, and he has to dispute with men.
[313] Reading kappana.
[314] The MSS have either Sandeyar or Saudeyar (Sauðeyar). But that Sandeyar is the correct form is shown by the name Sandø, which is given still to the island of Dollsey, where Orm's fight is localized (Panzer, 403).
[315] Literally "she-cat," ketta; but the word may mean "giantess." It is used in some MSS of the Grettis saga of the giantess who attacks Grettir at Sandhaugar.
[316] See Sweet, Oldest English Texts, 1885, p. 170.
[317] See Catalogue of MSS. in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge by Montague Rhodes James, Camb., 1912, p. 437.
[318] See Publications of the Palæographical Society, 1880, where a facsimile of part of the Vespasian MS is given. (Pt. 10, Plate 165: subsequently Ser. I, Vol. II.)
[319] So Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, Berlin, 1893, pp. 78 etc., and Duchesne (Revue Celtique, XV, 196). Duchesne sums up these genealogies as "un recueil constitué, vers la fin du VIIe siècle, dans le royaume de Strathcluyd, mais complété par diverses retouches, dont la dernière est de 796."
[320] This is shown by one of the supplementary Mercian pedigrees being made to end, both in the Vespasian genealogy and the Historia Brittonum, in Ecgfrith, who reigned for a few months in 796. See Thurneysen (Z.f.d.Ph. XXVIII, 101).
[321] Ed. Mommsen, p. 203.
[322] Anno 626: a similar genealogy will be found in these MSS and in the Parker MS, anno 755 (accession of Offa II).
[323] Zimmer (Nennius Vindicatus, p. 84) argues that this Geta-Woden pedigree belongs to a portion of the Historia Brittonum written down A.D. 685. Thurneysen (Z.f.d.Ph. XXVIII, 103-4) dates the section in which it occurs 679; Duchesne (Revue Celtique, XV, 196) places it more vaguely between the end of the sixth and the beginning of the eighth century; van Hamel (Hoops Reallexikon s.v. Nennius) between much the same limits, and clearly before 705.
[324] Zimmer (p. 275) says A.D. 796; Duchesne (p. 196) A.D. 800; Thurneysen (Zeitschr. f. Celtische Philologie, I, 166) A.D. 826; Skene (Four Ancient Books of Wales, 1868, I, 38) A.D. 858; van Hamel (p. 304) A.D. 820-859. See also Chadwick, Origin, 38.
[325] Bradshaw, Investigations among Early Welsh, Breton and Cornish MSS. in Collected Papers, 466.
[327] Cf. Bretwalda.
[328] The genealogies have recently been dealt with by E. Hackenberg, Die Stammtafeln der angelsächsischen Königreiche, Berlin, 1918; and by Brandl, (Herrig's Archiv, CXXXVII, 1-24). Most of Brandl's derivations seem to me to depend upon very perilous conjectures. Thus he derives Scēfing from the Gr.-Lat. scapha, "a skiff": a word which was not adopted into Old English. This seems to be sacrificing all probability to the desire to find a new interpretation: and, even so, it is not quite successful. For Riley in the Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1857, p. 126, suggested the derivation of the name of Scef from the schiff or skiff in which he came.
[329] For a list of the Icelandic versions, see Heusler, Die gelehrte Urgeschichte im altisländischen Schrifttum, pp. 18-19, in the Abhandlungen d. preuss. Akad., Phil. Hist. Klasse, 1908, Berlin.
[330] The names are given as in the Trinity Roll (T), collated with Corpus (C) and Moseley (M). For Paris (P) I follow Kemble's report (Postscript to Preface, 1837, pp. vii, viii: Stammtafel der Westsachsen, pp. 18, 31). All seem to agree in writing t for c in Steph and Steldius, and in Boerinus, obviously, as Kemble pointed out, r is written by error for ƿ = Beowinus [or Beowius]; Cinrinicius T, Cinrinicus C, Cininicus P, Siuruncius M; Suethedus TCP, Suechedius M; Gethius T, Thecius M, Ehecius CP; Geate T, Geathe CM, Geathus P.
[331] I follow the spelling of the Moseley roll in this note.
[332] Dacia = "Denmark": Dacia and Dania were identified.
[333] uocabitur, Gertz; uocatur, all MSS.
[334] This account of the peaceful reign of Ro is simply false etymology from Danish ro, "rest."
[335] Note that Ro (Hrothgar), the son of Haldanus (Healfdene), is here represented as his father. Saxo Grammaticus, combining divergent accounts, as he often does, accordingly mentions two Roes—one the brother of Haldanus, the other his son. See above, pp. 131-2.
[336] cum piratica classe, Langebek; the MSS have cum pietate (!) with or without classe.
[337] post quem, Holder-Egger, Gertz; postquam, all MSS.
[338] Snyo: the viceroy whom Athisl had placed over the Danes.
[339] in added by Gertz; omitted in all MSS.
[340] A scribal error for transalbinas, "beyond the Elbe."
[341] Assembly.
[342] Island.
[343] I have substituted u for v, and have abandoned spellings like theutones, thezauro, orrifico, charitas, phas (for fas), atlethas, choercuit, iocundum, charum, fœlicissima, nanque, hæreditarii, exoluere.
The actual reading of the 1514 text is abandoned by substituting: p. 130, l. 3 ingeniti for ingenitis (1514); p. 132, l. 22, iacientis for iacentis; p. 134, l. 2, diutinæ for diutiuæ; p. 136, l. 11, fudit for fugit; p. 136, l. 20, ut for aut; p. 137, l. 8, ammirationi for ammirationis; p. 137, l. 16, offert for affert; p. 137, l. 17, Roluoni for Rouolni; p. 137, l. 27, ministerio for ministros; p. 137, l. 33 diuturnus for diuturnius; p. 206, l. 22, diutinam for diutina; p. 207, l. 3, ei for eique; p. 207, l. 5, destituat for deficiat; p. 209, l. 2, latere for latera; p. 209, l. 5, conscisci for concissi; p. 209, l. 14, defoderat for defodera.
[344] Above this heading B has Gesta Offe Regis merciorum.
[345] A repeats sibi after constitueret.
[346] Hic Riganus binomins fuit. Vocabatur enim alio nomine Aliel. Riganus uero a rigore. Huic erat filius Hildebrandus, miles strenuus, ab ense sic dictus. Hunc uoluit pater promouere: Contemporary rubric in A, inserted in the middle of the sketch representing Riganus demanding the kingdom from Warmundus.
[347] optat, B.
[348] celebri, B; celibri, A.
[349] hoc, B.
[350] ueheementer, A.
[351] ueheementi, A.
[352] eciam, B.
[353] Added in margin in A; not in B.
[354] hec omitted, B.
[355] Added in margin in A; not in B.
[356] dereliquerunt, B.
[357] precipue omitted, B.
[358] ei omitted, B.
[359] Qualmhul vel Qualmweld in margin, A.
[360] planies, A: planicies, perhaps corrected from planies, B.
[361] blodifeld, B.
[362] Gloria triumphi, in margin, A.
[363] tripudium, B; tripuduum, A.
[364] scis, A, B.
[365] menbra, A.
[366] gracias, B.
[367] hosstibus, A.
[368] romotis, A.
[369] congnouerunt, A.
[370] Warmandi, A.
[371] habenas repeated after regni above in A, but cancelled in B.
[372] exaggeret, B.
[373] pulcritudinis, B; pulchritudini, A.
[374] ingnota, A.
[375] euuangelii, B.
[376] consingnatas, A.
[377] from B, written over erasure.
[378] scribitur, B.
[379] Epistola, in margin, A.
[380] incongnita, A.
[381] dicebant, B.
[382] frustratim, A, B.
[383] ossium, B.
[384] congnouit, A.
[385] hoc omitted, B.
[386] congnicione, A.
[387] sui, A.
[388] obtemperare, B.
[389] menbra, A.
[390] qui, AB; quae, Wats.
[391] recongnosce, A.
[392] sancte et dulcissime, B.
[393] ut added above line, A, B.
[394] scenobium, A; the si s erased in B.
[395] deo, B
[396] tuinfreth, B.
[397] scenobio, A; s erased B.
[398] de tirannide Beormredi regis Mercie, B.
[399] fecerat, wanting in A; added in margin, B.
[400] Pinefredum, B; Penefredum, A, but with i above in first case.
[401] uariis repeated, A; second variis cancelled, B.
[402] considerans, B, inserted in margin; omitted, A.
[403] Marcelline, A; Marcell, B.
[404] vixisset, B, inserted in margin; omitted, A.
[405] Alberto, etc. passim, B.
[406] virtutibus, in margin, later hand, A; in B, over erasure.
[407] est in margin, A.
[408] et omitted, B.
[409] innotuerunt, B.
[410] in pietatis manu, B.
[411] premissimis, A.
[412] sinistrum, B.
[413] quam in margin, A; over erasure, B.
[414] Space for cap. left vacant, A.
[415] aucmentum, A.
[416] facinoris, B.
[417] congnouit, A.
[418] celeriter, B.
[419] cum in A is inserted after peruenisset, instead of before: and this was probably the original reading in B, although subsequently corrected.
[420] per, B.
[421] corrected to nullatenus dormire quasi suspectam permisit, B.
[422] Justa Vindicta, A, in margin.
[423] Mr Mackie, in an excellent article on the Fragment (J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 251) objects that my criticism of Hickes' accuracy "is not altogether judicial." Mackie urges that, since the MS is no longer extant, we cannot tell how far the errors are due to Hickes, and how far they already existed in the MS from which Hickes copied.
But we must not forget that there are other transcripts by Hickes, of MSS which are still extant, and from these we can estimate his accuracy. It is no disrespect to the memory of Hickes, a scholar to whom we are all indebted, to recognize frankly that his transcripts are not sufficiently accurate to make them at all a satisfactory substitute for the original MS. Hickes' transcript of the Cottonian Gnomic Verses (Thesaurus, I, 207) shows an average of one error in every four lines: about half these errors are mere matters of spelling, the others are serious. Hickes' transcript of the Calendar (Thesaurus, I, 203) shows an average of one error in every six lines. When, therefore, we find in the Finnsburg Fragment inaccuracies of exactly the type which Hickes often commits, it would be "hardly judicial" to attribute these to the MS which he copied, and to attribute to Hickes in this particular instance an accuracy to which he has really no claim.
Mr Mackie doubts the legitimacy of emending Garulf to Garulf[e]: but we must remember that Hickes (or his printer) was systematically careless as to the final e: cf. Calendar, 15, 23, 41, 141, 144, 171, 210; Gnomic Verses, 45. Other forms in the Finnsburg Fragment which can be easily paralleled by Hickes' miswritings in the Calendar and Gnomic Verses are
Confusion of u and a (Finn. 3, 27, perhaps 44) cf. Gn. 66.
" " c " e (Finn. 12) cf. Cal. 136, Gn. 44.
" " e " æ (Finn. 41) cf. Cal. 44, 73, Gn. 44.
" " e " a (Finn. 22) cf. Cal. 74.
" " eo " ea (Finn. 28) cf. Cal. 121.
" " letters involving long down stroke, e.g., f, s, r, þ, w, p
(Finn. 2, 36) cf. Cal. 97, 142, 180, 181, Gn. 9.
Addition of n (Finn. 22) cf. Cal. 161.
[424] Heimskringla, chap. 220.
[425] It has been suggested that the phrase "Hengest himself" indicates that Hengest is the "war-young king." But surely the expression merely marks Hengest out as a person of special interest. If we must assume that he is one of the people who have been speaking, then it would be just as natural to identify him with the watcher who has warned the king, as with the king himself. The difficulties which prevent us from identifying Hengest with the king are explained below.
[426] Garulf must be an assailant, since he falls at the beginning of the struggle, whilst we are told that for five days none of the defenders fell.
[427] Very possibly Guthere is uncle of Garulf. For Garulf is said to be son of Guthlaf (l. 35) and a Guthere would be likely to be a brother of a Guthlaf. Further, as Klaeber points out (Engl. Stud. XXXIX, 307) it is the part of the uncle to protect and advise the nephew.
[428] Koegel, Geschichte d. deut. Litt. I, i, 165.
[429] Klaeber (Engl. Stud. XXXIX, 308) reminds us that, as there are two warriors named Godric in the Battle of Maldon (l. 325), so there may be two warriors named Guthlaf here. But to this it might possibly be replied that "Godric" was, in England, an exceedingly common name, "Guthlaf" an exceedingly rare one.
[430] Finn is called the bana, "slayer" of Hnæf. But this does not necessarily mean that he slew him with his own hand; it would be enough if he were in command of the assailants at the time when Hnæf was slain. Cf. Beowulf, l. 1968.
[431] The idea that Finn's Frisians are the "North Frisians" of Schleswig has been supported by Grein (Eberts Jahrbuch, IV, 270) and, following him, by many scholars, including recently Sedgefield (Beowulf, p. 258). The difficulties of this view are very many: one only need be emphasized. We first hear of these North Frisians of Schleswig in the 12th century, and Saxo Grammaticus tells us expressly that they were a colony from the greater Frisia (Book XIV, ed. Holder, p. 465). At what date this colony was founded we do not know. The latter part of the 9th century has been suggested by Langhans: so has the end of the 11th century by Lauridsen. However this may be, all the evidence precludes our supposing this North Friesland, or, as Saxo calls it, Fresia Minor, to have existed at the date to which we must attribute the origin of the Finn story. On this point the following should be consulted: Langhans (V.), Ueber den Ursprung der Nordfriesen, Wien, 1879 (most valuable on account of its citation of documents: the latter part of the book, which consists of an attempt to rewrite the Finn story by dismissing as corrupt or spurious many of the data, must not blind us to the value of the earlier portions): Lauridsen, Om Nordfrisernes Indvandring i Sønderjylland, Historisk Tidsskrift, 6 R, 4 B. II, 318-67, Kjøbenhavn, 1893: Siebs, Zur Geschichte der Englisch-Friesischen Sprache, 1889, 23-6: Chadwick, Origin, 94: Much in Hoops Reallexikon, s.v. Friesen; and Bremer in Pauls Grdr. (2), III, 848, where references will be found to earlier essays on the subject.
[432] The theory that Hnæf is a captain of Healfdene is based upon a rendering of l. 1064 which is in all probability wrong.
[433] The view that the Eotenas are the men of Hnæf and Hengest has been held by Thorpe (Beowulf, pp. 76-7), Ettmüller (Beowulf, 1840, p. 108), Bouterwek (Germania, I, 389), Holtzmann (Germania, VIII, 492), Möller (Volksepos, 94-5), Chadwick (Origin, 53), Clarke (Sidelights, 184).
[434] "And therefore, said the King ... much more I am sorrier for my good knights' loss, than for the loss of my fair queen. For queens I might have enow: but such a fellowship of good knights shall never be together in no company." Malory, Morte Darthur, Bk. XX, chap. ix.
[435] The argument of Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 37) that the Eotens here (l. 1088) must be the Frisians, is inconclusive: but so is Miss Clarke's argument that they must be Danes (Sidelights, 181), as is shown by Lawrence (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXX, 395).
[436] I say "son" in what follows, without prejudice to the possibility of more than one son having fallen. It in no wise affects the argument.
[437] For example, it might well be said of Achilles, whilst thirsting for vengeance upon the Trojans for the death of Patroclus, that "he could not get the children of the Trojans out of his mind." But surely it would be unintelligible to say that "he could not get the child of the Achaeans out of his mind," meaning Patroclus, for "child of the Achaeans" is not sufficiently distinctive to denote Patroclus. Cf. Boer in Z.f.d.A. XLVII, 134.
[438] In the Skjoldunga Saga [extant in a Latin abstract by Arngrim Jonsson, ed. Olrik, 1894], cap. IV, mention is made of a king of Denmark named Leifus who had six sons, three of whom are named Hunleifus, Oddleifus and Gunnleifus—corresponding exactly to O.E. Hūnlāf, Ordlāf and Gūðlāf. That Hunlaf was well known in English story is proved by a remarkable passage unearthed by Dr Imelmann from MS Cotton Vesp. D. IV (fol. 139 b) where Hunlaf is mentioned together with a number of other heroes of Old English story—Wugda, Hama, Hrothulf, Hengest, Horsa (Hoc testantur gesta rudolphi et hunlapi, Unwini et Widie, horsi et hengisti, Waltef et hame). See Chadwick, Origin, 52: R. Huchon, Revue Germanique, III, 626: Imelmann, in D.L.Z. XXX, 999: April, 1909. This disposes of the translation "Hun thrust or placed in his bosom Lafing, best of swords," which was adopted by Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 33), Holder, ten Brink and Gering. Hun is mentioned in Widsith (l. 33) and in the Icelandic Thulor.
That Guthlaf, Ordlaf and Hunlaf must be connected together had been noted by Boer (Z.f.d.A. XLVII, 139) before this discovery of Chadwick's confirmed him.
[439] The fragment which tells of the fighting in the hall is so imperfect that there is nothing impossible in the assumption, though it is too hazardous to make it.
[440] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 1900 etc.
[441] Das Altenglische Volksepos, 46-99.
[442] C. P. Hansen, Uald' Söld'ring tialen, Møgeltønder, 1858. See Möller, Volksepos, 75 etc.
[443] See Müllenhoff in A.f.d.A. VI, 86.
[444] So Möller, Volksepos, 152.
[445] See Beowulf, ed. Wyatt, 1894, p. 145.
[446] Volksepos, 71 etc.
[447] e.g., Sedgefield, Beowulf, 2nd ed., p. 258. So 1st ed., p. 13 (Hoc being an obvious misprint).
[448] On the poet's use of plural for singular here, see Osthoff, I.F. XX, 202-7.
[449] I have thought it necessary to give fully the reasons why Möller's view cannot be accepted, because in whole or in part it is still widely followed in England. Chadwick (Origin, 53) still interprets "Eotens" as "Danes"; and Sedgefield (Beowulf (2), p. 258) gives Möller's view the place of honour.
[450] The treachery of Finn is emphasized, for example, by Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 36), Koegel (Geschichte d. deut. Litt. 164), ten Brink (Pauls Grdr. (1), II, 545), Trautmann (Finn und Hildebrand, 59), Lawrence (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXX, 397, 430), Ayres (J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 290).
syþðan morgen cōm
ðā hēo under swegle gesēon meahte, etc.
[452] l. 36. The swords flash swylce eal Finnsburuh fȳrenu wǣre, "as if all Finnsburg were afire." I think we may safely argue from this that the swords are flashing near Finnsburg. It would be just conceivable that the poet's mind travels back from the scene of the battle to Finn's distant home: "the swords made as great a flash as would have been made had Finn's distant capital been aflame": but this is a weak and forced interpretation, which we have no right to assume, though it may be conceivable.
[453] Beowulf, ll. 1125-7. I doubt whether it is possible to explain the difficulty away by supposing that "the warriors departing to see Friesland, their homes and their head-town" simply means that Finn's men, "summoned by Finn in preparation for the encounter with the Danes, return to their respective homes in the country," and that "hēaburh is a high sounding epic term that should not be pressed." This is the explanation offered by Klaeber (J.E.G.Ph. VI, 193) and endorsed by Lawrence (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXX, 401). But it seems to me taking a liberty with the text to interpret hēaburh (singular) as the "respective homes in the country" to which Finn's warriors resort on demobilisation. And the statement of ll. 1125-7, that the warriors departed from the place of combat to see Friesland, seems to necessitate that such place of combat was not in Friesland. Klaeber objects to this (surely obvious) inference: "If we are to infer [from ll. 1125-7] that Finnsburg lies outside Friesland proper, we might as well conclude that Dyflen (Dublin) is not situated in Ireland according to the Battle of Brunanburh (gewitan him þā Norðmenn ... Dyflen sēcan and eft Īraland)." But how could anyone infer this from the Brunanburh lines? What we are justified in inferring, is, surely, that the site of the battle of Brunanburh (from which the Northmen departed to visit Ireland and Dublin) was not identical with Dublin, and did not lie in Ireland. And by exact parity of reason, we are justified in arguing that Finnsburg, the site of the first battle in which Hnæf fell (from which site the warriors depart to visit Friesland and the hēaburh) was not identical with the hēaburh, and did not lie in Friesland. Accordingly the usual view, that Finnsburg is situated outside Friesland, seems incontestable. See Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 29-30), Trautmann (Finn und Hildebrand, 60) and Boer (Z.f.d.A. XLVII, 137). Cf. Ayres (J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 294).
[455] So Brandl, 984, and Heinzel.
[456] Or just as the attack on the Danes began at night, we might suppose (as does Trautmann) that it equally culminated in a night assault five days later. There would be obvious advantage in night fighting when the object was to storm a hall: Flugumýrr was burnt by night, and so was the hall of Njal. So, too, was the hall of Rolf Kraki. It would be, then, on the morning after this second night assault, that Hildeburh found her kinsfolk dead.
[457] Beowulf, l. 1831: cf. l. 409.
[458] Leo (Beowulf, 1839, 67), Müllenhoff (Nordalbingische Studien, I, 157), Rieger (Lesebuch; Z.f.d.Ph. III, 398-401), Dederich (Studien, 1877, 96-7), Heyne (in his fourth edition) and in recent times Holthausen have interpreted eoten as a common noun "giant," "monster," and consequently "foe" in general. But they have failed to produce any adequate justification for interpreting eoten as "foe," and Holthausen, the modern advocate of this interpretation, has now abandoned it. Grundtvig (Beowulfes Beorh, 1861, pp. 133 etc.) and Möller (Volksepos, 97 etc.) also interpret "giant," Möller giving an impossible mythological explanation, which was, at the time, widely followed.
[459] Like oxnum, nefenum (cf. Sievers, § 277, Anm. 1).
[460] I do not attach much importance to the argument which might be drawn from the statement of Binz (P.B.B. XX, 185) that the evidence of proper names shows that in the Hampshire district (which was colonized by Jutes) the legend of Finnsburg was particularly remembered. For on the other hand, as Binz points out, similar evidence is markedly lacking for Kent. And why, indeed, should the Jutes have specially commemorated a legend in which their part appears not to have been a very creditable one?
[462] See above, p. [200]. Zimmer, Nennius Vindicatus, 84, assumes that the Kentish pedigree borrowed these names from the Bernician: but there is no evidence for this.
[463] Among those who have so held are Kemble, Thorpe (Beowulf, pp. 76-7), Ettmüller (Beowulf, 1840, p. 23), Bouterwek (Germania, I, 389), Grein (Eberts Jahrbuch, IV, 270), Köhler (Germania, XIII, 155), Heyne (in first three editions), Holder (Beowulf, p. 128), ten Brink (Pauls Grdr. (1), II, 548), Heinzel (A.f.d.A. X. 228), Stevenson (Asser, 1904, p. 169), Schücking (Beowulf, 1913, p. 321), Klaeber (J.E.G.Ph. XIV, 545), Lawrence (Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXX, 393), Moorman (Essays and Studies, V, 99), Björkman (Eigennamen im Beowulf, 21).
So too, with some hesitation, Chadwick (Orgin, 52-3): with much more hesitation, Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 37). Whilst this is passing through the press Holthausen has withdrawn his former interpretation eotena, "enemies," in favour of Eotena=Ēotna, "Jutes" (Engl. Stud. LI, 180).
[464] P.B.B. XII, 37.
[465] The cognate of O.E. fǣr (Mod. Eng. "fear") in other Germanic languages, such as Old Saxon and Old High German, has the meaning of "ambush." In the nine places where it occurs in O.E. verse it has always the meaning of a peril which comes upon one suddenly, and is applied, e.g. to the Day of Judgement (twice) or some unexpected flood (three times). In compounds fǣr conveys an idea of suddenness: "fǣr-dēað, repentina mors."
[466] Volksepos, 69.
[467] It has been surmounted in two ways. (1) By altering eaferum to eaferan (a very slight change) and then making fǣr refer to the final attack upon Finn, in which he certainly was on the defensive (Lawrence, 397 etc., Ayres, 284, Trautmann, BB. II, Klaeber, Anglia, XXVIII, 443, Holthausen). (2) By making hīē refer to hæleð Healf-Dena which follows (Green in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXXI, 759-97); but this is forced. See also below, p. [284].
[468] Cf. Tacitus, Germania, XIV.
[469] For examples of this see pp. [278]-82 below.
[470] Fragment, 40-1.
[472] Book II (ed. Holder, p. 67).
[473] P.B.B. XII, 34.
[474] For a discussion of the interpretation of the difficult forþringan, see Carlton Brown in M.L.N. XXXIV, 181-3.
[475] J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 291-2.
[476] Ib. 293-4.
[477] I wish I could feel convinced, with Ayres, that the person whom Guthlaf and Oslaf blame for their woes is Hengest rather than Finn. Such an interpretation renders the story so much more coherent; but if the poet really meant this, he assuredly did not make his meaning quite clear.
[478] See below, pp. [276], [288]-9.
[479] Ne hūru Hildeburh herian þorfte Eotena trēowe.
[480] Ayres, in J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 286. So Lawrence in a private communication.
[481] ll. 2910, etc.
[482] We can construct the situation from such historical information as we can get from Gregory of Tours and other sources. The author of Beowulf may not have been clear as to the exact relation of the different tribes. We cannot tell, from the vague way he speaks, how much he knew.
[483] I have argued this at some length below, but I do not think anyone would deny it. Bugge recognized it to be true (P.B.B. XII, 29-30) as does Lawrence (392). See below, pp. [288]-9.
[484] We can never argue that words are synonymous because they are parallel. Compare Psalm cxiv; in the first verse the parallel words are synonymous, but in the second and third not:
"When Israel came out of Egypt and the house of Jacob from among the strange people" [Israel = house of Jacob: Egypt = strange people].
"Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion." [Judah is only one of the tribes of Israel.]
"The sea saw that and fled: Jordan was driven back." [The Red Sea and Jordan are distinct, though parallel, examples.]
[485] J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 288.
[486] Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXX, 430.
[487] Plummer, Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, II, 47.
[488] Njáls Saga, cap. 45.
[489] Pauls Grdr. (2), II, 524.
[490] Helmhold.
[491] I know of only one parallel for such assumed adoption of a name: that also concerns the Jutes. The Angles, says Bede, dwelt between the Saxons and Jutes: the Jutes must, then, according to Bede, have dwelt north of the Angles, since the Saxons dwelt south. But the people north of the Angles are now, and have been from early times, Scandinavian in speech, whilst the Jutes who settled Kent obviously were not. The best way of harmonizing known linguistic facts with Bede's statement is, then, to assume that Scandinavians settled in the old continental home of these Jutes and took over their name, whilst introducing the Scandinavian speech.
Now many scholars have regarded this as so forced and unlikely an explanation that they reject it, and refuse to believe that the Jutes who settled Kent can have dwelt north of the Angles, in spite of Bede's statement. If we are asked to reject the "Scandinavian-Jute" theory, as too unlikely on a priori grounds, although it is demanded by the express evidence of Bede, it is surely absurd to put forward a precisely similar theory in favour of "Frisian-Jutes" upon no evidence at all.
[492] Koegel (164), Lawrence (382).
[493] Björkman (Eigennamen im Beowulf, 23) interprets the Eotenas as Jutist subjects of Finn. This suggestion was made quite independently of anything I had written, and confirms me in my belief that it is a reasonable interpretation.
[494] Ayres in J.E.G.Ph. XVI, 288.
[495] e.g. Njáls Saga, cap. 144: Laxdæla Saga, cap. 51.
[496] Of course a primitive stage can be conceived at which homicide is regarded as worse than murder. Your brother shoots A intentionally: he must therefore have had good reasons, and you fraternally support him. But you may feel legitimate annoyance if he aims at a stag, and shooting A by mere misadventure, involves you in a blood-feud.
[497] Heimskringla, Ól. Tryggv. K. 111; Saga Olafs Tryggvasonar, K. 70 (Fornmanna Sǫgur, 1835, X.)
[498] Saxo Grammaticus (ed. Holder, p. 67).
[499] Heimskringla, Ól. Tryggv. K. 41.
[500] lýsti vígi á hendr sér. Laxdæla Saga, cap. 49.
[501] Cap. 55.
[502] Cap. 85.
[503] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, anno 755.
[504] Njáls Saga, cap. 158.
[505] Fragment, ll. 40-1.
[506] p. 213 (ed. Holder).
[507] Finn may perhaps be holding a meeting of chieftains. For similar meetings of chieftains, compare Sǫrla þáttr, cap. 4; Laxdæla Saga, cap. 12; Skáldskaparmál, cap. 47 (50).
[508] There is assuredly a considerable likeness between the Finn story and the Nibelungen story: this has been noted often enough. It is more open to dispute whether the likeness is so great as to justify us in believing that the Nibelungen story is copied from the Finn story, and may therefore safely be used as an indication how gaps in our existing versions of that story may be filled. See Boer in Z.f.d.A. XLVII, 125 etc.
[509] The fact that both sides have suffered about equally facilitates a settlement in the Teutonic feud, just as it does among the Afridis or the Albanians at the present day.
[510] The situation would then be parallel to that in Laxdæla Saga, cap. 60-5, where the boy Thorleik, aged fifteen, is nominally in command of the expedition which avenges his father Bolli, but is only able to accomplish his revenge by enlisting the great warrior Thorgils, who is the real leader of the raid.
[511] Bugge (P.B.B. XII, 36) interpreted this swylce as meaning that sword-bale came upon Finn in like manner as it had previously come upon Hnæf. But this is to make swylce in l. 1146 refer back to the death of Hnæf mentioned (72 lines previously) in l. 1074. Möller (Volksepos, 67) tries to explain swylce by supposing the passage it introduces to be a fragment detached from its context.
[512] f, r, s, þ, w, p (
[513] p. 392.
[514] p. 431.
[515] Nennius Interpretatus, ed. Mommsen (Chronica Minora, III, 179, in Mon. Germ. Hist.)
[516] "De norske oldsager synes at vidne om, at temmelig livlige handelsforbindelser i den ældre jernalder har fundet sted mellem Norge og de sydlige Nordsøkyster." Undset, Fra Norges ældre Jernalder in the Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie, 1880, 89-184, esp. p. 173. See also Chadwick, Origin, 93. I am indebted to Chadwick's note for this reference to Undset.
[517] Ravennatis anonymi cosmographia, ed. Pinder et Parthey, Berolini, 1860, pp. 27, 28 (§ I, 11).
[518] The modern Wijk bij Duurstede, not far from Utrecht, on the Lower Rhine.
[519] An account of the numerous coins found among the ruins of the old town will be found in the Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, IV (1864), pp. 301-303. They testify to its commercial importance.
[520] So Adam of Bremen, following Alcuin. Concerning "Heiligland" Adam says: "Hanc in vita Sancti Willebrordi Fosetisland appellari discimus, quae sita est in confinio Danorum et Fresonum." Adam of Bremen in Pertz, Scriptores, VII, 1846, p. 369.
[521] Alcuin's Life of Willibrord in Migne (1851)—Alcuini Opera, vol. II, 699-702.
[522] See above, pp. [199]-200.
[523] It had been disputed by Skeat, Earle, Boer, and others, but never with such strong reasons.
[524] I use below the form "Beow," which I believe to be the correct one. "Beaw" is the form in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But as the name of Sceldwa, Beaw's father, is there given in a form which is not West-Saxon (sceld, not scield or scyld), it may well be that "Beaw" is also the Anglian dialect form, if it be not indeed a mere error: and this is confirmed by Beo (Ethelwerd), Beowius (William of Malmesbury), Boerinus (for Beowinus: Chronicle Roll), perhaps too by Beowa (Charter of 931) and Beowi, (MS Cott. Tib. B. IV). For the significance of this last, see pp. [303]-4, below, and Björkman in Engl. Stud. LII, 171, Anglia, Beiblatt, XXX, 23.
[525] Vol. LXXXI, p. 517.
[526] It has indeed been so argued by Brandl: "Beowulf ... ist nur der Erlöser seines Volkes ... und dankt es schliesslich dem Himmel, in einer an den Heiland gemahnenden Weise, dass er die Seinen um den Preis des eigenen Lebens mit Schätzen beglücken konnte." Pauls Grdr. (2), II, l. 1002.
[527] Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th edit., III, 760-1.
[528] l. 2039, where a capital O occurs, but without a section number.
[529] Moore, Namur, Cotton.
[530] Cotton Tiberius B. XI.
[531] Hatton, 20.
[534] Ethelwerd.
[535] Chronicle.
[536] Boer, Beowulf, 135, 143: Arkiv f. nord. Filologi, XIX, 29.
[537] Heroic Age, 126.
[538] Postscript to Preface, p. ix.
[539] Postscript, pp. xi, xiv.
[540] See Lokasenna in Die Lieder der Edda, herausg. von Sijmons u. Gering, I, 134.
Byggvir kvaþ:
"[Veiztu] ef [ek] øþle ǽttak sem Ingunar-Freyr,
ok svá sǽllekt setr,
merge smǽra mølþak [þá] meinkrǫ́ko
ok lemþa alla í liþo."
[541] Lines corresponding to these of Burns are found both in the Scotch ballad recorded by Jamieson, and in the English ballad (Pepys Collection). See Jamieson, Popular Ballads and Songs, 1806, II, 241, 256.
Loki kvaþ:
"Hvat's þat et lítla, es [ek] þat lǫggra sék,
ok snapvíst snaper?
at eyrom Freys mont ǽ vesa
ok und kvernom klaka."
[543] Jamieson, II, 239. So Burns: "John Barleycorn was a hero bold," and the ballad
John Barleycorn is the wightest man
That ever throve in land.
Byggvir kvaþ:
"Byggver ek heite, en mik bráþan kveþa
goþ ǫll ok gumar;
því emk hér hróþogr, at drekka Hrópts meger
aller ǫl saman."
Loki kvaþ:
"þege þú, Byggver! þú kunner aldrege
deila meþ mǫnnom mat;
[ok] þik í flets strae finna né mǫ́tto,
þás vǫ́go verar."
[546] This follows from the allusive way in which he and his wife are introduced—there must be a background to allusions. If the poet were inventing this figure, and had no background of knowledge in his audience to appeal to, he must have been more explicit. Cf. Olsen in Christiania Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, 1914, II, 2, 107.
[548] See Olrik, "Nordisk og Lappisk Gudsdyrkelse," Danske Studier, 1905, pp. 39-57; "Tordenguden og hans dreng," 1905, pp. 129-46; "Tordenguden og hans dreng i Lappernes myteverden," 1906, pp. 65-9; Krohn, "Lappische beiträge zur germ. mythologie," Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, VI, 1906, pp. 155-80.
[549] See Axel Olrik in Festgabe f. Vilh. Thomsen, 1912 (= Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, XII, 1, p. 40). Olrik refers therein to his earlier paper on the subject in Danske Studier, 1911, p. 38, and to a forthcoming article in the Germanisch-Romanische Monatsschrift, which has, I think, never appeared. See also K. Krohn in Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1912, p. 211. Reviewing Meyer's Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, Krohn, after referring to the Teutonic gods of agriculture, continues "Ausser diesen agrikulturellen Gottheiten sind aus der finnischen Mythologie mit Hülfe der Linguistik mehrere germanische Naturgötter welche verschiedene Nutzpflanzen vertreten, entdeckt worden: der Roggengott Runkoteivas oder Rukotivo, der Gerstengott Pekko (nach Magnus Olsen aus urnord. Beggw-, vgl. Byggwir) und ein Gott des Futtergrases Sämpsä (vgl. Semse od. Simse, 'die Binse')." See also Krohn, "Germanische Elemente in der finnischen Volksdichtung," Z.f.d.A. LI, 1909, pp. 13-22; and Karsten, "Einige Zeugnisse zur altnordischen Götterverehrung in Finland," Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, XII, 307-16.
[550] As proposed by K. Krohn in a publication of the Finnish Academy at Helsingfors which I have not been able to consult, but as to which see Setälä in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, XIII, 311, 424. Setälä accepts the derivation from beggwu-, rejecting an alternative derivation of Pekko from a Finnish root.
[551] This is proposed by J. J. Mikkola in a note appended to the article by K. Krohn, "Sampsa Pellervoinen < Njordr, Freyr?" in Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, IV, 231-48. See also Olrik, "Forårsmyten hos Finnerne," in Danske Studier, 1907, pp. 62-4.
[552] See note by K. Krohn, Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, VI, 105.
[553] See above, p. [87], and M. J. Eisen, "Ueber den Pekokultus bei den Setukesen," Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen, VI, 104-11.
[554] See M. Olsen, Hedenske Kultminder i Norske Stedsnavne, Christiania Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, II, 2, 1914, pp. 227-8.
[556] Mannhardt, Mythologische Forschungen, 332.
[557] In view of the weight laid upon this custom by Olrik as illustrating the story of Sceaf, it is necessary to note that it seems to be confined to parts of England bordering on the "Celtic fringe." See above, pp. [81], etc. Olrik and Olsen quote it as Kentish (see Heltedigtning, II, 252) but this is certainly wrong. Frazer attributes the custom of "crying the mare" to Hertfordshire and Shropshire (Spirits of the Corn, I, 292 = Golden Bough, 3rd edit., VII, 292). In this he is following Brand's Popular Antiquities (1813, I, 443; 1849, II, 24; also Carew Hazlitt, 1905, I, 157). But Brand's authority is Blount's Glossographia, 1674, and Blount says Herefordshire.
[558] Brand, Popular Antiquities, 1849, II, 24.
[559] Frazer in the Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 1889, pp. 50, 51; Adonis, Attis and Osiris, I, 237.
[560] Frazer, Adonis, Attis and Osiris, I, 238 (Golden Bough, 3rd edit.).
[561] Frazer, Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, I, 143-4.
[562] Frazer in the Folk-Lore Journal, VII, 1889, pp. 50, 51.
[563] Mannhardt, Forschungen, 317.
[564] Frazer, Spirits of the Corn, I, 138.
[565] Mannhardt, 323; Fraser, Adonis, I, 238.
[566] Mannhardt, 330.
[567] Mannhardt, 24; Frazer, Adonis, I, 238.
[568] Frazer, Adonis, I, 237.
[569] Frazer, Spirits of the Corn, I, 217.
[570] See Björkman in Anglia, Beiblatt, XXX, 1919, p. 23. In a similar way Sceaf appears twice in William of Malmesbury, once as Sceaf and once as Strephius.
[571] Vol. LII, p. 145.
[572] MS Cott. Vesp. B. XXIV, fol. 32 (Evesham Cartulary). See Birch, Cart. Sax. I, 176 (No. 120); Kemble, Cod. Dipl. III, 376. Kemble prints þæt æft for þā æft (MS "þ¯ æft"). For examples of "þ¯" for þā, see Ælfrics Grammatik, herausg. Zupitza, 1880; 38, 3; 121, 4; 291, 1.
[573] There are two copies, one of the tenth and one of the eleventh century, among the Crawford Collection in the Bodleian. See Birch, Cart. Sax. III, ..7 (No. 1331); Napier and Stevenson, The Crawford Collection (Anecdota Oxoniensia), 1895, pp. 1, 3, 50.
[574] MS Cotton Ch. VIII, 16. See Birch, Cart. Sax. II, 363 (No. 677); Kemble, Cod. Dipl. II, 172.
[575] A nearly contemporary copy: Westminster Abbey Charters, III. See Birch, Cart. Sax. III, 189 (No. 994), and W. B. Sanders, Ord. Surv. Facs. II, plate III.
[576] A fourteenth to fifteenth century copy preserved at Wells Cathedral (Registr. Album, f. 289 b). See Birch, Cart. Sax. III, 223 (No. 1023).
[577] MS Cotton Aug. II, 6. See Birch, Cart. Sax. III, 588 (No. 1282).
[578] Brit. Mus. Stowe Chart. No. 32. See Birch, Cart. Sax. III, 605 (No. 1290).
[579] Cf. the Victoria History, Middlesex, II, p. 1.
[580] "Grendeles gate har väl snarast varit någon naturbildning t. ex. ett trångt bergpass eller kanske en grotta": C. W. von Sydow, in an excellent article on Grendel i anglosaxiska ortnamn, in Nordiska Ortnamn: Hyllningsskrift tillägnad A. Noreen, Upsala, 1914, pp. 160-4.
[581] Près du Neckersgat molen, il y avait jadis, antérieurement aux guerres de religion, des maisons entourées d'eau et appelées de hoffstede te Neckersgate: Wauters (A.), Histoire des Environs de Bruxelles, 1852, III, 646.
[582] Peg Powler lived in the Tees, and devoured children who played on the banks, especially on Sundays: Peg o' Nell, in the Ribble, demanded a life every seven years. See Henderson (W.), Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of England, 1879 (Folk-Lore Society), p. 265.
[583] See Kisch (G.), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der siebenbürgischen und moselfränkischluxemburgischen Mundart, nebst siebenbürgischniederrheinischem Ortsund Familiennamen-verzeichnis (vol. XXXIII, 1 of the Archiv des Vereins f. siebenbürg. Landeskunde, 1905).
[584] See Grindel in Förstemann (E.), Altdeutsches Namenbuch, Dritte Aufl., herausg. Jellinghaus, II, 1913, and in Fischer (H.), Schwäbisches Wörterbuch, III, 1911 (nevertheless Rooth legitimately calls attention to the names recorded by Fischer in which Grindel is connected with bach, teich and moos).
[585] There is an account of this by G. Kisch in the Festgabe zur Feier der Einweihung des neuen evang. Gymnasial Bürger- und Elementar-schulgebäudes in Besztercze (Bistritz) am 7 Oct. 1911; a document which I have not been able to procure.
[586] Such a connection is attempted by W. Benary in Herrig's Archiv, CXXX, 154. Alternative suggestions, which would exclude any connection with the Grendel of Beowulf, are made by Klaeber, in Archiv, CXXXI, 427.
[587] A very useful summary of the different etymologies proposed is made by Rooth in Anglia, Beiblatt, XXVIII (1917), 335-8.
[588] So Skeat, "On the significance of the monster Grendel," Journal of Philology, Cambridge, XV (1886), p. 123; Laistner, Rätsel der Sphinx, 1889, p. 23; Holthausen, in his edition.
[589] So Weinhold in the SB. der k. Akad. Wien, Phil.-Hist. Classe, XXVI, 255.
[590] Cf. Gollancz, Patience, 1913, Glossary. For grindill as one of the synonyms for "storm," see Edda Snorra Sturlusonar, Hafniae, 1852, II, 486, 569.
[591] This will be found in several of the vocabularies of Low German dialects published by the Verein für Niederdeutsche Sprachforschung.
[592] See grand in Falk and Torp, Etymologisk Ordbog, Kristiania, 1903-6.
[593] See Feist, Etymol. Wörterbuch der Gotischen Sprache, Halle, 1909; grunduwaddjus.
[594] With Grendel, thus explained, Rooth would connect the "Earth man" of the fairy-tale "Dat Erdmänneken" (see below, p. [370]) and the name Sandhaug, Sandey, which clings to the Scandinavian Grettir- and Orm-stories. We have seen that a sandhaug figures also in one of the Scandinavian cognates of the folk-tale (see above, p. [67]). These resemblances may be noted, though it would be perilous to draw deductions from them.
[595] Schweizerisches Idiotikon, II, 1885, p. 776.
[596] See above, pp. [43], etc.; below, p. [311].
[597] Duignan, Warwickshire Place Names, p. 22. Duignan suggests the same etymology for Beoshelle, beos being "the Norman scribe's idea of the gen. plu." This, however, is very doubtful.
[598] Engl. Stud. LII, 177.
[599] Heltedigtning, II, 255. See above, pp. [81]-7.
[600] Binz in P.B.B. XX, 148; Chadwick, Origin, 282. So Clarke, Sidelights, 128. Cf. Heusler in A.f.d. A. XXX, 31.
[601] A.-S. Chronicle.
[602] Historia Brittonum.
[603] "hrædlan" (gen.), Beowulf, 454.
[604] "hrædles," Beowulf, 1485.
[605] A.-S. Chronicle.
[606] Beowulf, Ethelwerd.
[607] Geata, Geta, Historia Brittonum; Asser; MS Cott. Tib. A. VI; Textus Roffensis.
[608] A.-S. Chronicle.
[609] Charter of 931.
[610] A.-S. Chronicle, Ethelwerd.
[611] Origin, 273.
[612] Origin, 282.
[613] Some O.H.G. parallels will be found in Z.f.d.A. XII, 260. The weak form Gēata, Mr Stevenson argues, is due to Asser's attempt to reconcile the form Gēat with the Latin Geta with which he identifies it (Asser, pp. 160-161). See also Chadwick, Heroic Age, 124 footnote. Yet we get Gēata in one text of the Chronicle, and in other documents.
[614] This is the view taken by Plummer, who does not seem to regard any solution as possible other than that the names are missing from the Parker MS by a transcriber's slip (see Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel, II, p. xciv).
[615] Plummer, II, pp. xxix, xxxi, lxxxix.
[616] Plummer, II, p. lxxi. Note Beowi for Bedwig.
[617] This table shows the relationship of the genealogies only, not of the whole MSS, of which the genealogies form but a small part. MS-relationships are always liable to fluctuation, as we pass from one part of a MS to another, and for obvious reasons this is peculiarly the case with the Chronicle MSS.
[618] Origin, 295.
[619] Origin, 292.
[620] Origin, 296.
[621] The absence of the West-Saxon pedigree may be due to the document from which the Historia Brittonum and the Vespasian MS derive these pedigrees having been drawn up in the North: Wessex may have been outside the purview of its compiler; though against this is the fact that it contains the Kentish pedigree. But another quite possible explanation is, that Cerdic, with his odd name, was not of the right royal race, but an adventurer, and that it was only later that a pedigree was made up for his descendants, on the analogy of those possessed by the more blue-blooded monarchs of Mercia and Northumbria.
[622] See M.L.N. 1897, XII, 110-11.
[623] It is prefixed to the Parker MS of the Chronicle, and is found also in the Cambridge MS of the Anglo-Saxon Bede (Univ. Lib. Kk. 3. 18) printed in Miller's edition; in MS Cott. Tib. A. III, 178 (printed in Thorpe's Chronicle): and in MS Add. 34652, printed by Napier in M.L.N. 1897, XII, 106 etc. There are uncollated copies in MS C.C.C.C. 383, fol. 107, and according to Liebermann (Herrig's Archiv, CIV, 23) in the Textus Roffensis, fol. 7 b. There is also a fragment, which does not however include the portion under consideration, in MS Add. 23211 (Brit. Mus.) printed in Sweet's Oldest English Texts, p. 179. The statement, sometimes made, that there is a copy in MS C.C.C.C. 41, rests on an error of Whelock, who was really referring to the Parker MS of the Chronicle (C.C.C.C. 173).
[626] Brandl in Herrig's Archiv, CXXXVII, 12-13.
[627] Origin, p. 272.
[628] So Ethelwerd (Lib. I) sees in Woden a rex multitudinis Barbarorum, in error deified. It is the usual point of view, and persists down to Carlyle (Heroes).
[629] Origin, p. 293.
[630] Beowulf, p. 5. For a further examination of this "Beowa-myth" see [Appendix A], above.
[631] Cf. Tupper in Pub. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. XXVI, 275.
[632] P.B.B. XLII, 347-410. A theory as to the date of Beowulf, in some respects similar, was put forward by Mone in 1836: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der teutschen Heldensage, p. 132.
[633] See above, p. [103]; and Brandl in Pauls Grdr. (2) II, 1000, where the argument is excellently stated.
[634] See Olrik, Sakses Oldhistorie, 1894, 190-91.
[635] See Björkman, Eigennamen im Beowulf, 77.
[636] Sarrazin's attempt to prove such corruption is an entire failure. Cf. Brandl in Herrig's Archiv, CXXVI, 234; Björkman, Eigennamen im Beowulf, 58 (Heaðo-Beardan).
[637] A few Geatic adventurers may have taken part in the Anglo-Saxon invasion, as has been argued by Moorman (Essays and Studies, V). This is likely enough on a priori grounds, though many of the etymologies of place-names quoted by Moorman in support of his thesis are open to doubt.
[638] P.B.B. XLII, 366-7.
[639] History of England to the Norman Conquest, I, 245.
[640] Heroic Age, 52-6. I have tried to show ([Appendix F]) that these accounts of cremation are not so archaeologically correct as has sometimes been claimed.
[641] Oman, England before the Norman Conquest, 319.
[642] Bede, Hist. Eccles. IV, 26.
[643] "Nunc qui Roma veniunt idem allegant, ut qui Haugustaldensem fabricam vident ambitionem Romanam se imaginari jurent." William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum, Rolls Series, p. 255.
[644] Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England, II, 1903, p. 325.
[645] p. 407.
[646] Beowulf, ll. 201, 601-3.
[647] Cf. Beowulf, l. 1018.
[648] Bede, Eccles. Hist. III, 21.
[649] See Oman, pp. 460, 591, for the honour done to this saint by converted Danes.
[650] p. 393.
[651] Æneid, X, 467-9.
[652] In the two admirable articles by Klaeber (Archiv, CCXVI, 40 etc., 399 etc.) every possible parallel is drawn: the result, to my mind, is not complete conviction.
[653] Chadwick, Heroic Age, 74.
[654] "Litteris itaque ad plenum instructus, nativae quoque linguae non negligebat carmina; adeo ut, teste libro Elfredi, de quo superius dixi, nulla umquam aetate par ei fuerit quisquam. Poesim Anglicam posse facere, cantum componere, eadem apposite vel canere vel dicere. Denique commemorat Elfredus carmen triviale, quod adhuc vulgo cantitatur, Aldelmum fecisse, aditiens causam qua probet rationabiliter tantum virum his quae videantur frivola institisse. Populum eo tempore semibarbarum, parum divinis sermonibus intentum, statim, cantatis missis, domos cursitare solitum. Ideo sanctum virum, super pontem qui rura et urbem continuat, abeuntibus se opposuisse obicem, quasi artem cantitandi professum. Eo plusquam semel facto, plebis favorem et concursum emeritum. Hoc commento sensim inter ludicra verbis Scripturarum insertis, cives ad sanitatem reduxisse." William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. Hamilton, Rolls Series, 1870, 336.
[655] "Reverentissimo patri meaeque rudis infantiae venerando praeceptori Adriano." Epist. (Aldhelmi Opera, ed. Giles, 1844, p. 330).
[656] Faricius, Life, in Giles' edition of Aldhelm, 1844, p. 357.
[657] Letter of Cuthbert to Cuthwine, describing Bede's last illness. "Et in nostra lingua, hoc est anglica, ut erat doctus in nostris carminibus, nonnulla dixit. Nam et tunc Anglico carmine componens, multum compunctus aiebat, etc." The letter is quoted by Simeon of Durham, ed. Arnold, Rolls Series, 1882, I, pp. 43-46, and is extant elsewhere, notably in a ninth century MS at St Gall.
[658] "quid Hinieldus cum Christo."
[659] "Þæt ǣnig prēost ne bēo ealuscop, ne on ǣnige wīsan glīwige, mid him sylfum oþþe mid ōþrum mannum"—Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, 1840, p. 400 (Laws of Edgar, cap. 58).
[660] "avitae gentilitatis vanissima didicisse carmina." This charge is dismissed as "scabiem mendacii." Vita Sancti Dunstani, by "B," in Memorials of Dunstan, ed. Stubbs, Rolls Series, 1874, p. 11. Were these songs heroic or magic?
[661] The Heroic Legends of Denmark, New York, 1919, p. 32 (footnote).
[662] Ibid. p. 39.
[663] Thus, much space has been devoted to discussing whether "Gotland," in the eleventh century Cotton MS of Alfred's Orosius, signifies Jutland. I believe that it does; but fail to see how it can be argued from this that Alfred believed the Jutes to be "Geatas." Old English had no special symbol for the semi-vowel J; so, to signify Jōtland, Alfred would have written "Geotland" (Sievers, Gram. §§ 74, 175). Had he meant "Land of the Geatas" he would have written "Geataland" or "Geatland." Surely "Gotland" is nearer to "Geotland" than to "Geatland."
[664] P.B.B. XII, 1-10.
[665] See above, p. [8]. Fahlbeck has recently revised and re-stated his arguments.
[666] Danmarks Riges Historie, I, 79 etc.
[667] Beowulf, übersetzt von H. Gering, 1906, p. vii.
[668] See above, also Nordisk Aandsliv, 10, where Olrik speaks of the Geatas as "Jyderne." His arguments as presented to the Copenhagen Philologisk-historisk Samfund are summarized by Schütte, J.E.G. Ph. XI, 575-6. Clausen also supports the Jute-theory, Danske Studier, 1918, 137-49.
[669] J.E.G. Ph. XI, 574-602.
[670] Beowulf, et Bidrag til Nordens Oldhistorie af Chr. Kier, København, 1915.
[671] This is admitted by Bugge, P.B.B. XII, 6. "Geátas ... ist sprachlich ein ganz anderer name als altn. Jótar, Jútar, bei Beda Jutae, und nach Beda im Chron. Sax. 449 Jotum, Jutna ... Die Geátas ... tragen einen namen der sprachlich mit altn. Gautar identisch ist."
[672] From a presumed Prim. Germ. *Eutiz, *Eutjaniz. The word in O.E. seems to have been declined both as an i-stem and an n-stem, the n-stem forms being used more particularly in the gen. plu., just as in the case of the tribal names, Seaxe, Mierce (Sievers, § 264). The Latinized forms show the same duplication, the dat. Euciis pointing to an i-stem, the nom. Euthio to an n-stem, plu. *Eutiones. For a discussion of the relation of the O.E. name to the Danish Jyder, see Björkman in Anglia, Beiblatt, XXVIII, 274-80: "Zu ae. Eote, Yte, dän. Jyder 'Jüten'."
[673] I regard it as simply an error of the translator, possibly because he had before him a text in which Bede's Iutis had been corrupted in this place into Giotis, as it is in Ethelwerd: Cantuarii de Giotis traxerunt originem, Vuhtii quoque. (Bk. I: other names which Ethelwerd draws from Bede in this section are equally corrupt.)
Bede's text runs: (I, 15) Aduenerant autem de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus, id est Saxonibus, Anglis, Iutis. De Iutarum origine sunt Cantuarii et Victuarii; in the translation: "Comon hi of þrim folcum ðam strangestan Germanie, þæt [is] of Seaxum and of Angle and of Geatum. Of Geata fruman syndon Cantware and Wihtsætan": (IV, 16) In proximam Iutorum prouinciam translati ... in locum, qui uocatur Ad Lapidem; "in þa neahmægðe, seo is gecegd Eota lond, in sume stowe seo is nemned Æt Stane" (Stoneham, near Southampton). MS C.C.C.C. 41 reads "Ytena land": see below.
[674] Two Saxon Chronicles, ed. Plummer, 1899. Introduction, pp. lxx, lxxi.
[675] The O.E. version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Miller, II, xv, xvi, 1898.
[676] Florentii Wigorn. Chron., ed. Thorpe, II, 45; I, 276.
[677] It cannot be said that this is due to textual corruption in our late copy, for the alliteration constantly demands a G-form, not a vowel-form.
[678] See pp. [8], 9 above, §§ 2-7.
[679] Just as, for example, in Heimskringla: Haraldz saga ins hárfagra, 13-17, the Götar are constantly mentioned, because the kingdom of Sweden is being attacked from their side.
[680] Procopius tells us that there were in Thule (i.e. the Scandinavian peninsula) thirteen nations, each under its own king: βασιλεῖς τέ εἰσι κατὰ ἔθνος ἕκαστον ... ὧν ἔθνος ἓν πολυάνθρωπον οἱ Γαυτοί εἰσι (Bell. Gott. ii, 15).
[681] On this alliteration-test, which is very important, see above, pp. [10]-11.
[682] Geta was the recognized Latin synonym for Gothus, and is used in this sense in the sixth century, e.g. by Venantius Fortunatus and Jordanes. And the Götar are constantly called Gothi, e.g. in the formula rex Sueorum et Gothorum (for the date of this formula see Söderqvist in the Historisk Tidskrift, 1915: Ägde Uppsvearne rätt att taga och vräka konung); or Saxo, Bk. XIII (ed. Holder, p. 420, describing how the Gothi invited a candidate to be king, and slew the rival claimant, who was supported by the legally more constitutional suffrages of the Swedes); or Adam of Bremen (as quoted below).
[683] Folknamnet Geatas, p. 5 etc.
[684] Speaking of the Götaelv, Adam says "Ille oritur in praedictis alpibus, perque medios Gothorum populos currit in Oceanum, unde et Gothelba dicitur." Adami Canonici Bremensis, Gesta Hamm. eccl. pontificum, Lib. IV, in Migne, CXLVI, 637. Modern scholars are of the opinion that the borrowing has been rather the other way. According to Noreen the river Götaelv (Gautelfr) gets its name as the outflow from Lake Væner. (Cf. O.E. gēotan, gēat, "pour.") Götland (Gautland) is the country around the river, and the Götar (Gautar) get their name from the country. See Noreen, Våra Ortnamn och deras Ursprungliga Betydelse, in Spridda Studier, II, 91, 139.
[685] The Scholiast, in his commentary on Adam, records the later state of things, when the Götar were confined to the south of the river: "Gothelba fluvius a Nordmannis Gothiam separat."
[686] Heimskringla, cap. 17.
[687] "Hann [Haraldr] er úti á herskipum allan vetrinn ok herjar á Ránríki" (cap. 15). "Haraldr konungr fór víða um Gautland herskildi, ok átti þar margar orrostur tveim megin elfarinnar.... Síðan lagði Haraldr konungr land alt undir sik fyrir norðan elfina ok fyrir vestan Væni" (cap. 17). Heimskringla: Haraldz saga ins hárfagra, udgiv. F. Jónsson, København, 1893-1900.
[688] Baltzer (L.), Glyphes des rochers du Bohuslän, avec une préface de V. Rydberg, Gothembourg, 1881. See also Baltzer, Några af de viktigaste Hällristningarna, Göteborg, 1911.
[689] Guinchard, Sweden: Historical and Statistical Handbook, 1914, II, 549.
[690] See Chadwick, Origin, 93; Heroic Age, 51.
[691] ll. 2910-21. See Schütte, 579, 583.
[692] ll. 2922-3007.
[693] ll. 3018-27.
[694] ll. 3029-30.
[695] pp. 575, 581.
[696] The reason for locating the Eudoses in Jutland is that the name has, very hazardously, been identified with that of the Jutes, Eutiones. Obviously this argument could no longer be used, if the Eudoses were the "Wederas."
[697] See e.g. Schütte, 579-80.
[698] Beowulf, 1856.
[699] Beowulf, 1830 etc.
[700] Beowulf, 2394. See Schütte, 576-9.
[701] Sēo ēa þǣr wyrcþ micelne sǣ. Orosius, ed. Sweet, 12, 24.
[703] As Miss Paues, herself a Geat, points out to me.
[704] Kier, 39; Schütte, 582, 591 etc.
[705] See above, pp. [99], [100].
[706] Vendel och Vendelkråka in A.f.n.F. XXI, 71-80: see Essays, trans. Clark Hall, 50-62.
[707] This grave mound is mentioned as "Kong Ottars Hög" in Ättartal för Swea och Götha Kununga Hus, by J. Peringskiöld, Stockholm, 1725, p. 13, and earlier, in 1677, it is mentioned by the same name in some notes of an antiquarian survey. That the name "Vendel-crow" is now attached to it is stated by Dr Almgren. These early references seem conclusive: little weight could, of course, be carried by the modern name alone, since it might easily be of learned origin. The mound was opened in 1914-16, and the contents showed it to belong to about 500 to 550 A.D., which agrees excellently with the date of Ohthere. See two articles in Fornvännen for 1917: an account of the opening of the mound by S. Lindqvist entitled "Ottarshögen i Vendel" (pp. 127-43) and a discussion of early Swedish history in the light of archaeology, by B. Nerman, "Ynglingasagan i arkeologisk belysning" (esp. pp. 243-6). See also Björkman in Nordisk Tidskrift, Stockholm, 1917, p. 169, and Eigennamen im Beowulf, 1920, pp. 86-99.
[708] See [Appendix F]: Beowulf and the Archæologists, esp. p. [356], below.
[709] By the Early Iron Age, Engelhardt meant from 250 to 450 A.D.: but more recent Danish scholars have placed these deposits in the fifth century, with some overlapping into the preceding and succeeding centuries (Müller, Vor Oldtid, 561; Wimmer, Die Runenschrift, 301, etc.). The Swedish archæologists, Knut Stjerna and O. Almgren, agree with Engelhardt, dating the finds between about 250 and 450 A.D. (Stjerna's Essays, trans. Clark Hall, p. 149, and Introduction, xxxii-iii).
[710] Essays on questions connected with the O.E. poem of Beowulf, trans. and ed. by John R. Clark Hall, (Viking Club), Coventry. (Reviews by Klaeber, J.E.G.Ph. XIII, 167-73, weighty; Mawer, M.L.N. VIII, 242-3; Athenæum, 1913, I, 459-60; Archiv, CXXXII, 238-9; Schütte, A.f.n.F. XXXIII, 64-96, elaborate.)
[711] An account of these was given at the time by H. Stolpe, who undertook the excavation. See his Vendelfyndet, in the Antiqvarisk Tidskrift för Sverige, VIII, 1, 1-34, and Hildebrand (H.) in the same, 35-64 (1884). Stolpe did not live to issue the definitive account of his work, Graffältet vid Vendel, beskrifvet af H. Stolpe och T. J. Arne, Stockholm, 1912.
[712] Also added as an Appendix to his Beowulf translation, 1911.
[713] Clark Hall's Preface to Stjerna's Essays, p. xx.
[714] J.E.G.Ph. XIII, 1914, p. 172.
[715] Essays, p. 239: cf. p. 84.
[716] p. 39.
[717] Germania, cap. XV.
[718] ll. 378, 470.
[719] Cassiodorus, Variae, V, 1.
[720] Walter, Corpus juris Germanici antiqui, 1824, II, 125.
[721] Heimskringla, Haraldz saga, cap. 38-40.
[722] "The idea of a gold hoard undoubtedly points to the earlier version of the Beowulf poem having originated in Scandinavia. No such 'gold period' ever existed in Britain." Essays, p. 147.
[723] Cottonian Gnomic Verses, ll. 26-7.
[724] l. 14.
[725] Exeter Gnomic Verses, l. 126.
[726] Baldwin Brown, III, 385, IV, 640.
[727] B. l. 19.
[728] l. 339.
[729] l. 991.
[730] Cf. Falk, Altnordische Waffenkunde, 28.
[731] I would suggest this as the more likely because, if the ring were inserted for a practical purpose, it is not easy to see why it later survived in the form of a mere knob, which is neither useful nor ornamental. But if it were used to attach the symbolical "peace bands," it may have been retained, in a "fossilized form," with a symbolical meaning.
[732] Most editors indeed do take it in this sense, though recently Schücking has adopted Stjerna's explanation of "ring-sword." In l. 322, Falk (27) takes hring-īren to refer to a "ring-adorned sword," though it may well mean a ring-byrnie.
[733] Actually, I believe, more: for two ring-swords were found at Faversham, and are now in the British Museum. For an account of one of them see Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, 1868, vol. VI, 139. In this specimen both the fixed ring and the ring which moves within it are complete circles. But in the Gilton sword (Archæologia, XXX, 132) and in the sword discovered at Bifrons (Archæologia Cantiana, X, 312) one of the rings no longer forms a complete circle, and in the sword discovered at Sarre (Archæol. Cant. VI, 172) the rings are fixed together, and one of them has little resemblance to a ring at all.
[734] At Concevreux. It is described by M. Jules Pilloy in Mémoires de la Société Académique de St Quentin, 4e Sér. tom. XVI, 1913; see esp. pp. 36-7.
[735] See Lindenschmit, "Germanisches Schwert mit ungewöhnlicher Bildung des Knaufes," in Die Altertümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit, V Bd., V Heft, Taf. 30, p. 165, Mainz, 1905.
[736] Salin has no doubt that the Swedish type from Uppland (his figure 252) is later than even the latest type of English ring-sword (the Sarre pommel, 251) which is itself later than the Faversham (249) or Bifrons (250) pommel. See Salin (B.), Die Altgermanische Thierornamentik, Stockholm, 1904, p. 101. The same conclusion is arrived at by Lindenschmit: "Die ursprüngliche Form ist wohl in dem, unter Nr. 249 von Salin abgebildeten Schwertknopf aus Kent zu sehen"; and even more emphatically by Pilloy, who pronounces the Swedish Vendel sword both on account of its "ring" and other characteristics, as "inspirée par un modèle venu de cette contrée [Angleterre]."
[737] The Benty Grange helmet; see below, p. [358].
[738] Depicted by Clark Hall, Stjerna's Essays, p. 258.
[739] Clark Hall's Beowulf, p. 227.
[740] "Von Skandinavien gibt es aus der Völkerwanderungszeit und Wikingerepoche keine archäologischen Anhaltspunkte für das Tragen des Panzers, weder aus Funden noch aus Darstellungen," Max Ebert in Hoops' Reallexikon, III, 395 (1915-16). But surely this is too sweeping. Fragments of an iron byrnie, made of small rings fastened together, were found in the Vendel grave 12 (seventh century). See Graffältet vid Vendel, beskrifvet af H. Stolpe och T. J. Arne, pp. 49, 60, plates xl, xli, xlii.
[741] 54-I. Liebermann, p. 114.
[742] Essays, 34-5.
[743] Elene, 264.
[744] Engelhardt, Denmark in the Early Iron Age, p. 66.
[745] Andreas, 303.
[746] l. 2869.
[747] "Few have corslets and only one here and there a helmet" (Germania, 6). In the Annals (II, 14) Tacitus makes Germanicus roundly deny the use of either by the Germans: non loricam Germano, non galeam.
[749] See Chifflet, J. J., Anastasis Childerici I ... sive thesaurus sepulchralis, Antverpiæ, Plantin, 1655.
[750] That both sword and scramasax were buried with Childeric is shown by Lindenschmit, Handbuch, I, 236-9: see also pp. 68 etc.
[751] l. 2762-3.
[752] Worsaae, Nordiske Oldsager, Kjøbenhavn, 1859; see No. 499; Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, 1852, II, 164; Montelius, Antiq. Suéd. 1873, No. 294 (p. 184).
[753] Essays, p. 198. See also above, p. 124. Mr Reginald Smith writes to me: "Unburnt objects with cremated burials in prehistoric times (Bronze, Early and late Iron Ages) are the exception, and are probably accidental survivals from the funeral pyre. In such an interpretation of Beowulf I agree with the late Knut Stjerna, who was an archæologist of much experience."
[754] Forming vols. 3 and 4 of The Arts in Early England, 1903-15.
[755] It was, however, necessary to leave over for a supplementary volume some of the contributions most interesting from the point of view of the archæology of Beowulf: e.g. spatha, speer, schild.
[756] B. E. Hildebrand, Grafhögarne vid Gamla Upsala, Kongl. Vitterhets Historie och Antiqvitets Akademiens Månadsblad, 1875-7, pp. 250-60.
[757] Fasta fornlämningar i Beovulf, in Antiqvarisk Tidskrift för Sverige, XVIII, 48-64.
[758] Heimskringla: Ynglingasaga, cap. 25, 26, 29.
[759] See B. Nerman, Vilka konungar ligga i Uppsala högar? Uppsala, 1913, and the same scholar's Ynglingasagan i arkeologisk belysning, in Fornvännen, 1917, 226-61.
[760] Heimskringla: Ynglingasaga, cap. 27.
[761] A discovery made by Otto v. Friesen in 1910: see S. Lindqvist in Fornvännen, 1917, 129. Two years earlier (1675) "Utters högen i Wändell" is mentioned in connection with an investigation into witchcraft. See Linderholm, Vendelshögens konunganamn, in Namn och Bygd, VII, 1919, 36, 40.
[762] For a preliminary account of the discovery, see Ottarshögen i Vendel, by S. Lindqvist in Fornvännen, 1917, 127-43, and for discussion of the whole subject, B. Nerman, Ottar Vendelkråka och Ottarshögen i Vendel, in Upplands Fornminnesförenings Tidskrift, VII, 309-34.
[763] Baldwin Brown, III, 216.
[764] 213.
[765] 218.
[766] So Baldwin Brown, III, 213; Lorange, Den Yngre Jernalders Sværd, Bergen, 1889, passim.
[767] Baldwin Brown, III, 215.
[768] It is somewhat similar in Norse literature, where swords are constantly indicated as either inherited from of old, or coming from abroad: cf. Falk, 38-41.
[769] Beowulf, 1489, wǣgsweord; cf. Vægir as a sword-name in the Thulur. In ll. 1521, 1564, 2037, hringmǣl may refer to the ring in the hilt, and terms like wunden- are more likely to refer to the serpentine ornament of the hilt. This must be the case with wyrm-fāh (1698) as it is a question of the hilt alone. Stjerna (p. 111 = Essays, 20) and others take āter-tānum fāh (1459) as referring to the damascened pattern (cf. eggjar ... eitrdropom innan fáþar; Brot af Sigurðarkviðu). It is suggested however by Falk (p. 17) that tān here refers to an edge welded-on: the Icelandic egg-teinn.
[770] The only certainly Anglo-Saxon helmet as yet discovered: traces of what may have been a similar head-piece were found near Cheltenham: Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, II, 1852, 238.
[771] Coll. Ant. II, 1852, 239; Bateman, Ten Years' Diggings, 30; Catalogue of the Antiquities preserved in the Museum of Thomas Bateman, Bakewell, 1855.
[772] A very good description of these continental "Spangenhelme" is given in the magnificent work of I. W. Gröbbels, Der Reihengräberfund von Gammertingen, München, 1905. These helms had long been known from a specimen (place of origin uncertain) in the Hermitage at Petrograd, and another example, that of Vézeronce, supposed to have been lost in the battle between Franks and Burgundians in 524. Seven other examples have been discovered in the last quarter of a century, including those of Baldenheim (for which see Henning (R.), Der helm von Baldenheim und die verwandten helme des frühen mittelalters, Strassburg, 1907, cf. Kauffmann, Z.f.d.Ph. XL, 464-7) and Gammertingen. They are not purely Germanic, and may have been made in Gaul, or among the Ostrogoths in Ravenna, or further east.
[773] Stjerna, Essays, p. 11 = Studier tillägnade Oscar Montelius af Lärjungar, 1903, p. 104: Clark Hall, Beowulf, 1911, p. 228.
[774] See also Graffältet vid Vendel, beskrifvet af H. Stolpe och T. J. Arne, Stockholm, 1912, pp. 13, 54; Pl. v, xli.
[775] ll. 396, 2049, 2257, 2605; cf. grīmhelm, 334.
[776] 2811, 304, 1111 (cf. Falk, 156).
[777] 1453-4 (cf. Falk, 157-9).
[778] securum etiam inter hostes praestat. Germ. cap. 45.
[779] 1031 (cf. Falk, 158).
[780] 1630, 2723. Cf. Exodus, 174, grīmhelm gespēon cyning cinberge, and Genesis, 444. (See Falk, 166.)
[781] Cf. ll. 1503, 1548, 2260, 2754.
[782] Cf. ll. 322, 551, 1443.
[783] Bateman, Ten Years' Diggings, 1861, p. 32.
[784] Cf. Beowulf, 330, 1772, 2042.
[785] "ne scuta quidem ferro neruoue firmata, sed ... tenuis et fucatas colore tabulas," Annals, II, 14; cf. Germania, 6, "scuta tantum lectissimis coloribus distinguunt."
[786] Njáls Saga, cap. XXX.
[787] It is the guess of A. Haupt, Die Älteste Kunst der Germanen, p. 213.
[788] ll. 773-5, 998.
[789] Hist. Eccl. II, 13. The life of man is compared to the transit of a sparrow flying from door to door of the hall where the king sits feasting with his thanes and warriors, with a fire in the midst.
[790] ll. 617-24, 2011-3.
[791] 995.
[792] 725.
[793] 1035 etc.
[794] Proc. Soc. Ant., Sec. Ser. II, 177-82.
[795] Jonckheere (É.), L'origine de la Côte de Flandre et le Bateau de Bruges, Bruges, 1903.
[796] Engelhardt (H. C. C.), Nydam Mosefund, Kjöbenhavn, 1865.
[797] Nicolaysen (N.), Langskibet fra Gokstad, Kristiania, 1882.
[798] Osebergfundet. Udgit av den Norske Stat, under redaktion av A. W. Brøgger, Hj. Falk, H. Schetelig. Bd. I, Kristiania, 1917.
[799] Beowulf, ll. 32, 1131, 1897.
[800] 1862.
[801] 220.
[802] Noreen, Altschwedische Grammatik, 1904, p. 499.
[803] All these places are in Gotland. The Stenkyrka stone is reproduced in Stjerna's Essays, transl. Clark Hall, fig. 24.
[804] The same, fig. 27.
[805] Reproduced in Montelius, Sveriges Historia, p. 283.
[806] Deutsche Mythologie, 3te Ausgabe, 1854, pp. 342, 639.
[807] Academy, XI, 1877, p. 163.
[808] Engl. Stud. II, 314.
[809] Beowulf, p. 177.
[810] Aanteekeningen op den Beowulf, 1892, p. 42.
[811] P.B.B. XVIII, 413.
[812] Z.f.ö.G. LVI, 759.
[813] Beowulf, p. 392.
[814] Engl. Stud. LII, 191. Among the many who have accepted the explanation "bee-wolf," without giving additional reasons, may be mentioned R. Müller, Untersuchungen über die Namen des Liber Vitae, 1901, p. 94.
[815] Both Grimm and Skeat suggested the woodpecker, which feeds upon bees and their larvae: Grimm appealing to classical mythology, Skeat instancing the bird's courage. But nothing seems forthcoming from Teutonic mythology to favour this interpretation. Cosijn, following Sijmons, Z.f.d.Ph. XXIV, 17, thought bees might have been an omen of victory. But there is no satisfactory evidence for this. The term sigewīf applied to the swarming bees in the Charms (Cockayne's Leechdoms, I, 384) is insufficient.
[816] Tidskr. f. Philol. og Pædag. VIII, 289.
[817] Deutsches Wörterbuch, 1854, I, 1122.
[818] "Das compositum Beóvulf, wie Gôzolf, Irminolf, Reginolf, und andre gebildet, zeigt nur einen helden und krieger im geist und sinn oder von der art des Beówa an. Ihm entspricht altn. Biôlfr." (Müllenhoff, in Z.f.d.A. XII, 284.) But certainly this interpretation is impossible for O.N. Biólfr: "warrior of Beowa" would be *Byggulfr, which we nowhere find. See Björkman in Engl. Stud. LII, 191. Müllenhoff at this date, whilst not connecting Bēowulf directly with bēo, "bee," did so connect Bēowa, whom he interpreted as a bee-god or bee-father. But there is no evidence for this, and the w of Bēowa tells emphatically against it. Müllenhoff subsequently abandoned this explanation.
[819] It is actually written Biuuulf.
[820] Biu in Biuuulf cannot stand for Bēo [older Beu] because in Old Northumbrian iu and eo are rigidly differentiated, as an examination of all the other names in the Liber Vitae shows. As Sievers points out, if Biuuulf is to be derived from *Beuw (w)ulf, then it would afford an isolated and inexplicable case of iu for eo[eu], unique in the Liber Vitae, as in the whole mass of the oldest English texts: "Soll ein zusammenhang mit st. beuwa- stattfinden, so muss man auch diesen stamm für einen urspr. s-stamm erklären, und unser biu- auf die stammform biuwi(z)- nicht auf beuwa(z)- zurückführen." (Sievers, P.B.B. XVIII, 413.) The word however is a neut. wa-stem, whether in O.E. (bēow), Old Saxon (bēo) or Icelandic (bygg): see Sievers, Ags. Grammatik, 3te Aufl. § 250; Gallée, Altsächsische Grammatik, 2te Aufl. § 305; Noreen, Altisländische Grammatik, 3te Aufl. § 356. The word is extant in Old English only in the Glossaries, in the gen. sing., "handful beouaes," etc., and in Old Saxon only in the gen. plu. beuuo. It is thought to have been originally a wu-stem, which subsequently, as e.g. in O.E., passed into a wa-stem. (See Noreen, A.f.n.F. I, 166, arguing from the form begg in the Dalecarlian dialect.) The presumed Primitive Norse form is beggwu, whence the various Scandinavian forms, Icel. bygg, Old Swedish and Old Danish biug(g). See Hellquist in A.f.n.F. VII, 31; von Unwerth, A.f.n.F. XXXIII, 331; Binz, P.B.B. XX, 153; von Helten, P.B.B. XXX, 245; Kock, Umlaut u. Brechung im Aschw. p. 314, in Lunds Universitets årsskrift, Bd. XII. The proper name Byggvir is a ja-stem, but Bēow cannot have been so formed, as a ja-stem would give the form Bēowe. Cosijn (Aanteekeningen, 42) was accordingly justified in pointing to the form Biuuulf as refuting Kögel's attempt to connect Bēowulf with Bēow through a form *Bawiwulf (A.f.d.A. XVIII, 56). Kögel replied with a laboured defence (Z.f.d.A. XXXVII, 268): he starts by assuming that Bēow and Bēowulf are etymologically connected, which is the very point which has to be proved: he has to admit that, if his etymology be correct, the Biuuulf of the Liber Vitae is not the same form as Bēowulf, which is the very point Cosijn urged as telling against his etymology: and even so his etymological explanations depend upon stages which cannot be accepted in the present state of our knowledge (see especially Sievers in P.B.B. XVIII, 413; Björkman in Engl. Stud. LII, 150).
[821] Tidskr. f. Philol og Pædag. VIII, 289.
[822] First pointed out by Grundtvig in Barfod's Brage og Idun, IV, 1841, p. 500, footnote.
[823] "Lodmundr hinn gamli het madr enn annarr. Biólfr fostbrodir hans. Þeir foru til Islands af Vors af Þvlvnesi" (Voss in Norway). See Landnámabók, København, 1900, p. 92.
[824] Noreen, Altisländische Grammatik, 3te Aufl. p. 97. See also Noreen in Festskrift til H. F. Feilberg, 1911, p. 283. Noreen seems to have no doubt as to the explanation of Bjólfr as Bý-olfr, "Bee-wolf."
[825] Bugge, has, however, been followed by Gering, Beowulf, 1906, p. 100.
[826] Ferguson in the Athenæum, June 1892, p. 763: "Beadowulf by a common form of elision (!) would become Beowulf." Sarrazin admits "Freilich ist das eine ungewöhnliche verkürzung" (Engl. Stud. XLII, 19). See also Sarrazin in Anglia, V, 200; Beowulf-Studien, 33, 77; Engl. Stud. XVI, 79.
[827] This incompatibility comes out very strongly in ll. 2499-2506, where Beowulf praises his sword particularly for the services it has not been able to render him.
[829] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 140: F. Jónsson, Hrólfs Saga Kraka, 1904, Inledning, XX.
[830] Hrólfs Saga Kraka, cap. 17-20.
[831] The trait is wanting in the Grettis saga: Grettir son of Asmund was too historical a character for such features to be attributed to him.
[833] No. 166. Translated as "Strong Hans." (Grimm's Household Tales, trans. by M. Hunt, with introduction by A. Lang, 1884.)
[834] As, for example, by Cosquin, Contes populaires de Lorraine, I, 7. A comparison of the different versions in which the "strange theme" is toned down, in a greater or less degree, seems to make this certain.
[835] No. 91.
[836] Edinburgh, 1860, vol. I, No. XVI, "The king of Lochlin's three daughters": vol. III, No. LVIII, "The rider of Grianaig."
[837] London, 1866: p. 43, "The Three Crowns."
[838] Notably by von Sydow.
[839] Asbjørnsen og Moe, Norske Folkeeventyr, Christiania, 1852, No. 3.
[840] Popular Tales from the Norse (third edit., Edinburgh, 1888, p. 382).
[841] Visentini, Fiabe Mantovane, 1879, No. 32, 157-161.
[842] "fino a che col capo tocca le travi." Cf. Glam in the Grettis Saga.
[843] "e qui vede il gigante seduto, che detteva il suo testamento."
[844] p. 153. This is Panzer's version 97.
[845] "A fabulous creature, but zoologically the name Norka (from nora, a hole) belongs to the otter," Ralston, Russian Folk Tales, p. 73.
[846] Afanasief (A. N.), Narodnuiya Russkiya Skazki, Moscow, 1860-63, I, 6. See Ralston, p. 73.
[847] Afanasief, VIII, No. 6.
[848] For example, "Shepherd Paul," in The Folk-Tales of the Magyars, by W. H. Jones and L. L. Knopf, Folk-Lore Society, 1889, p. 244. The latest collection contains its version, 'The Story of Tāling, the Half-boy' in Persian Tales, written down for the first time and translated by D. L. R. and E. O. Lorimer, London, 1919.
[849] Cf. von Sydow in A.f.d.A. XXXV, 126.
[850] Ión Arnason's MSS, No. 536, 4o.
[851] Rittershaus (A.), Die Neuisländischen Volksmärchen, Halle, 1902, No. 25.
[852] Færøske Folkesagn og Æventyr, ed. by Jakob Jakobsen, 1898-1901, pp. 241-4 (Samfund til Udgivelse af gammel Nordisk Litteratur.)
[853] This folk-tale is given in a small book, to be found in the Christiania University Library, and no doubt elsewhere in Norway: Nor, en Billedbog for den norske Ungdom (Tredie Oplag, Christiania, 1865). Norske Folke-Eventyr og Sagn, fortalte af P. Chr. Asbjørnsen. A copy of the story, slightly altered, occurs in the Udvalgte Eventyr og Sagn for Børn, of Knutsen, Bentsen and Johnsson, Christiania, 1877, p. 58 etc.
[855] Berntsen (K.), Folke-Æventyr, 1873, No. 12, pp. 109-115.
[856] Grundtvig (Sv.), Gamle Danske Minder, 1854, No. 34, p. 33: from Næstved.
[857] Hans mit de ysern Stang', Müllenhoff, Sagen, Märchen u. Lieder ... 1845, No. XVI, p. 437.
[858] Colshorn (C. and Th.), Märchen u. Sagen, Hannover, 1854, No. V, pp. 18-30.
[859] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 2183-8.
[860] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 815 etc.
[861] Cf. Beowulf, ll. 1516-17; cf. Grettis Saga, LXVI.
[862] Cf. Grettis Saga, LXVI, hann kveikti ljós; cf. Beowulf, 1570.
[863] Contes du roi Cambrinus, par C. Deulin, Paris, 1874 (I. L'intrépide Gayant). The story is associated with Gayant, the traditional hero of Douai.
[864] Cf. Schmidt, Geschichte der deutschen Stämme, II, 495, 499, note 4.
[865] III, 1.
[866] II, 43.
[867] Παῖς ... νέος ἦν κομιδῇ, καὶ ἔτι ὑπὸ παιδοκόμῳ τιθηνούμενος, Agathias, I, 4: parvulus, Gregory, IV, 6.
[868] Gregory, III, 20.
[869] III, 22.
[870] III, 23.
[871] III, 27.
[872] Many recent historians have expressed doubts as to the conventional date, 515, for Hygelac's death. J. P. Jacobsen, in the Danish translation of Gregory (1911) suggested 525-30: following him Severinsen (Danske Studier, 1919, 96) suggested c. 526, as did Fredborg, Det första årtalet i Sveriges historia. L. Schmidt (Geschichte der deutschen Stämme, II, 500, note, 1918) suggested c. 528.
[873] Archæological works bearing less directly upon Beowulf are enumerated in [Appendix F]; that enumeration is not repeated here.
[874] Most students nowadays will probably agree with v. Sydow's contention that the struggle of Beowulf, first above ground and then below, is a folk-story, one and indivisible, and that therefore there is no reason for attributing the two sections to different authors, as do Boer, Müllenhoff and ten Brink. But that the folk-tale is exclusively Celtic remains to be proved; v. Sydow's contention that Celtic influence is shown in Beowulf by the inhospitable shamelessness of Unferth (compare that of Kai) is surely fanciful. Also the statement that the likeness of Bjarki and Beowulf is confined to the freeing of the Danish palace from a dangerous monster by a stranger from abroad, and that "das sonstige Beiwerk völlig verschieden ist" surely cannot be maintained. As argued above (pp. 54-61) there are other distinct points of resemblance.
v. Sydow's statement no doubt suffers from the brevity with which it is reported, and his forthcoming volume of Beowulf studien will be awaited with interest.
I. Benty Grange Helmet (Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua, II, 238).
II. Pommel of Ring-Sword from Faversham, Kent (Ibid., VI, 139).
III. Pommel of Ring-Sword from Gilton, Kent (Archæologia, XXX, 132).