| Line 1, | for maleode read maþelode. |
| 4, | insert period after Scyldinga. |
| 9, | insert period after æfþunca. |
| 13, | for middangardes read middangeardes. |
| 15, | for þon read þonne. |
| 17, | for breccan read brecan (i.e. Brecan). |
| 25, | for mic read inc. |
| 27, | for mighte read mihte. |
| 37, | for wæteris read wæteres. |
| 38, | for night read niht. |
| 40, | insert period after oferflat. |
| 43, | for heaþo Ræmis read heaþoræmes (i.e. Heaþorǣmas). |
| 46, | for Swæsne read swæsne · ᛟ · (i.e. ēðel). |
| 54, | for sode read soðe. |
In the composition of his text Thorkelin made all the errors known to scribes and editors. He misread words and letters of the MS., although he had two transcripts. He dropped letters, combinations of letters, and even whole words. He joined words that had no relation to each other; he broke words into two or even three parts; he ignored compounds. He produced many forms the like of which cannot be found in Old English. One further example of his great carelessness may be given. The first line of the poem, which is written in large capitals in the MS.:—
Hwæt we Gardena. . . .
Thorkelin perversely transcribed:—
Hwæt wegar Dena. . . .
and for this combination of syllables he chose the translation:—
Quomodo Danorum.
There is, of course, no such word as ‘wegar’ in Old English.
Of the necessity of punctuation Thorkelin seems to have been serenely unconscious; he did not even follow the guides afforded by the MS. Had he done so, he would have saved himself many humiliating errors. For example, in the text given above, to have noticed the periods mentioned in the collation would have been to avoid two glaring instances of ‘running-in.’