[517] It may be observed that in Beow. 452 ff. the hero requests the Danish king to send his mail-coat to Hygelac, if he should be killed by Grendel. This mail-coat (described as Weland's handiwork) is said to have belonged formerly to Hrethel, Hygelac's father (Beowulf's grandfather).
[518] In the seventh century it appears to have been customary to make these grants when the recipient was about twenty-four or twenty-five years old; cf. Bede, Hist. Abb., §§ 1, 8; Ep. ad Ecgb., § 11.
[519] We may compare the use of the word sluga in Servian heroic poetry (cf. p. [316]); its ordinary meaning is 'servant.'
[520] The same word is used in a similar sense in the Langobardic laws; gasindus (or gasindius), 'Gefolgsmann,' and so also gasindium, 'Gefolgschaft'; cf. Brückner, Quellen und Forschungen, LXXV p. 205.
[521] Quoted from the translation by Lang, Leaf and Myers.
[522] The interpretation of Hesiod, W. and D. 38 f., need not be discussed here.
[523] The other types (e.g. Πηλείων, Τελαμώνιος) are less frequent.
[524] Καδμεῖοι, Καδμείωνες are at best very dubious examples, for Cadmos is probably to be regarded as an eponymous national hero, like Dardanos.
κρῖν' ἄνδρας κατὰ φῦλα, κατὰ φρήτρας, Ἀγάμεμνον,
ὡς φρήτρη φρήτρηφιν ἀρήγῃ, φῦλα δὲ φύλοις.