[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.