[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?

[461] p. [97], note [225].

[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 Whilst this is passing through the press Holthausen has withdrawn his former interpretation eotena, "enemies," in favour of Eotena=Ēotna, "Jutes" (Engl.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].