[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.