[820] Biu in Biuuulf cannot stand for Bēo [older Beu] because in Old Northumbrian iu and eo are rigidly differentiated, as an examination of all the other names in the Liber Vitae shows. As Sievers points out, if Biuuulf is to be derived from *Beuw (w)ulf, then it would afford an isolated and inexplicable case of iu for eo[eu], unique in the Liber Vitae, as in the whole mass of the oldest English texts: "Soll ein zusammenhang mit st. beuwa- stattfinden, so muss man auch diesen stamm für einen urspr. s-stamm erklären, und unser biu- auf die stammform biuwi(z)- nicht auf beuwa(z)- zurückführen." (Sievers, P.B.B. XVIII, 413.) The word however is a neut. wa-stem, whether in O.E. (bēow), Old Saxon (bēo) or Icelandic (bygg): see Sievers, Ags. Grammatik, 3te Aufl. § 250; Gallée, Altsächsische Grammatik, 2te Aufl. § 305; Noreen, Altisländische Grammatik, 3te Aufl. § 356. The word is extant in Old English only in the Glossaries, in the gen. sing., "handful beouaes," etc., and in Old Saxon only in the gen. plu. beuuo. It is thought to have been originally a wu-stem, which subsequently, as e.g. in O.E., passed into a wa-stem. (See Noreen, A.f.n.F. I, 166, arguing from the form begg in the Dalecarlian dialect.) The presumed Primitive Norse form is beggwu, whence the various Scandinavian forms, Icel. bygg, Old Swedish and Old Danish biug(g). See Hellquist in A.f.n.F. VII, 31; von Unwerth, A.f.n.F. XXXIII, 331; Binz, P.B.B. XX, 153; von Helten, P.B.B. XXX, 245; Kock, Umlaut u. Brechung im Aschw. p. 314, in Lunds Universitets årsskrift, Bd. XII. The proper name Byggvir is a ja-stem, but Bēow cannot have been so formed, as a ja-stem would give the form Bēowe. Cosijn (Aanteekeningen, 42) was accordingly justified in pointing to the form Biuuulf as refuting Kögel's attempt to connect Bēowulf with Bēow through a form *Bawiwulf (A.f.d.A. XVIII, 56). Kögel replied with a laboured defence (Z.f.d.A. XXXVII, 268): he starts by assuming that Bēow and Bēowulf are etymologically connected, which is the very point which has to be proved: he has to admit that, if his etymology be correct, the Biuuulf of the Liber Vitae is not the same form as Bēowulf, which is the very point Cosijn urged as telling against his etymology: and even so his etymological explanations depend upon stages which cannot be accepted in the present state of our knowledge (see especially Sievers in P.B.B. XVIII, 413; Björkman in Engl. Stud. LII, 150).

[821] Tidskr. f. Philol og Pædag. VIII, 289.

[822] First pointed out by Grundtvig in Barfod's Brage og Idun, IV, 1841, p. 500, footnote.

[823] "Lodmundr hinn gamli het madr enn annarr. Biólfr fostbrodir hans. Þeir foru til Islands af Vors af Þvlvnesi" (Voss in Norway). See Landnámabók, København, 1900, p. 92.

[824] Noreen, Altisländische Grammatik, 3te Aufl. p. 97. See also Noreen in Festskrift til H. F. Feilberg, 1911, p. 283. Noreen seems to have no doubt as to the explanation of Bjólfr as Bý-olfr, "Bee-wolf."

[825] Bugge, has, however, been followed by Gering, Beowulf, 1906, p. 100.

[826] Ferguson in the Athenæum, June 1892, p. 763: "Beadowulf by a common form of elision (!) would become Beowulf." Sarrazin admits "Freilich ist das eine ungewöhnliche verkürzung" (Engl. Stud. XLII, 19). See also Sarrazin in Anglia, V, 200; Beowulf-Studien, 33, 77; Engl. Stud. XVI, 79.

[827] This incompatibility comes out very strongly in ll. 2499-2506, where Beowulf praises his sword particularly for the services it has not been able to render him.

[828] See above, pp. [60]-1.

[829] Olrik, Heltedigtning, I, 140: F. Jónsson, Hrólfs Saga Kraka, 1904, Inledning, XX.