l. 256. This proverb (ôfest, etc.) occurs in Exod. (Hunt), l. 293.
l. 258. An "elder" may be a very young man; hence yldesta, = eminent, may be used of Beowulf. Cf. Laws of Ælfred, C. 17: Nâ þät ælc eald sý, ac þät he eald sý on wîsdôme.
l. 273. Verbs of hearing and seeing are often followed by acc. with inf.; cf. [ll. 229], [1024], [729], [1517], etc. Cf. German construction with sehen, horen, etc., French construction with voir, entendre, etc., and the classical constructions.
l. 275. dæd-hata = instigator. Kl. reads dæd-hwata.
l. 280. ed-wendan, n. (B.; cf. 1775), = edwenden, limited by bisigu. So ten Br. = Tidskr. viii. 291.
l. 287. "Each is denoted ... also by the strengthened forms 'æghwæðer ('ægðer), éghwæðer, etc. This prefixed 'æ, óe corresponds to the Goth, aiw, OHG. eo, io, and is umlauted from á, ó by the i of the gi which originally followed."—Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 190.
l. 292. "All through the middle ages suits of armour are called 'weeds.'"—E.
l. 303. "An English warrior went into battle with a boar-crested helmet, and a round linden shield, with a byrnie of ringmail ... with two javelins or a single ashen spear some eight or ten feet long, with a long two-edged sword naked or held in an ornamental scabbard.... In his belt was a short, heavy, one-edged sword, or rather a long knife, called the seax ... used for close quarters."—Br., p. 121.
l. 303. For other references to the boar-crest, cf. [ll. 1112], [1287], [1454]; Grimm, Myth. 195; Tacitus, Germania, 45. "It was the symbol of their [the Baltic Æstii's] goddess, and they had great faith in it as a preservative from hard knocks."—E. See the print in the illus. ed. of Green's Short History, Harper & Bros.
l. 303. "See Kemble, Saxons in England, chapter on heathendom, and Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, chapter on Freyr, for the connection these and other writers establish between the Boar-sign and the golden boar which Freyr rode, and his worship."—Br., p. 128. Cf. Elene, l. 50.