l. 1363. The genitive is often thus used to denote measure = by or in miles; cf. [l. 3043]; and contrast with partitive gen. at [l. 207].
l. 1364. The MS. reads hrinde = hrînende (?), which Gr. adopts; K. and Th. read hrinde-bearwas; hringde, encircling (Sarrazin, Beit. xi. 163); hrîmge = frosty (Sw.); with frost-whiting covered (Ha.). See Morris, Blickling Hom., Preface, vi., vii.
l. 1364. Cf. Ruin, hrîmige edoras behrofene, rimy, roofless halls.
l. 1366. nîðwundor may = nið- (as in nið-sele, q. v.) wundor, wonder of the deep.
l. 1368. The personal pronoun is sometimes omitted in subordinate and even independent clauses; cf. wite here; and Hunt's Exod., l. 319.
l. 1370. hornum. Such "datives of manner or respect" are not infrequent with adj.
l. 1371. "seleð is not dependent on ær, for in that case it would be in the subjunctive, but ær is simply an adverb, correlative with the conjunction ær in the next line: 'he will (sooner) give up his life, before he will,' etc."—Sw.
l. 1372. Cf. [ll. 318] and [543] for willan with similar omitted inf.
l. 1373. heafola is found only in poetry.—Sw. It occurs thirteen or fourteen times in this poem. Cf. the poetic gamol, swât ([l. 2694]), etc., for eald, blôd.
l. 1391. uton: hortatory subj. of wîtan, go, = let us go; cf. French allons, Lat. eamus, Ital. andiamo, etc. + inf. Cf. [ll. 2649], [3102].