—Beit. xii. 112.
l. 3183. Z., K., Th. read manna for mannum.
l. 3184. "It is the English ideal of a hero as it was conceived by an Englishman some twelve hundred years ago."—Br., p. 18.
NOTES TO THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURG.
The original MS. of this fragment has vanished, but a copy had been made and printed by Hickes in his Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium, i. 192. The original was written on a single sheet attached to a codex of homilies in the Lambeth Library. Möller, Alteng. Epos, p. 65, places the fragment in the Finn episode, between [ll. 1146] and [1147]. Bugge (Beit. xii. 20) makes it illustrate the conflict in which Hnäf fell, i.e. as described in Beówulf as antecedent to the events there given. Heinzel (Anzeiger f. d. Altert.), however, calls attention to the fact that Hengest in the fragment is called cyning, whereas in Beówulf, [l. 1086], he is called þegn. See H.-So., p. 125.
"The Fight at Finnsburg and the lays from which our Beówulf was composed were, as it seems to me, sung among the English who dwelt in the north of Denmark and the south of Sweden, and whose tribal name was the Jutes or Goths."—Br., p. 101.
l. 1. R. supposes [hor]nas, and conjectures such an introductory conversation as follows: "Is it dawning in the east, or is a fiery dragon flying about, or are the turrets of some castle burning?" questions which the king negatives in the same order. Then comes the positive declaration, "rather they are warriors marching whose armor gleams in the moonlight." —Alt- und Angels. Lesebuch, 1861. Heinzel and B. conjecture, [beorhtor hor]nas byrnað næfre. So. G.—Beit. xii. 22; Anzeiger f. d. Altert. x. 229.
l. 5. B. conjectures fugelas to mean arrows, and supplies:
ac hêr forð berað [fyrdsearu rincas,
flacre flânbogan], fugelas singað.