[1]. en earde is probably the remnant of on middenearde; elsewhere the writer uses eorþe for the uncompounded word.
[2]. And all the created things which pertain to it, i.e. to the earth. With isceæftan comp. ‘He iscop þurh þene sune alle isceafte,’ Frag. F 47, 34/84, 130/80, 139/17, 187/356. For the position of to comp. on, 2/4; fore 4/21, 23; 96/53, 54, mostly with relative pronouns. cu[l]en, the tops of long s and l are cut off, as also those of h and f in the next line. It is not an auxiliary verb with ellipsis of a verb of motion (H., B.); it has independent meaning as in ‘Þas wyrte sculon to (= are proper for) lungen sealfe,’ Leechdoms, iii. 16/6.
[3]. [þe]ne. Singer’s þonne, then, next, adopted by H., may be right.
[4]. Comp. ‘se us lif forgeaf | Leomu lic and gæst,’ Christ, 775, 6, for which Grau, Quellen . . . der älteren germ. Darstellungen des jüngsten Gerichtes, p. 39, gives as source the poem ascribed to S. Cyprian, De resurrectione mortuorum, ‘Qui sibi conplacitum hominem formavit in aevum, | Hanc manibus caram dilexit fingere formam | Decoramque suam voluit inesse figuram, | Spiritu vivificam adflavit vultibus auram,’ Opera, ed. Hartel, iii. App. 310/51, 57-9. ileide on, put into, a meaning apparently without a parallel; perhaps, entrusted to.
[5]. Softliche, painlessly. isom[nede]. H. completed Singer’s isom[ne]. sor idol, a painful parting; comp. l. 8.
[6]. ꝥ = þet; see 3/43. The child by crying at its birth predicts the sorrowful separation of soul and body at death; comp. 2/23-28; ‘Þæt cild, þe bið acænned, sona hit cyð mid wope | ⁊ þærrihte witegað þissere worulde geswinc | ⁊ þa toweardan costnunga,’ AS. Hom. ed. Assmann, 77/126-8; ‘Quotquot nascuntur, vox illis prima doloris: | Incipit a fletu vivere quisquis homo,’ S. Anselm, p. 199, col. 2 b; ‘Omnis homo cum dolore mundum ingreditur, cum dolore iterum egreditur. Mox natus plorat, quia laborem et dolorem sibi futurum pronunciat,’ Honorius Augustod. Migne, P. L. clxxii, col. 1083.
[7]. The line is too short, but Buchholz’s conjecture is too long for the gap. Perhaps the original had hit woaneþ ⁊ weopeþ · ⁊ mænet þeo weowe.
[8]. B. translates siþ here and at 2/16 by ‘weg’; rather lot, experience, as in ‘wa heom þæs siðes þe hi men wurdon,’ Wulfstan, 27/3; ‘minegede alle his wrecche siðes, þe he þolede on þis wrecche worelde,’ OEH ii. 169/8; ‘weop for hire wei-sið | wanede hire siðes; ꝥ heo wæs on liues,’ L 25846-8. For compounds with siþ see 2/27. sori, not ‘schmerzlich,’ B, but mournful, sad.
[9]. Haufe’s completion is based on l. 28, where the verb is intransitive, but the construction is supported by, ‘for þat he deleð þe sowle; and þe lichame, þanne he wit of þisse woreld,’ OEH ii. 7/3. But the usual construction is seen in ‘gif he þurh ferliche deð; saule fro þe lichame deleð,’ id. 61/31, and it would be better to read [fro li] came here, for the position of ⁊ is awkward. Another construction is shown in ‘wið þone lichaman seo sawle gedælan,’ AS. Hom., ed. Assmann, 164/17.
[10]. weopinde ⁊ woniende, so, ‘wop and woninge,’ VV 17/32; see [42/231 note].