[37]. Comp. ‘Mid clutes þu ert for [bu]nden and loþ alle freonden,’ Frag. F 17; and see note on 3/37. For unwurþ see 26/258.
[38]. Comp. 12/11.
[39]. þær—scalt, where thou must remain. H. quotes ‘Nu me þe bringæð þer ðu beon scealt,’ from the Oxford Frag. (The Grave) 5, and for 40 (which is repeated in Frag. E 8) ‘Dureleas is þet hus,’ id. 13.
[41]-3. B. explains, There worms dispose of all that was most prized by thee, birds friendly to Death, all that thou didst formerly delight with all kind (reading kunde) of sweetness, which thou didst dearly love. But to call worms birds friendly to Death, is a flight of imagination beyond our writer’s power, and the suggested arrangement of the two halves of 41, 42 is artificial, though not without parallel. A comparison of ‘Heo wulleþ freten þin fule hold,’ Frag. C 41; ‘Ac þu heo (i.e. the earth) afulest mid þine fule holde,’ Frag. E 5; ‘Aweilewei þu fule hold,’ OEH ii. 183/15, suggests here fulest alre holde, foulest of all bodies. The meaning is then easy and straightforward. His body was what the dead man had most prized and pleasured, ‘For þin wombe was þin god,’ Frag. D 36; ‘þine þermes, þeo þe deore weren,’ Frag. C 47.
[43]. [þære]. The staff of the first letter has survived in the MS.; it goes below the line.
[44], 45 are repeated with small variation in Frag. D 40, 41. For fornon see [3/8 note]. With the rhyme of 45, comp. ‘Beornen [þer e]fre · ende nis þer nefre,’ Frag. E 49.
Literature: ... (3) ... *Batiouchkof, Th., Romania, xx. 236;
Th. Romania
the passage cited as xx. 236 is actually xx. 1 and 513
Bruce, J. D., Modern Language Notes
Languages Notes
ā is normally ... œ̄ is eo in weoþinde 2/10.
weoþinde,