[55]. cnihtene &c.: a recurring phrase, as 98/89, 102/152; ‘cnihten alre hendest,’ 104/195.
[57]. mode, feeling: comp. ‘on his heorte he hauede grome; on his mode muchele scome,’ L 4847, and with O, ‘þe leof hire weis on mode,’ L 4489. See KH 281 note.
[58]. hope to: see [178/89 note]. heoreð . . . mid mihte, strenuously exalt; from herian, to glorify: it might be from hīeran, to obey, but the former meaning is more suitable here; comp. 102/139.
[59]-68. There is little doubt that Layamon found this strange jumble of the gods of the Romans, Teutons, and French Romance in his original, but appollin and teruagant are missing in the printed Wace. Identification of the Roman gods with those of the Teutons and Celts proceeded rapidly among the barbarians from the first century onward, so that the Spanish bishop, Martin of Bracara, denouncing in the sixth century the pagan practices of his flock, uses the Roman names of the gods (De Correctione Rusticorum, ed. Caspari, pp. xci, 7-11), in which he is followed by Ælfric in the homily De Diis Falsis (Kemble, Solomon and Saturn, 120; Wulfstan, ed. Napier, 104). L appears not to have known that under this system Mercurius is Woden; Jupiter, Thunor; Mars, Tiw; Venus, Frea; and Phoebus, perhaps the Sun, yet Wace says ‘Mercurion | Qui en nostre langage a non | Woden.’ In L 16790-4, there is a similar list of the Saxon gods with addition of Didon and Mamilon.
[60]. weoli, rich, powerful.
[62]. hæhste: comp. ‘Nu hateð Aganippus; þe is þe heȝest ouer us,’ L 3648: ‘Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt,’ Tacitus, Germania, 9: see Müllenhoff, Deutsche Alterthumskunde, iv. 212.
[63]. appollin is the god of Cassivellaunus, L 8081: one of the three idols of the Saracens in French romance, Mahomet and Tervagant being the others; ‘Mahummet sert e Apollin recleimet,’ Chanson de Roland, 8; ‘La lei i fut Mahum e Tervagan,’ id. 611. In L, Tervagant is the god of the Romans, 5353. wel idon: see [94/9 note]. of gret win O, in whom we greatly delight: OE. wynn.
[66]. hired men, members of a household, courtiers. But Frea had nothing to do with these; she was the patroness and helper of lovers. Possibly L has misunderstood cortoier or cortois in his original.
[67]. dihteð, guides, directs.
[69]. Comp. ‘and habben þa ilke læȝen; þe stoden bi heore ældre dæwen,’ L 5960. hehde is for hefde: comp. ‘what he i Rome hæhde biwunnen,’ L 10547; ‘enne sune he hehde,’ id. 6958, 30185: for other instances in L of h substituted for f, see Luhmann, 45: the expression, to hold the highest law, may well mean, to have the highest authority, for Layamon’s use of laȝe is very wide and varied. But Brotanek treats hehde as past of heȝen, OE. hēgan, to put in force, to establish: this in L is hæhȝede, heȝede: Logeman suggests hehte (OE. hatan), promised.