[3]. smel, sense of smell, power of smelling; Mätzner compares ‘Smel of neose is þe ueorðe of þe vif wittes,’ AR 104/17; ‘Þonne is þe hundes smel for-do,’ ON 822. Smake, perceive by smell; a rare transitive use; see 211/497 for the intransitive, give out a smell.
[4]. ‘Qualicunque via descendit vallis ad ima,’ T.
[5]. The second half line is short; read he self filleð.
[6]. [dun]: supplied in Specimens with a reference to l. 22.
[7]. deu: Holthausen suggests fen, mud, restoring the alliteration; comp. 195/630. he, the hunter.
[8]. driueð dun, hastens down; comp. ‘se ferliche ha driuen dun to þe eorðe,’ HM 21/20, ‘driue adun swireforð,’ id. 23/32; with ‘ðeðen,’ 187/364. bergen: Holthausen conjectures dernen, which is apparently not used in ME. of living things: possibly dennen should be read as in l. 25; the writer is fond of such repetitions. There is nothing in T. corresponding to this line.
[10]-13. ‘Natus non vigilat dum sol se tercio girat | Sed dans rugitum pater ejus suscitat illum,’ T.
[11]. lið: read lieð, as in l. 15.
[12]. Holthausen transposes, Til ðe sunne haueð ðries · sinen him abuten. But the inflectional rhyme is sufficient.
[13]. Transpose, his faðer him reiseð. makeð: perhaps remeð; comp. 193/540.