[446]. wankel, unstable; OE. wancol: comp. ‘wanclen,’ weaklings, L 31834. The modern dialect word, wankle, is current in the North and Midlands, and often used of uncertain, unsettled weather, and so probably here of stormy, disturbed seas.
[447]. ðer—sinkeð is a half-line, sipes—werkeð a complete line: the former may have run, ðer ðe water sinkeð . dun on west halue, where the sea slopes away down to the west; for the second half-line comp. ‘an æst halue an west halue,’ L 29287. ‘Et modo naufragium, modo dant mortale periclum,’ T.
[448]. mirie: ‘Dolces vois ont, dolcement chantent,’ Wace, 738; ‘Þeos habbeð swa murie song,’ L 1326. Holthausen omits ge. mere, a shortened form of mereman. manie: ‘Sirenae sunt monstra maris resonancia multis | Vocibus et modulis cantus formancia multis,’ T.
[449]. sille, marvellous; OE. syllic.
[450]. it ben: see [1/10 note].
[451]. The scribe should have put the stop before forgeten. ‘Li fol home qui le cant oent, | . . . | Lor voie oblient et guerpissent,’ Wace, 743, 745.
[452]. ‘Quae faciunt sompnum nimia dulcedine vocum,’ T.
[454]. suk, suck, expressing the sound made by the water closing over the vessel.
[456-459] appears to be based on the experience of Brutus; ‘Brutus iherde siggen; þurh his sæ-monnen | of þan ufele ginnen; þe cuðen þa mereminnen | . . . | Þa mereminnen heom to svommen; on alchare sidan. | swiða heo heom lætten; mid luðere heora craften. | Neðelas Brutus at-bræc; al buten burstan, | ⁊ ferde riht on his wei,’ L 1334-1337, 1342-1347.
[456]. wise . . . warre: see 18/16.