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76
BEOWULF.
[1]wǣron æþelingaseft tō lōodum

1805fūse tō farenne;[2]wolde feor þanon
cuma collen-ferhðcēoles nēosan.
Heht þā se heardaHrunting beran
sunu Ecglāfes,heht his sweord niman,
lēoflīc īren;sægde him þæs lǣnes[3] þanc,
1810cwæð, hē þone gūð-winegōdne tealde,
wīg-cræftigne;nales wordiim lōg
mēces ecge.Þæt wæs mōdig secg.
Ond þā sīð-frome,searwum gearwe,
wīgend wǣron,ēode weorð Denum
1815æþeling tō yppan,þǣr se ōþer wæs,
hæle[4] hilde-dēorHrōðgār grētte.

XXVI.

Bēowulf maþelode,bearn Ecgþēowes:
“Nū wē sǣ-līðendsecgan wyllað
feorran-cumene,þæt wē fundiaþ
1820Higelāc sēcan;wǣron hēr tela

willum bewenede;þū ūs wel dohtest.
  1. pose two lacunae instead of one. To avoid this, I have interchanged sunne and scacan in Heyne’s reading; of the consequent separation of adj. and noun there are frequent examples in the poem (cf. l. 255).
  2. 1805. MS, ‘farene ne.’ [In reality, far is now gone; but there is no doubt, from Thorkelin’s transcript, what the MS. reading was. In all such cases, in order to avoid needless detail, I give the indubitable reading as that of the extant MS.]
  3. 1809. MS. ‘leanes’; Mūllenhoff ‘lǣnes.’ It is possible that the passage means that Unferth gave his sword to Beowulf. Grein takes this view, for he glosses sunu (1808) as nom.; and so apparently do Heyne and Socin (though they gloss sunu as accus.!). But se hearda applies to Beowulf much better than to Unferth; cf. ll. 401, 1963.
  4. 1816. MS. ‘helle.’
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