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80
BEOWULF.

XXVII.

Cwōm þā tō flōde  fela mōdigra
hæg-stealdra;[2]  hring-net bǣron,
1890locene leoðo-syrcan.  Land-weard onfand
eft-sīð eorla,  swā hē ǣr dyde;
nō hē mid hearme  of hliðes nosan
*gæs[tas][3] grētte,  ac him tōgēanes rād,⁠Fol. 171b.
cwæð þæt wilcuman  Wedera lēodum
1895scaþan[4] scīr-hame  tō scipe fōron.
Þā wæs on sande  sǣ-gēap naca
hladen here-wǣdum,  hringed-stefna
mēarum ond māðmum;  mæst hlīfade
ofer Hrōðgāres  hord-gestrēonum.
1900Hē þǣm bāt-wearde  bunden golde
swurd gesealde,  þæt hē syðþan wæs
on meodu-bence  māþme þȳ weorþra,[5]
yrfe-lāfe.  Gewāt him on nacan[6]

drēfan dēop wæter,  Dena land ofgeaf.
  1. ↑ what follows is “the gist of their talk as they went.” I take it to be a reflection of the scop. How could the Geats say: “until old age deprived him, &c.”?
  2. ↑ 1888—9. Wülcker and Heyne ‘fela-mōdigra/hæg-stealdra [hēap]’; cf. l. 1637.
  3. ↑ 1893. MS. defective at corner. A ‘gæs’ (followed by a blank space); Grundtvig ‘gæs[tas].’
  4. ↑ 1895. MS. defective at edge. A ‘scawan’ (so Heyne); B ‘scaþan' (so Zupitza and Wülcker). The first syllable sca- is still perfectly distinct; but the second syllable is missing at the beginning of the next line. The word scawa is not found elsewhere; scaþan occurs with the same meaning as here in l. 1803.
  5. ↑ 1902. MS. ‘maþma þy weorþre,’ which Thorpe emended.
  6. ↑ 1903. Grein ‘[ȳð-]nacan,’ for the alliteration. Sievers is contented to let on alliterate.
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