Page:Beowulf (Wyatt).djvu/117

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93

BEOWULF.

tīr-ēadigum menn torna gehwylces.

2190Hēt ðā eorla hlēo in gefetian,
heaðo-rōf cyning, Hrēðles lāfe
golde gegyrede; næs mid Gēatum ðā
sinc-māðþum sēlra on sweordes hād;
þæt hē on Bīowulfes bearm ālegde,
2195ond him gesealde seofan þūsendo,
bold ond brego-stōl. Him wæs bām samod
on ðām lēod-scipe lond gecynde,
eard, ēðel-riht, ōðrum swīðor
sīde rīce, þām ðǣr sēlra wæs.
2200Eft þæt geīode ufaran dōgrum
hilde-hlæmmum, syððan Hygelāc læg,
ond Hear[dr]ēde^[1] hilde-mēceas
under bord-hrēoðan tō bonan wurdon,
ðā hyne gesōhtan on sige-þēode
2205hearde hilde-frecan, Heaðo-Scilfingas,

nīða genǣgdan nefan Hererīces—^[2]
syððan *Bēowulfe^[3] brāde rīce⁠Fol. 179a.

↑ 2202. MS. ‘hearede.’ But see l. 2375.
↑ 2206. All editors put a full stop at the close of this line, leaving the sense of “þæt geīode etc.” very lame or very obscure. I take the construction of the passage to be as follows: þæt (l. 2200), as in many other passages in the poem (cf. ll. 1846, 1591), has a forward reference like mod. “this,” and is anticipatory of a substantive clause, which usually begins with a correlative þæt; this substantive clause is contained in ll. 2207—8 (first half), but the conjunction is omitted here, as in l. 2035, perhaps because syððan (2207) is correlative with syððan (2201).
↑ 2207. The folio that begins here (179^a) with the word “beowulfe” takes rank with the last folio of all (198^b) as the most defective and illegible portions of the MS. Zupitza says: “All that is distinct in the facsimile in fol. 179 has been freshened up by a later hand in the MS.” Sometimes the later hand has altered the original reading, and not for the better; e.g. in l. 2209, wintra has been changed to wintru. Zupitza transliterates the readings of the later hand.

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[1] 2202. MS. ‘hearede.’ But see l. 2375.

[2] 2206. All editors put a full stop at the close of this line, leaving the sense of “þæt geīode etc.” very lame or very obscure. I take the construction of the passage to be as follows: þæt (l. 2200), as in many other passages in the poem (cf. ll. 1846, 1591), has a forward reference like mod. “this,” and is anticipatory of a substantive clause, which usually begins with a correlative þæt; this substantive clause is contained in ll. 2207—8 (first half), but the conjunction is omitted here, as in l. 2035, perhaps because syððan (2207) is correlative with syððan (2201).

[3] 2207. The folio that begins here (179^a) with the word “beowulfe” takes rank with the last folio of all (198^b) as the most defective and illegible portions of the MS. Zupitza says: “All that is distinct in the facsimile in fol. 179 has been freshened up by a later hand in the MS.” Sometimes the later hand has altered the original reading, and not for the better; e.g. in l. 2209, wintra has been changed to wintru. Zupitza transliterates the readings of the later hand.