[6] MS. 'feared' over egsode in a 16th-century hand.
[click here for
MS image]
[6] MS. eorl ; em. of Eorl{e} (the Eruli or Heruli, a fierce and cruel tribe based in the Danish islands and a terror of Europe in the 3rd-5th centuries) from Wrenn, following a suggestion made by Sewell. The usual emendation is to eorl{as} (as a more 'standard plural'), following Kemble. von Schaubert retains eorl as a collective plural. Kiernan's (1983) suggested retention of MS eorl has the reading of eorl as singular, so that the phrase egsode eorl has the sense 'terrified the local petty king' (cf. Danish jarl ; Mod. Eng. earl ).
[9] Sievers deletes þara .
[15] Bouterwek emends to þ{a} .
[15] MS illegible at this point: aldor...ase ; restoration from Raske (cited in Grundtvig).
[18] Scyld's son is referred to as Beaw in the W.S. genealogies (e.g. the Parker Chronicle ); many editors, following Kemble, have assumed Beowulf here and at 53 to be scribal errors, probably scribal 'over-correction' in anticipation of the main character named Beowulf. Child suggests Beaw or Beow.
[19] Kemble emends to eafer{an}.
[20] geong very indistinct in MS ; Kiernan et al. can read ge under ultraviolet. First letter of :uma completely vanished, completed as <g>uma by Grein ; Kiernan et al. can faintly see g under ultraviolet, supporting Grein's emendation. Kemble emends to <guðfr>uma ; Grein originanlly emended to <gleaw g>uma.
[21] in MS. only last 3 letters visible to Zupitza, completed by Bouterwek, Holtausen, Chambers. Kemble completes as <feo>rme ; Schücking as <æ>rne .
[25] sometimes emended to gehwæ{m} following Sievers.
[33] Alistair Campbell (unpublished lecture, cited in Howlett (1991:77)) notes the seeming oddity of the conjunction of utfus and isig, which such parallel diction suggests that the poet originally wrote some word at least roughly synonymous with utfus. Campbell posits the unattested OE *ilig 'speedy', cognate with Old High German ilig, Modern High German eilig. Confusion of l with long-s could be a simple scribal blunder. However, I feel that icig ond utfus provides a vivid depicted of the ship laden with its dead king, surrounded by mourners and a cold sea.
[44] MS. þon. em from Thorkelin
[47] illegible in MS; Thorkelin A B read ge - usually em. to g<yl>denne following Kemble; Malone emends as [ge]<l>denne
[51] as in MS; sometimes em. to sele-ræden{d}e following Kemble
[53] see n.18 above. Here, Kaluza (1891b:56) emends to Beowulf Scylding for metrical reasons. Pope (365) suggests Beow Scyldinga for metrical reasons.
[60] MS r æswa ; em. Kemble
[6] MS. eorl ; em. of Eorl{e} (the Eruli or Heruli, a fierce and cruel tribe based in the Danish islands and a terror of Europe in the 3rd-5th centuries) from Wrenn, following a suggestion made by Sewell. The usual emendation is to eorl{as} (as a more 'standard plural'), following Kemble. von Schaubert retains eorl as a collective plural. Kiernan's (1983) suggested retention of MS eorl has the reading of eorl as singular, so that the phrase egsode eorl has the sense 'terrified the local petty king' (cf. Danish jarl ; Mod. Eng. earl ).
[9] Sievers deletes þara .
[15] Bouterwek emends to þ{a} .
[15] MS illegible at this point: aldor...ase ; restoration from Raske (cited in Grundtvig).
[18] Scyld's son is referred to as Beaw in the W.S. genealogies (e.g. the Parker Chronicle ); many editors, following Kemble, have assumed Beowulf here and at 53 to be scribal errors, probably scribal 'over-correction' in anticipation of the main character named Beowulf. Child suggests Beaw or Beow.
[19] Kemble emends to eafer{an}.
[20] geong very indistinct in MS ; Kiernan et al. can read ge under ultraviolet. First letter of :uma completely vanished, completed as <g>uma by Grein ; Kiernan et al. can faintly see g under ultraviolet, supporting Grein's emendation. Kemble emends to <guðfr>uma ; Grein originanlly emended to <gleaw g>uma.
[21] in MS. only last 3 letters visible to Zupitza, completed by Bouterwek, Holtausen, Chambers. Kemble completes as <feo>rme ; Schücking as <æ>rne .
[25] sometimes emended to gehwæ{m} following Sievers.
[33] Alistair Campbell (unpublished lecture, cited in Howlett (1991:77)) notes the seeming oddity of the conjunction of utfus and isig, which such parallel diction suggests that the poet originally wrote some word at least roughly synonymous with utfus. Campbell posits the unattested OE *ilig 'speedy', cognate with Old High German ilig, Modern High German eilig. Confusion of l with long-s could be a simple scribal blunder. However, I feel that icig ond utfus provides a vivid depicted of the ship laden with its dead king, surrounded by mourners and a cold sea.
[44] MS. þon. em from Thorkelin
[47] illegible in MS; Thorkelin A B read ge - usually em. to g<yl>denne following Kemble; Malone emends as [ge]<l>denne
[51] as in MS; sometimes em. to sele-ræden{d}e following Kemble
[53] see n.18 above. Here, Kaluza (1891b:56) emends to Beowulf Scylding for metrical reasons. Pope (365) suggests Beow Scyldinga for metrical reasons.
[60] MS r æswa ; em. Kemble
[62] no gap in MS, em. Grundtvig,
Bugge & Clark;
Kluge restores to <Sigeneow
wæs Sæw>elan cwen. He was struck
by the fact that in Hrolfs saga Kraka King Haldan
has a daughter Signy, married to Sævil, anglicised would
be Sigeneow and Sæwelan.
Wrenn comments that 'the only known Germanic name for a Swedish
royalty in O.E. which would have the ending - ela
is Onela…[for alliterative purposes the queen's] name
must begin with a vowel. A good case has been put for Yrse, the mother of Hrolf Kraki' (again of Hrolfs saga
Kraka). Kiernan
et al. propose
<æþele>
<an> <wearð>
[70] Grundtvig emends to þon[n]e. I follow Robinson (1963[1991]) & Tripp (1974) in retaining the MS reading with relative þone rather than the emended comparative þonne.
[84] MS se secg hete ; em. from Grein.
[84] MS aþum swerian ; em. from Trautmann (1896). Fulk (1994) remarks 'In the manuscript the unfamiliar word "áþumswéoran" (son-in-law and father-in-law) has been trivialized by some scribe to "aþum swerian" (to swear oaths)--requiring a human subject for the supposed verb "hete", and thus prompting the scribe to corrupt "ecg" to "secg", in the process spoiling the alliteration' (40).
[86] Grein emends to ell{or}gæst. Wrenn remarks that this is attractive (though he does not adopt it), as ellen does not seem quite appropriate to Grendel. Wrenn suggests the possibility of a scribal error for ellergæst (a different form of Grein em.), but keeps the MS reading as it makes sense.
[92] last 2 letters lost in MS, completed by Kemble
[101] MS fre man ; completed by Kemble
[106] MS. scyppen with contemporary (?) addition of d above line in another hand [probably by 2nd scribe]
[70] Grundtvig emends to þon[n]e. I follow Robinson (1963[1991]) & Tripp (1974) in retaining the MS reading with relative þone rather than the emended comparative þonne.
[84] MS se secg hete ; em. from Grein.
[84] MS aþum swerian ; em. from Trautmann (1896). Fulk (1994) remarks 'In the manuscript the unfamiliar word "áþumswéoran" (son-in-law and father-in-law) has been trivialized by some scribe to "aþum swerian" (to swear oaths)--requiring a human subject for the supposed verb "hete", and thus prompting the scribe to corrupt "ecg" to "secg", in the process spoiling the alliteration' (40).
[86] Grein emends to ell{or}gæst. Wrenn remarks that this is attractive (though he does not adopt it), as ellen does not seem quite appropriate to Grendel. Wrenn suggests the possibility of a scribal error for ellergæst (a different form of Grein em.), but keeps the MS reading as it makes sense.
[92] last 2 letters lost in MS, completed by Kemble
[101] MS fre man ; completed by Kemble
[106] MS. scyppen with contemporary (?) addition of d above line in another hand [probably by 2nd scribe]
[107] seemingly MS in
altered by contemporary hand from m
by erasure, though Greg Rose says (pers. comm.): 'there does not seem
to be the sort of roughening of the parchment that is associated with
erasures elsewhere in the ms...There is a pore between the two minims
which complicates matters and the very light, very thin "stroke" between
the minims starts considerably lower on the first minim than is characteristic
of the ligatures of the stint on that folio. It may simply be an unintentional
leading glide to the stoke of the next minim rather than a true ligature.
The "emendation" may be more palaeographically true to the manuscript
than the usual reading from the facsimile'.
[click here for MS image]
However, the reading cames is plausible and, in fact, may be intended, as there exists a tradition, seemingly inherited from the Irish, that Cham (one of Noah's sons) inherited the curse of Cain (see Crawford) - the same conflation occurs in the prose Saturn & Solomon (in the Southwick Codex), que. no.35-6. The reading/emendation caines requires an unusual metrical pattern A1 with anacrusis, which with the caesura in position (i), is doubtful in Beowulf ; with the reading cames a common type C2 verse obtains (see Bliss §46-7) - thanks to Edwin Duncan for bringing this to my attention. However, Hutcheson points out that even if we accept the reading cames , the first syllable may still be long, as in Genesis A l.1635a 'swilce of cámes' (Hutcheson, 272n6).
[132] Wrenn emends to sceaw{o}don.
[136] Grein emends to morðbeal{u}.
However, the reading cames is plausible and, in fact, may be intended, as there exists a tradition, seemingly inherited from the Irish, that Cham (one of Noah's sons) inherited the curse of Cain (see Crawford) - the same conflation occurs in the prose Saturn & Solomon (in the Southwick Codex), que. no.35-6. The reading/emendation caines requires an unusual metrical pattern A1 with anacrusis, which with the caesura in position (i), is doubtful in Beowulf ; with the reading cames a common type C2 verse obtains (see Bliss §46-7) - thanks to Edwin Duncan for bringing this to my attention. However, Hutcheson points out that even if we accept the reading cames , the first syllable may still be long, as in Genesis A l.1635a 'swilce of cámes' (Hutcheson, 272n6).
[132] Wrenn emends to sceaw{o}don.
[136] Grein emends to morðbeal{u}.
[149] no gap in MS, em.
Schücking, Kiernan et al. propose <sona>.
[157] Sievers emends to {witena nænig} (i.e. switching the word order).
[158] MS banum; em. from Kemble
[157] Sievers emends to {witena nænig} (i.e. switching the word order).
[158] MS banum; em. from Kemble
[159] loss at edge of MS,
em. Rieger; Kiernan et al. propose <atol>
[172] Wrenn emends to eaht{o}don
[172] Wrenn emends to eaht{o}don
[175] MS hr
ærg trafum ; em. Grundtvig
[204] Thorkelin A reads hige- þofne ; usually emended to hige-rofne
[204] Wrenn emends to sceaw{o}don
[208] Wrenn emends to wis{o}de
[204] Thorkelin A reads hige- þofne ; usually emended to hige-rofne
[204] Wrenn emends to sceaw{o}don
[208] Wrenn emends to wis{o}de
[240-1] MS holmas le
wæs, with no gap. usual em. from
Kaluza reads {Ic hwi}le wæs
(240b); Kiernan leaves 240a as a half-line and emends
MS le to {H}e .
Thus Kiernan’s 241a reads {H}e wæs
endesæta.
[250] MS. næfre (see Robinson (1963[1991]:52-55) for an argument for retaining the ms. reading (and treating the verb as optative, i.e. Robinson translates as 'May his beauty, his peerless countenance, never belie him!' (54). em. from Kemble
[255] MS mine ; em. Kemble
[250] MS. næfre (see Robinson (1963[1991]:52-55) for an argument for retaining the ms. reading (and treating the verb as optative, i.e. Robinson translates as 'May his beauty, his peerless countenance, never belie him!' (54). em. from Kemble
[255] MS mine ; em. Kemble
[302] Ettmüller emends
to s{a}le; We follow Kiernan in keeping
MS sole ‘sand, wet mud’.
[304] Gering emends to hleorber{g}an. Sedgefield emends to hleo{þu}-beran.
[304] Gering emends to hleorber{g}an. Sedgefield emends to hleo{þu}-beran.
[332] Grein emends to
{æ}{þ}e{l}um ‘lineage’,
apparently assuming ‘orthometathesis’ of þ
and l and omission of h .
[357] MS. unhá; em. Trautmann.
[367] Grundtvig emends to glædm{od}.
[368] Sievers emends to wig-g{eat}wum.
[375] Kemble emends to eafor{a}
[389] no gap in MS., but Grein conjectures insertion of <þa to dura healle Wulfgar eode> ; Klaeber interpolates < þa to dura eode / widcuð hæleð,> . Both emendations are only for the sake of alliteration; they add nothing to meaning and there is no paleographic evidence for such an emendation - see Kiernan.186ff for further discussion.
[395] Ettmüller emends to gu þg{e}tawum .
[397] originally bidman (?) - with m partially erased, leaving behind part of a minim; thus some read this as i : onbid{i}an ; but Wrenn and Kiernan et al. deem onbidan the final intention of the scribe. [click here for MS image]
[403] no gap in MS. von Schaubert interpolates <eode hilde-deor> ; again only for alliterative purposes, no meaning is 'added' -- Bliss notes that 'whole short lines are much more frequent than editors have been accustomed to allow' (444), citing an example of the use of a single half-line in the refrain of Wulf and Eadwacer from the Exeter Book. See Kiernan 189-91 for futher discussion.
[432] Kemble shifts this ond from here to immediately preceding minra in the line above.
[447] Kemble emends to deo{r}.
[454] Ettmüller emends to Hr{eð}lan.
[457] MS clearly reads fere fyhtum [click here for MS image]. Grundtvig emends to f{or w}ere-fyhtum, presumably to provide for alliteration with wine in 457b. Chambers emends to f{o}r <ge>{w}y<r>htum.
[461] MS gara. Wrenn following Grundtvig emends to {Wede}ra. Thorpe emends to {w}ara. Byers assumes the scribe miscopied an original ða hine [wine-]gara cyn, - Kiernan (182) remarks that a simpler solution along these lines would be assuming the scribe miscopied wine as hine. We follow Kiernan's (apparently preferred) emendation (pg. 182-3) of MS. gara to {wi}gara:- 'The scribe may have miscopied gara, a word with high frequency in Beowulf, for the apparently rare synonym wigara, an error induced by haplography from wi- in the on-verse' (182-3). Wedera is particularly unlikely. See also Kiernan (185ff.) on the general question of the retention of lines lacking alliteration: 'there is evidence in the Beowulf MS that the poet [sic] did not always intend to use alliteration, nor even to adhere invariably to the normal on-verse/off-verse pattern of traditional Old English poetic line' (185)--on the latter point, also see Bliss (as mentioned in [403] above). Kiernan et al emend to {wi}gara (that is wíg-gára, gen. pl., 'war-spears', but Fulk (2000:13) points out that this creates a verse which is metrically too heavy, therefore we retain MS. gara: the verse lacks alliteration (for which see above ref.), but fits a metrically acceptable pattern.
[465] Thorpe emends to Deniga.
[489] Kemble emends to on sæl{u}m {te}o.
[490] Kiernan's examination of the MS bears out Malone's & Zupitza's readings, i.e. he can read secgum. Wrenn reads secg{a} 'warriors'.
[499] Rieger emends to Unferð, both from the standpoint of sense and alliteration. Also at 530, 1164, 1485 - though elsewhere the name is written as Unferð.
[505] Klaeber emends to gehede (from infinitival form gehegan 'achieve, perform' - see Pope (1983) for further discussion of 'gehedde').
[516] Kluge emends to wylm{um}. No gap in MS.
[520] MS has the Runic symbol
as an abbreviation
in place of eðel.
[536] Wrenn emends to gebeoto{o}don.
[567] MS sweo- (remainder lost at edge); Thorkelin A reads sweodu<m> ; Thorkelin B swe.... ; Kemble emends to sweo<rdum>.
[568] Sedgefield emends to for{ð} .
[578] Grundtvig emends to hw {æ} þere.
[581] usually emended to w{a}du ('water') following Kemble. But if one adopts the interpretation of this episode as a 'rowing' contest rather than a 'swimming' contest (the latter of which is not strongly supported by the text, either linguistically or stylistically), then the MS wudu ('boat') makes perfect sense here. See Earl for further discussion.
[586] Grein reads in fela to provide alliteration: no ic þ æs {fela} gylpe. No gap for fela exists in MS.
[591] MS gre del - with a slight gap [click here for MS image] but no trace of erasure or rubbing. em. by Thorkelin.
[600] Imelmann suggests emendation to snedeþ 'devours'. MS form could mean 'sends (to death)'.
[648] Kemble emends to hie sunnan leoht geseon <ne> meahton -- no gap exists in MS.
[652] MS grette - em. fr. Grundtvig(for metrical reasons - otherwise the verse would have only three syllables).
[665] Thorpe emends to kyning{a} wuldor.
[684] MS het. em. Kemble to h{e}.
[702] MS lost at edge. Thorkelin AB read ride . {w}ide from Grundtvig.
[707] Grein emends to s{c}yn .
[722] em. Kiernan et al.; usually emended <ge>hran , following Zupitza's reading. [click here for MS image]
[758] Rieger emends to {m}od{eg}a.
[762] Thorkelin B has hw in a different ik and later pencilled through. Emended to { þ} ær by Ettmüller.
[765] Grundtvig emends to (þæt) {..} wæs - deleting he .
[780] MS hetlic. em. Grundtvig.
[836] MS shows only h now, with rest lost at edge. em. from Grundtvig. Thorkelin B has hr... ; Thorkelin A nothing but dots.
[850] Zupitza emends to de{af}.
[879] e of MS fyrene corrected to a by the same hand.
[902] Grimm emends to ea{f}oð.
[947] MS secg betsta . em. from Pope/Fulk to produce a normal Bliss type 1D1 verse [ / / x x ] - cp. l.3007b nu is ofost betost for support for a trisyllabic besta; also cp. verses 1210b feorh cyninges and 2912b fyll cyninges for evidence of this as an acceptable metrical type. See further Fulk §205, §276 & Pope (p. 320). Sievers (1882) emends to secg{a} betsta.
[949] Grein emends to {n} æ nigre - presumably merely for alliterative purposes, for Old English has optional 'negative concord' and either form would produce the same meaning.
[954] no gap in MS. em. from Kemble. Kiernan at al. suggest <dæd>.
[957] MS. ec þeowes . em. by Thorpe.
[963] Thorpe emends to hine.
[965] Kemble emends to mund-gripe. Again, this simply provides for alliteration; see Kiernan 187ff.
[976] MS. mid gripe - em. from Kiernan et al. - Klaeber has {nid}-gripe .
[980] MS. eclafes - em. from Thorpe.
[983] Wrenn emends to sweawodon.
[985] Sedgefield emends to st{ið}nægla.
[989] Sievers emends to þ{e}.
[991] Sedgefield emends to innanwear{ð}.
[1000] Ettmüller emends to þ{a}.
[1004] Kemble emends to gesecan.
[1015] ten Brink emends to {waron}.
[1020] Grundtvig emends to b{earn}.
[1022] Ettmüller emends to hil{d}e cumbor.
[1026] Kemble emends to sc{e}oten{d}um.
[1031] Sievers emends to walu.
[1032] Grein emends to (laf){e}.
[1048] Holthausen emends to l{e}h{i} ð.
[1051] Kemble emends to brim-l{a}de.
[1073] Kemble emends to {l}i{n}d-plegan. (apparently again to provide alliteration).
[1079] Thorpe emends to he{o}.
[1079] MS. moste corrected to æ in same hand.
[1087] Thorpe emends to healf{n}e.
[1095] Wrenn emends to getruw{o}don.
[1106] Trautmann emends to s{eht}an.
[1107] MS. að; em. from Grundtvig.
[1107] MS icge em. from Ball.
[1130] MS. he. em. from Holthausen.
[1142] Möller emends to woro{d}rædenne.
[1176] Kemble emends to here-ri{nc}.
[1197] Grein emends to hord-ma{ðð}um.
[1199] Wrenn emends to {þ}ere ; Ettmüller to {þæ}re.
[1200] Grundtvig emends to f{lea}h.
[1212] Wrenn emends to reaf{o}d{o}n ; Ettmüller to reafed{o}n.
[1218] MS. þeo ; em. from Grundtvig. no evidence of d in-between þeo and ge streona. [click here for MS image]
[1224] Kemble emends to windge{ e}ardweallas.
[1229] MS. heol or hol ( e of heol struck out in same hand, some other letter was originally written before the e [click here for MS image] ). Thorkelin emends to hol{d}.
[1234] MS grimne emendation from Ettmüller(feminine agreement - see Fulk (1994:38)).
[357] MS. unhá; em. Trautmann.
[367] Grundtvig emends to glædm{od}.
[368] Sievers emends to wig-g{eat}wum.
[375] Kemble emends to eafor{a}
[389] no gap in MS., but Grein conjectures insertion of <þa to dura healle Wulfgar eode> ; Klaeber interpolates < þa to dura eode / widcuð hæleð,> . Both emendations are only for the sake of alliteration; they add nothing to meaning and there is no paleographic evidence for such an emendation - see Kiernan.186ff for further discussion.
[395] Ettmüller emends to gu þg{e}tawum .
[397] originally bidman (?) - with m partially erased, leaving behind part of a minim; thus some read this as i : onbid{i}an ; but Wrenn and Kiernan et al. deem onbidan the final intention of the scribe. [click here for MS image]
[403] no gap in MS. von Schaubert interpolates <eode hilde-deor> ; again only for alliterative purposes, no meaning is 'added' -- Bliss notes that 'whole short lines are much more frequent than editors have been accustomed to allow' (444), citing an example of the use of a single half-line in the refrain of Wulf and Eadwacer from the Exeter Book. See Kiernan 189-91 for futher discussion.
[432] Kemble shifts this ond from here to immediately preceding minra in the line above.
[447] Kemble emends to deo{r}.
[454] Ettmüller emends to Hr{eð}lan.
[457] MS clearly reads fere fyhtum [click here for MS image]. Grundtvig emends to f{or w}ere-fyhtum, presumably to provide for alliteration with wine in 457b. Chambers emends to f{o}r <ge>{w}y<r>htum.
[461] MS gara. Wrenn following Grundtvig emends to {Wede}ra. Thorpe emends to {w}ara. Byers assumes the scribe miscopied an original ða hine [wine-]gara cyn, - Kiernan (182) remarks that a simpler solution along these lines would be assuming the scribe miscopied wine as hine. We follow Kiernan's (apparently preferred) emendation (pg. 182-3) of MS. gara to {wi}gara:- 'The scribe may have miscopied gara, a word with high frequency in Beowulf, for the apparently rare synonym wigara, an error induced by haplography from wi- in the on-verse' (182-3). Wedera is particularly unlikely. See also Kiernan (185ff.) on the general question of the retention of lines lacking alliteration: 'there is evidence in the Beowulf MS that the poet [sic] did not always intend to use alliteration, nor even to adhere invariably to the normal on-verse/off-verse pattern of traditional Old English poetic line' (185)--on the latter point, also see Bliss (as mentioned in [403] above). Kiernan et al emend to {wi}gara (that is wíg-gára, gen. pl., 'war-spears', but Fulk (2000:13) points out that this creates a verse which is metrically too heavy, therefore we retain MS. gara: the verse lacks alliteration (for which see above ref.), but fits a metrically acceptable pattern.
[465] Thorpe emends to Deniga.
[489] Kemble emends to on sæl{u}m {te}o.
[490] Kiernan's examination of the MS bears out Malone's & Zupitza's readings, i.e. he can read secgum. Wrenn reads secg{a} 'warriors'.
[499] Rieger emends to Unferð, both from the standpoint of sense and alliteration. Also at 530, 1164, 1485 - though elsewhere the name is written as Unferð.
[505] Klaeber emends to gehede (from infinitival form gehegan 'achieve, perform' - see Pope (1983) for further discussion of 'gehedde').
[516] Kluge emends to wylm{um}. No gap in MS.
[520] MS has the Runic symbol
as an abbreviation
in place of eðel.[536] Wrenn emends to gebeoto{o}don.
[567] MS sweo- (remainder lost at edge); Thorkelin A reads sweodu<m> ; Thorkelin B swe.... ; Kemble emends to sweo<rdum>.
[568] Sedgefield emends to for{ð} .
[578] Grundtvig emends to hw {æ} þere.
[581] usually emended to w{a}du ('water') following Kemble. But if one adopts the interpretation of this episode as a 'rowing' contest rather than a 'swimming' contest (the latter of which is not strongly supported by the text, either linguistically or stylistically), then the MS wudu ('boat') makes perfect sense here. See Earl for further discussion.
[586] Grein reads in fela to provide alliteration: no ic þ æs {fela} gylpe. No gap for fela exists in MS.
[591] MS gre del - with a slight gap [click here for MS image] but no trace of erasure or rubbing. em. by Thorkelin.
[600] Imelmann suggests emendation to snedeþ 'devours'. MS form could mean 'sends (to death)'.
[648] Kemble emends to hie sunnan leoht geseon <ne> meahton -- no gap exists in MS.
[652] MS grette - em. fr. Grundtvig(for metrical reasons - otherwise the verse would have only three syllables).
[665] Thorpe emends to kyning{a} wuldor.
[684] MS het. em. Kemble to h{e}.
[702] MS lost at edge. Thorkelin AB read ride . {w}ide from Grundtvig.
[707] Grein emends to s{c}yn .
[722] em. Kiernan et al.; usually emended <ge>hran , following Zupitza's reading. [click here for MS image]
[758] Rieger emends to {m}od{eg}a.
[762] Thorkelin B has hw in a different ik and later pencilled through. Emended to { þ} ær by Ettmüller.
[765] Grundtvig emends to (þæt) {..} wæs - deleting he .
[780] MS hetlic. em. Grundtvig.
[836] MS shows only h now, with rest lost at edge. em. from Grundtvig. Thorkelin B has hr... ; Thorkelin A nothing but dots.
[850] Zupitza emends to de{af}.
[879] e of MS fyrene corrected to a by the same hand.
[902] Grimm emends to ea{f}oð.
[947] MS secg betsta . em. from Pope/Fulk to produce a normal Bliss type 1D1 verse [ / / x x ] - cp. l.3007b nu is ofost betost for support for a trisyllabic besta; also cp. verses 1210b feorh cyninges and 2912b fyll cyninges for evidence of this as an acceptable metrical type. See further Fulk §205, §276 & Pope (p. 320). Sievers (1882) emends to secg{a} betsta.
[949] Grein emends to {n} æ nigre - presumably merely for alliterative purposes, for Old English has optional 'negative concord' and either form would produce the same meaning.
[954] no gap in MS. em. from Kemble. Kiernan at al. suggest <dæd>.
[957] MS. ec þeowes . em. by Thorpe.
[963] Thorpe emends to hine.
[965] Kemble emends to mund-gripe. Again, this simply provides for alliteration; see Kiernan 187ff.
[976] MS. mid gripe - em. from Kiernan et al. - Klaeber has {nid}-gripe .
[980] MS. eclafes - em. from Thorpe.
[983] Wrenn emends to sweawodon.
[985] Sedgefield emends to st{ið}nægla.
[989] Sievers emends to þ{e}.
[991] Sedgefield emends to innanwear{ð}.
[1000] Ettmüller emends to þ{a}.
[1004] Kemble emends to gesecan.
[1015] ten Brink emends to {waron}.
[1020] Grundtvig emends to b{earn}.
[1022] Ettmüller emends to hil{d}e cumbor.
[1026] Kemble emends to sc{e}oten{d}um.
[1031] Sievers emends to walu.
[1032] Grein emends to (laf){e}.
[1048] Holthausen emends to l{e}h{i} ð.
[1051] Kemble emends to brim-l{a}de.
[1073] Kemble emends to {l}i{n}d-plegan. (apparently again to provide alliteration).
[1079] Thorpe emends to he{o}.
[1079] MS. moste corrected to æ in same hand.
[1087] Thorpe emends to healf{n}e.
[1095] Wrenn emends to getruw{o}don.
[1106] Trautmann emends to s{eht}an.
[1107] MS. að; em. from Grundtvig.
[1107] MS icge em. from Ball.
[1117] Holthausen emends to e{a}me. Unemended the line translates 'the wretched lady wailed on the shoulder (='over the corpse'? or '...the wretched fellow on the shoulder'??). Emended it reads 'by the side of his uncle' .
[1128-8] MS. finnel un hlitme. em. from Kiernan et al. Klaeber emends to Finn{e} {eal} {..}hlitme.[1130] MS. he. em. from Holthausen.
[1142] Möller emends to woro{d}rædenne.
[1176] Kemble emends to here-ri{nc}.
[1197] Grein emends to hord-ma{ðð}um.
[1199] Wrenn emends to {þ}ere ; Ettmüller to {þæ}re.
[1200] Grundtvig emends to f{lea}h.
[1212] Wrenn emends to reaf{o}d{o}n ; Ettmüller to reafed{o}n.
[1218] MS. þeo ; em. from Grundtvig. no evidence of d in-between þeo and ge streona. [click here for MS image]
[1224] Kemble emends to windge{ e}ardweallas.
[1229] MS. heol or hol ( e of heol struck out in same hand, some other letter was originally written before the e [click here for MS image] ). Thorkelin emends to hol{d}.
[1234] MS grimne emendation from Ettmüller(feminine agreement - see Fulk (1994:38)).
[1261]
Grundtvig emends to
Cain. Kiernan says this ‘passage…surely alludes,
at least elliptically, to the first murder, but there
is no more need to mention Cain’s name in this connection
than Abel’s…[t]he passage [ siþðan camp
wearð] may be translated…“from the time when strife
arose”” (183).
him is added here by me to repair metre (to type B) - thanks to Ray Tripp for helpful discussion on this passage.
[1278] MS þeod em. from Holthausen. Ettmuller emends to {d}e{að} .
[1287] This word entirely lost at edge of MS. Thorkelin A has dyhttig and Thorkelin B dyttig.
[1300] MS on corrrected to in by same scribe [click image 1300].
[1314] MS alf walda. emended by Thorpe (following Thorkelin) to Alwalda. there is no apparent reason why the scribe would have mistaken his exemplar here, and no obvious textual forms in it vicinity which would have induced him to write a spurious f. [click for image]
I follow Tripp (1983) in retaining the MS. reading. (Kiernan et al. accept Thorpe's emendation).
See also, Taylor (1995h), who comments: 'no editor....has thought it necessary to restore the manuscript reading, though any emendation not supported by paleographic evidence is open to question. In this case, the change seems totally unwarranted....the scribe wrote alf as a simplex, not as an affix...whereas other occurrences of alwalda in the manuscript are unmistakably one word' (100).
Though the form alf is not attested in OE texts, as Taylor says, 'we would expect ælf- in Late West-Saxon, though alf is a perfectly normal form in Anglian and Northumbrian dialects [R.A. Peters[(1960)...] argues for a proto-Northumbrian form alfi. The form could even be Early Southern, since breaking does not occur in Anglian, Kentish, and West Saxon before l in several words. For example, in Beowulf we have here alwalda where we would expect alwealda [or ealwealda]]...there are two early Middle English occurrences of the word. The Middle English Dictionary lists alf-wort; and, La3amon's Brut, 19268, has: þis þe alue him 3ef (Cott. Calig. A.ix) and þis þe alfe him 3eaf (Cott. Otho C.xiii). The form alf is therefore attested in early English, and the time span between the Beowulf scribe and La3amon is not enough....to warrant emendation. particularly since alf is a Norse form that would be recognizable anywhere in the Danelaw' (1995h:100-1).
On this reading, see further n.1314 in my bilingual edition.
[1318] MS hnæg, with remainder lost at edge. Thorkelin AB read hnægde – emended to {n}æg(de) by Grein.
[1329] Grein adds æðeling (thus reading ..wesan {æðeling} ær-god..). No gap in MS.
[1331] Grein emends to hwæder.
[1333] Kemble emends to ge{fæ}gnod.
[1351] Kemble emends to onlicn{e}s.
[1354] MS. nem with rest lost at edge. Thorkelin AB read nemdod ; Kemble emends to nem(do{n}).
[1362] MS. stanðeð. emended by Thorkelin.
[1363] MS hrinde - em. from Morris, on the basis of a seemingly parallel line from The Blickling Homilies (To Sanctae Michaheles Mæssan): '...& wæron norð of ðæm stane awexene swiðe hrimige bearwas,...'
[1372] No gap in MS, by insertion mark [click image 1372] characteristic of second scribe squeezed in-between hafelan and nis. Some insertion is required as the sentence otherwise lacks an infinitive.
em. from Gerritsen (1986) & Bammesberger (1989). Kemble's emendation here is hydan ‘hide’. Holthausen posits beorgan ‘preserve’; Kiernan et al. hafenian ‘raise up’(?).
Orchard (2000:47-8) points out some of the virtues of the Bammesberger/Gerritsen emendation (over the other two main emendations of hydan or beorgan (see above)): '...eye-skip through homoeoteleuton through one word to another is particularly possible if we suppose that the phrase in question originally comprised two words (hafelan helan) which both shared the same last four letters....[emendation to helan] manages to maintain both the double alliteration...and the assonance (as...is witnessed in the supposed parallel feore beorgan [l.1291a (Klaeber); 1293 in numbering of BoS-edition]) that is characteristic of the aural embellishment of the text at key moments'.
Additionally, helan, via the related OE word hell (the original sense being a 'covered, hidden place (of the dead)'), also may echo the hellish description of the fen (see above n1363 and also the notes on this passage in the dual-language edition of BoS).
[1375] Sedgefield emends to {ð}rysmaþ.
[1379] Sedgefield emends to {s}innigne.
[1382] Thorkelin A reads rundmi ; Thorkelin B reads wund-dini. Malone reads wundini (reading usually wundini or wund{num} ). Kiernan et al’s study clearly shows wundmi [click here for MS image] – em. to wund{um} from Kiernan et al.
[1388] MS driht gumen , with n sub-puncted [click here for MS image] – and a added over e in same hand.
[1391] MS gan , with final g added above the line in a hand characteristic of the second scribe.
[1404] No gap in MS. Schücking adds swa.
[1418] MS weorce (work) ; em. from Fulk (1994:40), who says 'the Anglian word wærc (pain) is rarely written as such in the surviving manuscripts of verse because the southern scribes did not recognize it. The modern reflex of the word is restricted to Scotland and the north of England. Southern scribes usually changed it to weorc (work)'.
[1424] word before leoð lost in MS. Thorkelin B give f... ; A gives only dots. Bouterwek emends to fyrdleoð (‘war-song’); Kiernan et al. observe what appears to be a fragment of a letter with a curved bottom and suggest the em. given forðleoð (‘departing dirge’).
[1441] Wrenn emends to sceaw{o}don.
[1454] Cosjin emends to bro{g}dne.
[1485] Thorpe emends to Hre{ð}les.
[1506] MS brim wyl – emended by Kemble.
[1508] MS þæm ; em. from Grundtvig .
[1510] Kemble emends to swe{n}cte.
[1513] Thorpe inserts in , perhaps lost at edge, though little space in MS
[1520] MS. hord swenge. em. to ho{n}d from Grundtvig. Trautmann further emends to ho{n}d swen{g}.
[1530] MS hylaces. em. from Wrenn.
[1531] MS wundelmæl ('wounding-weapon'(?!)); em. from Kemble . Originally mæg , but g is crossed out and replaced above in the same hand with a finer quill: [click here for MS image]
[1535] Rieger emends to {f}eaxle. See Syd Allen's page on 'Hair-pulling v. Shoulder-grabbing' in Beowulf [click here] for further discussion.
[1541] Rieger emends to {a}ndlean.
[1545] em. by Ettmüller for MS seaxe.
[1546] addition by Grundtvig; no gap in MS
[1559] addition by Kemble; no gap in MS
[1587] plus sign or cross symbol in margin - pre-dates the transcripts of Thorkelin AB.
[1599] Kemble emends to abr{o}ten .
[1602] Grein emends to se{t}an.
[1617] MS ellen corrected to ellor in same hand [click here for MS image] .
[1618] MS sæce corrected to sæcce by addition of another c above the word in the same hand.
[1634] Grein emends to cyn{e}balde.
[1638] MS weorce (work) ; em. from Fulk (1994:40) - see n. 1418 above.
[fitt XXV] This is usually renumbered as XXIV (as the preceding fit is numbered XXIII), but we hear retain the original numbering, following Kiernan (see 264ff.). It is the first scribe who skips a number; the second scribe (who picks up at 1939) continues his fitt-numbering from XXVIIII—the last fitt-number written by the first scribe.
[1685] MS scedeninge corrected to scedenigge in same hand.
[1707] Thorkelin, Thorpe and Wrenn read as freode. Kemble, Grundtvig, Zupitza and Kiernan read freoðe . Close examination of MS reveals a clear bar of an ð – [click here for MS image] .
[1721] MS weorce (work) ; em. from Fulk (1994:40) - see n. 1418 above.
[1728] Sedgefield emends to {h}l{is}an.
[1734] MS originally snyttrum – corrected in same hand above line with a finer quill.
[1737] em. by Kemble as end of word lost at edge of MS
[1748] to imperfectly erased (clearly visible) between he and lange [click here for MS image] .
[1750] Thorpe emends to fæ{tt}e.
[1759] MS secg betsta . em. from Pope/Fulk to produce a normal Bliss type 1D1 verse [ / / x x ] - cp. l.3007b nu is ofost betost for support for a trisyllabic besta; also cp. verses 1210b feorh cyninges and 2912b fyll cyninges for evidence of this as an acceptable metrical type. See further Fulk §205, §276 & Pope (p. 320). Sievers (1882) emends to secg{a} betsta.
[1774] Grein emends to wend{e}n.
[1792] Grundtvig emends to un{ge}metes.
[1795] Wrenn emends to wis{o}de.
[1796] MS be weotene – emended by Kemble.
[1797] MS originally dogor ; e added in a lighter ink by a hand which seems to be the second scribe’s.
[1803] no gap in MS. Sievers interpolates <scima æfter sceadwe> ; Heyne interpolates <ofter grundas> ; Sedgefield adopts <scima scynded> , emending from Sievers.
[1809] Müllenhoff emends to l{æ}nes.
[1816] MS helle. em. from Kemble.
[1828] Sedgefield emends to {ð}ydon.
[1833] Thorpe emends to w{o}rdum ond w{eo}rcum.
[1836] Grundtvig emends to hreþi{c}.
[1837] MS geþinged - emended by Grein.
[1857] Sievers emends to (g)emæn{e}.
[1862] Kluge emends to (h)ea{f}u .
[1866] MS inne – em. from Thorpe.
[1871] MS betstan. em. from Pope/Fulk to produce a normal Bliss type 1D1 verse [ / / x x ] - cp. l.3007b nu is ofost betost for support for a trisyllabic besta; also cp. verses 1210b feorh cyninges and 2912b fyll cyninges for evidence of this as an acceptable metrical type. See further Fulk §205, §276 & Pope (p. 320). Sievers (1882) emends to ðegn{a} betstan .
[1875] MS. he seoðða – em. from Grundtvig and Thorkelin, respectively.
[1875] Bugge interpolates na in-between seoððan and geseon. The difference lies in whether one believes that Hrothgar thinks that he will or will not see Beowulf again, and what import one feels his tears have on this determination.
[1883] Kemble emends to age{n}.
[1889] Grein interpolates heap ( hæg-stealdra heap.. ). no gap in MS.
[1893] MS word lost entirely. Thorkelin A reads gæs.. ; B reads only dots ; Grundtvig emends remainder of lost word.
[1902] Thorpe emends to maþm{e} and weorþr{a}.
[1903] Rieger emends to nac{a}.
[1918] Grundtvig emends to onc{e}r.
[1926] Kock emends to hea{h} {on} healle.
[1931] Schücking adds ne
[1934] Wrenn emends to {o}n.
[1939] Second scribe begins here with the word (m)oste .
[1944] Thorpe emends to on hohsnod{e}.
[1956] Thorpe emends to þ{one}.
[1960] Thorpe emends to (the name) {Eo}m{e}r. Eomær is included in the genealogy of Mercian Kings, but nothing more than his name is mentioned there, nor elsewhere, so far as we know.
We follow Kiernan, who holds that geomor actually makes much more sense than the emendation to Eomær (which provides alliteration) – see Kiernan 184ff. Malone advises retaining the MS reading, and segmenting as þon ongeomor woc, and we here follow Kiernan's conservative emendation of þonon geomor to þonon <on>geomor, which he explains as follows: '[t]he form þon, "then", though attested, is rare, while þonon is extremely common. A conservative emendation would be þonon [on]geomor woc, and the error could be explained either as a haplograph or as the scribe's attempt to correct what he perceived as a dittograph (-onon on-)' (184-5). Kiernan additionally points out (188-9) that this line may be an 'instance of phonetic alliteration, since the initial semivocalic phone [j] followed by the diphthong -eo would alliterate phonetically with vowels'--(on this sort of alliteration, the case of this line in particular, see also Rickert, 54).
[1961] Kemble emends to Hem{m}inges .
[1981] MS. side added above line in same hand, but with another ink and a point, rather than the usual ‘insertion-stroke’, shows where it is to be inserted. [click here for MS image] . Thorpe emends to {heal}-reced.
[1983] MS hænum with an original ð erased between the æ and the n (as seen under ultraviolet light). [click here for MS image] Grein emends to hæ{l}um 'heroes'; Bugge to hæ{ð}num 'heathens'; Trautmann to hæ{leð}um 'heroes'; Kiernan retains hænum 'lowly, abject, low-ranks [men]'; emendment in the text mine hæum 'high-born [men]', as requiring the least deviation from the text while retaining the sense, as Beowulf and his troops are hardly hænum .
[1991] MS wið cuðne – em. from Thorkelin.
[2001] word lost at edge. em. from Klaeber. Moore emends to mæru.
[2002] word lost at edge of MS. em. from Thorpe. Kiernan et al. emend to earfoð.
[2004] MS originally dungum , altered to dingum by erasing second stroke of the u.
[2006] no gap in MS, but Grein emends to begylpan <ne> þearf. Presumably he thought it reflected poorly on Beowulf that he felt begylpan þearf ‘boast necessary’ for the vengeance he carried out against Grendel and his mother for the Half-Danes losses.
[2007] word lost at edge – em. from Kiernan et al. Kemble emends to ænig.
[2009] Only f partially visible in MS; Thorkelin A reads fæ..; B fer..; Bugge restores to facne ; Malone emends this to faecne (reading given here); Kiernan et al. posit fyrene (though why is not obvious, considering the Thorkelin readings with either fæ- or fe-).
[2019] word lost at edge; em. from Thorpe.
[2020] only last letter visible in MS; Thorkelin B reads uguðe; em. to {d}uguðe from Grundtvig.
[2024] em. from Kluge for word lost at edge.
[2026] MS shows only –fað. Thorkelin AB have iafað. em. of h- from Kemble.
[2032] Scribe altered ð to d in –mid by smudging cross-stroke while still wet.
[fitt XXX] No fitt number; but scribe writes Oððæt with a large capital O to show beginning of new fitt. Fitt number seemingly omitted due to lack of space – see Kiernan 265ff.
[2044] Kemble restores –um. Kiernan et al. restore to –an .
[2055] Thorkelin A has gylwed; B gylped. em. from Kemble based on Thorkelin B.
[2062] Thorkelin A has figende; B .eigende. em. from Heyne based on Thorkelin A.
[2063] Thorkelin AB have orocene. Kemble emends to {ab}rocene. Kiernan et al to {b}rocene (latter followed here).
[2064] Thorkelin emends to aðsweord. See Wrenn p. 218, n. 2061 or Wrenn's glossary under áðsweorð for the argument for retaining the MS form.
[2064] em. from Kemble.
[2067] em. from Thorpe
[2076] Holtzmann emends to hil{d}.
[2079] MS magumþegne. em. from Kemble.
[2085] MS geareofolm. em. from Thorkelin.
[2093] Thorkelin A has huieda. em. from Grundtvig.
[2094] Grein emends to {o}nlean.
[2097] em. by Kemble from Thorkelin A bræc.
[2108] Grundtvig emends to go(me{n}).
[2128] Thorkelin A reads fæð..; B fædrunga. em. from Kiernan et al. Grein emends to fæð{mum}.
[2135] MS. original ic altered to is in same hand [click here for MS image] .
[2139] no gap in MS. em. from Kiernan et al. Thorpe emends to guð-sele (‘war-hall’).
[2146] word lost at edge; interpolation by Kemble.
[2147] only final –ne now left at edge of MS; restoration from Kemble.
[2168] Thorkelin A re-; Thorkelin B ren- (n in another ink) ; Kemble’s restoration.
[2174] MS. ðeo at edge; Thorkelin AB ðeod; Kemble’s restoration.
[2176] MS. brost; em. from Thorpe.
[2186] emended to We{der}a by Cosijn.
[2187] restoration from Kiernan et al.; Grein restores to <wen>don.
[2202] MS. hearede. em. from Grundtvig.
[2204] Grundtvig emends to hil{d} frecan.
[folio 179] Zupitza notes that ‘[a]ll that is distinct in the FS. in the fol. 179 has been freshened up by a later hand in the MS’. Westphalen discovered that, in fact, fol. 179 is a palimpsest. Usually palimpsests are made to ‘recycle’ vellum from an old text to provide parchment for a new one. Kiernan discusses the palimpsest of fol. 179 at some length, see esp. Kiernan 219-243. Kiernan’s basic hypothesis is that the second scribe erased this folio as part of his general proofreading and revision of the poem—in this case, specifically to provide a smoother transition between the Beowulf episodes. The most plausible reason for the gaps in this folio is that—whatever erasing solution was used to create the palimpsest—it left the folio too damp in some places to be written upon so soon after its preparation. Thus, the parts of the vellum which were still damp failed to retain the ink uniformly. Perhaps this fault did not manifest significantly until many years after the revision of the folio, explaining why the scribe—who went to the trouble of revising an entire folio—did not retouch these spots (i.e. he was dead by the time the problem was evident). Kiernan provides a strong argument against any ‘false freshening up’ of any letters in this folio, as posited by Zupitza. [click here to view the general state of fol. 179]
[2211] Thorkelin AB has ric san for word now lost at edge. restored by Kemble.
[2212] MS. partially illegible between hea and hord. Thorkelin AB nothing. Kiernan et al. read h<eaum> with confidence under ultraviolet light. Kiernan et al. also note a distinct difference between brown ink and grey ink for h<of>e – ‘A combined reading in a grayscale image favors heþe, but the brown ink alone strongly favors hofe. Here and in many other places on the folio there is clear evidence of more than one layer of text’. heaum hofe = ‘high dwelling’. Zupitza reads heaðo hlæwe ‘war-cairn’; Holthausen heaum hæþe ‘high heath’; Chambers heaum hope ‘high fen’; and Sedgefield’s reading of heaum hofe with the use of ultraviolet light matches that of Kiernan et al.
[2213] MS stearne. em. from Kiernan et al. Malone emends to stea{p}ne.
[2215] MS largely illegible. Kiernan et al. provide conjectural reading based on best evaluation of close examination of MS. Sedgefield reconstructs nathwylc se þe neh gefeng.
[2216] MS illegible (only for letters between <>s, as always). Conjectural reading from Kiernan et al., based on space and context.
[2217] MS illegible. Conjectural reading from Kiernan (2009) – Kiernan et al. suggests o seems fairly certain, -te likely, but see Kiernan (2009) for a reconsideration. Sedgefield posits wræc . Klaeber proposes bemað.
[2218] MS illegible. Kluge and Kiernan et al. both conjecture reading given in text.
[2218] MS illegible. restoration from Kiernan et al. Ultraviolet seems to confirm hæf-. Kluge posits besyre<d> <wurde>. Kiernan (1978) restores hræde 'with confidence'.
[2219] MS unclear. Thorkelin A reads þeoses, B þeofes. Cross-stroke of f extremely faint and also distorted by the descender of 7 (abbr. ond) partially showing-through from verso of folio. [click here for MS image]
[2219] MS illegible. restoration from Grein. Kiernan et al. remarks that this fits the space and sense.
[2220] Kiernan et al. and Grein both observe faint signs of – n .
[2221] Illegible in MS. [click here for MS image] Thorkelin AB nothing. Kiernan et al. reconstruct <næs> or possibly <wæs> , the latter with missing descender (of w [written as wenn in the MS]). [Note: both of Kiernan’s reading give the same meaning – Old English has ‘optional’ negative concord, thus Nealles næs ‘Not at all was not’; Nealles wæs ‘Not at all was’. But both mean the same thing, though the former may have a slightly more emphatic force]. Kaluza emends to mid .
[2221] Kaluza emends to wyrm-hord a{bræc } . (in his reading of nealles mid – see above). Mitchell & Robinson emend to wyrm-hord a{træd} .Though the usual MS reading is wyrmhorda , Kiernan et al.'s facsimile shows what appears to be a minim clinging to the charred edge right of the a of horda [click here for MS image] - strongly suggesting the form wyrmhorda<n>, as posited here. Form = wk.gs.(?), (?)wyrmhordan, or (?)wyrmhorda (gp.?), or (?)wyrmhordas (gs. : -as as reverse spelling as usu. gs. -es, Köberl, pers. comm.
[2223] Kiernan et al. state: ‘ after contrast enhancement, þeof seems the most likely restoration (eo -ligature mostly intact, and top of f, including identifying cross-stroke, fairly convincing)’. Tripp (422-2) reads þeoden : ' þ definite and eo quite clear under intense white light. What has been taken for the n in nat actually belongs to the preceding word, which under television magnification is crowded but still reasonably visible, although show-through is a problem; "( egn, eow, eof?)," Kiernan. The a of the conventional nat is created from a loop added to the left on the first stroke of an n , the second stroke of which has been fashioned into an awkward t through the extension of its normal initial and terminal ticks; the at of the original nat seems to have been lost at the right edge of the manuscript; hwylces extremely faded and patchy, but for the most part discernable'. [click here for MS image] . Grundtvig emends to þeow and this em. is usually adopted. Zupitza reads þegn .
[2224] Kiernan et al.’s study disproves Zupitza’s claim of an original a for o .
[2225] MS almost completely illegible. reconstruction from Zupitza, followed by most editors. Kiernan et al. posit <ðeodnes>. Most editors agree on restoration of þearfa – Kiernan et al. observe clear vestiges of –rf , but prefers –rfe to –rfa .
[2225] Grein emends to {f}eal{h}. Zupitza believes he can see an f. standing beneath the w.
[2226] MS appears to read mwatide, but may also read onwatide . Thorpe emends to {i}nw{l}atode. Ettmüller to in {þ}a tide . Dobbie to o{nfunden}. [click here for MS image]
[2227] MS illegible. restoration posited by Kiernan et al. on basis of context and vestigial marking.
[2227] MS largely illegible. restoration from Grein.
[2228] MS. largely illegible. Kiernan et al. think fyren more likely than earm (posited by Kemble) based on remaining traces.
[2230] Most editors consider the long gap (obviously erased) to be text which was lost. However Kiernan observes: ‘The great lacuna between sc(ea)pen r21 and sceapan v1, as well as the gap on v2, are of extraordinary interest…Some of the erased letters in line 1 are still quite distinct, despite the rubbing and discoloration, and some can be identified with confidence. This alone shows that the erasing must have been done after the new text was copied on the palimpsest, for there is no conceivable reason why some of these letters would not have been freshened up with the rest of the page. Moreover, the ink in some of the traces is still strong enough to identify as that used throughout the verso. The general appearance of the gaps on the verso thus substantiates the view that the palimpsest at one time contained a full text, part of which was later deliberately effaced…The reason this text was deliberately erased from the palimpsest is that it is a dittograph from lines 20-21 of the recto: br(o)g(a) stod hwæðre / … sc(ea)pen. A dittograph, in this case, is not by any means useless, for the lost word before sc(ea)pen on the recto can be restored as fyren , and the conjectural o and a in br(o)g(a) , and the ea in sc(ea)pen are confirmed. The measurements between broga and sceapen corroborate these conclusions…Possibly sceapen was left on the verso as a catchword, to indicate that, despite the appearances, nothing had been lost from the text between the two sceapen ’s…
[This] mean[s] that everything after sceapen on the recto had been deliberately deleted, and that despite the physical gaps in the MS from line r21 to line v2, there is no contextual loss to the text. The text itself supports the theory, for hwæðre fyren-sceapan is on on-verse, and se fær begeat is an off-verse, and the line as a whole is metrically and alliteratively sound.’ (229, 230, 231-232). For further details, see ibid. 229-233.
[click here for MS image]
[2231] MS illegible. restoration from Grein and Conybeare (latter on Kiernan et al. CD [II], marginal note).
[2232] MS largely illegible. Thorkelin A nothing; B se… restoration from Kiernan et al. Zupitza emends to huse.
[2239] MS rende ; em. Zupitza. Kiernan et al. observe that no trace of an original wynn remains under r ( pace Zupitza); fading of hair-strokes of high e -head leaves what looks like ih instead of en (thus the usual reading of MS rihde ).
[2239] Sedgefield reads ylcan and says '[a] careful scrunity of the MS. shows the the c of ylcan has been clumsily altered to d by a later hand' ; however Kiernan (241) rebuts this as '[t]here is...no need, and no justification, for the editorial emendation of yldan to ylcan . If emendations were made for all awkwardly made letters, we would have another poem entirely'. Tripp agrees with Kiernan, stating, 'd, not d over c, cf. other d's through the second [scribe's] hand [are] "awkwardly made"' (425n2238b).
[2245] MS hard wyrðne. em. from Kiernan et al. Klaeber emends to h{o}rd-wyrðne. Kiernan (1978) reads hard fyrdne: '...the first letter of ['fyrdne'] could be wynn or f...in the MS the f-tongue seems certain. The advantage of f is that hardfyrdne, as Bosworth-Toller first glossed it, means "hard to carry, weighty", and is excellent in the immediate context....The disadvantage of wynn is that it requires editors to change hard to hord, and wyrdne to wyrðne'.
[2247] Kiernan et al. writes ‘I think the later scribe first wrote moste (pret. 3s), the verb for hæleð (mns.), but then construing it as an adjective modifying æhte ("the greatest treasure"), he immediately changed it to mæstan, creating a make-shift æ of o and using the top of e for top of a. Modern editors have taken hæleð as plural and accordingly emend mæstan to mostan (or moston)’. Kiernan (1978) says reads mæstan and comments, 'From the looks of it, the scribe first wrote mastun, as Malone suggests..., but then changed the spelling to mæstan by adding an e loop to the a, and by closing the top of theu with a tilde-like stroke...Editors assume that mæstan is a blunder for moston, but mæstan, "greatest", may be an adjective modifying æhte. The form mastun is a late Northern spelling of the adjective, which the scribe evidently decided to give in the standard Late West Saxon form'.
[2250] Thorpe emends to fyr{a} ; Kemble to f{i}r{a} .
[2251] MS þanæ . em. from Kiernan et al., who say ‘last letter not a , but æ , with faded e -head and tongue a bit clearer with UV (flat-topped a does not occur alone on this folio); UV also suggests that næ may be over original me ’. Kemble emends to þana and also inserts lif in-between þis and ofgeaf . No gap in MS.
[2252] Kiernan et al. report ‘After dream , traces of erased or faded letters, sometimes restored as ic , appear to be bottoms of h and e under ultraviolet light’. [click here for MS image] Usually restored as nothing.
[2253] MS all but f lost at edge. em. from Kiernan et al. Thorkelin A has f:[g]...: f ; B has fe... ; Kiernan et al. note that there is ‘no palaeographical justification for usual restoration of f<eormie> [from Grein-BMS]; part of letter after f has flat top like a (no middle-stroke, like e ); vestige of descender hooks like g , not r ; not enough space for eo between f and this apparent g ’.
[2254] Restoration from Kemble.
[2254] Grein emends MS seoc to scoc.
[2255] Restoration from Grundtvig.
[2268] Thorkelin A has hpeir . Madden (see Kiernan et al. CD [II]) and Grein emended this reading to hwearf .
[2275] Largely illegible in MS. Zupitza believed he saw da , and from this posited <swiðe> <ondræ>da<ð>. However, Kiernan et al. can only read nan and remark: ‘the first n covered, but is clear with light from behind; an show most clearly with UV (Zupitza perhaps confused tear in second n with ascender and cross-stroke of ð )’. No restoration based upon nan has been proposed to my knowledge. Anything posited solely on the basis of nan would be highly speculative in any event.
[2276] Thorkelin B has bearn , MS text is now lost. restoration from Kiernan et al. who state ‘UV and fiber-optic backlighting both support initial h and the remainder of B's reading except for second stroke of n , now gone’. Zupitza restores to <ho>r<d>…
[2279] MS hrusam. em. from Thorkelin.
[2296] Kemble emends to hlæ{w}.
[2298] Rieger adds <wiht gesyne>.
[2298] Trautmann emends to wiges (for alliteration).
[2299] rest. from Kiernan et al. Klaeber emends to bea<duwe>.
[2305] MS fe . em. from Bugge.
[2307] Cosijn emends to læ{n}g.
[2325] MS him . em. from Grundtvig.
[2340] in MS, only he clear; restored by Thorkelin.
[2341] lost at edge. restoration from Malone (1962). Grundtvig emends to {læn}-daga.
[2347] Kemble emends to þ{a}.
[2355] em. from Kemble.
[2361] word lost at edge. em. from Robinson (1962[1991]:56-65); Kiernan et al. as ealra Grein restores as ana.
[2362] illegible word in MS ending in -ag. restoration from Kemble. Kiernan et al. emend to <gion>g .
[2363] em. from Kemble.
[2377] Thorpe emends to hi{ne}.
[2383] MS ðe ðe – apparent dittograph. em. from Kemble.
[2385] MS orfeorme ‘destitute’; em. from Möller.
[2448] Kemble emends to help{e}.
[2468] Sedgefield emends and re-arranges the word-order to sio ðe him sar{e}.
[2473] MS word lost at edge. Thorkelin A has rid . restored by Grundtvig.
[2478] MS ge ge . dittograph em. by Thorkelin.
[2488] no gap in MS. heoþo (as in text) added by Kiernan et al. Holthausen adds hilde. Grein adds heoro.
[2503] MS frescyning ; em. from Grundtvig.
[2505] Kemble emends to c{a}mp{e}.
[2514] Bugge emends to mærð{u}.
[2523] em. to {o}reðes [Grein] ond {a}ttres [Grundtvig] .
[2525] Klaeber inserts furður . no gap in MS.
[2533] restr. from Grundtvig.
[2534] Grundtvig emends to {þæ}t.
[2545] Thorpe emends to sto{n}dan.
[2549] Grundtvig emends to deo{r}.
[2556] Sedgefield emends to freo{ð}o.
[2589] Rieger inserts ofer . no gap in MS.
[2596] MS heand gesteallan. em. from Kemble.
[2612] Grundtvig emends to Ohtere{s}.
[2615] Rieger re-orders to byrnan hrindge.
[2628] Ettmüller emends to mæg{e}s.
[2629] Thorpe emends to þ{æt}
.
[2649] Kemble emends to h{a}t.
[2659] Sedgefield emends to {h}ur{u}.
[2660] Ettmüller emends to b{ea}du-scrud.
[2564] Bugge emends to un{s}law.
[2671] em. from Grein.
[2676] restr. from Grundtvig.
[2678] all but m lost at edge. restr. from Kiernan et al. Grundtvig emends to m<ærða>.
[2694] no in MS. insertion from Kemble.
[2698] Kemble emends to mæg{e}s.
[2710] Grein emends to siðas{t}.
[2723] restr. from Grimm.
[2727] restr. from Thorkelin.
[2755] MS urder. em. from Kemble.
[2771] MS wræce. em. from Thorpe.
[2775] Holder emends to hl{a}don based on Grundtvig’s hl<adan>.
[2792] No gap in MS. Schücking conjectures <þa se beorn gespræc>.
[2793] Grimm emends to gio{h}ðe.
[2799] Ettmüller emends to mi{n}e.
[2814] MS appears to read forspeof. em. from Kemble. In an earlier edition my emendation (to forspéow) followed a statement by Kiernan et al. (who retain forspeof , positing it as a preterite of forspowan ‘to hurry off’) note: ‘High caroline f in speof suspect, probably a later "correction" ( f for u/w ) by another hand’. Therefore, I adopted forspeow (‘off-profit’, or ‘done harm to’ from spowan ‘succeed, profit, avail, help’ + for ). Another possibility would be to emend the ‘correction’ to forspeof{t}, thus ealle wyrd forspeoft ‘Fate has spit upon all’. ‘swept’. Zupitza claims to observe an n written over an imperfectly erased f. Thus Wrenn reads forspeo{n} ‘lured’. [click here for MS image]
[2819] Kemble emends to h{r}æðre.
[2821] MS gumum; em. Heyne.
[fitt XXXVIIII] No fitt number in MS, but large captial Ð indicating new fitt.
[2844] Kemble emends to æghwæð{er}.
[2854] MS speop; em. from Thorkelin.
[2860] MS geongum; em. Barnouw.
[2863] MS sec . em. from Thorkelin.
[2884] Kemble emends to {n}u.
[2911] MS under. em. from Kiernan et al., presumably based upon emendation by Grein ( under{ne} ).
[2916] Grein emends to ge{n}ægdon.
[2929] Grein emends to {o}ndslyht.
[2930] MS bryda heorde. em. from Kiernan et al. Grein emends to bryd {a}h{red}de. Wrenn emends to bryd {a}heorde.
[2940] Thorpe emends to sum{e}.
[2940] MS galg treowu. em. from Kemble.
[2941] insertion by Thorpe, no gap in MS. Kiernan et al. posit insertion of < feðan> ‘foot-soldiers’.
[2946] Thorkelin emends to Sw{e}ona.
[2958] MS hige lace. em. from Kemble.
[2959] MS ford. em. from Thorkelin.
[2961] MS sweordum; em. from Kemble.
[2964] Grundtvig emends to E{o}fores.
[2972] Kemble emends to {o}ndslyht.
[2978] Thorpe emends to brad{n}e.
[2989] word lost at corner. restr. from Grundtvig.
[2990] word lost at edge. restr. from Grundtvig.
[2990] MS gelæsta. em. from Kemble.
[2996] MS syðða . em. from Grundtvig.
[2998] inserted by Kiernan et al. ; no gap in MS.
[3000] inserted by Kierna et al. ; no gap in MS. Kemble inserts wen.
[3007] Kemble emends to nu.
[3012] restr. from Kemble.
[3014] rest of word lost at beginning of line. restr. from Grundtvig.
[3041] restr. from Kiernan et al. Bugge restores to gry<re-fah>.
[3060] Thorpe emends to wræ{t}e.
[3065] Word almost entirely lost at edge. Thorkelin B has ..gum.; Thorkelin’s edition has megum. em. from Kemble.
[3069] Holthausen emends to dio{r}e.
[3073] MS strade; em. Grundtvig
[3078] MS adreogeð. em. from Kemble.
[3084] Wyatt and Chambers emend to heol{d}.
[3085] insertion from Kiernan et al. no gap in MS.
[3086] Grein inserts <þeod-cyning>. no gap in MS. (Grein does not insert <wæs> in line above).
[3101] insertion from Grundtvig. no gap in MS.
[3102] insertion from Kiernan et al. no gap in MS.
[3102] Bugge inserts gimma between searo and geþræc. No gap in MS. (Bugge does not insert <on> ).
[3119] MS fæder gearwum. em. from Thorkelin’s fæþer.
[folio 198] This is the most damaged of all of the folios, horribly torn and damaged by water and chemical treatment. [click here to view the general state of fol. 198] Part of the damage seems to be due to wear sustained when it was the last page of a separate codex (see Kiernan). But it also sustained significant damage in the Ashburnham House fire of 1728. See Syd Allan's Ashburnham House Fire Page for more details.
[3122] restr. from Kemble. Grein emends <ætsom>[ne] . There is really little difference in meaning between these two restorations and neither serves any alliterative role.
[3124] Ettmüller emends to (h)ilde-rinc{a} .
[3130] restr. from Ettmüller.
[3134] the scribe uses simply þ in the text (standing in for þæt ). Thorkelin emends to þa .
[3135] Bugge emends to æþeling{c} ; Kemble to æþelin{g} .
[3136] em. from Kiernan et al.
[3136] Ettmüller inserts rinc (but does not emend har to har{um} ). MS has remnants of erasure of apparent dittograph –ilde to .
[3139] MS helm. em. from Grein.
[3144] A hole in MS before rec ; Thorkelin A wud rec ; completed by Kemble.
[3145] MS swicðole. em. from Thorpe.
[3145] Thorkelin AB let ; em. from Thorpe.
[3149] MS torn here. Thorkelin A has cwaln ; B has –lm . Kemble restores to cw<e>alm (adopted in text).
[3150] restr. from Pope. Kiernan et al. find - isc ‘almost certain’, g- ‘doubtful’.
[3150] an written superscript above meowle. [click here for MS image]
[3151] MS completely illegible here due to tear. Conjectured restoration from Malone – only conjecture. Though the conjecture is roughly consistent with what Kiernan et al. are able to see: ‘space for 1-2 letters, tops of 2 letters (perhaps tips of e -head and caroline s , i.e. ..es ), then space for 10-12 letters’.
[3152] restr. from Kiernan et al., who say ‘UV shows traces of high s , probably a (rather than o ), certainly ng ’.
[3152] Bugge and Pope favour reading as <sæde>. But Kiernan et al.’s study confirms reading in text.
[3152] Thorkelin B has ..neah l.. ; A has a blank; Kiernan et al. say ‘ ge now not quite distinct, and -he is doubtful, but there does not appear to be room for –læs ’ .
[3153] in MS. only gas is certain, though Kiernan et al. claim to see ...g...gas . [click here for MS image] restr. from Bugge. Kieran et al. posit <here>g<æn>gas. Pope proposes <heofun>g<da>gas. Kiernan et al. state: ‘vestiges and spacing do not support <heofun>g<da>gas. ’
[3153] restr. from Bugge. Kiernan et al. with UV can confirm all but r.
[3154] MS may read either wonn or worn . Bugge emends his MS reading of wonn to wo{r}n.
[3155] restr. from Bugge. Kiernan et al. note: ‘all but t in hæftnyd (no dot on y ) fairly clear with ultraviolet’. Bugge also restores to hy{n}ðo (not adopted here, in view of the Kiernan et al. study).
[3157] Kiernan et al. note that this is ‘apparently neither hlæw nor hleo, but a combination of the two, a variant spelling of hleo ’.
[3157] restr. from Bugge.
[3158] restr. from Kiernan et al. (adapted from Kemble). Kemble restores to <w>eg-liðendum. But Kiernan et al. say: ‘in bright light æg seems certain, but not first letter; with UV w -bow distinct, descender faint’.
[3159] restr. from Malone. Kiernan et al. cautiously concur: ‘following bet two minims joined at bottom, like u , but stroke through second presumably expands to m’.
[3168] restr. from Kiernan et al., who remark: ‘penultimate letter [ e -BMS] [is] smudged as well as faded (perhaps æ or o )’. Kemble restores to <æro>r.
[3171] restr. from Kiernan et al., based on Grein’s restr. <ceare>. Kemble judges that there is only space for four letters and restores as <care>. Kiernan et al. remark: ‘letter preceding cwiðan apparently g with macron (i.e. ge ) rather than e ; before it vestiges and space seem to support usual restoration’.
[3172] restr. from Grein.
[3174] restr. from Kemble.
[3177] reading given, lichaman ,is standard reading. Kiernan et al. say: ‘spacing and awkward l suggest later hand first freshened up lic to ac , then corrected left side of a to li ’.
[3177] MS completely illegible here. restr. from Holthausen. Kemble restores to <læne> ‘transitory’ and Malone to <lifes> ‘of lives’.
[3179] restr. from Thorpe.
[3181] restoration from Grundtvig. Kiernan et al. note: ‘upper right corner of 7 [ ond -BMS] gone; bottoms of first two minims of m under tape, followed by hole and bottom of o , most of tops of nð (including cross-stroke, divided by small hole). w gone, tops of æ covered, most of r gone; only ust intact’.
him is added here by me to repair metre (to type B) - thanks to Ray Tripp for helpful discussion on this passage.
[1278] MS þeod em. from Holthausen. Ettmuller emends to {d}e{að} .
[1287] This word entirely lost at edge of MS. Thorkelin A has dyhttig and Thorkelin B dyttig.
[1300] MS on corrrected to in by same scribe [click image 1300].
[1314] MS alf walda. emended by Thorpe (following Thorkelin) to Alwalda. there is no apparent reason why the scribe would have mistaken his exemplar here, and no obvious textual forms in it vicinity which would have induced him to write a spurious f. [click for image]
I follow Tripp (1983) in retaining the MS. reading. (Kiernan et al. accept Thorpe's emendation).
See also, Taylor (1995h), who comments: 'no editor....has thought it necessary to restore the manuscript reading, though any emendation not supported by paleographic evidence is open to question. In this case, the change seems totally unwarranted....the scribe wrote alf as a simplex, not as an affix...whereas other occurrences of alwalda in the manuscript are unmistakably one word' (100).
Though the form alf is not attested in OE texts, as Taylor says, 'we would expect ælf- in Late West-Saxon, though alf is a perfectly normal form in Anglian and Northumbrian dialects [R.A. Peters[(1960)...] argues for a proto-Northumbrian form alfi. The form could even be Early Southern, since breaking does not occur in Anglian, Kentish, and West Saxon before l in several words. For example, in Beowulf we have here alwalda where we would expect alwealda [or ealwealda]]...there are two early Middle English occurrences of the word. The Middle English Dictionary lists alf-wort; and, La3amon's Brut, 19268, has: þis þe alue him 3ef (Cott. Calig. A.ix) and þis þe alfe him 3eaf (Cott. Otho C.xiii). The form alf is therefore attested in early English, and the time span between the Beowulf scribe and La3amon is not enough....to warrant emendation. particularly since alf is a Norse form that would be recognizable anywhere in the Danelaw' (1995h:100-1).
On this reading, see further n.1314 in my bilingual edition.
[1318] MS hnæg, with remainder lost at edge. Thorkelin AB read hnægde – emended to {n}æg(de) by Grein.
[1329] Grein adds æðeling (thus reading ..wesan {æðeling} ær-god..). No gap in MS.
[1331] Grein emends to hwæder.
[1333] Kemble emends to ge{fæ}gnod.
[1351] Kemble emends to onlicn{e}s.
[1354] MS. nem with rest lost at edge. Thorkelin AB read nemdod ; Kemble emends to nem(do{n}).
[1362] MS. stanðeð. emended by Thorkelin.
[1363] MS hrinde - em. from Morris, on the basis of a seemingly parallel line from The Blickling Homilies (To Sanctae Michaheles Mæssan): '...& wæron norð of ðæm stane awexene swiðe hrimige bearwas,...'
[1372] No gap in MS, by insertion mark [click image 1372] characteristic of second scribe squeezed in-between hafelan and nis. Some insertion is required as the sentence otherwise lacks an infinitive.
em. from Gerritsen (1986) & Bammesberger (1989). Kemble's emendation here is hydan ‘hide’. Holthausen posits beorgan ‘preserve’; Kiernan et al. hafenian ‘raise up’(?).
Orchard (2000:47-8) points out some of the virtues of the Bammesberger/Gerritsen emendation (over the other two main emendations of hydan or beorgan (see above)): '...eye-skip through homoeoteleuton through one word to another is particularly possible if we suppose that the phrase in question originally comprised two words (hafelan helan) which both shared the same last four letters....[emendation to helan] manages to maintain both the double alliteration...and the assonance (as...is witnessed in the supposed parallel feore beorgan [l.1291a (Klaeber); 1293 in numbering of BoS-edition]) that is characteristic of the aural embellishment of the text at key moments'.
Additionally, helan, via the related OE word hell (the original sense being a 'covered, hidden place (of the dead)'), also may echo the hellish description of the fen (see above n1363 and also the notes on this passage in the dual-language edition of BoS).
[1375] Sedgefield emends to {ð}rysmaþ.
[1379] Sedgefield emends to {s}innigne.
[1382] Thorkelin A reads rundmi ; Thorkelin B reads wund-dini. Malone reads wundini (reading usually wundini or wund{num} ). Kiernan et al’s study clearly shows wundmi [click here for MS image] – em. to wund{um} from Kiernan et al.
[1388] MS driht gumen , with n sub-puncted [click here for MS image] – and a added over e in same hand.
[1391] MS gan , with final g added above the line in a hand characteristic of the second scribe.
[1404] No gap in MS. Schücking adds swa.
[1418] MS weorce (work) ; em. from Fulk (1994:40), who says 'the Anglian word wærc (pain) is rarely written as such in the surviving manuscripts of verse because the southern scribes did not recognize it. The modern reflex of the word is restricted to Scotland and the north of England. Southern scribes usually changed it to weorc (work)'.
[1424] word before leoð lost in MS. Thorkelin B give f... ; A gives only dots. Bouterwek emends to fyrdleoð (‘war-song’); Kiernan et al. observe what appears to be a fragment of a letter with a curved bottom and suggest the em. given forðleoð (‘departing dirge’).
[1441] Wrenn emends to sceaw{o}don.
[1454] Cosjin emends to bro{g}dne.
[1485] Thorpe emends to Hre{ð}les.
[1506] MS brim wyl – emended by Kemble.
[1508] MS þæm ; em. from Grundtvig .
[1510] Kemble emends to swe{n}cte.
[1513] Thorpe inserts in , perhaps lost at edge, though little space in MS
[1520] MS. hord swenge. em. to ho{n}d from Grundtvig. Trautmann further emends to ho{n}d swen{g}.
[1530] MS hylaces. em. from Wrenn.
[1531] MS wundelmæl ('wounding-weapon'(?!)); em. from Kemble . Originally mæg , but g is crossed out and replaced above in the same hand with a finer quill: [click here for MS image]
[1535] Rieger emends to {f}eaxle. See Syd Allen's page on 'Hair-pulling v. Shoulder-grabbing' in Beowulf [click here] for further discussion.
[1541] Rieger emends to {a}ndlean.
[1545] em. by Ettmüller for MS seaxe.
[1546] addition by Grundtvig; no gap in MS
[1559] addition by Kemble; no gap in MS
[1587] plus sign or cross symbol in margin - pre-dates the transcripts of Thorkelin AB.
[1599] Kemble emends to abr{o}ten .
[1602] Grein emends to se{t}an.
[1617] MS ellen corrected to ellor in same hand [click here for MS image] .
[1618] MS sæce corrected to sæcce by addition of another c above the word in the same hand.
[1634] Grein emends to cyn{e}balde.
[1638] MS weorce (work) ; em. from Fulk (1994:40) - see n. 1418 above.
[fitt XXV] This is usually renumbered as XXIV (as the preceding fit is numbered XXIII), but we hear retain the original numbering, following Kiernan (see 264ff.). It is the first scribe who skips a number; the second scribe (who picks up at 1939) continues his fitt-numbering from XXVIIII—the last fitt-number written by the first scribe.
[1685] MS scedeninge corrected to scedenigge in same hand.
[1707] Thorkelin, Thorpe and Wrenn read as freode. Kemble, Grundtvig, Zupitza and Kiernan read freoðe . Close examination of MS reveals a clear bar of an ð – [click here for MS image] .
[1721] MS weorce (work) ; em. from Fulk (1994:40) - see n. 1418 above.
[1728] Sedgefield emends to {h}l{is}an.
[1734] MS originally snyttrum – corrected in same hand above line with a finer quill.
[1737] em. by Kemble as end of word lost at edge of MS
[1748] to imperfectly erased (clearly visible) between he and lange [click here for MS image] .
[1750] Thorpe emends to fæ{tt}e.
[1759] MS secg betsta . em. from Pope/Fulk to produce a normal Bliss type 1D1 verse [ / / x x ] - cp. l.3007b nu is ofost betost for support for a trisyllabic besta; also cp. verses 1210b feorh cyninges and 2912b fyll cyninges for evidence of this as an acceptable metrical type. See further Fulk §205, §276 & Pope (p. 320). Sievers (1882) emends to secg{a} betsta.
[1774] Grein emends to wend{e}n.
[1792] Grundtvig emends to un{ge}metes.
[1795] Wrenn emends to wis{o}de.
[1796] MS be weotene – emended by Kemble.
[1797] MS originally dogor ; e added in a lighter ink by a hand which seems to be the second scribe’s.
[1803] no gap in MS. Sievers interpolates <scima æfter sceadwe> ; Heyne interpolates <ofter grundas> ; Sedgefield adopts <scima scynded> , emending from Sievers.
[1809] Müllenhoff emends to l{æ}nes.
[1816] MS helle. em. from Kemble.
[1828] Sedgefield emends to {ð}ydon.
[1833] Thorpe emends to w{o}rdum ond w{eo}rcum.
[1836] Grundtvig emends to hreþi{c}.
[1837] MS geþinged - emended by Grein.
[1857] Sievers emends to (g)emæn{e}.
[1862] Kluge emends to (h)ea{f}u .
[1866] MS inne – em. from Thorpe.
[1871] MS betstan. em. from Pope/Fulk to produce a normal Bliss type 1D1 verse [ / / x x ] - cp. l.3007b nu is ofost betost for support for a trisyllabic besta; also cp. verses 1210b feorh cyninges and 2912b fyll cyninges for evidence of this as an acceptable metrical type. See further Fulk §205, §276 & Pope (p. 320). Sievers (1882) emends to ðegn{a} betstan .
[1875] MS. he seoðða – em. from Grundtvig and Thorkelin, respectively.
[1875] Bugge interpolates na in-between seoððan and geseon. The difference lies in whether one believes that Hrothgar thinks that he will or will not see Beowulf again, and what import one feels his tears have on this determination.
[1883] Kemble emends to age{n}.
[1889] Grein interpolates heap ( hæg-stealdra heap.. ). no gap in MS.
[1893] MS word lost entirely. Thorkelin A reads gæs.. ; B reads only dots ; Grundtvig emends remainder of lost word.
[1902] Thorpe emends to maþm{e} and weorþr{a}.
[1903] Rieger emends to nac{a}.
[1918] Grundtvig emends to onc{e}r.
[1926] Kock emends to hea{h} {on} healle.
[1931] Schücking adds ne
[1934] Wrenn emends to {o}n.
[1939] Second scribe begins here with the word (m)oste .
[1944] Thorpe emends to on hohsnod{e}.
[1956] Thorpe emends to þ{one}.
[1960] Thorpe emends to (the name) {Eo}m{e}r. Eomær is included in the genealogy of Mercian Kings, but nothing more than his name is mentioned there, nor elsewhere, so far as we know.
We follow Kiernan, who holds that geomor actually makes much more sense than the emendation to Eomær (which provides alliteration) – see Kiernan 184ff. Malone advises retaining the MS reading, and segmenting as þon ongeomor woc, and we here follow Kiernan's conservative emendation of þonon geomor to þonon <on>geomor, which he explains as follows: '[t]he form þon, "then", though attested, is rare, while þonon is extremely common. A conservative emendation would be þonon [on]geomor woc, and the error could be explained either as a haplograph or as the scribe's attempt to correct what he perceived as a dittograph (-onon on-)' (184-5). Kiernan additionally points out (188-9) that this line may be an 'instance of phonetic alliteration, since the initial semivocalic phone [j] followed by the diphthong -eo would alliterate phonetically with vowels'--(on this sort of alliteration, the case of this line in particular, see also Rickert, 54).
[1961] Kemble emends to Hem{m}inges .
[1981] MS. side added above line in same hand, but with another ink and a point, rather than the usual ‘insertion-stroke’, shows where it is to be inserted. [click here for MS image] . Thorpe emends to {heal}-reced.
[1983] MS hænum with an original ð erased between the æ and the n (as seen under ultraviolet light). [click here for MS image] Grein emends to hæ{l}um 'heroes'; Bugge to hæ{ð}num 'heathens'; Trautmann to hæ{leð}um 'heroes'; Kiernan retains hænum 'lowly, abject, low-ranks [men]'; emendment in the text mine hæum 'high-born [men]', as requiring the least deviation from the text while retaining the sense, as Beowulf and his troops are hardly hænum .
[1991] MS wið cuðne – em. from Thorkelin.
[2001] word lost at edge. em. from Klaeber. Moore emends to mæru.
[2002] word lost at edge of MS. em. from Thorpe. Kiernan et al. emend to earfoð.
[2004] MS originally dungum , altered to dingum by erasing second stroke of the u.
[2006] no gap in MS, but Grein emends to begylpan <ne> þearf. Presumably he thought it reflected poorly on Beowulf that he felt begylpan þearf ‘boast necessary’ for the vengeance he carried out against Grendel and his mother for the Half-Danes losses.
[2007] word lost at edge – em. from Kiernan et al. Kemble emends to ænig.
[2009] Only f partially visible in MS; Thorkelin A reads fæ..; B fer..; Bugge restores to facne ; Malone emends this to faecne (reading given here); Kiernan et al. posit fyrene (though why is not obvious, considering the Thorkelin readings with either fæ- or fe-).
[2019] word lost at edge; em. from Thorpe.
[2020] only last letter visible in MS; Thorkelin B reads uguðe; em. to {d}uguðe from Grundtvig.
[2024] em. from Kluge for word lost at edge.
[2026] MS shows only –fað. Thorkelin AB have iafað. em. of h- from Kemble.
[2032] Scribe altered ð to d in –mid by smudging cross-stroke while still wet.
[fitt XXX] No fitt number; but scribe writes Oððæt with a large capital O to show beginning of new fitt. Fitt number seemingly omitted due to lack of space – see Kiernan 265ff.
[2044] Kemble restores –um. Kiernan et al. restore to –an .
[2055] Thorkelin A has gylwed; B gylped. em. from Kemble based on Thorkelin B.
[2062] Thorkelin A has figende; B .eigende. em. from Heyne based on Thorkelin A.
[2063] Thorkelin AB have orocene. Kemble emends to {ab}rocene. Kiernan et al to {b}rocene (latter followed here).
[2064] Thorkelin emends to aðsweord. See Wrenn p. 218, n. 2061 or Wrenn's glossary under áðsweorð for the argument for retaining the MS form.
[2064] em. from Kemble.
[2067] em. from Thorpe
[2076] Holtzmann emends to hil{d}.
[2079] MS magumþegne. em. from Kemble.
[2085] MS geareofolm. em. from Thorkelin.
[2093] Thorkelin A has huieda. em. from Grundtvig.
[2094] Grein emends to {o}nlean.
[2097] em. by Kemble from Thorkelin A bræc.
[2108] Grundtvig emends to go(me{n}).
[2128] Thorkelin A reads fæð..; B fædrunga. em. from Kiernan et al. Grein emends to fæð{mum}.
[2135] MS. original ic altered to is in same hand [click here for MS image] .
[2139] no gap in MS. em. from Kiernan et al. Thorpe emends to guð-sele (‘war-hall’).
[2146] word lost at edge; interpolation by Kemble.
[2147] only final –ne now left at edge of MS; restoration from Kemble.
[2168] Thorkelin A re-; Thorkelin B ren- (n in another ink) ; Kemble’s restoration.
[2174] MS. ðeo at edge; Thorkelin AB ðeod; Kemble’s restoration.
[2176] MS. brost; em. from Thorpe.
[2186] emended to We{der}a by Cosijn.
[2187] restoration from Kiernan et al.; Grein restores to <wen>don.
[2202] MS. hearede. em. from Grundtvig.
[2204] Grundtvig emends to hil{d} frecan.
[folio 179] Zupitza notes that ‘[a]ll that is distinct in the FS. in the fol. 179 has been freshened up by a later hand in the MS’. Westphalen discovered that, in fact, fol. 179 is a palimpsest. Usually palimpsests are made to ‘recycle’ vellum from an old text to provide parchment for a new one. Kiernan discusses the palimpsest of fol. 179 at some length, see esp. Kiernan 219-243. Kiernan’s basic hypothesis is that the second scribe erased this folio as part of his general proofreading and revision of the poem—in this case, specifically to provide a smoother transition between the Beowulf episodes. The most plausible reason for the gaps in this folio is that—whatever erasing solution was used to create the palimpsest—it left the folio too damp in some places to be written upon so soon after its preparation. Thus, the parts of the vellum which were still damp failed to retain the ink uniformly. Perhaps this fault did not manifest significantly until many years after the revision of the folio, explaining why the scribe—who went to the trouble of revising an entire folio—did not retouch these spots (i.e. he was dead by the time the problem was evident). Kiernan provides a strong argument against any ‘false freshening up’ of any letters in this folio, as posited by Zupitza. [click here to view the general state of fol. 179]
[2211] Thorkelin AB has ric san for word now lost at edge. restored by Kemble.
[2212] MS. partially illegible between hea and hord. Thorkelin AB nothing. Kiernan et al. read h<eaum> with confidence under ultraviolet light. Kiernan et al. also note a distinct difference between brown ink and grey ink for h<of>e – ‘A combined reading in a grayscale image favors heþe, but the brown ink alone strongly favors hofe. Here and in many other places on the folio there is clear evidence of more than one layer of text’. heaum hofe = ‘high dwelling’. Zupitza reads heaðo hlæwe ‘war-cairn’; Holthausen heaum hæþe ‘high heath’; Chambers heaum hope ‘high fen’; and Sedgefield’s reading of heaum hofe with the use of ultraviolet light matches that of Kiernan et al.
[2213] MS stearne. em. from Kiernan et al. Malone emends to stea{p}ne.
[2215] MS largely illegible. Kiernan et al. provide conjectural reading based on best evaluation of close examination of MS. Sedgefield reconstructs nathwylc se þe neh gefeng.
[2216] MS illegible (only for letters between <>s, as always). Conjectural reading from Kiernan et al., based on space and context.
[2217] MS illegible. Conjectural reading from Kiernan (2009) – Kiernan et al. suggests o seems fairly certain, -te likely, but see Kiernan (2009) for a reconsideration. Sedgefield posits wræc . Klaeber proposes bemað.
[2218] MS illegible. Kluge and Kiernan et al. both conjecture reading given in text.
[2218] MS illegible. restoration from Kiernan et al. Ultraviolet seems to confirm hæf-. Kluge posits besyre<d> <wurde>. Kiernan (1978) restores hræde 'with confidence'.
[2219] MS unclear. Thorkelin A reads þeoses, B þeofes. Cross-stroke of f extremely faint and also distorted by the descender of 7 (abbr. ond) partially showing-through from verso of folio. [click here for MS image]
[2219] MS illegible. restoration from Grein. Kiernan et al. remarks that this fits the space and sense.
[2220] Kiernan et al. and Grein both observe faint signs of – n .
[2221] Illegible in MS. [click here for MS image] Thorkelin AB nothing. Kiernan et al. reconstruct <næs> or possibly <wæs> , the latter with missing descender (of w [written as wenn in the MS]). [Note: both of Kiernan’s reading give the same meaning – Old English has ‘optional’ negative concord, thus Nealles næs ‘Not at all was not’; Nealles wæs ‘Not at all was’. But both mean the same thing, though the former may have a slightly more emphatic force]. Kaluza emends to mid .
[2221] Kaluza emends to wyrm-hord a{bræc } . (in his reading of nealles mid – see above). Mitchell & Robinson emend to wyrm-hord a{træd} .Though the usual MS reading is wyrmhorda , Kiernan et al.'s facsimile shows what appears to be a minim clinging to the charred edge right of the a of horda [click here for MS image] - strongly suggesting the form wyrmhorda<n>, as posited here. Form = wk.gs.(?), (?)wyrmhordan, or (?)wyrmhorda (gp.?), or (?)wyrmhordas (gs. : -as as reverse spelling as usu. gs. -es, Köberl, pers. comm.
[2223] Kiernan et al. state: ‘ after contrast enhancement, þeof seems the most likely restoration (eo -ligature mostly intact, and top of f, including identifying cross-stroke, fairly convincing)’. Tripp (422-2) reads þeoden : ' þ definite and eo quite clear under intense white light. What has been taken for the n in nat actually belongs to the preceding word, which under television magnification is crowded but still reasonably visible, although show-through is a problem; "( egn, eow, eof?)," Kiernan. The a of the conventional nat is created from a loop added to the left on the first stroke of an n , the second stroke of which has been fashioned into an awkward t through the extension of its normal initial and terminal ticks; the at of the original nat seems to have been lost at the right edge of the manuscript; hwylces extremely faded and patchy, but for the most part discernable'. [click here for MS image] . Grundtvig emends to þeow and this em. is usually adopted. Zupitza reads þegn .
[2224] Kiernan et al.’s study disproves Zupitza’s claim of an original a for o .
[2225] MS almost completely illegible. reconstruction from Zupitza, followed by most editors. Kiernan et al. posit <ðeodnes>. Most editors agree on restoration of þearfa – Kiernan et al. observe clear vestiges of –rf , but prefers –rfe to –rfa .
[2225] Grein emends to {f}eal{h}. Zupitza believes he can see an f. standing beneath the w.
[2226] MS appears to read mwatide, but may also read onwatide . Thorpe emends to {i}nw{l}atode. Ettmüller to in {þ}a tide . Dobbie to o{nfunden}. [click here for MS image]
[2227] MS illegible. restoration posited by Kiernan et al. on basis of context and vestigial marking.
[2227] MS largely illegible. restoration from Grein.
[2228] MS. largely illegible. Kiernan et al. think fyren more likely than earm (posited by Kemble) based on remaining traces.
[2230] Most editors consider the long gap (obviously erased) to be text which was lost. However Kiernan observes: ‘The great lacuna between sc(ea)pen r21 and sceapan v1, as well as the gap on v2, are of extraordinary interest…Some of the erased letters in line 1 are still quite distinct, despite the rubbing and discoloration, and some can be identified with confidence. This alone shows that the erasing must have been done after the new text was copied on the palimpsest, for there is no conceivable reason why some of these letters would not have been freshened up with the rest of the page. Moreover, the ink in some of the traces is still strong enough to identify as that used throughout the verso. The general appearance of the gaps on the verso thus substantiates the view that the palimpsest at one time contained a full text, part of which was later deliberately effaced…The reason this text was deliberately erased from the palimpsest is that it is a dittograph from lines 20-21 of the recto: br(o)g(a) stod hwæðre / … sc(ea)pen. A dittograph, in this case, is not by any means useless, for the lost word before sc(ea)pen on the recto can be restored as fyren , and the conjectural o and a in br(o)g(a) , and the ea in sc(ea)pen are confirmed. The measurements between broga and sceapen corroborate these conclusions…Possibly sceapen was left on the verso as a catchword, to indicate that, despite the appearances, nothing had been lost from the text between the two sceapen ’s…
[This] mean[s] that everything after sceapen on the recto had been deliberately deleted, and that despite the physical gaps in the MS from line r21 to line v2, there is no contextual loss to the text. The text itself supports the theory, for hwæðre fyren-sceapan is on on-verse, and se fær begeat is an off-verse, and the line as a whole is metrically and alliteratively sound.’ (229, 230, 231-232). For further details, see ibid. 229-233.
[click here for MS image]
[2231] MS illegible. restoration from Grein and Conybeare (latter on Kiernan et al. CD [II], marginal note).
[2232] MS largely illegible. Thorkelin A nothing; B se… restoration from Kiernan et al. Zupitza emends to huse.
[2239] MS rende ; em. Zupitza. Kiernan et al. observe that no trace of an original wynn remains under r ( pace Zupitza); fading of hair-strokes of high e -head leaves what looks like ih instead of en (thus the usual reading of MS rihde ).
[2239] Sedgefield reads ylcan and says '[a] careful scrunity of the MS. shows the the c of ylcan has been clumsily altered to d by a later hand' ; however Kiernan (241) rebuts this as '[t]here is...no need, and no justification, for the editorial emendation of yldan to ylcan . If emendations were made for all awkwardly made letters, we would have another poem entirely'. Tripp agrees with Kiernan, stating, 'd, not d over c, cf. other d's through the second [scribe's] hand [are] "awkwardly made"' (425n2238b).
[2245] MS hard wyrðne. em. from Kiernan et al. Klaeber emends to h{o}rd-wyrðne. Kiernan (1978) reads hard fyrdne: '...the first letter of ['fyrdne'] could be wynn or f...in the MS the f-tongue seems certain. The advantage of f is that hardfyrdne, as Bosworth-Toller first glossed it, means "hard to carry, weighty", and is excellent in the immediate context....The disadvantage of wynn is that it requires editors to change hard to hord, and wyrdne to wyrðne'.
[2247] Kiernan et al. writes ‘I think the later scribe first wrote moste (pret. 3s), the verb for hæleð (mns.), but then construing it as an adjective modifying æhte ("the greatest treasure"), he immediately changed it to mæstan, creating a make-shift æ of o and using the top of e for top of a. Modern editors have taken hæleð as plural and accordingly emend mæstan to mostan (or moston)’. Kiernan (1978) says reads mæstan and comments, 'From the looks of it, the scribe first wrote mastun, as Malone suggests..., but then changed the spelling to mæstan by adding an e loop to the a, and by closing the top of the
[2250] Thorpe emends to fyr{a} ; Kemble to f{i}r{a} .
[2251] MS þanæ . em. from Kiernan et al., who say ‘last letter not a , but æ , with faded e -head and tongue a bit clearer with UV (flat-topped a does not occur alone on this folio); UV also suggests that næ may be over original me ’. Kemble emends to þana and also inserts lif in-between þis and ofgeaf . No gap in MS.
[2252] Kiernan et al. report ‘After dream , traces of erased or faded letters, sometimes restored as ic , appear to be bottoms of h and e under ultraviolet light’. [click here for MS image] Usually restored as nothing.
[2253] MS all but f lost at edge. em. from Kiernan et al. Thorkelin A has f:[g]...: f ; B has fe... ; Kiernan et al. note that there is ‘no palaeographical justification for usual restoration of f<eormie> [from Grein-BMS]; part of letter after f has flat top like a (no middle-stroke, like e ); vestige of descender hooks like g , not r ; not enough space for eo between f and this apparent g ’.
[2254] Restoration from Kemble.
[2254] Grein emends MS seoc to scoc.
[2255] Restoration from Grundtvig.
[2268] Thorkelin A has hpeir . Madden (see Kiernan et al. CD [II]) and Grein emended this reading to hwearf .
[2275] Largely illegible in MS. Zupitza believed he saw da , and from this posited <swiðe> <ondræ>da<ð>. However, Kiernan et al. can only read nan and remark: ‘the first n covered, but is clear with light from behind; an show most clearly with UV (Zupitza perhaps confused tear in second n with ascender and cross-stroke of ð )’. No restoration based upon nan has been proposed to my knowledge. Anything posited solely on the basis of nan would be highly speculative in any event.
[2276] Thorkelin B has bearn , MS text is now lost. restoration from Kiernan et al. who state ‘UV and fiber-optic backlighting both support initial h and the remainder of B's reading except for second stroke of n , now gone’. Zupitza restores to <ho>r<d>…
[2279] MS hrusam. em. from Thorkelin.
[2296] Kemble emends to hlæ{w}.
[2298] Rieger adds <wiht gesyne>.
[2298] Trautmann emends to wiges (for alliteration).
[2299] rest. from Kiernan et al. Klaeber emends to bea<duwe>.
[2305] MS fe . em. from Bugge.
[2307] Cosijn emends to læ{n}g.
[2325] MS him . em. from Grundtvig.
[2340] in MS, only he clear; restored by Thorkelin.
[2341] lost at edge. restoration from Malone (1962). Grundtvig emends to {læn}-daga.
[2347] Kemble emends to þ{a}.
[2355] em. from Kemble.
[2361] word lost at edge. em. from Robinson (1962[1991]:56-65); Kiernan et al. as ealra Grein restores as ana.
[2362] illegible word in MS ending in -ag. restoration from Kemble. Kiernan et al. emend to <gion>g .
[2363] em. from Kemble.
[2377] Thorpe emends to hi{ne}.
[2383] MS ðe ðe – apparent dittograph. em. from Kemble.
[2385] MS orfeorme ‘destitute’; em. from Möller.
[2448] Kemble emends to help{e}.
[2468] Sedgefield emends and re-arranges the word-order to sio ðe him sar{e}.
[2473] MS word lost at edge. Thorkelin A has rid . restored by Grundtvig.
[2478] MS ge ge . dittograph em. by Thorkelin.
[2488] no gap in MS. heoþo (as in text) added by Kiernan et al. Holthausen adds hilde. Grein adds heoro.
[2503] MS frescyning ; em. from Grundtvig.
[2505] Kemble emends to c{a}mp{e}.
[2514] Bugge emends to mærð{u}.
[2523] em. to {o}reðes [Grein] ond {a}ttres [Grundtvig] .
[2525] Klaeber inserts furður . no gap in MS.
[2533] restr. from Grundtvig.
[2534] Grundtvig emends to {þæ}t.
[2545] Thorpe emends to sto{n}dan.
[2549] Grundtvig emends to deo{r}.
[2556] Sedgefield emends to freo{ð}o.
[2589] Rieger inserts ofer . no gap in MS.
[2596] MS heand gesteallan. em. from Kemble.
[2612] Grundtvig emends to Ohtere{s}.
[2615] Rieger re-orders to byrnan hrindge.
[2628] Ettmüller emends to mæg{e}s.
[2629] Thorpe emends to þ{æt}
.
[2649] Kemble emends to h{a}t.
[2659] Sedgefield emends to {h}ur{u}.
[2660] Ettmüller emends to b{ea}du-scrud.
[2564] Bugge emends to un{s}law.
[2671] em. from Grein.
[2676] restr. from Grundtvig.
[2678] all but m lost at edge. restr. from Kiernan et al. Grundtvig emends to m<ærða>.
[2694] no in MS. insertion from Kemble.
[2698] Kemble emends to mæg{e}s.
[2710] Grein emends to siðas{t}.
[2723] restr. from Grimm.
[2727] restr. from Thorkelin.
[2755] MS urder. em. from Kemble.
[2771] MS wræce. em. from Thorpe.
[2775] Holder emends to hl{a}don based on Grundtvig’s hl<adan>.
[2792] No gap in MS. Schücking conjectures <þa se beorn gespræc>.
[2793] Grimm emends to gio{h}ðe.
[2799] Ettmüller emends to mi{n}e.
[2814] MS appears to read forspeof. em. from Kemble. In an earlier edition my emendation (to forspéow) followed a statement by Kiernan et al. (who retain forspeof , positing it as a preterite of forspowan ‘to hurry off’) note: ‘High caroline f in speof suspect, probably a later "correction" ( f for u/w ) by another hand’. Therefore, I adopted forspeow (‘off-profit’, or ‘done harm to’ from spowan ‘succeed, profit, avail, help’ + for ). Another possibility would be to emend the ‘correction’ to forspeof{t}, thus ealle wyrd forspeoft ‘Fate has spit upon all’. ‘swept’. Zupitza claims to observe an n written over an imperfectly erased f. Thus Wrenn reads forspeo{n} ‘lured’. [click here for MS image]
[2819] Kemble emends to h{r}æðre.
[2821] MS gumum; em. Heyne.
[fitt XXXVIIII] No fitt number in MS, but large captial Ð indicating new fitt.
[2844] Kemble emends to æghwæð{er}.
[2854] MS speop; em. from Thorkelin.
[2860] MS geongum; em. Barnouw.
[2863] MS sec . em. from Thorkelin.
[2884] Kemble emends to {n}u.
[2911] MS under. em. from Kiernan et al., presumably based upon emendation by Grein ( under{ne} ).
[2916] Grein emends to ge{n}ægdon.
[2929] Grein emends to {o}ndslyht.
[2930] MS bryda heorde. em. from Kiernan et al. Grein emends to bryd {a}h{red}de. Wrenn emends to bryd {a}heorde.
[2940] Thorpe emends to sum{e}.
[2940] MS galg treowu. em. from Kemble.
[2941] insertion by Thorpe, no gap in MS. Kiernan et al. posit insertion of < feðan> ‘foot-soldiers’.
[2946] Thorkelin emends to Sw{e}ona.
[2958] MS hige lace. em. from Kemble.
[2959] MS ford. em. from Thorkelin.
[2961] MS sweordum; em. from Kemble.
[2964] Grundtvig emends to E{o}fores.
[2972] Kemble emends to {o}ndslyht.
[2978] Thorpe emends to brad{n}e.
[2989] word lost at corner. restr. from Grundtvig.
[2990] word lost at edge. restr. from Grundtvig.
[2990] MS gelæsta. em. from Kemble.
[2996] MS syðða . em. from Grundtvig.
[2998] inserted by Kiernan et al. ; no gap in MS.
[3000] inserted by Kierna et al. ; no gap in MS. Kemble inserts wen.
[3007] Kemble emends to nu.
[3012] restr. from Kemble.
[3014] rest of word lost at beginning of line. restr. from Grundtvig.
[3041] restr. from Kiernan et al. Bugge restores to gry<re-fah>.
[3060] Thorpe emends to wræ{t}e.
[3065] Word almost entirely lost at edge. Thorkelin B has ..gum.; Thorkelin’s edition has megum. em. from Kemble.
[3069] Holthausen emends to dio{r}e.
[3073] MS strade; em. Grundtvig
[3078] MS adreogeð. em. from Kemble.
[3084] Wyatt and Chambers emend to heol{d}.
[3085] insertion from Kiernan et al. no gap in MS.
[3086] Grein inserts <þeod-cyning>. no gap in MS. (Grein does not insert <wæs> in line above).
[3101] insertion from Grundtvig. no gap in MS.
[3102] insertion from Kiernan et al. no gap in MS.
[3102] Bugge inserts gimma between searo and geþræc. No gap in MS. (Bugge does not insert <on> ).
[3119] MS fæder gearwum. em. from Thorkelin’s fæþer.
[folio 198] This is the most damaged of all of the folios, horribly torn and damaged by water and chemical treatment. [click here to view the general state of fol. 198] Part of the damage seems to be due to wear sustained when it was the last page of a separate codex (see Kiernan). But it also sustained significant damage in the Ashburnham House fire of 1728. See Syd Allan's Ashburnham House Fire Page for more details.
[3122] restr. from Kemble. Grein emends <ætsom>[ne] . There is really little difference in meaning between these two restorations and neither serves any alliterative role.
[3124] Ettmüller emends to (h)ilde-rinc{a} .
[3130] restr. from Ettmüller.
[3134] the scribe uses simply þ in the text (standing in for þæt ). Thorkelin emends to þa .
[3135] Bugge emends to æþeling{c} ; Kemble to æþelin{g} .
[3136] em. from Kiernan et al.
[3136] Ettmüller inserts rinc (but does not emend har to har{um} ). MS has remnants of erasure of apparent dittograph –ilde to .
[3139] MS helm. em. from Grein.
[3144] A hole in MS before rec ; Thorkelin A wud rec ; completed by Kemble.
[3145] MS swicðole. em. from Thorpe.
[3145] Thorkelin AB let ; em. from Thorpe.
[3149] MS torn here. Thorkelin A has cwaln ; B has –lm . Kemble restores to cw<e>alm (adopted in text).
[3150] restr. from Pope. Kiernan et al. find - isc ‘almost certain’, g- ‘doubtful’.
[3150] an written superscript above meowle. [click here for MS image]
[3151] MS completely illegible here due to tear. Conjectured restoration from Malone – only conjecture. Though the conjecture is roughly consistent with what Kiernan et al. are able to see: ‘space for 1-2 letters, tops of 2 letters (perhaps tips of e -head and caroline s , i.e. ..es ), then space for 10-12 letters’.
[3152] restr. from Kiernan et al., who say ‘UV shows traces of high s , probably a (rather than o ), certainly ng ’.
[3152] Bugge and Pope favour reading as <sæde>. But Kiernan et al.’s study confirms reading in text.
[3152] Thorkelin B has ..neah l.. ; A has a blank; Kiernan et al. say ‘ ge now not quite distinct, and -he is doubtful, but there does not appear to be room for –læs ’ .
[3153] in MS. only gas is certain, though Kiernan et al. claim to see ...g...gas . [click here for MS image] restr. from Bugge. Kieran et al. posit <here>g<æn>gas. Pope proposes <heofun>g<da>gas. Kiernan et al. state: ‘vestiges and spacing do not support <heofun>g<da>gas. ’
[3153] restr. from Bugge. Kiernan et al. with UV can confirm all but r.
[3154] MS may read either wonn or worn . Bugge emends his MS reading of wonn to wo{r}n.
[3155] restr. from Bugge. Kiernan et al. note: ‘all but t in hæftnyd (no dot on y ) fairly clear with ultraviolet’. Bugge also restores to hy{n}ðo (not adopted here, in view of the Kiernan et al. study).
[3157] Kiernan et al. note that this is ‘apparently neither hlæw nor hleo, but a combination of the two, a variant spelling of hleo ’.
[3157] restr. from Bugge.
[3158] restr. from Kiernan et al. (adapted from Kemble). Kemble restores to <w>eg-liðendum. But Kiernan et al. say: ‘in bright light æg seems certain, but not first letter; with UV w -bow distinct, descender faint’.
[3159] restr. from Malone. Kiernan et al. cautiously concur: ‘following bet two minims joined at bottom, like u , but stroke through second presumably expands to m’.
[3168] restr. from Kiernan et al., who remark: ‘penultimate letter [ e -BMS] [is] smudged as well as faded (perhaps æ or o )’. Kemble restores to <æro>r.
[3171] restr. from Kiernan et al., based on Grein’s restr. <ceare>. Kemble judges that there is only space for four letters and restores as <care>. Kiernan et al. remark: ‘letter preceding cwiðan apparently g with macron (i.e. ge ) rather than e ; before it vestiges and space seem to support usual restoration’.
[3172] restr. from Grein.
[3174] restr. from Kemble.
[3177] reading given, lichaman ,is standard reading. Kiernan et al. say: ‘spacing and awkward l suggest later hand first freshened up lic to ac , then corrected left side of a to li ’.
[3177] MS completely illegible here. restr. from Holthausen. Kemble restores to <læne> ‘transitory’ and Malone to <lifes> ‘of lives’.
[3179] restr. from Thorpe.
[3181] restoration from Grundtvig. Kiernan et al. note: ‘upper right corner of 7 [ ond -BMS] gone; bottoms of first two minims of m under tape, followed by hole and bottom of o , most of tops of nð (including cross-stroke, divided by small hole). w gone, tops of æ covered, most of r gone; only ust intact’.