Beowulf & Grendel VI - Footnotes - Myths & Legends From The Mysts of Time

Beowulf and Grendel because some legends should never die!

BEOWULF - Footnotes{38a} Nothing.
{38b} Dead.
{38c} Death-watch, guard of honor, "lyke-wake."
{38d} A name for the Franks.
{38e} Ongentheow.
{38f} Haethcyn.
{39a} The line may mean: till Hrethelings stormed on the hedged
shields, -- i.e. the shield-wall or hedge of defensive war -- Hrethelings, of course, are Geats.
{39b}Eofor, brother to Wulf Wonreding.
{39c} Sc. "value in" hides and the weight of the gold.
{39d} Not at all.
{39e} Laid on it when it was put in the barrow. This spell, or in our days the "curse," either prevented discovery or brought dire ills on the finder and taker.
{40a} Probably the fugitive is meant who discovered the hoard. Ten Brink and Gering assume that the dragon is meant. "Hid" may well mean here "took while in hiding."
{40b} That is "one and a few others." But Beowulf seems to be indicated.
{40c} Ten Brink points out the strongly heathen character of this part of the epic. Beowulf's end came, so the old tradition ran, from his unwitting interference with spell-bound treasure.
{40d} A hard saying, variously interpreted. In any case, it is the somewhat clumsy effort of the Christian poet to tone down the heathenism of his material by an edifying observation.
{41a} Nothing is said of Beowulf's wife in the poem, but Bugge surmises that Beowulf finally accepted Hygd's offer of kingdom and hoard, and, as was usual, took her into the bargain.
HOME