134
BEOWULF.
XLIII.
Him ðā gegiredan Gēata lēode
ād on eorðan unwāclīcne,
helm[um][5] behongen, hilde-bordum,
3140beorhtum byrnum, swā hā bēna wæs;
ālegdon ðā tōmiddes mǣrne þēoden
hæleð hīofende, hlāford lēofne.
Ongunnon þā on beorge bǣl-fȳra mǣst
wīgend weccan; wud[u]-rēc[6] āstāh
3145sweart ofer swioðole,[7] swōgende lēg[8]
wōpe bewunden (wind-blond gelæg),
- ↑ 3130. MS. defective at edge.
- ↑ 3134. MS. ‘ꝥ.’ Thorpe ‘Þǣr.’
- ↑ 3135. MS. ‘æþelinge.’
- ↑ 3136. MS. ‘hilde to.’ “I am unable to decide whether there is an erasure of one letter after hilde or an original blank.”—Z. Thorpe’s emendation.
- ↑ 3139. MS. ‘helm.’ Grein’s emendation.
- ↑ 3144. Hole in MS.
- ↑ 3145. MS. ‘swicðole.’ A difficult word. Toller gives two or three instances of swice, swicc (?), “scent, smell.” Skeat suggests “smelling fir-wood,” from O.E. ðol(l), Icel. þollr, “a thole, a peg,” originally “fir-tree.” Grein connects with swaðul (l. 782). See glossary.
- ↑ MS. ‘let’; Thorpe ‘lēg.’