Ger Summer is a joy to men, when God, the holy King of Heaven, suffers the earth to bring forth shining fruits for rich and poor alike.
Eoh The yew is a tree with rough bark, hard and fast in the earth, supported by its roots, a guardian of flame and a joy upon an estate.
Peordh Peorth is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely together in the banqueting-hall.
Eolh The Eolh-sedge is mostly to be found in a marsh; it grows in the water and makes a ghastly wound, covering with blood every warrior who touches it.
Sigel The sun is ever a joy in the hopes of seafarers when they journey away over the fishes' bath, until the courser of the deep bears them to land.
compares Slav. pizda= vulva, W. Grimm the Icelandic ptf, "a pawn in chess." This latter suggestion is not regarded with much favour bj H. J. B. Murray in his History of Chen, p. 420 (Oxford, 1913).
Hickes, Eolhx teccard hufp of tut t onfenne. Grimm emends to eolugtecg eard, Greiu to eolx tecg card and Bieger to eolh it eg eard, " the elk-sedge (sumpfgras als lager oder nahrung des elches) always grows in a marsh."
This letter, originally t (which disappeared finally, and became r elsewhere in AS.), is a fossil found only in Bunic alphabets. An earlier form of the name is seen in Epinal-tirfurt, 781, papilmu: ilugsegg, ilugieg (cf. the ilcM of the Salzburg Codex), which cannot be connected with the word for elk, and Wright- Wiiiker, Foe. 286. 36, eolxtecg: papiluus, where papiluut probably =papyriu. Cf. Epinal-Erfurt, 795, paperum, papirum: earitc. Corpus, 1503, papirum: eoritc (bulrush). The subject of this stanza is therefore some ruah, species unknown. In this connection it is interesting to note that both tecg and the Lat. gladioltu, which it glosses in E.E. 463, and Corpus, 977, are derived from words for sword; cf. Skeat, Etymological Dictionary, p. 546 (Oxford, 1910).Hickes, blode breitef. The natural way would be to take it as " browns (stains) with blood " from brun; cf. Dante, Inferno xiu. 34, Da che fatto fu poi di tongue bruno; but no such verb occurs in AS. or ON. Brenef (from beornan), "burns with blood," makes no sense. A better interpretation is suggested by a passage in Wnlfstan, 183. 17 Drihtnet rod bif blode beurnen, "the cross of the Lord is covered with blood." Possibly we should emend to beernef (though this verb does not actually occur) rather than to beyrnelf.
Sifri (Salxb. AS. tygil, Qoih. tugil) evidently "sun." Cf. Norwegian and Icelandic 6l. Moreover in the Exeter book it is found at the beginning and the end of Riddle vn., to which the answer ia " the sun." Cf. Tapper, Riddlet of the Exeter Book, p. 81, and Wyatt, Old Englith Riddle* (frontispiece 2, 8).
hine, for heonan, hence, away; cf. Bede's Death Song, v. 1 Mr hit For the intrans. use of /man, cf. Maldon, v. 179, etc.
