[2315] lyftfloga. On the flying dragon, see note on Finnsb. 3; Angl. xxxvi 188 n. 2.
[2324-2537] Preparation for the dragon fight.
[2324 ff] Was Bēowulf not at home ? Did the author desire to have the tidings announced through a messenger ? (Cf. Intr. xxi, cviii.)
[2329-31] Bēowulf did not yet know the real cause of the dragon's ravages, see 2403 if. The phrase ofer ealde riht, 'contrary to old law' (cp. Ags. Laws, Hloðb. & Eadr. 12: an eald riht), is here given a Christian interpretation.
[2334] ēalond. Cf. Intr. xxii, xlviii n. 4. Neither Saxo's island (Sievers) nor the islands of Zealand (Boer) or Öland (Stjer. 91 f.), but 'land bordering on water' (Bu. Tid. 68, Bu. 5). An apparently analogous use of īgland, ēalond: Andr. 15, Phoen. 9, 287, Sal. 1 was pointed out by Krapp, MPh. ii 403 f. (See also NED.: island.) Also insula is found in medieval Latin in this wider sense (cf. Beitr. xxxv 541). [Aant. 34.]
[2338] The masc. form eallīrenne shows that the author had in mind the noun scyld; but he changed to the neut. bord in the next line. (ESt. xxxix 465.)
[2353-54] Grendeles mǣgum, i.e. the Grendel family,' meaning, of course, Grendel and his mother. (Cp. Finnes eaferum 1068.) l&¯eth;an cynnes, of (or. ' belonging to') a hateful race'; cp. 1729.
2354b. Nō þæt lǣsest wæs . . .; cp 1455. There follows here the second of the allusions to Hygelāc' s last adventure, see Intr. xxxix f.
[2358] hiorodryncum swealt, died by sword-drinks,' i.e. by the sword drinking his blood. Cf Kiuger, Beitr. ix 574; Rickert, MPh. ii 66 ff. Arch. cxxvi 349 & n. 2. The nearest semasiological parallel of the unique compound is gryrum ecga 483.
[2361 f] hæfde him on earme (āna) þrītig/hildegeatwa . . . Here Bēowulf is seen to combine his proficiency in swimming with his thirty-men's stiength. The extraordinary skill of ancient German tribes in swimming (crossing, e.g., the rivers Rhine and Danube in full armoi) is testified to by Roman historians; cf. Mullenhoff L 9. 4. 1. 334 f; Bjarnason, R.-L. iii 150.
Unless we assume this to be an isolated hypermetrical half-line (cf. Intr. lxxi & n. 1), the second part of sioleða cannot be connected with ȳð (Gr.: 'seals' waves,' see Varr.). Dietrich's explanation of the noun (ZfdA. xi 416) on the basis of sol ' mud,' 'wet sand' has been rightly abandoned, especially as the testimony of the form sole, Beow. 302 (MS.) cannot be accepted. Bugge (Zs. 214) suggested connection with the stem found in Go. anasilan become quiet (silent),' Swed. dial. sil 'quiet water.' If this etymology is correct, the specific basic meaning must have been greatly widened.
[2379-96] On these Swedish wars, see Intr. xl, xliv.
This is Kock's punctuation, L 5. 44. 4. 9 The verb hlēotan takes the gen., acc., or instr. (so Chr. 783). -- orfeorme (MS.), which Brett tries to vindicate (MLR. xiv 2: ' without support' [?]), is precluded by considerations of meter and sense.
