Beowulf

the marching party as a whole. The boar was sacred to Freyr, who was
the favorite god of the Germanic tribes about the North Sea and the
Baltic. Rude representations of warriors show the boar on the helmet
quite as large as the helmet itself.

{5a} Either merely paved, the strata via of the Romans, or else
thought of as a sort of mosaic, an extravagant touch like the
reckless waste of gold on the walls and roofs of a hall.

{6a} The nicor, says Bugge, is a hippopotamus; a walrus, says Ten
Brink. But that water-goblin who covers the space from Old Nick of
jest to the Neckan and Nix of poetry and tale, is all one needs, and
Nicor is a good name for him.

{6b} His own people, the Geats.

{6c} That is, cover it as with a face-cloth. "There will be no need
of funeral rites."

{6d} Personification of Battle.

{6e} The Germanic Vulcan.

{6f} This mighty power, whom the Christian poet can still revere,
has here the general force of "Destiny."

{7a} There is no irrelevance here. Hrothgar sees in Beowulf's
mission a heritage of duty, a return of the good offices which the
Danish king rendered to Beowulf's father in time of dire need.

{7b} Money, for wergild, or man-price.

{7c} Ecgtheow, Beowulf's sire.

{8a} "Began the fight."

{8b} Breca.

{9a} Murder.

{10a} Beowulf, -- the "one."

{11a} That is, he was a "lost soul," doomed to hell.

{12a} Kenning for Beowulf.

{13a} "Guarded the treasure."

{13b} Sc. Heremod.

{13c} The singer has sung his lays, and the epic resumes its story.
The time-relations are not altogether good in this long passage
which describes the rejoicings of "the day after"; but the present
shift from the riders on the road to the folk at the hall is not
very violent, and is of a piece with the general style.

{14a} Unferth, Beowulf's sometime opponent in the flyting.

{15a} There is no horrible inconsistency here such as the critics
strive and cry about. In spite of the ruin that Grendel and Beowulf
had made within the hall, the framework and roof held firm, and
swift repairs made the interior habitable. Tapestries were hung on
the walls, and willing hands prepared the banquet.

{15b} From its formal use in other places, this phrase, to take cup
in hall, or "on the floor," would seem to mean that Beowulf stood up
to receive his gifts, drink to the donor, and say thanks.

{15c} Kenning for sword.

{15d} Hrothgar. He is also the "refuge of the friends of Ing,"
below. Ing belongs to myth.

{15e} Horses are frequently led or ridden into the hall where folk
sit at banquet:  so in Chaucer's Squire's tale, in the ballad of
King Estmere, and in the romances.

{16a} Man-price, wergild.

{16b} Beowulf's.

{16c} Hrothgar.

{16d} There is no need to assume a gap in the Ms. As before about
Sigemund and Heremod, so now, though at greater length, about Finn
and his feud, a lay is chanted or recited; and the epic poet,
counting on his readers' familiarity with the story, -- a fragment
of it still exists, -- simply gives the headings.

{16e} The exact story to which this episode refers in summary is not
to be determined, but the following account of it is reasonable and
has good support among scholars. Finn, a Frisian chieftain, who
nevertheless has a "castle" outside the Frisian border, marries
Hildeburh, a Danish princess; and her brother, Hnaef, with many
other Danes, pays Finn a visit. Relations between the two peoples
have been strained before. Something starts the old feud anew; and
the visitors are attacked in their quarters. Hnaef is killed; so is
a son of Hildeburh. Many fall on both sides. Peace is patched up; a
stately funeral is held; and the surviving visitors become in a way
vassals or liegemen of Finn, going back with him to Frisia. So