¹ ‘Beowulf, though it may contain elements intended for edification,’ says Dorothy Whitelock in The Audience of Beowulf (Oxford, 1951Google Scholar; repr. with corrections 1958), p. 20, ‘is surely first and foremost literature of entertainment, and as such, intended mainly for laymen.’ G. V. Smithers writes, ‘There is probably no reader of Beowulf today who does not think of it as a heroic poem’ (‘Destiny and the Heroic Warrior in Beowulf’), Philological Essays: Studies in Old and Middle English Literature in Honour of Herbert Dean Meritt, ed. Rosier, James L. (The Hague, 1970), pp. 65–81, at 75Google Scholar. In the past two decades, however, divers opposing views have sprung up. Of these writings eight of the most prominent and influential are reviewed, incisively and delightfully, by Campbell, A. P., ‘The Decline and Fall of Hrothgar and his Danes’, Revue de l' Université d' Ottawa 45 (1975), 417–29Google Scholar. I concur with his conclusions.

² As the basic text for this investigation, and the one from which quotations are taken, I have used Beowulf and the Fight at Finnsburg, ed. Klaeber, Fr., 3rd ed. with suppls. 1 and 2 (Boston, 1950)Google Scholar. In addition I have constantly checked notes, interpretations and disputed readings in Beowulf with the Finnsburg Fragment, ed. Wyatt, A. J., new ed. rev. R. W. Chambers (Cambridge), 1933Google Scholar; Beowulf and Judith, ed. Dobbie, Elliott Van Kirk, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records (ASPR) 4 (New York, 1953)Google Scholar; Beowulf with the Finnesburg Fragment, ed. Wrenn, C. L., 1st and 2nd eds. (London), 1953 and 1958Google Scholar; the so-called 3rd ed., rev. W. F. Bolton (London, 1973, has been rendered no longer Wrenn's by the deletion of the greater part of his Introduction and all of his distinctive philological and literary interpretation in his Commentary); Heyne-Schückings Beowulf, ed. von Schaubert, Else, 17th ed., 3 vols., Bibliothek der ältesten deutschen Denkmäler 3 (Paderborn, 1958–1961)Google Scholar; and Hoops, Johannes, Kommentar zum Beowulf (Heidelberg, 1932)Google Scholar. I have also found of some use Beowulf und die kleineren Denkmäler der altenglischen Heldensage Waldere und Finnsburg, ed. Nickel, Gerhard et al. , 3 vols., Germanische Bibliothek 4th ser. (Heidelberg, 1976Google Scholar; at the time of writing vol. 3, Konkordanz-Glossar, is not available). Since this edition is intended to be a textbook for university students rather than the 8th revised edition of F. Holthausen's Beowulf, the Commentary and other apparatus are of slight scholarly value. The three translations I have consulted for their methods and manners of translation are Beowulf and the Finnesburg Fragment, trans. Hall, John R. Clark, new ed. rev. C. L. Wrenn (London, 1950)Google Scholar; Beowulf: a New Prose Translation, trans. Donaldson, E. Talbot (New York, 1966)Google Scholar; and Beowulf and its Analogues, trans. Garmonsway, G. N. and Simpson, Jacqueline, including Hilda Ellis Davidson, ‘Archaeology and Beowulf’ (London, 1968).Google Scholar

³ One group of warrior-actors, however, is excluded – kings. At first glance this may appear perplexing, since a king, whether in the Heroic Age or in Anglo-Saxon England, was perforce a warrior. But a king in either age had duties other than fighting, and it is these other peculiarly royal obligations – to his personal troop of warriors (comitatus), his kin and his people as a whole – which the Beowulf poet chooses to stress: his ‘king’ vocabulary is on the whole substantially different from his ‘warrior’ one.

⁴ ‘“Weapons” in Beowulf: an Analysis of the Nominal Compounds and an Evaluation of the Poet's Use of Them’, ASE 8 (1979), 79–141, esp. 79–84.Google Scholar

⁵ Meaning and Change of Meaning with Special Reference to the English Language, Göteborgs Högskolas Årsskrift 38 (1932:1), 296–330Google Scholar; see also 293–6.

⁶ Ibid. p. 297, n. 12; and cf. pp. 362–9.

⁷ See Whitelock, , ‘Anglo-Saxon Poetry and the Historian’, TRHS 4th ser. 31 (1949), 75–94.Google Scholar

⁸ The standard work is still Chadwick, H. Munro, The Heroic Age (Cambridge, 1912)Google Scholar. Also of great value are Chambers, R. W., Beowulf: an Introduction to the Study of the Poem, 3rd ed., suppl. by Wrenn, C. L. (Cambridge, 1959), esp. pp. 1–40, 89–97, 381–7 and 401–50Google Scholar; and Lawrence, William Witherle, Beowulf and Epic Tradition (Cambridge, Mass., 1930).Google Scholar

⁹ The standard work is Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed., rev. Doris Mary Stenton with Dorothy Whitelock (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar. See also Blair, Peter Hunter, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1977)Google Scholar, and Northumbria in the Days of Bede (London, 1976)Google Scholar; Page, R. I., Life in Anglo-Saxon England, Eng. Life Ser. (London, 1970)Google Scholar; Whitelock, , Audience: The Beginnings of English Society (Harmondsworth, 1963)Google Scholar; and ‘Introduction’, English Historical Documents c. 500–1042 (EHD 1), 2nd rev. ed. (London, 1979), pp. 1–98Google Scholar and Wilson, David, The Anglo-Saxons, rev. ed. (Harmondsworth, 1971).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Whitelock, , Audience, pp. 22–30Google Scholar, gives a full discussion of the conditions for dating and on p. 64 states, ‘I do not think that a date 757–96 can be proved impossibly late for either Beowulf or the Offa section of Widsith’; see also ‘Poetry and the Historian’, pp. 79–88. See also Stanley, E. G., ‘Beowulf’, Continuations and Beginnings: Studies in Old English Literature, ed. Stanley, Eric Gerald (London, 1966), p. 105.Google Scholar

¹¹ Alcuin lauded vengeance for a slain lord even while condemning the singing of heroic lays in the refectory. In 801 in a letter to Charlemagne he highly praised Torhtmund for having slain in vengeance Ealdorman Ealdred, who in 796 had murdered Ethelred, king of Northumbria (see EHD 1 no. 206), 862–3. In 797 he wrote the letter to Higbald, bishop of Lindisfarne, in which he asked the famous question: ‘Quid enim Hinieldus cum Christo?’ (see Whitelock, , Audience, p. 20).Google Scholar

¹² In 793, according to the The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, fiery dragons were seen flying in the air over Northumbria, dire portents of the imminent heathen destruction of Lindisfarne.

¹³ Stanley, (Continuations and Beginnings, p. 139Google Scholar) and Whitelock (Audience) both suggest a number of kings of various kingdoms who could have been his patrons, although Whitelock warns that ‘there are too many candidates for this line of inquiry to give profitable results’ (‘Poetry and the Historian’, p. 87) and concludes that any part of England in the eighth century could have provided the necessary intellectual atmosphere (Audience, pp. 99–105). Chadwick, Nora K., ‘The Monsters and Beowulf’, The Anglo-Saxons: Studies in some Aspects of their History and Culture presented to Bruce Dickins, ed. Clemoes, Peter (London, 1959), pp. 171–203, at 203Google Scholar, and Bruce-Mitford, Rupert, ‘Sutton Hoo and the Background to the Poem’, in Ritchie Girvan, Beowulf and the Seventh Century (London, 1971), at pp. 85–98Google Scholar, both emphasize the probability of a member of the East Anglian dynasty as patron. For a strongly stated contrary view, see Campbell, A., ‘The Old English Epic Style’, English and Medieval Studies presented to J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. Davis, Norman and Wrenn, C. L. (London, 1962), pp. 13–26, at 14–15, esp. 15, n. 3Google Scholar; and ‘The Use in Beowulf of earlier Heroic Verse’, England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Clemoes, Peter and Hughes, Kathleen (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 283–92, at 283.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The details of the Danish reception of Beowulf and his troop before they were allowed into Hrothgar's presence (229a–355b and 389b–398b) could be, as Whitelock, says, ‘doubtless drawn from life’ (Beginnings, p. 59)Google Scholar. N. Chadwick (‘The Monsters and Beowulf’, p. 201) applies to the poet himself the words which he uses of Wulfgar in 359b.

¹⁵ Burlin, Robert B., ‘Inner Weather and Interlace: a Note on the Semantic Value of Structure in Beowulf’, Old English Studies in Honour offohn C. Pope, ed. Burlin, Robert B. and JrIrving, Edward B. (Toronto, 1974), pp. 81–9, esp. 85–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ Bonjour, Adrien, The Digressions in Beowulf, Medium Ævum Monographs 5 (Oxford, 1950), xi–xiiGoogle Scholar, nicely defines the terms ‘digression’ and ‘episode’.

¹⁷ Burlin, ‘Inner Weather and Interlace’, p. 86.

¹⁸ See my discussion, ‘“Weapons”’, pp. 103–5.

¹⁹ ‘Interpretations and Emendations of Early English Texts, IV’, Anglia 42 (1918), 113.Google Scholar

²⁰ Die altengliscben Kenningar: ein Beitrag zur Stilkunde altgermanischer Dichtung, Schriften der Königsberger Gelehrten Gesellschaft, Geisteswissenschaftliche Kl. 14 (Halle, 1938), 223.Google Scholar

²¹ See esp. Stenton, , Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 23–6 and 202–3Google Scholar; Blair, Hunter, An Introduction, pp. 199–203Google Scholar; Whitelock, , EHD 1, 11Google Scholar and the documents cited in the notes; Brooks, Nicholas, ‘The Development of Military Obligations in Eighth- and Ninth-Century England’, England before the Conquest, ed. Clemoes, and Hughes, , pp. 69–84, esp. 74–6.Google Scholar

²² Bede, , Historia Ecclesiastica 111.24Google Scholar. trans. Whitelock, , EHD 1, 693.Google Scholar

²³ ‘The East Anglian Kings of the Seventh Century’, The Anglo-Saxons, ed. Clemoes, , pp. 43–52, at 52Google Scholar; see full discussion, Ibid. pp. 51–2, and Whitelock's suggested somewhat different view (EHD 1, 693, n. 4).

²⁴ Kärre, Karl, ‘Nomina Agentis in Old English, Part I’, Uppsala Univ. Årsskrift 1915, 38.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ilkow, Peter, Die Nominalkomposita der altsachsischen Bibeldichtung: ein semantiscb-kulturge-schichtliches Glossar, ed. Wissmann, W. and Rosenfeld, H.-Fr. (Göttingen, 1968), pp. 262–3.Google Scholar

²⁶ Edda: die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, ed. Neckel, Gustav, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Heidelberg, 1936).Google Scholar

²⁷ Holthausen, F., Altenglisches etymologiscbes Wörterbuch, 3rd ed. (Heidelberg, 1974)Google Scholar; Grein, C. W. M., Sprachschatz der angelsächsischen Dichler, rev. J. J. Köhler (Heidelberg, 1912) (GK)Google Scholar; and An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary based on the manuscript collections of the late Joseph Bosworth, ed. and enlarged by Toller, T. Northcote (Oxford, 1882–1898)Google Scholar (BT), Supplement by T. Northcote Toller (Oxford, 1921)Google Scholar (BTS) and with Revised and Enlarged Addenda and Corrigenda by Alistair Campbell (Oxford, 1972).

²⁸ ‘Lexicography and Literary Criticism: a Caveat’, Philological Essays, ed. Rosier, , pp. 99–1 10, at 100.Google Scholar

²⁹ Die altenglischen Kenningar, p. 251.

³⁰ The eminent Icelandic scholar, Einar Ólafur Sveinsson (‘Dróttkvæða þáttur’, Skírnir 121 (1947), 15Google Scholar) lists this group as his second sort of kenning, ‘outwardly similar’ to the majority, ‘yet unlike them in their nature’. See also Kärre, ‘Nomina Agentis’, pp. 209–10.

³¹ Kärre lists words found only in prose (Ibid. pp. 143–7 and 157–76) and those found only in glosses (pp. 147–50 and 176–91) as well as those found both in prose and in poetry and those found both in glosses and in poetry.

³² Carr, Charles T., Nominal Compounds in Germanic, St Andrew's Univ. Publ. 41 (London, 1959). 321–4.Google Scholar

³³ Ibid. pp. 320–1 and 324–9.

³⁴ Kock, ‘Interpretations and Emendations iv’, p. 112.

³⁵ See Bäck, Hilding, The Synonyms for ‘Child’, ‘Boy’, ‘Girl’ in Old English: an Etymological–Semasiological Investigation, Lund Stud. in Eng. 2 (1934), 151–2 and 246–7.Google Scholar

³⁶ ‘Zum Bedeutungsinhalt gewisser altenglischer Wörter und ihrer Verwendung’, Anglia 46 (1922), 232–3Google Scholar. Klaeber is discussing Beowulf in the context of 4071b–408a.

³⁷ Harrison, Kenneth, The Framework of Anglo-Saxon History to A.D. 900 (Cambridge, 1976), p. 124, n. 5.Google Scholar

³⁸ Synonyms, pp. xiii–xiv.

³⁹ Ibid. p. 153.

⁴⁰ Ibid. pp. 15 2 and 247.

⁴¹ ‘Interpretations and Emendations of Early English Texts, IX’, Anglia 46 (1922), 75–7, at 77.Google Scholar

⁴² See ‘“Weapons”’, p. 131, for my explication of the meaning of -heap when applied to a group of spears; the same connotation of ‘standing closely together’ applies to a group of warriors.

⁴³ Stern, , Meaning, pp. 404 and 72–4.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Particularly Bandy, Stephen C., ‘Beowulf: the Defense of Heorot’, Neophilologus 56 (1972), 86–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁵ ‘Old English Beot and Icelandic Heitstrenging’, PMLA 49 (1934), 975–93, at 976.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ See also Holthausen, F., ‘Wortdeutungen’, IF 32 (1913), 337.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ I use Heliand und Genesis, ed. Behagel, Otto, 7th ed., rev. Walther Mitzka (Tübingen, 1958)Google Scholar, together with Sehrt, Edward H., Vollständiges Wörterbuch zum Heliand und zur altsächsischen Genesis, 2nd ed. (Göttingen, 1966).Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Die Nominalkomposita, p. 197.

⁴⁹ ‘Old West Germanic and Old Norse’, Studies in Philology. A Miscellany in Honor of Frederick Klaeber, ed. Malone, Kemp and Ruud, Martin B. (Minneapolis, 1929), pp. 16–17, §§3 and 5.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Die altenglischen Kenningar, p. 142.

⁵¹ ‘Epithetic Compound Folk-Names in Beowulf’, Studies in Philology, ed. Malone, and Ruud, , p. 126.Google Scholar

⁵² Die altenglischen Kenningar, pp. 141–2.

⁵³ See Marquardt, , Die altenglischen Kenningar, pp. 132 and 226, on ‘Heer’ asa sense of mœgen; on the whole collocation, see ed. Wrenn, p. 194 and the references cited there, as well as the discussion in ed. Dobbie, .Google Scholar

⁵⁴ The Literary History of Hamlet. I. The Early Tradition, Anglistische Forschungen 59 (Heidelberg, 1923), 151–3, and subsequent publications listed in n. to 445 in ed. Klaeber, Google Scholar and in the excellent summary of the controversy in n. to 445 in ed. Dobbie.

⁵⁵ Bäck, , Synonyms, p. 247.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ So ed. Klaeber; for the alternative reading preferred by most scholars see Dobbie's and von Schaubert's notes on the scholarship on both passages.

⁵⁷ ‘Nomina Agentis’, pp. 32–3.

⁵⁸ See Ilkow, , Die Nominalkomposita, pp. 52–3Google Scholar, on the development from PGmc *ambahta-< Celt *amb(i)aktos of a nomen agentis in Gothic, Old English and Old High German and then of a nomen actionis in all the Germanic languages.

⁵⁹ Ilkow, Ibid. pp. 130–1 and 198–203, gives a keen, detailed analysis of the etymological, historical-geographical and semantic approaches to the -togo (of Common Germanic origin) in OS folk-logo and beri-togo.

⁶⁰ Bede was much concerned about the thanes whom he believed to be entitled to marry and set up households of their own but who were being deprived of their land by Northumbrian royal charters to new sham monastic foundations; see Brooks, ‘Military Obligations’, p. 74 and n. 2, and Whitelock, , Audience, pp. 89–92.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Ed. Wrenn, n. to 1240; see also his Glossary and Mitchell, Bruce, A Guide to Old English, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1975), §193.4, p. 106.Google Scholar

⁶² Robinson, ‘Lexicography’, pp. 100–1.

⁶³ Die Nominalkomposita, pp. 208 and 92–4.

⁶⁴ Listed as such by Robinson, Fred Colton, ‘Variation. A Study in the Diction of Beowulf’ (unpubl. Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of North Carolina, 1961), p. 44.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Whitelock, , Audience, pp. 89–90Google Scholar; Page, Life, pp. 101–12; and Blair, Hunter, An Introduction, pp. 214–18Google Scholar. On the semiological distinction ‘since time immemorial’ [sic!] between the occasional performer and the habitual performer, see Kärre, ‘Nomina Agentis’, p. 12.

⁶⁶ ‘Interpretations and Emendations IV, p. 112.

⁶⁷ Historia Ecclesiastica 11.13, trans. Whitelock, , EHD 1, 671–2.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ See Rosemary Cramp's discussion of the poet's description of Heorot in the light of recent archaeological discoveries, especially at the site of Yeavering, , in ‘Beowulf and Archaeology’, MA 1 (1957), 68–77Google Scholar. On archaeological excavations, see Addyman, P. V., ‘The Anglo-Saxon House: a New Review’, ASE 1 (1972), 273–307, esp. 284–8Google Scholar. An excellent short review of Anglo-Saxon halls is given by Page (Life, pp. 136–44); see also Wilson, , The Anglo-Saxons, pp. 64–8.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Prokosch, E., A Comparative Germanic Grammar (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 165, §58a.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Cleasby, Richard, An Icelandic–English Dictionary, rev. Gudbrand Vigfusson, 2nd ed. with supplement by SirCraigie, William (Oxford, 1957Google Scholar; hereinafter CV).

⁷¹ Carr, , Nominal Compounds, p. 48.Google Scholar

⁷² Synonyms, pp. 171–4.

⁷³ Die Nominalkomposita, pp. 164–6.

⁷⁴ Sievers, E., ‘Zum Beowulf’, BGDSL 29 (1904), 527–8, at 328.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Clarke, E. Martin, ‘The Office of Thyle in Beowulf’, RES 12 (1936), 61–6Google Scholar; Norman Eliason, E., ‘The Þyle and Scop in Beowulf’, Speculum 38 (1963), 268–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Hollowell, Ida Masters, ‘Unferð and the Þyle in Beowulf’, SP 73 (1976), 239–65Google Scholar, a scholarly article, well worth reading until she begins tangentially to follow de Vries, Jan, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1956).Google Scholar

⁷⁶ See CV, and Fritzner, Johan, Ordbog over del gamle norske Sprog, rev. ed., 3 vols. (Kristiania, 1886–1896)Google Scholar. See, further, Vogt, Walter Heinrich, Stilgeschichte der eddischen Wissendichtung. I: Der Kultredner (þulr) (Breslau, 1927).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Einarsson, Stefán, A History of Icelandic Literature, American–Scandinavian Foundation (New York, 1957), p. 38.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ See Sisam, Kenneth, The Structure of Beowulf (Oxford, 1965), p. 41Google Scholar, and Greenfield, Stanley B., The Interpretation of Old English Poems (London, 1972), pp. 104–6.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ For a contrary view, which I cannot accept, see Greenfield, Stanley B., ‘Three Beowulf Notes: Lines 736ff., 1331b ff., 1341–1344’, Medieval Studies in Honor of Lillian Herlands Hornstein, ed. Bessinger, Jess B. Jr, and Raymo, Robert R. (New York, 1976), pp. 169–72, at 171.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ ‘Variation’, p. 148, n. 38.

⁸¹ Hatto, A. T., ‘Snake-Swords and Boar-Helms in Beowulf’, ES 38 (1957), 156.Google Scholar

⁸² Carr, , Nominal Compounds, p. 102Google Scholar; Ilkow, , Die Nominalkomposita, pp. 37–8.Google Scholar

⁸³ For an analysis of the emphasis and function of each of the four allusions to the raid, see Bonjour, Adrien, ‘Jottings on Beowulf and the Aesthetic Approach’, Old English Poetry: Fifteen Essays, ed. Creed, R. P. (Providence, 1967), pp. 183–91Google Scholar. Greenfield, , ‘Geatish History: Poetic Art and Epic Quality in Beowulf’, Neophilologus 47 (1963), 21–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar, gives a penetrating analysis of three of the references to the raid as conjoined with the Swedish-Geatish wars (2349b–2399a, 2425–515 and 2910b–3000).

⁸⁴ Robinson, , ‘Beowulf's Retreat from Frisia: some Textual Problems in LI. 2361–62’, SP 62 (1965), 1–16Google Scholar; ‘Beowulf's Withdrawal from Frisia: a Reconsideration’, SP 68 (1971), 393–415Google Scholar; and ‘Elements of the Marvellous in the Characterization of Beowulf: a Reconsideration of the Textual Evidence’, Old English Studies, ed. Burlin, and Irving, , pp. 119–37, at 124–6.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ See Whitelock, ‘Poetry and the Historian’, p. 84. An incisive and most illuminating discussion of Beowulf's overriding desire for fame by means of courage and valour is presented by Smithers, G. V., ‘Destiny and the Heroic Warrior in Beowulf’, Philological Studies, ed. Rosier, , pp. 65–81, esp. 75–7Google Scholar. This explication of the complete heroic ethos reveals the absolute rightness of (-) freca and lofgeomost in characterizing Beowulf. John C. Pope gives additional insights into Beowulf's heroic motives and deeds, ‘Beowulf's Old Age’, Ibid. pp. 55–64. Those who still doubt or hesitate may see McNamara, John, ‘Beowulf and Hygelac: Problems for Fiction in History’, Rice Univ. Stud. 62 (1976), 57–9 and 60–3.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ The byrnwiga ‘fighter in mail byrnie’ (2918a) is an expressive term for ‘warrior’, but it refers to a king and thus must be excluded from this study.

⁸⁷ Ed. Wrenn.

⁸⁸ Die altenglischen Kenningar, p. 254.

⁸⁹ ‘Variation’, p. 48, n. 38. See Stanley's, E. G. analysis of these three ‘digressions’, Continuations and Beginnings, pp. 117–24Google Scholar, and also Bonjour, , Digressions, pp. 46–53.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ For the literature on the subject and my own interpretation of Hengest's winter and spring, see ‘“Weapons’”, pp. 96–101 and nn.

⁹¹ ‘Epithetic Compound Folk-Names’, p. 134.

⁹² Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist, The Art of Beowulf (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1959), p. 165.Google Scholar

⁹³ Back, , Synonyms, pp. 1–2.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Smithers takes the compound as possibly meaning ‘wedding attendant’ (‘Four Cruces in Beowulf’ Studies in Language and Literature in Honour of Margaret Schlaucb, ed. Brahmer, Mieczyslaw et al. (New York, 1971), pp. 397–430, at 429.Google Scholar) His argument is persuasive and decidedly preferable to those he criticizes, but I am not convinced.

⁹⁵ See Wilson, , The Anglo-Saxons, pp. 111–12 and fig. 23b.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ ‘Epithetic Compound Folk-Names’, p. 126.

⁹⁷ ‘Variation’, p. 113. See his complete discussion of this problem, Ibid. pp. 110–22.

⁹⁸ See Robinson's, enlightened analysis of this passage and of Wulfgar's following speeches in ‘Two Non-Cruces in Beowulf,‘ Tennessee Stud. in Lit. 11 (1966), 155–8.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Digressions, p. 20.

¹⁰⁰ Ibid. p. 19; Bonjour's, ‘tactical retreat’ from these views (‘Unferth: a Return to Orthodoxy’, Twelve Beowulf Papers 1940–1960, With Additional Comments (Neuchatel, 1962), pp. 129–34Google Scholar, esp. 130–2) is a delight to read but is too typically the tongue-in-cheek Bonjour to be accepted by one who agreed with him in the first place.

¹⁰¹ Die altenglischen Kenningar, p. 258.

¹⁰² Both CV and Fritzner, Ordbog, give this material and references to the sagas.

¹⁰³ Ilkow, , Die Nominalkomposita, p. 194.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Die altenglischen Kenningar, p. 254.

¹⁰⁵ E.g., von Schaubert, ‘den Herrn der Br¨nne, den Krieger’.

¹⁰⁶ Kärre, ‘Nomina Agentis’, pp. 45–51, 54–5 and 57.

¹⁰⁷ Prokosch, , A Comparative German Grammar, p. 170, §580.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ On these patterns, see my ‘“Weapons”’, p. 89.

¹⁰⁹ For the make-up of an Anglo-Saxon court, see Whitelock, , Beginnings, pp. 56–8Google Scholar, and Blair, Hunter, An Introduction, pp. 204–14.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ In the ‘king’ vocabulary I have found a very high percentage of genitive combinations in both number and repetition.

¹¹¹ Kärre, ‘Nomina Agentis’, p. 19–76.

¹¹² Ibid. pp. 195–211 and 217. Unfortunately, Kärre seems never to have completed ‘the other part of my treatise, which is not yet worked out’ (Ibid. p. 121), in which he planned to deal with the an-formations, the type of nomina agentis to which five of our seemingly inappropriate six belong.

¹¹³ Stern, , Meaning, 14.83, p. 408Google Scholar; see also 14.81, pp. 404–5.