Genesis A Part 7

[Footnote 8: ll. 226, 227a. I construe _the best_ with _gold and gems_, rather than with _sons of men_, because of Gen. 2.12.]

[Footnote 9: ll. 235-851. After line 234 there is a break in the MS.

Sievers has shown that the following 617 lines, called _Genesis B_, were written and interpolated later, by a different hand, and have Old Saxon affiliations. _Genesis B_ describes the Fall of Man and also gives a new version of the revolt and overthrow of Satan. _Genesis A_ begins again, at line 852, with the conversation between Adam and Eve and Jehovah (Gen. 3.8 ff.).]

[Footnote 10: line 872. I follow the divisions of the MS. This line begins with the tenth large decorative initial, the others having occurred at ll. 1, 82, 135, 246, 389, 442, 547, 684, and 821. Where the editors so widely disagree as to the proper subdivisions of the poem, it seems safer to follow the original initializing (but not the marginal numbering of the original MS.: this skips from VII to XIII at line 440--doubtless accidentally subst.i.tuting X for V--and is otherwise irregular). Cf. footnote, page vi, sup.--For lines 869-70, cf. _Jour.

Eng. Germ. Phil._, 12.257.]

[Footnote 11: line 1022. A hemistich seems to be missing here, metrically.]

[Footnote 12: line 1125. A hemistich seems to be missing here, metrically.]

[Footnote 13: line 1128. I here adopt Grein's emendation, reading _leod_ for _leof_.]

[Footnote 14: line 1137. Cf. Gen. 4.26, with cross-references, alternative translation, etc.]

[Footnote 15: line 1150. I follow Grein in supplying _wintra_ to complete a metrically imperfect line.]

[Footnote 16: line 1199. A hemistich seems to be missing here, metrically; and surely the sense requires the interpolation of several lines, to record the birth of Methuselah in Enoch's 65th year. Cf. Gen.

5.21.]

[Footnote 17: line 1211. We may restore the last word of this line, _fan_ in the MS., either as tautological _frean_, with Dietrich, or as tautological _feran_, with Grein.]

[Footnote 18: line 1405. I follow Dietrich in reading _edniowe = self-renewing_, for the meaningless _edmonne_ in the MS.]

[Footnote 19: line 1492. This difficult pa.s.sage may be clarified by reading _rye = strength, copious power_, in place of the meaningless _ridda = third_, in the MS., and at the same time making _rymme_ the object of _haefde_ (reading _rymmas_, if necessary).]

[Footnote 20: line 1549. At least one line is missing, in the MS. here.

I have healed the breach by altering the case of _waerfaest metod_, in preference to supplying conjectural material.]

[Footnote 21: line 1628a. The difficulty here may be obviated, with slight emendation, by letting _Faederne_ modify _yrfestole_, and changing _breer_, as a genitive plural, to _brora_.]

[Footnote 22: ll. 1852b-1853. I follow Dietrich, who seems to me to make the best of this bad business.]

[Footnote 23: line 1862b. _Haegstealdra wyn_ refers to Pharaoh, of course.]

[Footnote 24: line 1929a. A hemistich is missing here, in the MS., and a verb must be supplied; I adopt Grein's suggestion, _laedde_.]

[Footnote 25: line 1956b. The alliteration is defective, unless a word be supplied; but the sense may be preserved, without emendation, by construing _aefter_ with _sped_.]

[Footnote 26: line 2047a. Metrically, a hemistich seems to be missing.]

[Footnote 27: line 2055a. Metrically, a word or two seem to be missing.]

[Footnote 28: line 2148b. Metrically, a hemistich seems to be missing.]

[Footnote 29: line 2234b. _Larum_ here seems to be tautological, perhaps a scribal error. It might be taken with _bryde_, in an absolute construction: _after the example_, or _in the manner, of a bride_. The reading _lastum_ is supported by line 2715a.]

[Footnote 30: line 2275b. I take _witodes_ here as equivalent to _wyrdes_: cf. Sievers' "OE. Grammar," ed. A.S. Cook, 1903, 269, N. 5.]

[Footnote 31: line 2379. Grein remarks that a page is missing here from the MS.]

[Footnote 32: line 2400b. I read here _maegn_ for _maeg_;--cf. line 2494b.

Or, retaining _maeg_, the line might be translated: "The Father of Light Himself was" etc. Cf. Gen. 18.1, 16.]

[Footnote 33: line 2439b. Defective metre and sense, owing to the loss of a hemistich, but the sense is complete. Grein's suggestion, _feoll on foldan_, adds nothing to the following _hnah_.]

[Footnote 34: line 2510. A pa.s.sage is missing here in the MS. Cf.

2568b-2569a; and the x.x.xVII at 2574, after the x.x.xV at 2417.]

[Footnote 35: lines 2597, 2598, 2601b-2602a. There are several lacunae here, in the MS.]

[Footnote 36: line 2628b. Some words are evidently missing here. In the brackets I give the emendation supported by most scholars.]

[Footnote 37: line 2695b. I follow most of the editors in taking _hyrde_ as _family_ and _frean_ as an appositive with _faeder_.]

[Footnote 38: line 2747b. Whatever the precise form of emendation to be adopted, this is certainly the sense of the word and pa.s.sage.]

[Footnote 39: line 2805. A pa.s.sage is missing here, in the MS.]

[Footnote 40: line 2810b. A hemistich is missing here, metrically.]

[Footnote 41: line 2899a. This word (_stowe_) is Dietrich's obviously correct emendation.]

[Footnote 42: line 2934a. Grein's emendation, _saela_ = _prosperity_, helps the metre but not the sense. I do not adopt it.]

[Footnote 43: line 2935. In the MS., _Genesis_ ends here and _Exodus_ follows at once; as 28 Chapters of the Biblical Genesis are pa.s.sed over, it seems probable that several pages in the MS. of the poem have been lost or were not transcribed.]