Rune Poems - House of Dubhros

FINN
Then cried the king young in war, "It is not dawn
that glows in the east. There is no dragon flying here, nor
are the gables of this hall aflame. But here they are hurry
ing forth. The birds are singing, the grey-coat is howling,
the war-wood is clanging, shield echoing when smitten by
the shaft. Now shines the moon through rifts in the clouds ;
now fearful deeds are afoot that will bring on a pitched battle
here. But wake ye now, my warriors, don your corselets,
think on your prowess, dash to the van, be of good courage."
Schilling, however (M. L. N. i. HGff.) points out that no subject is required
in A.S. where one is perfectly well understood; cf. Pogatscher, Anglia, xxin.
261 ff. Moreover beraff is to be taken as intransitive.
" But here they (the
Frisians) are hurrying forth " ; cf. Elene, v. 45 :
beran ut firtece
rincas under roderum,
and Andreas, v. 1220; also the mod. Eng. use of "bear" in nautical
phrases.
6, 7. There are several ways of taking this passage:
(1) fugelas = " arrows," not elsewhere in A.S., gr&ghama = " mailcoat
"; cf. Beowulf, v. 334, grsege syrcan, Andreas, v. 129, guffsearo gullon,
" The arrows are whistling, the mail-coat is rattling."
(2) fugelas = "birds of carrion," harbingers of slaughter, as often in
A.S. poetry ; gr&ghama = "wolf" ; cf. Exeter Gnomic Verses, 151, wulf se
grtega, Brunanburh, v. 64, etc.
The latter rendering is more in character.
8. pes, idiomatic usage; cf. Exodus, v. 430, J>eoa geomre lyft, etc.
(Klaeber, Archiv f. n. S. cxv. 181).
9. waffol; cf. perhaps MHG. wadel, "wandering," "erratic"; see
Chambers, Beowulf, p. 159.
10. folces niff in the sense of folcgefeoht, folcgewinn.
12. Hickes, habbaff eowre landa, hie geaj> on ellen, emended to habbaff
eowre hlencan, hicgeap on ellen on the analogy of Elene, v. 218: habban
heora hlencan, hycgan on ellen; cf. Bugge, P.B.B. xn. 23.
hicgeap on ellen; cf. Atlamal, XLVI,, hugj>i d harprajri and the Homeric
13.
5t 66vpidos dX/cTjs (Iliad, vi. 112).
windaS on orde; cf. Genesis, v. 417:
p&t he mid fefferhoman fleogan meahte
windan on wolcne.
The initial letter of
customary w of Hickes.
windaff is slightly different in
Hence Bieger (Z.f.d.A.
form from the
XLVIII. 9) and Klaeber
(E. St. xxxix. 428) read J>inda9 = tumescere, " show your temper " ; the
alliteration would then fall on orde, onmode. But cf. v. 27, wreccea (H.
wrecten), where the identical form of w is found and initial J> is out of the
question. Moreover Hickes represents capital p by even where >, the MBS.
have/: cf. Metra of Boethius, iv. 11, 12 ff. in Thesaurus, i. 185 and Grein-
Wiilker, m. 7 ft.
D. R. P. 5