Rune Poems - House of Dubhros

Finn 69
shatter the horned helm. The castle floor reechoed,
till in
the fray fell Garulf, son of Guthlaf, first of dwellers upon
earth, and many a gallant warrior about him; The
raven hovered dismal with its dusky plumage; the gleam of
swords flashed forth as though all Finn's castle were aflame.
Never have I heard of sixty warriors flushed with victory
who bore themselves more gallantly nor more honourably
in mortal conflict, nor squires who paid a better recompense
for shining mead than did his retinue to Hnaef. Five days
they fought in such a wise that no man fell out of that
knightly band ; but still they held the door.
Then departed a wounded hero limping from the fray;
he said that his mailcoat, armour of proof, was shattered and
pierced likewise was his helm. Him straightway asked the
keeper of the host how those warriors survived their wounds,
or which of the heroes
non-Germanic, Mycenaean, Macedonian, Celtic, instances, cf. Daremberg-
Saglio, ii. 1438 ff., s.v. galea.
36. Hickes' hwearflacra hraer is corrupt, and none of the many
emendations (Grundtvig, hwearflicra hrsew ; Bugge, P.B.B. xii. 27: hwearf
[f~\lacra hreew) are at all convincing.
Those editors who see a verb in hraer
are perhaps nearer the mark (Jellinek, P.B.B. xv. 431, hwearf laffra
hreas) ; and Holthausen's hwearf [b]lacra hreas, " a company of pale ones
fell," is supported by Beowulf, v. 2488, hreas [hilde]blac.
38. Hickes, Finnsburuh, an impossible form in AS.
41. Grein (Beowulf, p. 76) emends Hickes to ne nmfre swanas Bwetne
medo sel forgyldan. Swanas is obviously correct; but since the metre is
corrupt again, there is no point in altering hwitne.
44. duru: probably Hickes misread u for a in the MS., as in v. 3 eastun,
v. 27 weuna.
47. heresceorpum hror. Thorpe emends to heresceorp unhror, "his
armour useless," though it is doubtful whether unhror can bear this
meaning; cf. however, Chambers, Beowulf, p. 162. But the MS. reading
can be translated "strong as armour" (Bosworth-Toller).
48. f dices hyrde: Finn; cf. the common Homeric expression
\auv, " shepherd of the host," applied especially to Agamemnon.