Chapter 6
[Footnote 2: Aside from necessary omissions made for _Genesis B_, the Sections are numbered consecutively in this translation (regardless of vagaries in the original MS. numbering), on the assumption that each illuminated capital in the MS. was intended to indicate the beginning of a new Section. After the excision of _Genesis B_, the numbering has been resumed with X instead of XV, because the XIII at line 440 in the MS. must really represent VIII.--Cf. Note 8, page 59, inf. (page 199, inf.)]
[Footnote 3: ll. 39b-41a. _Wræcna_, gen. pl. with _bidan_, = _outcasts_; I take _weardas_ as in apposition with it (the acc. being either a scribal error or an anacoluthon), and then translate _wræcna_ as an adjective for the sake of idiomatic fluency. For _gasta weardas_ as an epithet for angels, though then unfallen, cf. line 12a, sup.--The passage has given scholars much trouble and is unsatisfactory, at best.]
[Footnote 4: line 63b. I take æðele as a form of æðelu = nobilitas, principatus, natales, origo, genus, etc. Grein's _Sprachschatz_, 1.52.]
[Footnote 5: line 168a. Three pages seem to be missing in the MS. Doubtless the remaining events of the third day, with those of the fourth, fifth, and perhaps first part of the sixth, days, including the creation of man, (i.e., apparently the contents of Gen. 1.11-2.17, incl.) were retold in these pages.]
[Footnote 6: line 186b. This line is apparently imperfect, metrically, for the second hemistich seems to be wanting. As the sense is complete, without emendation, I have not followed the various scholars who would insert after "Adam's bride" some such clause as, "Whom God named Eve."]
[Footnote 7: ll. 221-224a. The text here is corrupt and scholars differ widely in their conjectural emendations and interpretations. Since none of their versions is satisfactory or convincing, I venture upon an independent reading. _Hebeleac_, of course, is the Scriptural Havilah (Gen. 2.11); _Fison_ is obviously Pison, and _Geon_, 230b inf., is Gihon.]
[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 substituting 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 passage may be clarified by reading _ðryðe = strength, copious power_, in place of the meaningless _ðridda = third_, in the MS., and at the same time making _þrymme_ the object of _hæfde_ (reading _þrymmas_, 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 _wærfæst metod_, in preference to supplying conjectural material.]
[Footnote 21: line 1628a. The difficulty here may be obviated, with slight emendation, by letting _Fæderne_ modify _yrfestole_, and changing _breðer_, as a genitive plural, to _broðra_.]
[Footnote 22: ll. 1852b-1853. I follow Dietrich, who seems to me to make the best of this bad business.]
[Footnote 23: line 1862b. _Hægstealdra 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, _lædde_.]
[Footnote 25: line 1956b. The alliteration is defective, unless a word be supplied; but the sense may be preserved, without emendation, by construing _æfter_ 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 _mægn_ for _mæg_;--cf. line 2494b. Or, retaining _mæg_, 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 passage is missing here in the MS. Cf. 2568b-2569a; and the XXXVII at 2574, after the XXXV 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 _fæder_.]
[Footnote 38: line 2747b. Whatever the precise form of emendation to be adopted, this is certainly the sense of the word and passage.]
[Footnote 39: line 2805. A passage 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, _sælða_ = _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 passed over, it seems probable that several pages in the MS. of the poem have been lost or were not transcribed.]