Page:Runic and heroic poems of the old Teutonic peoples.djvu/38

 ᚫ Æsc biþ oferheah, eldum dyre stiþ on staþule, stede rihte hylt, ðeah him feohtan on firas monige.

ᚣ Yr byþ æþelinga and eorla gehwæs wyn and wyrþmynd, byþ on wicge fæger, fæstlic on færelde, fyrdgeatewa sum.

ᛡ Iar byþ eafix and ðeah a bruceþ fodres on foldan, hafaþ fægerne eard wætre beworpen, ðær he wynnum leofaþ.

ᛠ Ear byþ egle eorla gehwylcun, ðonn[e] fæstlice flæsc onginneþ, hraw colian, hrusan ceosan blac to gebeddan; bleda gedreosaþ, wynna gewitaþ, wera geswicaþ.

86. H. fyrdgeacewa. 87. H. eqfixa. 88. H. onfaldan. 91. fonn. At the end of Hickes' transcript there stand four runes to which no verses are attached, cw, cweorS '; c [coZc]; st, stan; g, gar. Two of these Runic letters, calc and gar, are found on the Buthwell Gross in the value of guttural c and g. 81. JSsc, identical in form with A (*amuz), the fourth letter of the older alphabet, since in the majority of cases original a became & in AS. 84. Yr (Salzb. yr). The Kunic passages in Cynewulf give no assistance and the meaning is much disputed. The new edition of Grein's Sprachschatz translates "horn," I know not upon what evidence unless it be the parallel phraseology of Biddle xv. Others have identified it with the ON. fir, "bow," cf. p. 32; but this corresponds to AS. eoh, p. 16. Is it possible to connect AS. yr with the word sexe-yre in the Chronicle 1012 E, translated by Plummer "axe-head," "axe-iron"? We might compare Yr er. . .brotgjarnt jam in the Icelandic poem, p. 32. 87. Hickes, lar (io) biff eafixa, and ffeah abrucep. Following Dom. A. ix. and Galba A. n., W. Grimm emends to lor. As it stands eafixa is a Gen. pi. with nothing on which to depend, and the addition of sum (Grein) would render the verse unmetrical. The final a of eafixa should therefore be deleted (Bieger). abrucef) Grimm, a brucej>, "always enjoys."

This letter is not in the Salzburg Codex. No such word as iar, ior exists; but the description here given is plainly that of some amphibious creature, usually taken as the eel (Grimm), though it might equally well be a lizard or newt (afexe, efe.te). It is worth remarking that the letter is used in a number of Scandinavian inscriptions from the seventh century onwards, e.g. Bjorketorp, Stentofte, Gommor (Blekinge) and Vatn (Norway), seventh cent.; Kallerup, Snoldelev, Flemlose (Denmark) and Orja (Skaane), early ninth cent., as a form of the letter dr (a). The original value of this was j; moreover it occurs in two English inscriptions: Dover, GISLHEABD; Thornhill HI, GILSUITH, with the value of palatal g, since palatal g and original j had fallen together at an early date in AS.