Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/259

 The Functions of Old English Geweorfian 253 potentiality seem to have been favorable to the employment of the fuller forms. Thus we find, e.g., pa hrafie after dam wordum. . . nas an brehtmhwil to 'Son, pest se cniht beforan eallum pam bro*6rum geweardfrom deofle on gefaren, Dial. Greg. 242.28; (hu ic) modor geweard. . . Meotudes suna, Crist 93, 210; ic smeage ymbe pe, Drihten, for pam pu gewurde min help end, Rule of Chrodegang 26.17; seo stow gewearp swipe mare ond giet to dage is, Oros. 120.20; ond swa gewurdon. . . sofie martyras, Dial. Greg. 232.2; ond eft semninga swige gewyrfied, El. 1274; gif. . . wif hi. . . forlicge. . ., geweorfie heo to woruldsceame syfifian hyre sylfre, Cnut Laws II 53; cw eft pat pas stanas to hlafe gewurdon, Mat. 4.3; sege pisum stane pat he to hlafe gewurfie, Luke 4.3; se deofol. . . atbryt pat word of hyra heortan, pat hig purh pone geleafan hale ne gewurfiafi, Luke 8.12 ( = ne credentes salvi fiant) ; in 3tsse giberhtnad is fader min patte. . . ge giworfias mine degnas, Rush. John 15.8 (WS.: beon); 9 ac gewurfie he swa swa gingra. . . beo he. . . Luke 22.26; ic eom. . . yldra ponne. . . middangeard meahte geweorpan, Rid. 41.42. From certain other cases, such as wenafi we hwaper pes afiele wer ar anigne lareow hafde, se pe after pan pus manigra manna lareow gewearfi? Dial. Greg. 12.21 ; pat to frofre gewearfi eallum eorfiwarum, Crist 722; se to frofre gewearfi foldbuendum, Gr.-Wii. II 246.22; swa hwa swa wille betwix eow mare geweorfian, Rush. Mat. 20.26 (WS.: beon), we are furthermore justified, perhaps, in inferring that the ge- form was preferred when the reference was not to individual instances, but to an entire group, so as to approach a statement of a generic character. 5. This appears still more clearly in the well established use of geweordan in the sense of 'come to pass,' 'happen,' when construed impersonally, either without subject or with the formal subject pat, hit. The underlying principle may well be expressed in Paul's words (Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 306): "Die Partikel ge- . . . tritt ein, wo der Satz Ausdruck eines allgemeinen Gedankens, nicht einer bestimmten Tatsache ist." Thus, e.g., gif pe afre gewyrd, pat. . ., Boeth. 105.24; geweard, dat, Cur. Past. 111.25; geweard, patte. . ., Oros. 9 For the encroaching on the domain of weordan by the substantive verb, see P. Fijn van Draat, Engl. St. xxxi, 375 ff.