Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/260

 254 Klaeber 98.30, etc.; nafre gewurpe, pat. . ., Par. Ps. 108.7; ne sec flu purh hlytas hu fie geweorfian scyle, Apothegms 32; hu wolde pat geweorfian on woruldrice, /pat. . ., El. 456; hit geweorfiep, pat, Dial. Greg. 6.14; call forewat, hu hit geweorftan sceall ar ar hit geweorfie, Boeth. 128.17. Similarly, we find geweorfian, 'come into being,' 'arise/ employed in references to the creation of the world: ofi past peos woruldgesceaft / purh word gewearfi wuldorcyninges, Gen. 110, or to certain acts of the creation: geweorfie leoht, /Elfr. Gen. 1.3, gewurfie fastnes, ib. 1.6. Naturally, geweorfian was also regarded as a suitable means of accentuating the resultative function: 'be fulfilled.' Thus, gewurpe pin willa, Mat. 6.10, (however, Rush.: weorfie); so Gr.-Wii.II 233,35, ^Elfr. Horn. I 264.17, Wulfst. 125.10; 11 gewyrVe pat, lud. Dei (Liebermann, Ags. Laws) vii, 24. 6. On the other hand, weorfian 'happen,' 'arise,' is the standard form in statements of an individual character (or 'concrete clauses' 12 ): hream weard in Heorote, Beow. 1302; wundor weard on wege, Rid. 69 (68). 3; gif banes bite weorfi, ^Edelb. Laws 35; after pam wearp swa micel moncwealm on Rome, Oros. 217.33; par wearp micel gefeoht, OE. Chron. A.D. 800; par nan hefelic gefeoht ne wearp, ib. 868; pa wearfi mycel hunger on pam rice, Luke 15.14; etc. At the same time, it is easy to see that the competition of geweorfian in this field would gather increasing strength, the more nearly a statement was considered to be of universal appli- cation. It is also to be recognized that a large number of 'exceptions' may be accounted for by the factors pointed out above as favorable to the use of the fuller forms. In this way, dependent clauses become especially susceptible to such dis- turbing influences. To mention a few examples, wurdon awende. . . to pam masten swicdome pe afre mihte gewur'dan, OE. Chron. A.D. 1086; ac swylce ping gewurfiap for folces synna, ib.; pa undernam God- wine eorl swyfie, pat on his eorldome sceolde swilc geweorftan, OE. Chron. A.D. 1052 (E); ic sceal. . . para monegena gewinna 10 Thus the punctuation of Grein and Assmann is to be corrected. 11 A^enbite of Inwyt 262 : yworlpe ty wil. 12 According to Paul's definition, Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte, 52.