ABSTRACT

To replace the alliteration, Kemble put geard in front of eþel; but what is geard-eþel? One would be more likely to say eþel-geard, like eþel land (OHG uodal lant, from which our Uhland [poet and mythographer, 1787-1862] takes his name). He translated: ‘in wisdom he held his native inheritance, whence (he) the sad (warrior) sprang for the assistance of men, he the kinsman of Hemming, the nephew of Garmund, mighty in warfare’. In the same way Ettmüller says: ‘he ruled his native land in wisdom. From this the strong one arose to the help of heroes, Hemming’s kinsman, the nephew of Garmund, the one strong in battle.’ Grundtvig understood the passage in another way: ‘He ruled his native land and kingdom wisely from his father’s seat, but Hemming’s son must yield place with sorrow at heart, yes, Garmund’s relative, a gift to the people, escaped from his inheritance and native soil.’ A lucky glance disclosed to me what it had been denied to men of such perception to find, and I saw in an error of the scribe a hero of antiquity-in geomor Eomær! [An editorial note remarks that the reading had already been taken into Thorpe’s edition of 1855.]

Now the alliteration is established and light thrown on the sense:

wisdome heold eþel sinne þonon Eomær woc hæleþum to helpe Heminges mæg, nefa Wæmundes niþa cræftig

he (Offa) held with wisdom his inheritance. From there sprang Eomær, as help to heroes, kinsman of Heming, Wærmund’s nephew, skilled and cunning in war.