Beówulf | Page 2

suggested by the editors with all possible diffidence;
numerous corrections have been made in the Glossary and List of Names; and the
valuable parts of former Appendices have been embodied in the Notes.
For the Notes, the editors are much indebted to the various German periodicals
mentioned on page 116, to the recent publications of Professors Earle and J. L. Hall, to
Mr. S. A. Brooke, and to the Heyne-Socin edition of "Beówulf." No change has been
made in the system of accentuation, though a few errors in quantity have been corrected.
The editors are looking forward to an eventual fifth edition, in which an entirely new text
will be presented.
October, 1893.
NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
This third edition of the American issue of Beówulf will, the editors hope, be found more
accurate and useful than either of the preceding editions. Further corrections in text and
glossary have been made, and some additional new readings and suggestions will be
found in two brief appendices at the back of the book. Students of the metrical system of
Beówulf will find ample material for their studies in Sievers' exhaustive essay on that
subject (Beiträge, X. 209-314).
Socin's edition of Heyne's Beówulf (called the fifth edition) has been utilized to some
extent in this edition, though it unfortunately came too late to be freely used. While it

repeats many of the omissions and inaccuracies of Heyne's fourth edition, it contains
much that is valuable to the student, particularly in the notes and commentary. Students
of the poem, which has been subjected to much searching criticism during the last decade,
will also derive especial help from the contributions of Sievers and Kluge on difficult
questions appertaining to it. Wülker's new edition (in the Grein Bibliothek) is of the
highest value, however one may dissent from particular textual views laid down in the
'Berichtigter Text.' Paul and Braune's Beiträge contain a varied miscellany of hints,
corrections, and suggestions principally embodying the views of Kluge, Cosijn, Sievers,
and Bugge, some of the more important of which are found in the appendices to the
present and the preceding edition. Holder and Zupitza, Sarrazin and Hermann Möller
(Kiel, 1883), Heinzel (Anzeiger f.d. Alterthum, X.), Gering (Zacher's Zeitschrift, XII.),
Brenner (Eng. Studien, IX.), and the contributors to Anglia, have assisted materially in
the textual and metrical interpretation of the poem.
The subject of Anglo-Saxon quantity has been discussed in several able essays by Sievers,
Sweet, Ten Brink (Anzeiger, f.d. Alterthum, V.), Kluge (Beiträge, XI.), and others; but so
much is uncertain in this field that the editors have left undisturbed the marking of
vowels found in the text of their original edition, while indicating in the appendices the
now accepted views of scholars on the quantity of the personal pronouns (mê, wê, þû, þê,
gê, hê); the adverb nû, etc. Perhaps it would be best to banish absolutely all attempts at
marking quantities except in cases where the Ms. has them marked.
An approximately complete Bibliography of Beówulf literature will be found in Wülker's
Grundriss and in Garnett's translation of the poem.
JAMES A. HARRISON,
ROBERT SHARP.
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY,
LEXINGTON, VA., May, 1888.
NOTE TO THE SECOND REVISED EDITION.
The editors feel so encouraged at the kind reception accorded their edition of Beówulf
(1883), that, in spite of its many shortcomings, they have determined to prepare a second
revised edition of the book, and thus endeavor to extend its sphere of usefulness. About
twenty errors had, notwithstanding a vigilant proof-reading, crept into the text,--errors in
single letters, accents, and punctuation. These have been corrected, and it is hoped that
the text has been rendered generally accurate and trustworthy. In the List of Names one
or two corrections have been made, and in the Glossary numerous mistakes in gender,
classification, and translation, apparently unavoidable in a first edition, have been
rectified. Wherever these mistakes concern single letters, or occupy very small space,
they have been corrected in the plates; where they are longer, and the expense of
correcting them in the plates would have been very great, the editors have thought it best
to include them in an Appendix of Corrections and Additions, which will be found at the
back of the book. Students are accordingly referred to this Appendix for important longer
corrections and additions. It is believed that the value of the book has been much

enhanced by an Appendix of Recent Readings, based on late criticisms and essays from
the pens of Sievers, Kluge, Cosijn, Holder, Wülker, and Sweet. A perplexed student, in
turning to these suggested readings, will often find great help in unravelling obscure or
corrupt passages.
The objectionable ä and æ, for the short and the long diphthong, have been retained in the
revised edition, owing to the impossibility of removing them without