No More Learning

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 entirely recasting the plates.

In conclusion, the editors would acknowledge their great indebtedness to
the friends and critics whose remarks and criticisms have materially aided
in the correction of the text,-particularly to Profs. C. P. G. Scott,
Baskervill, Price, and J. M. Hart; to Prof. J. W.
Bright; and to the
authorities of Cornell University, for the loan of periodicals necessary to
the completeness of the revision. While the second revised edition still
contains much that might be improved, the editors cannot but hope that it
is an advance on its predecessor, and that it will continue its work of
extending the study of Old English throughout the land.

JUNE, 1885.


NOTE I.

The present work, carefully edited from Heyne's fourth edition, (Paderborn,
1879), is designed primarily for college classes in Anglo-Saxon, rather
than for independent investigators or for seekers after a restored or ideal
text. The need of an American edition of "Bēowulf" has long been felt, as,
hitherto, students have had either to send to Germany for a text, or
secure, with great trouble, one of the scarce and expensive English
editions. Heyne's first edition came out in 1863, and was followed in 1867
and 1873 by a second and a third edition, all three having essentially the
same text.

So many important contributions to the "Bēowulf" literature were, however,
made between 1873 and 1879 that Heyne found it necessary to put forth a new
edition (1879). In this new, last edition, the text was subjected to a
careful revision, and was fortified by the views, contributions, and
criticisms of other zealous scholars. In it the collation of the unique
"Bēowulf" Ms. (Vitellius A. 15: Cottonian Mss. of the British Museum), as
made by E. Kölbing in Herrig's Archiv (Bd. 56; 1876), was followed wherever
the present condition of the Ms. had to be discussed; and the researches of
Bugge, Bieger, and others, on single passages, were made use of.