There is a suspicious similarity between this passage and the
lines
attributed
by Bede to Cǣdmon:
Nū wē sculan herian heofonrices Weard, etc.
Beowulf
, a so-called _dvanda_ compound.
Cf. l. 1164, where a similar compound means _uncle and nephew;_ and
Wīdsīð's suhtorfǣdran, used of the same persons.
l. 88. "The word drēam conveys the buzz and hum of social happiness, and
more particularly the sound of music and singing."--E. Cf. l. 3021; and
_Judith_, l. 350; _Wanderer_, l. 79, etc.
ll. 90-99.
There is a suspicious similarity between this passage and the
lines
attributed
by Bede to Cǣdmon:
Nū wē sculan herian heofonrices Weard, etc.
--Sw., p. 47.
ll. 90-98 are probably the interpolation of a Christian scribe.
ll. 92-97. "The first of these Christian elements [in _Bēowulf_] is the
sense of a fairer, softer world than that in which the Northern warriors
lived.... Another Christian passage (ll. 107, 1262) derives all the demons,
eotens, elves, and dreadful sea-beasts from the race of Cain. The folly of
sacrificing to the heathen gods is spoken of (l. 175).
