107, 1262) derives all the demons,
eotens, elves, and
dreadful
sea-beasts from the race of Cain.
Beowulf
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).... The other point
is the belief in immortality (ll. 1202, 1761)."--Br. 71.
l. 100. Cf. l. 2211, where the third dragon of the poem is introduced in
the same words. Beowulf is the forerunner of that other national
dragon-slayer, St.
