Beówulf

edition is, so far as they were able to make it so, an adaptation, correction, and extension of the work of the great German scholar to whose loving appreciation of the Anglo-Saxon epic all students of Old English owe a debt of gratitude. While following his usually sure and cautious guidance, and in the main appropriating his results, they have thought it best to deviate from him in the manner above indicated, whenever it seemed that he was wrong. The careful reader will notice at once the marks of interrogation which point out these deviations, or which introduce a point of view illustrative of, or supplementary to, the one given by the German editor. No doubt the editors are wrong themselves in many
places,--"Beówulf" is a most difficult poem,--but their view may at least be defended by a reference to the original text, which they have faithfully and constantly consulted.

A good many cognate Modern English words have been introduced here and there in the Glossary with a view to illustrat