the labor of verifying them was naturally great. To many passages in the
Glossary, where Heyne's translation could not be trusted with entire
certainty, the editors have added other translations of phrases and
sentences or of special words; and in this they have been aided by a
careful study of the text and a comparison and utilization of the views of
Kemble and Professor J.M. Garnett (who takes Grein for his foundation).
Many new references have been added; and the various passages in which
Heyne fails to indicate whether a given verb is weak or strong, or fails to
point out the number, etc., of the illustrative form, have been corrected
and made to harmonize with the general plan of the work. Numerous misprints
in the glossary have also been corrected, and a brief glossary to the
Finnsburh-fragment, prepared by Dr. Wm. Hand Browne, and supplemented and
adapted by the editor-in-chief, has been added.

The editors think that they may without immodesty put forth for themselves
something more than the claim of being re-translators of a translation: the
present 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.