17. #Swa summ#, so as, just as if: #summ# is OEScand. sum: more usually
the phrase means, just as, 112/27, 113/47, 55. Variants are ‘all swa
summ,’ O. Introd. 43; ‘all all swa summ,’ 114/76; ‘all all swa se,’ O.
Dedication, 281. #fode#: the ass represents the Gentiles, of whom Bede
says, ‘plurimi . . . coelestibus eius (= Christi) quaerebant alimoniis
ad perpetuam crescere salutem,’ vii. 300.