409. ‘Continuo summas se tollit caetus ad undas,’ T. #stireð#, moves;
comp. ‘ðis asse is eft of weige stired,’ GE 3961, but stirteð would be
more appropriate; comp. ‘And pharaon stirte up anon,’ GE 2931; ‘Þe
fisches sturten op with þis song,’ South English Legendary, 232/456.
#houeð stille#: comp. ‘Louerd crist, þat swch a best: scholde houi so
stille | And soffri men opon him gon: and don al heore wille,’ id.
230/375.
411. #sipes#: Mätzner suggested siperes, OE. #scipere#, but that does
not apparently occur in ME. and it would be unmetrical, sipmen might be
read, if any change were necessary. #fordriuen#, driven about, so ‘We
beoþ séé-weri men[;] mid wedere al for-dreuen,’ L MS. O, 6205: but OE.
#fordrīfan# means to drive away, banish, drive out of course.
412. There is nothing in the original corresponding to this line: comp.
91/88.
413. #biloken#: Mätzner explains, look around, comparing ‘Brid . . .
biwent him ofte, ⁊ bilokeð him euer ȝeorneliche al abuten,’ AR 132/26,
but the meaning of the verb is there qualified by ‘abuten.’ Here its
natural sense is better, they look to themselves, they consider their
plight.
414. Add ðat after #wenen#: comp. 185/311. ‘Est promontorium cernere non
modicum | Huic religare citam pro tempestate carinam | Nautae festinant
utque foras saliant,’ T.
416. #mid here migt#, striving their hardest: ‘bi his mihte,’ OEH ii.
189/11.
417, 418. These lines probably ran, Sipes on to festen | ⁊ alle up to
gangen. #festen on#, moor.
419, 420. ‘Accendunt vigilem quem navis portitat ignem,’ T.; ‘vigilem,’
ever burning, Virgil, Æn. iv. 200. #wel to brennen# may mean, to light a
good fire, but such absolute use of brennen is without support. For
#wel# read welm, blazing fire: OE. #wielm#, #wylm#; comp. ‘he wolde hine
ifusen[;] to ane bare walme,’ L 22123: the word is common enough in OE.
but rare in ME., and so may have puzzled the copyist, who would find wel
in the next line. The sense is, They all go up on land to light a
blazing fire on this monster by a spark struck out of flint by steel
into tinder.
421. #warmen . . . heten . . . drinken# depend on #gangen#: ‘ut cale se
faciant aut comedenda coquant,’ T.
423. #grunde#: see 188/401. For the whale mistaken for an island, comp.
the South English Legendary, 224/155-176.
426, 427. ‘Viribus est zabulus quasi cetus corpore magnus, | Ut
monstrant magni quos facit ille magi,’ T. #wið#, of, as in ‘mekill of
maine,’ Minot, i. 85.
427. #hauen# gives a fair sense with ‘wil ⁊ magt’ as object, but the
original word was probably taunen (comp. 195/631), rendering
‘monstrant.’
428, 429 are due to a misunderstanding of the original, ‘Mentes
cunctorum qui sunt ubique virorum | Esurit atque sitit, quosque potest
perimit;’ the devil hungers and thirsts for the souls of men and he
destroys all he can.