Did Obama murder his brother?! I missed that one in the family scandals...
Btw, which might interest you etymologists: I got my hands on the Saga
of King Hrolf Kraki, an Icelandic poem which seems to be a precursor
to Beowuldf. Some of it includes stories about Bodvar Bjarki - a Geat
- who travels by ship to a Danish court to help rid it of a
night-raiding monster. Bjarki means "little bear" and it appears that
Beowulf might come from Bee-wolf, ie Bear.
xA
On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 1:27 PM, Robin Hamilton
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> Robin,
>>
>> Just curious: where did you get "Hunferth" from? I've never seen it
>> rendered anywhere as anything but "Unferth". Is that how Kiernan spells it?
>> Weird!
>>
>> Candice
>
> Via one of Kiernan's articles, where he points out (alleges?) that in the
> MS, the four occurrences of the name have it *always spelled (once with a
> capital) "Hunferth", but it alliterates on a vowel.
>
> Thus the consistent editorial emmendation to Unferth.
>
> {Who in Wulfy's memorable put-down -- shades of Dubya! -- despite his high
> wit, was damned. Who needs these bleeding East Coast Liberal
> Intellectuals?}
>
> I haven't access to the MS (I suppose I'll have to fork out for The
> Electronic Beowulf at some point) but this doesn't seem to be the sort of
> thing he'd get wrong.
>
> Dunno -- anyone -- Chris? -- have access to the MS or a facsimile to check
> this?
>
> Robin
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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