1 Dēor’s Lament begins as follows:

Wayland learned bitterly      banishment’s way,
earl right resolute;      ills endured;
had for comrades      Care and Longing,
winter-cold wanderings;      woe oft suffered
when Nidhād forged      the fetters on him,
bending bonds      on a better man.
      That he surmounted: so this may I !
Beaduhild mourned      her brothers’ death,
less sore in soul      than herself dismayed
when her plight was plainly      placed before her—
birth of a bairn.      No brave resolve
might she ever make,      what the end should be.
      That she surmounted: so this may I !

F. B. Gummere, The Oldest English Epic (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1929), p. 186. The poem is preserved in a manuscript of the eleventh century, but is manifestly much older.

² Southern (German) origin of the lay (or at least of the legend) has been claimed, but on insufficient evidence.

³ Only the most important emendations have been referred to in the notes.

⁴ “Grim Warrior” [OE. Nidhād’].

⁵ “War-Maiden” [OE. Beaduhild].