The East Riding and Beozvulf 335 



as an accusative. With regard to the latter, it is difficult to under- 

 stand how 'to a subterranean place' can signify 'down a preci- 

 pice/ which the context seems to require, unless the dative is 

 accepted. 



Whether or not the horse-racing described by Bede (Eccl. Hist. 

 5. 6), which well illustrates Beozv. 864-7, 916-7, took place near 

 Beverley, as has been supposed,^ is a matter of conjecture; but at 

 least the hero of the incident was a Yorkshireman,^ and York- 

 shire has long had a reputation both for horses and horse-racing.^ 



VII. ALDHELM AND BEOWULF 



If Aldhelm, through Aldfrith or otherwise, exerted any influ- 

 ence upon the production of Beozvulf, it would probably have been 

 twofold in its nature — in advocating that the poet should make 

 good use of such classic models as were accessible to him, and in 

 setting him an example, as the greatest living master of English 

 verse.* As to the first, Manitius has filled a dozen pages with 



^ Cf. Norway, pp. 74 ff. 



' Cf . p. 326. ' 



' Cf. Rice, History of the British Turf 2. 24: 'Yorkshire may be regarded, 

 if not as the birthplace of the national sport, yet as the soil upon which 

 horseracing has thriven best. There is no district in the w^orld where the 

 horse is more beloved for his own sake than he is in Yorkshire ; there 

 are no people so strongly imbued with a love of the "sport of kings" as the 

 natives of the wide country of York.' Cf . Kinglake, Eothcn, chap. 4 : 'My 

 comrade was a capital Grecian ; it is true that his singular mind so ordered 

 and disposed his classic lore as to impress it with something of an original 

 and barbarous character. . . . But Methley [Savile, Lord Pollington, and 

 afterward Earl of Mexborough, with his seat at Methley, near Leeds], 

 abounding in Homer, really loved him. . . . Moreover, he had a good deal 

 of the practical sagacity 



Of a Yorkshireman hippodamoio' 

 [cf. //. 5. 415, etc.]. Of two superior horses in this province we learn from 

 Bede {Bed. Hist. 2. 12,; 3. 14). 



■* King Alfred declared that he knew of no one who was Aldhelm's equal 

 in English poetry, according to Wm. Malm., Gest. Pont., p. 336 : 'Litteris 

 itaque ad plenum instructus, nativas quoque linguje non negligebat carmina ; 

 adeo ut teste libro Elfredi de quo superius dixi, nulla umquam jetate par ei 

 fuerit quisquam,' the substance of which has been thus rendered by Monta- 

 lembert (4. 219) : 'These songs in the vernacular tongue retained their 

 popularity for several centuries, and gained for Aldhelm the honor of being 



