342 Beowulf and Widsith 



steeds.^ Now, whatever 'fallow' may precisely mean, it must 

 denote a light color, rather than a dark. The A'^. E. D. defines 

 it, 'of a pale brownish or reddish yellow color' ; this, in the case 

 of horses, would suggest sorrel, or chestnut, rather than bay. 

 White and sorrel horses, then, were in the poet's mind as he wrote. 

 Virgil explicitly stamps both of these sorts as inferior in G. 3. 

 82-3, thovigh in Aen. 12. 84, under the influence of Homer (//. 

 10. 437), he seems to retract, at least for the moment, so far as 

 white horses are concerned. Homer is no less clear in his admira- 

 tion of sorrels or chestnuts, if we may thus translate the (^olvi^ 

 of //. 23. 454,^ and the ^av6a, ^av6d<; of //. 9. 407 ; 11. 680.-'^ In the 

 first of these, Diomedes is unexpectedly winning in the chariot- 

 race, and all is excitement ; the chief of the Cretans hears a shout 

 afar ofif, and then becomes 'aware of a horse showing plainly in 

 the front, a chestnut (Seymour, sorrel) all the rest of him, but 

 in the forehead marked with a star.' A few moments later, Dio- 

 medes 'drew up in the mid concourse, and much sweat poured from 

 the horses' heads and chests to the ground,' while 'Diomedes leapt 

 to earth from the shining car, and leant his lash against the yoke.' 

 It follows that if the poet of Beozvidf was influenced by either 

 ancient in this point, it was by Homer'' rather than Virgil. 



For nearly three hundred years, Old English poetry from time 

 to time represented the march of armies and the slaughter of bat- 

 tle-fields as attended by the jubilant cries of wolf, raven, and 

 eagle. In no fewer than six poems, exclusive of the Beoiviilf, 

 we find such passages — in the Genesis (1983-5), Exodus (161 fif.), 

 Elene (27-30, 52-3, 110-3), Judith (205-212, 296-7), Brunanhurh 

 (60-65), ^^'^'^ Byrhtnoth (106-7), the last bearing the date of 991. 

 These vigorous descriptions suggest at once the excitement and 

 the horror of war, in this respect far outclassing the Homeric 

 lines which merely refer to becoming the spoil and prey of dogs, 



equus albus into 'fleet horse' (e. g. in Horace, Sat. i. 7. 8, where see Rolfe's 

 note), possibly from association with //. 10. 437, through Acn. 12. 84. 



^ For Cosijn's emendation of fcahve to feahvum in 916, see Chambers' note 

 on the line. 



^As Seymour docs (Life in the Homeric Ai^c, p. 352), Lang, Leaf, and 

 Myers, and Bryant. 



' As by Lang, Leaf, and Myers. 



* For Bede's knowledge of Greek, see Plummcr i. liv; cf. Chambers, 

 Bcoivulf, 1921, p. 329. 



