The original MS. of this fragment has vanished, but a copy had been made and printed by Hickes in his _Thesaurus Linguarum Septentrionalium_, i. 192. The original was written on a single sheet attached to a codex of homilies in the Lambeth Library. Möller, _Alteng. Epos_, p. 65, places the fragment in the Finn episode, between ll. 1146 and 1147. Bugge (_Beit._ xii. 20) makes it illustrate the conflict in which Hnæf fell, _i.e._ as described in _Bēowulf_ as antecedent to the events there given. Heinzel (_Anzeiger f. d. Altert._), however, calls attention to the fact that Hengest in the fragment is called cyning, whereas in _Bēowulf_, l. 1086, he is called þegn. See H.-So., p. 125. "The _Fight at Finnsburg_ and the lays from which our _Bēowulf_ was composed were, as it seems to me, sung among the English who dwelt in the north of Denmark and the south of Sweden, and whose tribal name was the Jutes or Goths."--Br., p. 101. l. 1. R. supposes [hor]nas, and conjectures such an introductory conversation as follows: "Is it dawning in the east, or is a fiery dragon flying about, or are the turrets of some castle burning?" questions which the king negatives in the same order. Then comes the positive declaration, "rather they are warriors marching whose armor gleams in the moonlight." --_Alt- und Angels. Lesebuch_, 1861. Heinzel and B. conjecture, [beorhtor hor]nas byrnað nǣfre. So. G.--_Beit._ xii. 22; _Anzeiger f. d. Altert._ x. 229. l. 5. B. conjectures fugelas to mean _arrows_, and supplies: ac hēr forð berað [fyrdsearu rincas, flacre flānbogan], fugelas singað. He compares Saxo, p. 95, _cristatis galeis hastisque sonantibus instant_, as explanatory of l. 6.--_Beit._ xii. 22. But see Brooke, _Early Eng. Literature_, who supposes fugelas = _raven_ and _eagle_, while grǣg-hama is = _wulf_ (the "grey-coated one"), the ordinary accompaniers of battle. l. 11. hicgeað, etc.: cf. _Maldon_, l. 5; _Exod._ l. 218. l. 15. Cf. B. (_Beit._ xii. 25), etc., and Saxo, p. 101, for l. 13. ll. 18-21. H.-So. remarks: "If, according to Möller and Bugge, Gārulf is one of the attackers, one of Finn's men, this does not harmonize with his character as Gūðlāf's son (l. 33), who (l. 16, and _Bēowulf_, l. 1149) is a Dane, therefore one of Finn's antagonists." B. (_Beit._ xii. 25) conjectures: þā gȳt Gūðdene Gārulf styrode, þæt hē swā frēolīc feorh forman sīðe tō þǣre healle durum hyrsta ne bǣre, nū hīe nīða heard ānyman wolde; in which Gūðdene is the same as Sigeferð, l. 24; hē (l. 22) refers to Gārulf; and hīe (l. 21) to hyrsta. l. 27. swæðer = _either_ (bad or good, life or death).--H.-So. l. 29. cēlod: meaning doubtful; cf. _Maldon_, l. 283. G. renders "curved board"; Sw. suggests "round"? "hollow"? l. 30. B. suggests bār-helm, = _boar-helm._ Cf. Saxo, p. 96.--_Beit._ xii. 26.