Note 1 — PART I
Reading edition
‘The rings’ of their corselets.
2. Instead of ältere, for the sake of the alliteration.
3. The translator here assumes (unnecessarily) that there is a gap in the text, with loss of a speech by Hildebrand.
4. ‘Friendless,’ i.e. separated from his kin. Hadubrand is giving reasons for thinking that his father is dead.
5. ‘Imperial gold’ from Constantinople.
6. Hadubrand suspects treachery and poises his spear.
7. Inserted by the translator for the alliteration’s sake.
8. The earth-encircling sea—oceanus; here the Mediterranean.
9. The supposition is that Hildebrand’s speech is missing, and that lines 47-50 form part of a reply by Hadubrand, ending with a taunt so bitter that the old warrior could not brook it even from his own son. He sees that he must fight.
10. East Goths.
11. A guess of the translator; the meaning of the original being quite uncertain.