Note 2
XLII. WIGLAF’S SAD STORY.—THE HOARD CARRIED OFF.

The passage ‘Wundur … búan’ (3063-3066), M. took to be a question asking whether it was strange that a man should die when his appointed time had come.—B. sees a corruption, and makes emendations introducing the idea that a brave man should not die from sickness or from old age, but should find death in the performance of some deed of daring.—S. sees an indirect question introduced by ‘hwár’ and dependent upon ‘wundur’: A secret is it when the hero is to die, etc.—Why may the two clauses not be parallel, and the whole passage an Old English cry of ‘How wonderful is death!’?—S.’s is the best yet offered, if ‘wundor’ means ‘mystery.’