Note † — II. THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURH:
Reading edition
l. 770. MS. reads cerwen, a word conceived by B. and others to be part of a fem. compd.: -scerwen like -wenden in ed-wenden, -rǣden, etc. (cf. meodu-scerpen in Andreas, l. 1528); emended to -scerwen, a great scare under the figure of a mishap at a drinking-bout; one might compare bescerwan, to deprive, from bescyrian (Grein, i. 93), hence ealu-scerwen would = a sudden taking away, deprivation, of the beer.—H.-So., p. 93. See B., Tidskr. viii. 292.