Note † — II. THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURH:
Reading edition
ll. 2570, 2571. (1) May not gescīfe (MS. to gscipe) = German schief, "crooked," "bent," "aslant," and hence be a parallel to gebogen, bent, coiled? cf. l. 2568, þā se wyrm gebēah snūde tōsomne, and l. 2828. Coiled serpents spring more powerfully for the coiling. (2) Or perhaps destroy comma after tō and read gescæpe, = his fate; cf. l. 26: him þā Scyld gewāt tō gescæp-hwīle. G. appar. adopts this reading, p. 78.