Note † — II. THE FIGHT AT FINNSBURH:
Reading edition
l. 373. E. remarks of the hyphened eald-fæder, "hyphens are risky toys to play with in fixing texts of pre-hyphenial antiquity"; eald-fæder could only = grandfather. eald here can only mean honored, and the hyphen is unnecessary. Cf. "old fellow," "my old man," etc.; and Ger. alt-vater.