Footnote # 50 It becomes obvious, after a review of the various editions and works containing it, that lines 2930

of the Finnesburg fragment have not survived transmission with their original concept intact. Two words in this section are in fact highly charged with meaning. Such kennings were valuable poetic devices only as long as they remained understood; when knowledge of the context faded, confusion by subsequent scribes and readers resulted. The first lost kenning in the line is cels bord, usually emended to cellod bord; cels being considered by most scholars as inexplicable.1 Now that we are aware of the Coilsfield debacle, the identification of Coilus with the Latin name Caelus (spelled in O.E. Cels) can be made; not only shield is to be understood here, 2 but his loyal bodyguard as well. Tolkien, in the same section, correctly notes that parallel to, or an expressive equivalent of, Cels bord is the unique word banhelm. This kenning does not mean a helmet with horns or bone helmet as is regularly translated. We have forgotten that the word helm, when used as a termination, denotes defence; as in Sighelm, meaning victorious defence. But there is more; it could also be a cunning play on words, not so much a last stand but a hill of bones. It is a powerful description;3 the inevitable result of a tragic defensive action, from which there are no survivors, the poetic opposite of a sighelm. It might even have the broader sense of doom or fate. The misunderstanding of these two words has led to other small errors that will be corrected below. Da ws on healle wlslihta gehlyn sceolde Celsbord (c)enum4 on handa banhelm ber stan(da)5 Then was in hall, deadly strokes noise (on) shields, Caelus guards, splintered in hand doom borne standing

Then in the hall was the sound of deadly blows on shields, (and) Like the retainers of Caelus, who with split shields in their hands, stood firm unto their death. As properly reconstructed and understood, the passage fits perfectly into the context of the Finnesburg fragment narrative. Garulf son of Guthulf and a party of retainers initiate the fighting by breaching the defended hall, only to be slain to a man inside it. The poet wants us to know that Garulf perished, surrounded by the bodies of his brave men, just like how Caelus and his shield-men died at Coilsfield. However brief this section is, certain observations can be made. The original language of the fragment was of a dialect older than the West Saxon used by the scribe. This implies in turn a venerable date for the poems composition, slightly subsequent to the events in question, but definitely within living memory. Also, the use of the Coilsfield lines to embroider and embellish the story, leads one to suspect that the information they contain is current, the events described in the fragment being from a time prior to these fresh kennings.

See; J. R. R. Tolkien, Finn and Hengest: The Fragment and the Episode, ed. By Alan J. Bliss, Houghton Mifflin 1983, p. 88. 2 See; Finn and Hengest p. 88, Fairly clearly we have here a corrupt (or forgotten) epithet applicable to a shield. 3 Note the following poetic cognate ravens circled round, reinforcing the post -battle hill of bones imagery. 4 This emendation is correct, the word coming from cinu fissure, not Hickes genumon. 5 Berstan is an understandable scribal error of spacing; once rectified, it renders the whole line comprehensible.