Am looking at the online Beowulf site, and wonder about "aelfheres" that is translated as a name.
XXXVI
WIGlaf wæs haten, Weoxstanes sunu,
leoflic lindwiga, leod Scylfinga,
mæg Ælfheres.
But it looks like the "ae" is lower case in the manuscript? Are there any other proposed translations than "friend of Aelfhere"?
Clarification: I am wondering if anybody has proposed any other translation than "friend/relative of [unknown person not mentioned anywhere else]."
Names in Old English manuscripts are typically spelled without leading capital. Nothing unusual in that. It's a man's name in genitive case. mæg higelaces "kinsman of Hygelac" occurs a half-dozen times in the poem (though the spelling of Hygelac isn't always exactly the same).
Compare hroþgar here:
Cropped image taken from
https://blogs.bl.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef017d40e0bd66970c-500wi
at https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/02/beowulf-online.html
[P.S. I haven't read through the British Library's Terms and Conditions and would prefer not to copy the page in its entirety here.]
From an MIT anonymous translation in 2003
WIGLAF his name was, Weohstan's son, - Wiglaf wæs haten Weoxstanes sunu,
linden-thane loved, the lord of Scylfings - leoflic lindwiga, leod Scylfinga,
Aelfhere's kinsman………………………………. – mæg Ælfheres
As far as I can see, this is accurate.
See also BEOWULF: diacritically-marked text and facing translation
Edit to add aelf is a variant of ielf/ylf = Mod. Eng. "elf"; here = "army".
However, at the time that Beowulf was written, all such meaning had been removed and it is pointless to translate the name.
The capitalisation is irrelevant - in the day it was more a matter of style than significance.
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s prose translation of Beowulf, those lines he translated this way:
In one alone of them the heart was moved with grief. Kinship may nothing set aside in virtuous mind. Wiglaf was he called, Wihstan’s son, that fair warrior beneath his shield, a lord of Scylfing race of Ælfhere’s line. He saw his liege-lord beneath his vizored helm of war in torment of heat. He remembered then those favours which Beowulf had granted to him, the rich dwelling-place of the Wægmundings, and all the landed rights which his father before had held.
As you see, the original mæg ælfheres became Ælfhere’s line. At no point did Tolkien ever translate ælfhere into anything that was not clearly that same personal name.
For the curious, that particular text can be found on page 89 of the 2014 edition of Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien (posthumous), which was edited and published by his son Christopher. The original translation work was done a century ago sometime over the years 1920–1926.
