This text is currently based on that of The Seafarer, edited by I.L.Gordon, first published in Methuen's Old English Library, London 1960, reprinted 1964, 1966 and 1979; and reissued with a bibliography compiled by Mary Clayton, University of Exeter Press, 1996. At one or two points the ms reading has been preferred to Gordon's emendations. The textual breaks and line numbering of these editions have been retained, but other modern notation, thought to be less helpful than misleading, has been discarded. The text may later be adjusted to conform more closely with the manuscript. The title and Latin subscript, which are not in the ms, are slightly adapted from the truncated text (104 lines) included in Engla and Seaxna Scôpas and Bôceras, edited by Ludwig Ettmüller, published in Quedlinburg and Berlin, Germany, 1850. A capital G has been introduced at the beginning of the second half of line 62, which marks the mid-point of the poem. The text has been further divided into sections matching the staves of the modern interpretation. |