Four minims and a quandary: Beowulf, 1382a

A statistical analysis of scribal errors presupposed by emendations proposed for the four minims that follow d in f 160v of the text of Beowulf in London, British Library, MS Cotton Vitellius A. XV, that shows that the reading wundini is by far the most probable. Metrical and philological evidence is considered in this context of the scribe’s practice and pattern of error.