Havelok the Dane

Slowly making my way through this poem.

I've reached the point where a second untrustworthy guardian makes a fisher-thrall an offer he can hardly refuse:  “Kill my ward and you’ll be free and rich, plus I’ll take the moral fall for it.”  Gosh, what's the catch?

“Grim, þou wost þu art mi þral,

Wilte don mi wille al,

Þat i wile bidden þe,

To-morwen [i] shal maken þe fre,

And aucte þe yeuen, and riche make,

With-þan þu wilt þis child[e] take,

And leden him with þe to-nicht,

Throw this child into the sea”.

Þan þou sest se Mone lith,

In-to þe se, and don him þer-inne,

Al wile [i] taken on me þe sinne.”

(ll. 527-36)

Some other lines that struck me at the time of reading:

Just how young was his little girl?  She couldn't speak with mouth!

Of his bodi ne hauede he eyr

Bute a mayden swiþe fayr,

Þat was so yung þat sho ne couþe

Gon on fote, ne speke wit mouþe.

(ll. 110-3)

OK, so she was so young she had not learned to walk, or to speak.  Got it.  But the way of expressing it really pleases me for some reason: She could not yet go on foot, but perhaps she could crawl.  Check.  Then it's followed by the concept she could not yet speak with mouth.  That amuses me for some reason (the implied idea that perhaps she could communicate in some other way at this stage).

Just how faithless was this ill-chosen guardian?  For his oath he didn't give a straw!

He let his oth al ouer-ga,

Þerof ne yaf he nouth a stra;

(ll. 14-15)

I love seeing this linguistic pattern ("he didn't give a __") which surely remains current as long as human nature remains what it is.  I think one can still use the word "straw" here, though many other options are of course available.

Nice alliteration

And wo [so] diden widuen wrong,

Were he neure knicth so strong,

Þat he ne made him sone kesten,

And in feteres ful faste festen;

(ll. 79-82)

And it feels like it could almost work in modern English - fetters, fully make fast, fasten - but I couldn't find any way to pull it off non-risibly.  
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Current status: almost 25% of the way through (line 733 of 3001).