ll. 499-507. ‘Sumum menn wile...hi mæg gewyldan’:–See J. E. Cross, ‘The Elephant to Alfred, Ælfric, Aldhelm and Others’, SN 37 (1965), pp. 367–73, for two possible sources for this digression: Isidore’s Etymologiarum (XII, PL 82, cols.11-12, 14-16), and Ambrose (Hexameron VI v, PL 17). The former appears to correspond more directly with the Old English, as Cross suggests.

l. 506. nytena:–In J after ‘nytena’ there is a lengthy erasure, long enough to indicate that the scribe in error copied the word twice.

ll. 508-10. ‘Þa hæðenan ða...is metta leofost’:–Ælfric returns to the Vulgate and picks up this earlier mention of the effect of mulberries on the elephants.

ll. 510-19. ‘Þær wæs swyðe...egðer oðres slaga’:–Ælfric follows the Latin closely for the episode of the slaying of the elephant, but he adds the detail that Eleazar struck the creature at the nauelan (l. 518). The implication is that this was its weakest point (see Cross, 1965). This is possibly from Isidore again, where it is stated that a rhino kills the elephant by stabbing upwards into its stomach with its horns (Etymologiarum XII, PL 82, cols. 11-12). Compare, however, Beowulf ll. 2699-70 with Wiglaf’s slaying of the dragon.

l. 513. Eleazarus:–Son of Saura.