Why, you're welcome, littlemanpoet! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]
But I thought of something that might back up my argument. I managed to find Bright's Old-English Glossary from the web and on the basis of its information I would translate
"hefaenricaes uard" as "Heaven-Kingdom's keeper/guard" or "the keeper of Heaven-Kingdom" (contrast: "the keeper of Heaven's Kingdom").
(heofon (heofone, f) m heaven + gs rīces [rīce n kingdom, sovereignty, authority] >> "kingdom" is in genitive, not "heaven", as is the word "moncynnęs"=mankind's)
So this turns your argument up-side down, littlemanpoet: yes, the lines have the same grammatical constuction but it seems that the latter line ("keeper of mankind" i.e. "Mankind's keeper") is translated more accurately; the emphasis here is on the word "keeper".
So this lines with my thought of repetition: "the keeper of Heaven-Kingdom"="the holy Creator"="the keeper of mankind"=the Eternal Lord"=the Almighty Lord".
How does that sound? Mark again that I really don't know Old-English at all. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
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Despair is only for those
who see the end beyond all doubt.
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