Meaning of lines explaining Hrothgar's ruling in Heorot?

Question

I'm reading Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf and when the poet talks about Heorot Hall (lines 71 through 73) he says > it would be his throne-room and there he would dispense > his God-given goods to young and old - > but not the common land or people's lives. What exactly does it mean by saying "not the common land or people's lives"? Does it mean to imply that Hrothgar had control over everything but the land and people's lives - God hadn't given him that control? The line just strikes me as rather confusing.

Answer 1

It looks to me like "the common land or people's lives" is a direct object of "dispense" rather than an indirect object of "to." So he's dispensing his personal treasury to anyone in need, but he's not giving common land away, and he's not giving lives away.