The Meters of Old Norse Eddic Poetry: Common Germanic Inheritance and North Germanic Innovation

Description

This book is a formal and functional study of the three distinct meters of Old Norse eddic poetry, fornyrðislag, málaháttr, and ljóðaháttr. Itprovides a systematic account of these archaic meters, both synchronic and diachronic, and from a comparative Germanic perspective; particularly concerned with Norse innovations in metrical practice, Suzukiexplores how and why the three meters were shaped in West Scandinavia through divergent reorganization of the Common Germanic metrical system. The bookconstitutes the first comprehensive work on the meters of Old Norse eddic poetry in a single coherent framework; with thorough data presentation, detailed philological analysis, and sophisticated linguistic explanation, the book will be of enormous interest to Old Germanic philologists/linguists, medievalists, as well as metrists of all persuasions. A strong methodological advantage of this work is the extensive use of inferential statistical techniques for giving empirical support to specific analyses and claims being adduced. Another strength is a cognitive dimension, a (re)construction of a prototype-based model of the metrical system and its overall characterization as an integral part of the poetic knowledge that governed eddic poets' verse-making technique in general. Dedication Preface Contents List of tables Abbreviations and symbols 1 Introduction 1.1 The corpus of metrical data 1.2 An overview of verse structure: metrical positions, verse types, and alliteration 1.3 The meter as a prototypebased system of gradient organization 1.4 Statistical analysis Part I. Fornyrðislag Introduction 2 Verse types and their realizations 2.1 Type A1 (/ x / x) 2.1.1 The first drop 2.1.2 The second drop 2.1.3 Marked variants of type A1 2.1.3.1 The configuration PS#px 2.1.3.2 The configuration Px...px 2.1.3.3 The configurations Pxx#Px and PXx#Px 2.1.3.4 The configuration PxSx 2.2 Type A2 2.2.1 Type A2a (/ \ / x) 2.2.2 Type A2b (/ x / \ and / \ / \) 2.3 Type A3 ([/] x / x) 2.3.1 The configurations x...Px, x...PS, and x...PP 2.3.2 The configuration x...px 2.4 Type A1 (/ x / [x]) 2.5 Type A2a (/ \ / [x]) 2.6 Type A3 ([/] x / [x]) 2.7 Type B (x / x /) 2.8 Type C (x / / x) 2.8.1 The first and second drops 2.8.2 The second lift: the six major configurations x...PPx, x...Ppx, x...PSx, x...Psx, x...PXx, and x...Pxx 2.8.3 The configuration x...pXx 2.9 Type C (x / / [x]) 2.10 Type D (/ / x x) 2.10.1 Major variants and the status of the heavy drop 2.10.2 The configuration PPPx: apparent ambiguity of types A2a and D 2.10.3 The configuration PPpx: apparent ambiguity of type D and subtype A1s 2.10.4 The configurations PpXx and PsXx 2.11 Type D (/ / x [x]) 2.12 Type D* (/ x / x x) 2.12.1 Major variants 2.12.2 The configurations Px...Ppx and Px...Psx: on resolving ambiguity between types A2b and D* 2.12.3 The configuration Pxxx...P with single alliteration: on resolving ambiguity between types A1 and D* 2.13 Type E (/ \ x /) 2.13.1 Major variants 2.13.2 The configurations PSxpx and PXxpx: on resolving ambiguity between type E and subtype A1s 2.13.3 The configuration PXx...P: on resolving ambiguity between types E and A1 2.13.4 The configuration PPx...P with double alliteration: on resolving ambiguity between types E and A1 2.13.5 The configuration PPx...P with single alliteration: on resolving ambiguity between types E, D, and A1 2.14 Twoposition verses 2.15 The system of verse types: a first approximation 3 Anacrusis and catalexis 3.1 Anacrusis 3.2 Catalexis 3.3 The organization of anacrusis and catalexis, and the system of verse types reconsidered 4 Resolution 4.1 Resolution and the drop: Auflösung and Verschleifung 4.2 Resolution according to position and verse type 4.2.1 The first lift of type A1 4.2.2 The first lift of type B 4.2.3 The first lift of type C 4.2.4 The first lift of type D 4.2.5 The first lift of types D*, D/E, and E 4.2.6 A synchronic account of the varied incidences of resolution according to verse type 4.2.7 The second lift of types A1, A2a, and A2b 4.2.8 The second lift of type B 4.2.9 The second lift of types C, D, D*, and E 4.3 Suspension of resolution 4.3.1 The configuration x...pXx: the first lift of type C 4.3.2 The configuration PS#px: the second lift of subtype A1s 4.3.3 The configuration Px...px: the second lift of subtype A1s 4.3.4 The configuration x...px: the second lift of type A3 4.3.5 The configurations x...Ppx and x...Psx: the second lift of type C 4.3.6 The configuration PpXx: the second lift of type D 4.3.7 The configuration Px...pXx: the second lift of type D* 4.3.8 A synchronic account of suspension of resolution 4.3.9 A diachronic account 4.4 On Kaluza’s law 4.4.1 Introduction 4.4.2 On defining ‘short’ and ‘long’ disyllables: two competing accounts 4.4.3 Kaluza’s law in fornyrðislag? 4.4.4 Kaluza’s law in the Heliand 4.4.5 Kaluza’s law in fornyrðislag revisited 4.4.6 Conclusion 5 The cadence 5.1 Preference for / x in versefinal position 5.2 Preference for the cadence / x in the bverse 5.2.1 Class B (x / x /) 5.2.2 Class C (x / / x) 5.2.3 Class A (/ x / x) 5.2.4 Class A with anacrusis (x / x / x) 5.3 The optimal prosodic form of the cadence / x: Px 5.4 Further variants of the cadence / x: px and P 5.4.1 The prosodic form px 5.4.2 The prosodic form P 5.4.3 The three variants of the cadence / x: Px, px, and P 5.5 Conclusion: the overall proportion of verses ending in lift + drop 6 Alliteration 6.1 The rules of alliteration 6.2 The metrical basis of alliteration 6.2.1 Variation in alliterative pattern within verse types 6.2.1.1 Type A1 6.2.1.2 Types A2a and A2b 6.2.1.3 Type A1 6.2.1.4 Type B 6.2.1.5 Type C 6.2.1.6 Type D 6.2.1.7 Type E 6.2.1.8 Double alliteration and increased prominence: uniformity in diversity 6.2.2 Verse classes and alliteration 6.3 The lexical basis of alliteration 6.3.1 Type A1 6.3.2 Type B 6.3.3 Type C 6.3.4 Generalizations: a comparative perspective 7 The stanza 7.1 Preliminaries 7.2 Distribution of verse classes, verse types, and their variants in the stanza 7.2.1 Types A1, A2, and A3 7.2.2 Type B 7.2.3 Type C 7.2.4 Types D, D*, and E 7.2.5 Verse classes 7.3 Anacrusis and catalexis 7.4 Resolution and alliteration 7.5 The cadence 7.6 The metrical organization of the stanza Part II. Málaháttr Introduction 8 The prototype of málaháttr: Atlamál in grœnlenzco 8.1 Verse types and their realizations 8.1.1 Type A1* (/ x x / x) 8.1.2 Type aA1 (x / x / x) 8.1.3 Type A2* (/ x x / \) 8.1.4 Type A3* ([/] x x / x) 8.1.5 Type B* (x x / x /) 8.1.6 Type C* (x x / / x) 8.1.7 Type D (/ / x x) 8.1.8 Type D* (/ x / x x) 8.1.9 Type E (/ \ x /) 8.2 The system of verse types 8.3 The cadence 8.4 Resolution 8.5 Alliteration 8.6 The stanza 8.7 A critique of Heusler’s (1956) identification of málaháttr with fornyrðislag 9 A peripheral variant of fornyrðislag/málaháttr 1: Atlaqviða in grœnlenzca 9.1 Verse types and their realizations 9.1.1 Type A1 (/ x / x) 9.1.2 Type aA1 (x / x / x) 9.1.3 Types A2a (/ \ / x) and A2b (/ x / \) 9.1.4 Type A3 ([/] x / x) 9.1.5 Type B (x / x /) 9.1.6 Type C (x / / x) 9.1.7 Type D (/ / x x) 9.1.8 Type D* (/ x / x x) 9.1.9 Type E (/ \ x /) 9.2 The system of verse types, the cadence, and resolution 10 A peripheral variant of fornyrðislag/málaháttr 2: Hamðismál 10.1 Verse types and their realizations 10.1.1 Type A1 (/ x / x) 10.1.2 Type aA1 (x / x / x) 10.1.3 Types A2a (/ \ / x) and A2b (/ x / \) 10.1.4 Type A3 ([/] x / x) 10.1.5 Type B (x / x /) 10.1.6 Type C (x / / x) 10.1.7 Type D (/ / x x) 10.1.8 Type D* (/ x / x x) 10.1.9 Type E (/ \ x /) 10.2 The system of verse types, the cadence, and resolution 11 A peripheral variant of fornyrðislag/málaháttr 3: Hárbarðzlióð 11.1 Verse types and their realizations 11.1.1 Type A1 (/ x / x) 11.1.2 Type aA1 (x / x / x) 11.1.3 Types A2a (/ \ / x) and A2b (/ x / \) 11.1.4 Type A3 ([/] x / x) 11.1.5 Type B (x / x /) 11.1.6 Type C* (x x / / x) 11.1.7 Type D* (/ x / x x) 11.1.8 Type E (/ \ x /) 11.1.9 Overlong verses 11.2 The system of verse types, the cadence, and anacrusis Part III. Ljóðaháttr Introduction 12 The averse and the bverse 12.1 Verse types and their realizations 12.1.1 Type A1 (/ x / x) 12.1.2 Type aA1 (x / x / x) 12.1.3 Types A2a (/ \ / x) and A2b (/ x / \) 12.1.4 Type A3 ([/] x / x) 12.1.5 Type A1 (/ x / [x]) 12.1.6 Type A2a (/ \ / [x]) 12.1.7 Type A3 ([/] x / [x]) 12.1.8 Type B (x / x /) 12.1.9 Type C (x / / x) 12.1.10 Type C (x / / [x]) 12.1.11 Type D (/ / x x) 12.1.12 Type D (/ / x [x]) 12.1.13 Type D* (/ x / x x) 12.1.14 Type E (/ \ x /) 12.1.15 Twoposition verses and overlong verses 12.2 The system of verse types and their realizations 12.3 Alliteration 12.4 A critique of Gering’s (1902) analysis 13 The cverse 13.1 Verse types and their realizations 13.1.1 Type A1 (/ x / x) 13.1.2 Type aA1 (x / x / x /) 13.1.3 Types A2a (/ \ / x) and A2b (/ x / \) 13.1.4 Type A3 ([/] x / x) 13.1.5 Type A1 (/ x / [x]) 13.1.6 Type A2a (/ \ / [x]) 13.1.7 Type A3 ([/] x / [x]) 13.1.8 Type B (x / x /) 13.1.9 Type C (x / / x) 13.1.10 Type C (x / / [x]) 13.1.11 Type D (/ / x x) 13.1.12 Type D (/ / x [x]) 13.1.13 Type D* (/ x / x x) 13.1.14 Type E (/ \ x /) 13.1.15 Twoposition verses 13.2 The system of verse types and their realizations 13.3 Anacrusis, alliteration, resolution, and the cadence 13.3.1 Anacrusis 13.3.2 Alliteration 13.3.3 Resolution 13.3.4 The cadence 13.4 A critique of Sievers’s (1893) and Gering’s (1902) analysis 14 The stanza 14.1 Preliminaries 14.2 The averse 14.3 The bverse 14.4 The cverse 15 Conclusion Appendix 1: Catalogue of verse types Appendix 2: Dróttkætt and the eddic meters References Index of scansion Index of authors Index of subjects Index of verses