Old English metre

See also: alliterative verse

Old English metre is the conventional name given to the poetic metre in which English language poetry was composed in the Anglo-Saxon period. The best-known example of poetry composed in this verse form is Beowulf, but the vast majority of Old English poetry belongs to the same tradition. The most salient feature of Old English poetry is its heavy use of alliteration.

The most widely used system for classifying Old English prosodic patterns is based on that developed by Eduard Sievers and extended by Alan Joseph Bliss.^[1][2][3] The discussion which follows is mostly based on that system, with modifications from the more recent literature. Another popular system is that of Geoffrey Russom, which is predicated on a theory of meter involving two metrical feet per verse.^[4][5][6] Another is that of Thomas Cable, based on the idea that each verse contains four syllables, with specific rules for the addition of extra unstressed syllables.^[7][8][9]

Alliteration

The basic Anglo-Saxon poetic line consists of two half-lines, connected by alliteration. There is a word or syllable in the second half-line, which alliterates with one or more important words or syllables in the first half-line. These alliterated words or syllables have more stress.^[10] Consonants alliterate with consonants, but a vowel alliterates with any other vowel. As in all Old English poetry, the alliterative form can be seen in the "Finnsburg Fragment" (alliterated sounds are in bold):

Ac onwacnigeað nū, wīgend mīne^[11]
ealra ǣrest eorðbūendra,^[12]
 

Translation:

But awake now, my warriors
of all first the men
 

The words that contain alliterated syllables are also very important because not all syllables can be alliterated. There is a hierarchy of alliteration; nouns and verbs are almost consistently alliterated whereas ‘helping’ words such as pronouns and prepositions are almost never alliterated. The alliteration and positioning of these syllables are what help assign stress to certain words and not others.

Old English treats certain sounds as alliterating, even though they are not identical. Specifically:

• Unpalatized c (pronounced ⟨k⟩ /k/) alliterated with palatized ċ (pronounced ⟨ch⟩ /tʃ/ in late Old English), apparently because the sounds were once just one sound (/k/).^[13]
• Unpalatized g (pronounced ⟨g⟩ /ɡ/) likewise alliterated with palatized ġ (pronounced like y in yet, /j/, in late Old English) but also with the ġ inherited from Common Germanic /j/. There is not yet a consensus on why these alliterated, but the reason must be partly because the first two gs /ɡ/ were once just one sound.^[13]

Stress

Stress can be assigned to syllables according to their position and length. This stress, or arsis,^[14] is usually placed on a syllable containing a long vowel. The stressed syllables are ordered along the same basic hierarchy of the alliteration; it is very rare that a stressed syllable would be a preposition or pronoun. Words such as God, King, and other proper nouns are very frequently stressed.

The unstressed, or thesis, syllables are usually short, and frequently on the words that are lower in the hierarchy. Secondary stresses occur in only a few types of lines, and are usually only on the second part of a compound word.

Stress indicators are usually assigned thus: primary stress (/), secondary stress (\), and unstressed (x). This is the most common way to assign the rhythm and to determine the type-line, or foot.

Sievers-type lines

Main article: Sievers's theory of Anglo-Saxon meter

After applying the appropriate arsis or thesis to a line, the rhythm that the markings make and assign a type-line, or foot, to the half-line should be established. Sievers created type-lines based on the metrical patterns that he saw in Old English poetry, and named them in alphabetical order according to the most frequently used. There are five basic line types, A,B,C,D, and E, and each have their own metrical pattern. Daniel Paul O'Donnell reproduces a traditional mnemonic for helping remember the basic line-types:^[15]

Type A ( / × / ×) (Trochaic) — Anna angry
Type B ( × / × / ) (Iambic) — And Bryhtnoth bold
Type C (× / / ×) (Spondaic) — In keen conflict
Type D ( / / \ ×) — Drive Don backwards
Type E ( / \ × /) — Each one with edge

There are numerous subtypes of these lines, as outlined in Cassidy & Ringler and elsewhere. The line types above are in alphabetical order of the most frequently used type-lines in the Old English corpus.

Other scansion systems

Another metrical system was put forward by John C. Pope in which rhythmic stress is assigned using musical patterns. This system seems to make more sense when considering that the poetry of the Anglo-Saxons was set to music. An explanation of the Pope system is also included in Cassidy & Ringler^[16] and in Eight Old English Poems.^[17]

See also

• Alliterative verse
• Old English poetry
• Kaluza's law