Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-sv6ng Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-08T11:25:17.370Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Emergent Trochaic Cadence / × in Old Norse Fornyrðislag Meter: Statistical and Comparative Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

Seiichi Suzuki
Seiichi Suzuki*
Affiliation:
Kansai Gaidai University
*
Kansai Gaidai University, 16-1 Nakamiya-higashino, Hirakata 573-1001, Japan, [ssuzuki@kansaigaidai.ac.jp]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Through statistical and comparative investigations of eddic poetry, I show that Old Norse fornyrðislag meter is sharply distinguished from its West Germanic cognates by its strong preference for the trochaic cadence lift + drop in the b-verse. This unique feature is claimed to have induced the radical redistribution and reorganization of the major metrical types, types A, B, and C in fornyrðislag. Furthermore, I suggest that this favored cadence served as a basis for the fixed cadence of dróttkvætt meter by generalization and reanalysis.*

Type
ARTICLES
Information
Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 53 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Germanic Linguistics 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Árnason, Kristján. 1991. The rhythms of dróttvætt and other Old Icelandic metres. Reykjavík: Institute of Linguistics, University of Iceland.Google Scholar
Cable, Thomas. 1974. The meter and melody of Beowulf. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Ent, Wilhelm van den. 1924. Het fornyrðislag: Bijdrage tot de studie der metriek van het Oudgermaansche alliteratievers. Haarlem: Willink.Google Scholar
Gade, Kari Ellen. 1995. The structure of Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gering, Hugo. 1924. Das fornyrðislag in der Lieder-Edda: Eine statistische Übersicht. Arkiv för nordisk filologi 40. 1–50, 176–221.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Hans. 1962. Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, vol. 1. Text. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Hans. 1983. Das Dróttkvætt. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Winfred P. 1956. The development of Germanic verse form. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Russom, Geoffrey. 1998. Beowulf and Old Germanic metre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sievers, Eduard. 1885. Zur Rhythmik des germanischen Alliterationsverses. Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen sprache und Literatur 10. 209–314, 451–545.Google Scholar
Sievers, Eduard. 1893. Altgermanische Metrik. Halle: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Seiichi. 1996. The metrical organization of Beowulf: Prototype and isomorphism. Berlin: de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suzuki, Seiichi. 2004. The metre of Old Saxon poetry: The remaking of alliterative tradition. Cambridge: Brewer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar