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356
Craigie: Skaldic Metre.
having a monosyllable in the fourth place. Taking the four
classes of § 2 in the order there set down, it is obvious
that if the a and /? types are employed as first lines the
word in question must be unstressed, i. e. as a rule, a verb;
this is a necessary consequence of the two full stresses with
which such lines always commence. But while such first
lines are common in the a-class (there are 53 among the
133 examples of the type in Skjaldekvad), they are
comparatively rare in the /J-class, numbering only 3 or 4 out of
113 (8 folkrcdckr of vant fylkir, 8 vifrlendr of bad vinda,
33 Aleifr of vidr elunt). The reason may be partly
syntactical, but probably also depends on the fact that in this type
an unstressed word always precedes the syllable in question:
the tendency would then be to give some kind of stress to
the word following on this, thus producing the type J- \
J-w ^ | J- ^, which, as we have seen above, is admissible only
as a second line.
The case of the y-class is more complicated, and
requires to be illustrated at some length. I shall begin by
comparing typical first and second lines in which the word
in the fourth place is a noun.
First lines
hinn’s for i gnif Gunnar
Hit hykk at god geeti
gnyr varct a see sverSa
tit geng’k med lid litit
lind sprakk i rym randa
mikill varct d stad stikla
Second lines
grams fall a see dllan
stinn jam of sbk minni
Gauts tafn en nd hrafni
sinn r6drs vid prom stinnan
flagds blakk ok svan hlakkar
svort skor vid her gbrva
The words which I have made prominent in the above
specimens show at once wherein the difference lies: a second
line may have a substantive in the second place, a first line
can only have a verb, if a full-stressed word precedes. The
second lines are clearly s\J-^^\jl^- what then are the
first ones? We cannot, with Prof. Sievers, set them down
as -L a. x | •*-1 -*- X, for the invariable form of the noun in
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