(Scyldinga, murnende

ædelingas, lifigende) and the corresponding compounds lux, uulux, xl_x, _l_x, uul_x, uuluux (geār-dagum mere-faran -hron-rāde, lof-dadum să-næssas, man-cynnes lagu-strate - fæder-ædelum) form always three members, and can, therefore, be used as the first foot of E verses or the last foot of C or D1 verses. 7. Compounds of the form lu_x, _l__x, _luu_x or vulx (andswarode, peod-cyninga - să-līdende -unlifigende - sele-rædende) compose a foot of one member with a foot of three members, a D1 verse, therefore.

8. Compounds of the form ×|_ (middan-geard, hilde-deor), to which come also the prefix-compounds -IX (līf-gedal, land-geweorc) compose a foot of two members with one of one member, and thus can be used only at the end of B and D2 verses.

9. Compounds of the form _x_x (hilde-wāpnum), to which come also the prefix-compounds Ixl_× (wil-gesīdas), compose two feet of two members, i.e. an A verse.

§ 80. b) Weakly stressed Parts of Speech. To the weakly stressed words, which generally do not alliterate, belong in OE. the pronouns, auxiliary verbs, sometimes some parts of verbs, pronominal adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections, e.g. ic, hẽ, him, þæt, hwæt; wæs, mæg, sceal; on, in, fram, þurh; pā, ond, ne hine; wile; ofer para; hæfde, moton; under, æfter etc.

Monosyllabic and disyllabic weakly stressed words at the end of the verse, as far as they occur, are used like the corresponding strongly stressed words, viz. x, and u as the last member of B, D, E, - as second foot of A, ux or as the second part of the foot with three members of C (67—69).

But within the verse (as second member of A or third member of B) and especially at the beginning of the verse (as first member of A3, B. C) not only monosyllabic, but also disyllabic (or two monosyllabic) weakly stressed words are used as one member. Sometimes at the beginning of B and C verses three or four syllables are used to form one member.

Prefixes, such as ge-, be-, ā- etc. after a long strongly stressed syllable (A 5, B 34, D2 46-50), and sometimes at the beginning of B and C verses can form a member of the verse alone. If a weakly stressed syllable precedes these prefixes (A 2, 8, B 32, D2 44, 45) they combine to form one member. At the beginning of A, D2 and D1 verses they can be used as anacrusis.

On prefix-compounds such as land-geweorc, wilgesīdas see § 79, 8. 9.

§ 81. Frequency of the individual Types. The six main types and 90 subforms of alliterative verse are found in very various frequency in a poem, as has been said above. On the next page is a table showing their distribution in the

first 1000 lines of Beowulf (cp. Stud. z. germ. All. 2, 7-82). This table can serve as a measure in determining the practice of other poets, for each poet has naturally his favourite types. According to the researches of Graz, Die Metrik der sog. Caedmonschen Dichtungen mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Verfasserfrage, Königsberg 1894, the writer of Exodus prefers types D2 and E, the author of Christ and Satan type A, especially A8, in the first half-line, and type B in the second half-line. Cp. Franz Schwarz, Cynewulfs Anteil am Christ, eine metrische Untersuchung, Königsberg 1905.

§ 82. The Relation of the first Half-Line
to the Second.

From the table on page 102 and from the above remarks it is seen that the simpler verse-forms, e.g. types 1, 5, 31 prefer the second half-line, whilst the fuller forms, e.g. types 3, 6-10, 11-20 prefer the first half-line. We see, too, that certain kinds of verse, the so-called A3 verses and the 'extended' D2 and D1 verses can be used only in the first half-line. But even where the same kind of verse occurs in both half-lines, the kinds of words used are often different. In general in the first halfline we find the more strongly stressed classes of words (nouns, adjectives, numerals), in the second half-line the more weakly stressed (verbs, adverbs, pronouns etc.). Thus, for example, in the first 1000 verses of Beowulf, verses, consisting of an

infinitive with a finite verb (e.g. findan mihte), occur in the first half-line only twice (207, 541), but in the second half-line 36 times. In type D2 the last member is nearly always a noun in the first half-line, and a verb in the second.

In accordance with this we can put forward the fundamental law: The same rhythmical schemes are more 'strongly filled' in the first half-line than in the second. This agrees with the practice of Otfrid (ep. Stud. z. germ. All. I, 63 f. and Wilmanns, Der altdeutsche Reimvers § 98 f., 31, 36) and with that of the later ME. alliterative verse (§ 156 ff.).

§ 83. Combination of two Half-Lines to form a Long-Line.

Two half-lines are always connected by alliteration to form a metrical unity, the long-line (§ 11. 15), and, as Sievers (see § 35) has shown, dissimilar types are used as far as possible in order to bring about a variety of rhythm. As can be seen from my table (Stud. z. germ. All. 2, 87), (see p. 105) the combination AA is comparatively rare (52), although A verses occur very frequently in both half lines (489+353). The combinations AB, BA, AC and CA are much more frequent. That this is not accidental is proved by the fact that in the transition from one long-line to the next the juxtaposition of the types AA is most frequent, 180 times in the first 1000 verses of Beowulf. Further the combination of the same sub-form, e.g. type 1,