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§ 15. Metrical Unity of the Long Line. With regard to verse division the manuscripts do not always give us clear information, since the OE. poems are mostly written in unbroken lines like prose. Some MSS., e.g. the so-called Cædmon MS., regularly show the caesura and verse end by means of a point. From this it would seem that each half-line was a unity in itself. In other MSS., however, e.g. in the MS. of the OE. Menologium and in the two MSS. of Lagamon's Brut, the verse of which arose directly from the OE. alliterative verse, a point is placed at the end of the long line only; in the caesura there is another mark. In the Prague Heliand fragment (cp. Sitzungsberichte der philos.hist. Klasse der Kaiserl. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bd. 97, 613-624, Vienna 1881) a large capital letter stands at the beginning of each long line, whilst the caesura is not indicated.

From this we see that the old poets and scribes regarded the long line as the metrical unit. The manner in which alliteration is used points to this also. Each half-line is in itself incomplete. A metrical unit, the alliterative long line, is formed only by both half-lines, in which the words with the strongest stress begin with the same sound. The two half-lines are not quite alike in their structure. In the first half-line there may be simple or double alliteration, and, where there is simple alliteration, this may be towards the end

of the verse; whilst in the second half-line there can be one alliterating sound only, which must be as far as possible at the beginning of the verse. Moreover in general the first half-verse is rather longer ('sprachlich etwas stärker ausgefüllt') than the second (§ 82), although the metrical fundamental scheme is the same for both the half-verses.

The present custom of printing alliterative verses as long lines is therefore right. It is not so good to arrange the half-lines under one another, as is done in the earlier editions of Kemble, Thorpe etc., in Madden's edition of Lagamon's Brut and in many ON. texts.

The half-line must, however, be compact. Parts, which are grammatically closely connected, must not be separated by a caesura nor by the end of a verse. In the same way a sentence pause within the half-line is unthinkable.

§ 16. Theories concerning the Rhythmical Construction of Alliterative Verse.

No account of the construction of alliterative verse has been handed down to us from early times. Various theories have been advanced in order to explain the peculiarities of OE. alliterative verse and of old Germanic alliterative verse in general.

$ 17. Lachmann.

Lachmann in a lecture Über das Hildebrandslied' held before the Berlin 'Akademie der Wissen

schaften' on 20 June 1833 (Kleine Schriften I, 407-448) was the first to attempt an explanation of the rhythmical structure of alliterative verse. He conceived the alliterative verse of the Hildebrandslied as well as the rimed verse of Otfrid as a verse of four beats. Hildebrandslied "has, in addition to alliteration, verses of four hebungen. Every two of such verses are connected by alliteration on two, three or four of the eight hebungen. Thus a great variety of stresses arises when the rhythm is strictly observed; two to four very strongly stressed syllables in the hebungen, and, if there are only two or three of them, then also two strong hebungen or one; further four weaker stresses on the the remaining hebungen, all these stresses in arbitrary order. Lastly the unstressed syllables in the senkungen, which can be wanting or can exceed eight in number; the words being arranged in the rhythmical series according to the accents, which grammar and sense require".

§ 18. Rules of the Four-Beat Theory. According to Lachmann's four-beat theory (ep. also his essay Über althochdeutsche Betonung und Verskunst, Kleine Schriften I, 358-406) the halfline of Hildebrandslied as well as that of Otfrid's rimed verse contains four strongly or weakly stressed syllables (hebungen), of which the last is at the same time the last syllable of the verse,

whilst the first three hebungen can each be followed by an unstressed syllable (senkung), and an auftakt (anacrusis) may precede the first hebung. The auftakt and some or all the senkungen, however, may be omitted. The half-line of the alliterative verse numbers therefore 4-8 syllables, with which the number of syllables in Beowulf roughly agrees (see above § 12).

At the same time, however, as we see from the above quotation, Lachmann recognized that the four beats of alliterative verse are not exactly alike, but vary in strength according to "grammar and sense". He therefore scans the verses of Hildebrandslied as follows: főhèm wórtùm, fáterès minès, prút in búrè – đàt ságētùn mì, đạt vàs so fríuntlàos mán - ìro sáro ríhtùn, hvèr sĩn fáter wárì séo-lidàntè, súnufátarùngồs, bám únwàhsàn-Héribràntès súno, chéisuringù gitán etc. In short, as Göbel, Zur Vorgeschichte der Sieversschen Typentheorie, Anglia 19, 499-508 proves, he recognized the five types of Sievers A, B, C, D, E fifty years before Sievers, even though only unclearly. In the work mentioned, it is true, Lachmann limited the four-beat theory to the Hildebrandslied and the shorter verses of OE. and ON. poetry; he expressly excepted the longer verses in the Heliand and Muspilli from the theory. Later, however, he is said in his lectures to have read the verses of Muspilli also with four beats (cp. Müllenhoff, ZfdA 11, 381).

§ 19. Müllenhoff, Jessen, Amelung, Heyne.

Müllenhoff himself has attempted to make the four-beat theory probable for the alliterative poetry of OE., OHG. and ON. (cp. his treatise "De carmine Wessofontano et de versus ac stropharum usu apud Germanos antiquissimos, Berolini 1861 and his essay Zum Muspilli, ZfdA. 11, 381-393 [1859]). Jessen, too, Grundzüge der altgermanischen Metrik, ZfdPh. 2, 114-147 (1870) has applied the four-beat theory to all alliterative poetry of all Germanic peoples, though, indeed, he, as later ten Brink (§ 48), adopts 'nicht verwirklichte Hebungen' (beats not realized). Amelung, Beiträge zur deutschen Metrik, II. Über den Versbau des Heliand, ZfdPh. 3, 280-305 (1871) has tried to show that the verse of Heliand has four beats. He assumes, however, as Trautmann (§ 57) and Koegel (§ 56) later, that under circumstances one long syllable can have two hebungen, e.g. lí-ìk gidrúsinòt, hélàgna gé-èst. M. Heyne adopts the four-beat theory in his editions of Heliand 1866, p. VIII and Beowulf 2nd. Ed. 1867, p. 82 ff.

§ 20. Schubert.

Finally Schubert in his dissertation De Anglosaxonum arte metrica, Berolini 1870, has shown how Lachmann's four-beat theory may be applied to OE. alliterative verse. He has treated the verse of Beowulf and the OE. Genesis in detail.

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