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The Syntax of Old Norse KviÐuháttr Meter

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2005

Kari Ellen Gade
Kari Ellen Gade
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
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Abstract

This paper seeks to explain syntactic and structural features that have puzzled earlier scholars and editors of poems composed in kviÐuháttr, one of the oldest attested Old Norse skaldic meters. More precisely, I attempt to answer the following questions: first, why do poems in kviÐuháttr fail to adhere to the stanzaic eight-line division and the four-line helmingr (half-stanza) division, which are so firmly entrenched in the ON skaldic tradition? Second, why does the syntax of kviÐuháttr poetry depart from other patterns of skaldic (and eddic) verb syntax? It will become clear that the metrical innovation that characterizes kviÐuháttr, namely, the introduction of regularized catalectic a-lines of Sievers' Types A, C, and D, imposed significant restrictions on verb syntax. Rather than violating the verb-second constraint in independent clauses, the poets were forced to relax structural rules that are observed strictly in other branches of ON poetry.I am grateful to my colleague, Robert D. Fulk, for helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. Thanks also to the two anonymous JGL reviewers for valuable suggestions.

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ARTICLES
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Journal of Germanic Linguistics , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 155 - 181
Copyright
© 2005 Society for Germanic Linguistics

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