6. Metres

Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘Metres’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].

‘Many a poetic metre of mine … has never been used before’, Snorri Sturluson proudly states in his Háttatal (SnSt Ht 70/1, 2-3 Mart bragarlag mitt …[e]s áðr ókveðit). Indeed, owing to the inclusion of the poetry from the two claves metricae, Ht and Háttalykill (RvHbreiðm Hl), the poetry edited in the present volume displays a plethora of metres and metrical and stylistic variants, some of which are not attested elsewhere in the corpus of Old Norse poetry. Among the latter verse-forms are the following (in alphabetical order; for brief definitions, see ‘Old Norse-Icelandic Technical Terms’ in the prefatory material of this volume): belgdrǫgur ‘bellows-drawings’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 13-14, SnSt Ht 82); draughent ‘ghost-’ or ‘trunk-rhymed’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 7-8, SnSt Ht 65); inn dýri háttr ‘the ornate form’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 17-18, SnSt Ht 37); hnúfu háttr (?) (RvHbreiðm Hl 43-4); hnugghent ‘deprived-rhymed’ (SnSt Ht 76); kimblabǫnd ‘bundle-bonds’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 27-8, SnSt Ht 59-61); náhent ‘close-rhymed’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 29-30, SnSt Ht 75); stúfhent ‘stump-rhymed’ (SnSt Ht 74); stýft ‘apocopated’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 9-10, SnSt Ht 49-51); veggjat ‘inserted’ (SnSt Ht 33); þríhent ‘triple-rhymed’ (RvHbreiðm Hl 11-12, SnSt Ht 36). For metrical and stylistic variants attested in Old Norse poetry not edited in SkP III, see Notes and Context to the stanzas of RvHbreiðm Hl and SnSt Ht as well as SnE 2007, 77-91.

Aside from the 184 stanzas from the two claves metricae, the poetry edited in this volume, a total of 649 stanzas, half-stanzas, couplets, and single lines, is composed in the metres dróttkvætt ‘court metre’ (with the variants alhent ‘completely rhymed’, dunhent ‘echoing rhymed’, munnvǫrp ‘mouth-throwings’, skjálfhent ‘tremble-rhymed’ and tvískelft ‘twice-trembled’), fornyrðislag ‘old story metre’, Haðarlag ‘Hǫðr’s metre’, hálfhnept ‘half-curtailed’, hrynhent ‘flowing-rhymed’, kviðuháttr ‘poem’s form’, ljóðaháttr ‘songs’ form’, málaháttr ‘speeches’ form’, inn nýi háttr ‘the new verse-form’, runhent ‘end-rhymed’ and tøglag ‘journey metre’. Most of these metres are discussed in detail in the General Introduction to the SkP series (SkP I, li-lxvii), which accounts for the brevity of the overview below.

Dróttkvætt

If we exclude the poetry of the þulur (see below), almost 70% of the stanzas edited in this volume are composed in a form of dróttkvætt metre, the most prestigious and best attested metre of skaldic poetry (for that metre, see SkP I, lx-lxi, lxv-lxvii). A dróttkvætt stanza consists of eight lines with six metrical positions ending in a cadence with a long plus a short syllable. Each line contains two internal rhymes, aðalhending ‘noble rhyme’ in the even lines and skothending ‘inserted rhyme’ in the odd lines, and the second rhyme always falls on the long, penultimate syllable. The odd lines have two alliterating staves, stuðlar ‘props, supports’, which alliterate with the first stressed syllable, the hǫfuðstafr ‘main stave’ (usually metrical position 1), in the following even line. Also attested in the present corpus are the dróttkvætt variants alhent (with two aðalhendingar in each line; Klœ Lv, Refr Giz 3, SnSt Ht 44, Anon (FoGT) 8), dunhent (in which the fifth syllable with skothending in an odd line is repeated as the first syllable carrying aðalhending in the following even line; Egill Frag, ESk Frag 6, 8, Glúmr Eir, Ólhv Frag 3, RvHbreiðm Hl 65-6, SnSt Ht 24, SnSt Lv 7, Anon (FoGT) 19/5-8, 20), munnvǫrp (with no internal rhyme in the odd lines and skothending rather than aðalhending in even lines; Ekúl Kristdr 3-4, Ólhv Frag 7, RvHbreiðm Hl 15-16, SnSt Ht 66, Anon (SnE) 16), skjálfhent and tvískelft (with alliteration in metrical positions 1 and 3 in odd lines of Type A2l and the first internal rhyme falling on the heavy dip in position 2, e.g. SnSt Ht 35/3 heitfastr hávar rastir; EBrún Lv, Hallv Knútdr, HSt Frag 7, RvHbreiðm Hl 81-2, SnSt Ht 28, 35). Dróttkvætt, with metrical and stylistic variants, is the most prominent metre in the poetry of the two claves metricae as well, accounting for 44% of the stanzas in Hl and 54% of the stanzas in Ht. Four of the þulur edited in this volume are composed in dróttkvætt metre (Þul Islands, Þul Sea-kings, Þul Waves, Þul Women 1-2). Most of the longer poems transmitted in Skm, such as the early shield poems (Bragi Rdr, Þjóð Haustl) and other poetry with mythological content (Bragi Þórr, Eil Þdr, ÚlfrU Húsdr), are also composed in dróttkvætt. Bragi’s and Þjóðólfr’s poems are among the earliest preserved skaldic poems, both dating from the ninth century, and they display archaic features that shed important light on the development of this metre (see Kuhn 1969c; 1983, 275-81; see also SnSt Ht 54-8 and Notes there). Two of the praise poems in honour of the jarls of Lade, KormǪ Sigdr and Hfr Hákdr, are also in dróttkvætt metre, and Hallvarðr háreksblesi’s encomium to Knútr inn ríki (Cnut the Great) Sveinsson of Denmark and England, Hallv Knútdr, is composed in the dróttkvætt variant skjálfhent.

Hrynhent

Hrynhent is an expanded version of dróttkvætt in which each line consists of eight rather than six metrical positions, and the second internal rhyme falls in position 7 (the penultimate syllable in the cadence; see SkP I, lxi-lxiii, lxv-lxvii). Fifteen stanzas composed in hrynhent metre are edited in SkP III; namely, Arn Frag 1, RvHbreiðm Hl 31-2, 73-4, SnSt Ht 62-4, Sturl Frag 1, Anon Kúgdr, Anon (FoGT) 23, 33, 36, 42, Anon 732b 2. One of these stanzas, Sturl Frag 1, may have been part of a praise poem (Sturl Hryn^II) to the Norwegian king Hákon Hákonarson (r. 1217-63).

Fornyrðislag

This is the Old Norse version of the Germanic alliterative long-line, with four metrical positions in each half-line. The odd lines have one or two alliterating staves that alliterate with the first stressed syllable in the even line (see SkP I, lii-lv, lxiv-lxvii). In the present volume, this metre figures most prominently in the þulur, the versified lists of poetic synonyms appended to Skm (SnE). The þulur consist of a total of 179 stanzas (not including Þorgþ I-II), which constitute over 20% of the poetry edited in SkP III. Four þulur are in dróttkvætt metre (see above), but the remainder of the þulur stanzas are composed in fornyrðislag or in a mixture of fornyrðislag and málaháttr (see below) with quite a few irregularities in the number of metrical positions per half-line and the placement of alliteration. Because the þulur enumerate poetic synonyms, most half-lines inevitably contain from one to four nomina, and word stress and syllabic length are frequently disregarded. Aside from the poetry in the þulur, the following fornyrðislag stanzas are edited in SkP III: Ólhv Frag 4, RvHbreiðm Hl 37-8, SnH Frag, SnSt Ht 96-9, StarkSt Frag, Þham Frag, Anon (TGT) 21, 24-5, Anon Gátur 1-3, Anon (LaufE) 9, Anon Kálfv 1-4, Anon Phoenix.

Ljóðaháttr

This eddic metre consists of six-line stanzas in which ll. 1-2 and 4-5 alliterate and ll. 3 and 6 alliterate internally (see SkP I, lvi-lvii). Only eight stanzas in ljóðaháttr are edited in the present volume (RvHbreiðm Hl 1-2, SnSt Ht 100-1, Anon Hafl, Anon (LaufE) 10, Anon Þorgþ I 2-3).

Málaháttr

Málaháttr is an expanded version of fornyrðislag in which each half-line has five rather than four metrical positions (see SkP I, lv-lvi, lxv). The metre is sparsely attested in the poetic corpus edited in SkP III (Ólhv Frag 6, SnSt Ht 95, Vetrl Lv, Anon Bjark 3, 5-6, Anon (SnE) 8, Anon (TGT) 18-19, 38, Anon Þorgþ II), but many of the þulur in fornyrðislag contain lines in málaháttr.

Haðarlag

This metre is a stylised version of one type of málaháttr line, Sievers’s Type D*, with added internal rhyme (see SkP I, lix-lx, lxvii). The metre is illustrated and named in both claves metricae (RvHbreiðm Hl 53-4, SnSt Ht 79). Two other stanzas edited in this volume are composed in Haðarlag (Arn Frag 5, Hallg Frag).

Kviðuháttr

Kviðuháttr is a variant of fornyrðislag with catalectic odd lines consisting of three rather than four metrical positions. The even lines are structured like even fornyrðislag lines (see SkP I, lx, lxv-lxvi). Eleven stanzas edited in SkP III are composed in kviðuháttr (Ólhv Frag 2, RvHbreiðm Hl 3-4, SnSt Ht 102, Sturl Frag 2, Þjóðólfr Frag, Þblǫnd Frag, Anon (TGT) 13, 20, 33-4), and one of them, Sturl Frag 2, apparently belonged to a no longer extant praise poem to the Norwegian king Eiríkr Magnússon (r. 1280-99) or his father, Magnús lagabœtir ‘Law-mender’ Hákonarson (r. 1263-80).

Tøglag

Tøglag is a variant of fornyrðislag with internal rhyme (optional skothending in odd lines and aðalhending in even lines; see SkP I, lviii, lxiv-lxv). Aside from sample stanzas in the two claves metricae, RvHbreiðm Hl 25-6 and SnSt Ht 68-70, the metre is only attested in the present poetic corpus as a verbal exchange between the skald Bragi inn gamli ‘the Old’ Boddason and a troll-woman, Bragi Troll and Anon (SnE) 9, recorded in Skm.

Runhent

This metre is characterised by end rhyme which could include a couplet, a helmingr or extend throughout an entire stanza (see SkP I, lix, lxiv-lxv), and in the two claves metricae end rhyme is added to a variety of metres (RvHbreiðm Hl 13-14, 21-2, 33-4, 47-8, SnSt Ht 80-94). Snorri devotes a total of fifteen stanzas in Ht to various skaldic and eddic metres with end rhyme, and many of these runhent variants are not otherwise attested in Old Norse poetry. Most of the other stanzas in runhent metre edited in this volume are composed in end-rhymed fornyrðislag (Sigv Frag 2, ÞSjár Frag 3, Anon (FoGT) 12, 25-6, 38-41), but one couplet (Anon (SnE) 11) is end-rhymed dróttkvætt and one helmingr (Anon GnóðÁsm) is in málaháttr with end rhyme. Also edited in the present volume are twenty-nine stanzas and two lines of the anonymous poem Málsháttakvæði (Anon Mhkv), which is transmitted at the end of ms. R of SnE after Ht. That poem, which has been attributed to the Orcadian bishop Bjarni Kolbeinsson (Bjbp, d. 1223), is composed in variants of runhent otherwise attested only in the two claves metricae (RvHbreiðm Hl 33-4, SnSt Ht 90-1, 94). The Hl variant has the heading rekit ‘driven’.

Hálfhnept

Hálfhnept is a skaldic metre in which the odd and even lines are made up of five to seven syllables (rarely four). Each line ends in a heavy monosyllable preceded by another heavy monosyllable or two resolved short syllables. Rhyme and alliteration follow the patterns of dróttkvætt, but the second hending always falls on the last syllable of the line (see SkP I, lxiii). The metre is exemplified and named in both claves metricae (RvHbreiðm Hl 49-50, SnSt Ht 77), and in the poetry edited in this volume it is used in Ormr Woman, Anon (LaufE) 2, Anon 732b 1, as well as in Óláfs drápa sœnska (Ótt Óldr), an encomium to the Swedish king Óláfr sœnski ‘the Swede’ Eiríksson (d. 1021) by Óttarr svarti ‘the Black’.

Mixed Metres

Like the þulur (see the section on fornyrðislag above), other stanzas edited in the present volume are also composed in a mixture of fornyrðislag and málaháttr (Anon Bjark 1-2, 4, 7, Anon (TGT) 18). The odd lines in Anon (TGT) 14, 23 are in fornyrðislag and the even lines in inn grœnlenzki háttr ‘the verse-form from Greenland’ (see RvHbreiðm Hl 19-20, SnSt Ht 71), and Anon Þorgþ I 1 is a mixture of málaháttr and ljóðaháttr. Anon (FoGT) 24, 27 are composed in an approximate version of the metre inn nýi háttr ‘the new verse-form’ (see SnSt Ht 73), possibly in imitation of that metre in Ht.

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7. Poetic Diction

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6. Metres

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