1. Known possibilities for structural features
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The two categories of drápa and flokkr are attested in Rekstefja 34; both these and -vísur frequently occur in the titles of poems.
a. A drápa seems to be distinguished by having stef ‘refrain(s)’. (The drápan steflausa mentioned by Snorri is apparently an exception (SnE 1931, 213), though Haukr Valdísarson’s Íslendingadrápa has no stef >> d. stef).
b. A drápa seems to consist of introduction, stefjabálkr (section punctuated by refrains), and slœmr ‘close’. The introduction and close will typically contain summarising, generalised comment and praise. The introduction frequently contains a call for a hearing (addressed to the dedicatee, the assembled company or both). It may also contain rather unrelated material, e.g. the poet’s own travels as in Arnórr’s Hrynhenda. As mentioned above, it has also been suggested that extended poems might be flanked by more informal verses.
c. The stefjabálkr may consist of a number of stefjamel, sections united by single refrain. As many as six different stef, hence six stefjamel, are possible, to judge from the title of Þjóðólfr’s Sexstefja. New stefjamel are rarely announced explicitly, but might be signalled, e.g., by the skald’s statement that he will now tell of ... or by introductory phrases such as síðan vas þat’s ...
d. Each stef is normally 2-4 lines long; it can be split across stanzas — klofastef or rekstef. (So it is conceivable that an unintelligible line might be part of one.)
e. The content of the stef is frequently (though by no means always) vague, hyperbolical praise, often in the present tense. In secular drápur from the Christian era there may be a prayer for the hero’s soul, and specifically religious poems often include prayer and praise in stef (see further Fidjestøl 1982, 185-90).