Note to Anon (FoGT) 20III
[All]: As with the second helmingr of st. 19, the poet’s desire to pair umlauted vowels (ligatures) with long non-umlauted vowels in the uneven lines seems to have largely gone by the board, in favour of the maintenance of a particular ligature in both lines of a couplet. In l. 2, even though etymologically hæting (from hót ‘threat’) and rætir (from rót ‘root’) are [ø:] ligatures, they would have become [æ:] after c. 1250. Similarly in ll. 3-4, næra and vær have etymologically [ø:] ligatures, but will have fallen together with original [æ:] ligatures, here nær and færi, by the mid-C13th. Again, the ligatures in ll. 5-6 are either of [ø:] (æðaz l. 5) or [æ:] origin (æðr ll. 5 and 6).