It will, therefore, be the safest course and make it easiest for us to solve the problem how the old poets constructed their verses, if we leave the question, whether there were two or four or a mixture of two, three and four beats, quite alone. We must analyse the alliterative verses we have simply according to their various construction (short and long, simple and compound, weakly and strongly stressed words), in order to arrive at the laws, which regulated the arrangement of this various speech-material into verses of four members.

§ 62. Division of alliterative Verses into 90 Subspecies according to their Composition.

All OE. alliterative verses can be divided into 90 subspecies or 'types' according to their composition (see tables p. 76 f.), as I have already shown in my Studien zum germanischen Alliterationsvers II, 2 ff.

§ 63. Outlines of the Four-Member Theory.

On comparing these 90 types and the verses in Beowulf, which represent them, we arrive at the following results:

The alliterative long-line consists of two halflines, each of which has four members. These members are differently 'filled'. At the beginning of a verse the 'filling' is stronger than at the end, in the first half-line stronger than in the second.

Each member must contain at least one syllable.

§ 62. Division of alliterative Verses into 90 Subspecies.

B (31-40).

bearme

77

32 he pas

33

þām

frōfre ge-
wife þa

bād

swa

62 him sẽ

yldesta

word 63 hu þā

æđelingas

gear-dagum

65 ofer
ofer

hron-rāde

lagu-stræte

67

on

69

on

70

tō

68 bone

Two short syllables may take the place of one long one, and at the beginning of the first halfline a long and a short syllable may stand. The lowest number of syllables in a verse is, therefore, four; the highest number is eight, rarely exceeded in Old English.

The four members of the verse are never quite independent, so that the verse must not be measured monopodically; but two or three members of the verse are united to form a foot according to the natural stress of the words. The first member has the chief stress, which dominates over the other members of the foot.

Each foot begins with the most strongly stressed syllable. In a foot of two members, therefore, the first member is always more strongly stressed than the second. There is no 'rising' foot of two members (x) in Old Germanic prosody such as Sievers assumes for his types B and C (§ 38).

The combination of a foot of one member with a (falling) foot of two members ( and x) to make a foot of three members, is possible only when the foot of one member comes first and is more strongly stressed than the foot of two members which follows (1+2), for thus only can the foot with three syllables form a real unity with falling stress. If the foot of two members comes first, the foot of one member which follows cannot subordinate itself to the preceding weaker stress of the foot of two members, but must keep its

own independent stress, as we see in the use of compounds míddan-géard, mórgen-léoht etc. at the end of Sievers' type B, hilde-wápnum etc. in Sievers' type A. The foot of three members, which Sievers assumes for his type D2 (D4) wide spràng) is, therefore, impossible. middan-geard etc., the third member its independence (§ 38).

1×1 (blád Here, as in must retain

§ 64. Fem., Masc. and Gliding Verse-ending. According to the position of the feet of two or of three members in the verse we get the schemes: 2+2 or (1+1)+2 = Sievers' A,

1+2+1 or 1+(1+1)+1 = Sievers' B, D2, (1+2)+1 or 3+1 Sievers' E,

=

1+(1+2) or 1+3= Sievers' C, D1.

If, in the division of the verses, we pay attention only to the verse-ending, in which the feet are most distinct and easiest to recognize, we have: A. Verses ending with a foot of two members (feminine), 2+2, Types 1-30 (Sievers' A).

B. Verses ending with a foot of one member (masculine), 1+2+1 or 3+1, Types 31-60 (Sievers' B, D2, E).

C. Verses ending with a foot of three members (gliding), 1+3, Types 61-90 (Sievers' C, D1).

§ 65. A. Verses with Feminine Ending: 2+2 or (1+1)+2, Types 1-30 (Sievers' A). The verses with feminine ending (A-verses) are put first, because they are the most common in