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Beowulf and old Germanic metre / Geoffrey Russom

Author
Russom, Geoffrey
Published
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Physical Description
1 online resource (xii, 235 pages).
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Series
Contents
1. Introduction -- 2. The foot -- 3. The verse -- 4. Light feet and extrametrical words -- 5. Metrical archaisms -- 6. Alliteration -- 7. Metrical subordination within the foot -- 8. Resolution -- 9. Word order and stress within the clause -- 10. Old Saxon alliterative verse -- 11. Hildebrandslied -- 12. Conclusions -- Verses specially discussed.
Summary
This 1998 book is a clear and accessible account of early Germanic alliterative verse which explains how such verse was treated by the Beowulf poet. There are differences of poetic style between Beowulf and the otherwise similar verse of ancient Scandinavia and continental Europe. Such distinctions have intrigued scholars for over a century, but Russom is the first to provide a systematic explanation of Old English, Old Norse, Old Saxon, and Old High German alliterative metres. The system of alliterative rules described by Russom derives from ordinary language; the rules change with language over historical time, rather than persisting as arbitrary restrictions. Once the relations between language and metre are identified, it is possible to see how language change yielded the divergent metrical practices which gave each tradition its special character. Russom's results should interest scholars of Old English and related Germanic languages, as well as linguists and those concerned with poetic metre.
Subject(s)
ISBN
0511002793 (electronic bk.)
9780511002793 (electronic bk.)
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 220-224) and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 43106082