Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Preface
- Symbols and Abbreviations
- 1 Bases of Old Saxon metre: an introduction
- 2 Metrical types and positions: levelling and reorganisation
- 3 Resolution and alliteration: repatterning and reconstitution
- 4 Hypermetric verses and lines: diversification and restructuring
- 5 The remaking of alliterative tradition: gradation and harmonisation
- Appendix 1 Foreign names
- Appendix 2 The metre of the Old Saxon Genesis
- References
- Index to the scansion of the Heliand
- Index to the scansion of the Old Saxon Genesis
- Index of authors
- Index of subjects
- Index of verses cited for discussion or exemplification
3 - Resolution and alliteration: repatterning and reconstitution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Tables
- Preface
- Symbols and Abbreviations
- 1 Bases of Old Saxon metre: an introduction
- 2 Metrical types and positions: levelling and reorganisation
- 3 Resolution and alliteration: repatterning and reconstitution
- 4 Hypermetric verses and lines: diversification and restructuring
- 5 The remaking of alliterative tradition: gradation and harmonisation
- Appendix 1 Foreign names
- Appendix 2 The metre of the Old Saxon Genesis
- References
- Index to the scansion of the Heliand
- Index to the scansion of the Old Saxon Genesis
- Index of authors
- Index of subjects
- Index of verses cited for discussion or exemplification
Summary
This chapter treats resolution (section 3.1) and alliteration (section 3.2), the two major metrical devices for adding prominence to the lift in the traditional metre. I shall show that these devices underwent profound change in the Heliand metre in the specifics of their operation, and investigate underlying motivations for the metrical reconstitutions that the Heliand poet accomplished as he reorganised the inherited metre.
Resolution
A first device for heightening prominence is resolution, an association of a strong position with a disyllabic foot (px or sx). The term ‘resolution’ stems from the observation that a strong position may be regarded as ‘resolved’ by being simultaneously linked with two different syllables, rather than being mapped in a one-to-one correspondence to a single stressed syllable as in ordinary cases (cf. Hofmann 1991: 61).
Suspension of resolution
Given a disyllabic foot, not every instance of a strong position is resolved through association with the disyllable as a unit; rather it may be left unresolved, so that it is occupied exclusively by the first constituent syllable (i.e., the short stressed syllable) of a disyllabic foot. This inoperation of resolution is called suspension of resolution. Suspension of resolution is a context-dependent phenomenon and seems to concern the following configurations (the bold-faced p and s indicate that they occupy a sin- gle position on their own through suspension of resolution): PS#px (subtype A1s); x…P#px (type C); x…Psx (type C); Psxx (subtype D1); P#P#px (subtype D2a); P#Psx (subtype D2a); PsxP (type E).
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- Information
- The Metre of Old Saxon PoetryThe Remaking of Alliterative Tradition, pp. 194 - 294Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2004