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342
Craigie: Skaldic Metre.
though possibly exhaustive tabulation might give different
percentages in some cases.
One thing which I have left entirely untouched is the
bearing which my views have upon the structure of Old
Germanic metre as a whole. The most attractive feature of
Prof. Sievers’ system is that it brings Old Northern verse
into line with Old English and Old Saxon, and supplies
them with a common explanation. It must be admitted,
however, that skaldic practice is not in favour of this view,
nor does there seem to be any imperative reason why there
should be this correspondence in detail. We know that
dr6tt-kveett is exclusively Northern; other features may be so as
well. To assume that Old Northern metre is found in its
primitive form only in some of the Edda poems involves
grave difficulties, for it is now well established that these
cannot be set down as older than other poems in which the
strict skaldic rules are observed. Here, of course, it is
possible to reason in several different ways, but incidentally in
the following pages I have indicated what seem to me to
be strong reasons for reconsidering the whole question as to
the standing of these poems. When texts are in the condition
in which we have V6lusp& and Vfilundarkvida, to all
appearance marked by numerous interpolations and omissions,
it is safer not to attach too much importance to their me*
trical peculiarities. These problems, however, together with
many others, such as the structure of lj6dah&ttr and
m&la-h&ttr, do not come within the scope of the present article,
which practically resolves itself into an attempt to
demonstrate that the skalds observed rules with regard to quantity
of syllables and stressing of compounds quite different from
what has hitherto been supposed. How far these rules may
be ultimately reconcilable with Prof. Sievers’ types is a
question into which I am not at present prepared to enter.
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