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Craigie: Skaldic Metre. 351
we take Helgakvida Hundingsbana as representative of
these, we find that 34 lines come under consideration, 26 of
which are of the correct type, while the remaining eight
are these:
hnigu heilug votn 1 hvazt engi mann
gaf Helga nafn en i annai sinn
pau’s i Orvasxmd folk upp a land
bra8t rond viS rond | Idtid engi mann.
It will be noticed that in all these cases the vowel is
still short, though followed by a double consonant, and this
is the common rule for these Eddaic verses which vary from
the strict skaldic types. Very rarely do such words as
furr, blofr, nott, kvdn make their appearance, so rarely,
indeed, that their occurrence cannot be accepted as in any way
significant1). Even Voluspd, which has some strange types
of line, has only a single instance of such an ending (stendr
<b of gr<mn\ and with very few exceptions (d*W, lopt, fagr^
Baldr) conforms to the general rule. Hence we may safely
make the general statement that in spite of occasional
divergences (partly due, it may be, to textual corruption) the
authors of the Eddaic poems followed the practice of the
professional skalds, and avoided a long full-stressed
substantive in the fourth place of the line.
§ 12. The bearing of the above facts on the metrical
interpretation of 6- and E-lines scarcely requires to be
emphasized. We have seen that such lines as vi& scevarstrond, es tefr
es sverfr, stendr a of grcenn, etc. are so exceptional in form
that they cannot be accepted as proving anything.
Whatever result we may come to must be based on normal types,
such as en aptr i shut, ok haffri liver, Tggs barn i prdy
harftr reis d kne, etc., and these seem plainly to indicate that
’) The very small number of such lines has been somewhat increased
in editions by emendation, e. g. Dr Finnur J6nsson alters frufiugr ass to
erin frufigi ass and alia gautr to enn aldni gautr. Under the circumstances
the MS reading is as probable as the emendation.
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