Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1981, Page 104

102 Kristján Árnason
that the Nordic court poets simply copied the Old-Irish metre rinnard.
The most striking innovations in the dróttkvætt form relative to the
older Eddic tradition are (a) the internal rhyme, (b) the rhythm, some-
times seen as syllable-counting, and (c) the remarkable freedom in
word-order.
In a recent article Mackenzie (1981) concludes, on the basis of a
comparison of features such as alliteration, rhyming and various binding
devices used to connect lines and stanzas together, that dróttkvætt was
borrowed from Irish. Although many of the points she makes are
indeed quite pertinent, it seems to me that features like alliteration and
rhyme are in a sense less central to the structure of a metre than is its
rhythm, and that they can be borrowed from one tradition into another
without a basic change in the underlying metrical structure taking place.
I would therefore like to concentrate on the rhythmical structure of
dróttkvætt and consider whether it is likely that this was due to some
sort of borrowing.
2.
According to the handbooks, Old- and Middle-Irish poetry from
about the 8th century onwards was mostly what is called syllabic. That
is, the basic characteristic of the rhythm, if one can speak of rhythm at
all, is said to have been the number of syllables to each line. The type
that as time passed came to be the most common is the debide, which
is described as having 7 syllables to each basic line. Variation occurs, so
that versions of the debide or patterns that have been assigned the status
of independent metres may develop lines with a smaller or greater
number of syllables. In addition to the brute number of syllables, the
accentual shape of the cadence is seen as forming a characteristic. Thus
one version of debide is described as having stanzas of theformS1?1?1?2,
that is the first line has three syllables and ends in a monosyllable (is
catalectic, one might say) and the last one has seven syllables and ends
in a disyllable (has a trochaic ending) and so on. In addition to this,
alliteration, assonance and rhyme are used to a varying extent as further
decoration.
Another metre, the rinnard, is characterized by the index 62626262,
that is, four lines with six syllables and a trochaic ending.
Apart from the shape of the cadence, scholars have not, as far as I
know, agreed on a view of the accentual shape of the line. Since Old