Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.1981, Page 107

Did dróttkvætt Borrow its Rhythm from lrish?
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F. boðit til pls kvað Fplski (85.4)
G. sunnan lágt meðal runna (22.8)
(The numbers refer to stanzas and lines as numbered in Sturlunga saga
(1906-11)).
It may at first sight seem an interesting feature of this pattem that
except for the types D and G the line can be analysed into ‘morae’, by
counting each strong beat (~) as equalling two light ones (“ “). An
analysis of this sort is tentatively suggested in Kristján Árnason (1980:
128-30), and this would suggest that the metre was basically quantita-
tive, each line consisting of nine morae that could be filled by heavy or
light syllables according to certain rules. But the occurrence (although
not very common) of lines like D and G shows that the rhythm cannot
have been purely quantitative in this sense. We must allow for a sort of
neutralization in the position of ‘weak beats’ in type A. Thus, D and G
can be seen as variants of A with two syllables in the first and second
line-internal weak position respectively:
(3) A.---------------------
This clearly suggests that something more than quantity is involved,
and this is most likely to have been stress. Thus a stress on sverðs in
line D was probably enough to neutralize any ill-effects caused by the
occurrence of two syllables instead of one in the following position, and
in G the heavy syllable lágt probably managed to dominate the two
following light ones enough for the basic rhythm to be transparent. But
we may note that, as far as I know, there are no lines where this type
of neutralization occurs twice in the same line. Sturctures of the type:
(4) -----------------------
seem to have been forbidden. I suggest that this would have caused too
much tension between the basic form and variant stmctures.
I assume, then, that stress must have interplayed with quantity in the
rhythm of dróttkvætt, although the exact nature of this interplay is
perhaps not entirely clear. Indeed, it must be borne in mind that the
linguistic quantity-distinction was only made in syllables carrying word
stress, which means that heavy quantity had to be accompanied by
stress. Furthermore, the metrical behaviour of compounds and verbs