Studia Islandica - 01.06.1975, Page 218

SUMMARY
Among the Old Norse metrical forms, the hnepptir hœtt-
ir or catalectic measures are remarkably different from
all others. In the Old Germanic metres there were two main
stresses in a line, and otherwise the rhythm was highly
variahle, yet in only two of Sievers’s metrical types (B
and E) are the hne endings catalectic (i.e. ending -
or -i): Of approximately 176 lines at the beginning of
Völuspá only fifteen end catalectically (x-). This oh-
viously does not speak for any preference for, or readiness
to adopt, this particular type of metre.
If we look at other Scandinavian metrical forms, we main-
ly find the most common Northem type — dróttkvætt, or
court measure, with three stresses in a line and an obliga-
tory trochaic final foot (-x). In the hrynhent form we
find a mixture of Latin trochaic hymn metre and drótt-
kvœtt measures. Here the stresses are four in a line and
the obligatory ending is still trochaic. Lines in catalectic
metre also usually contain four stresses; the placing of the
unstressed syllables is rather free, but the line must end
on a stressed catalectic syllable. Here we are presented
with a metrical scheme quite different from anything we
otherwise know of in Old Germanic or Scandinavian pro-
sody.
At exactly the time when the present writer was study-
ing these unusual verse forms, he had the good luck to
become acquainted with some new work on Old Irish
metrics. Professor Greene and Frank O’Connor brought