Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1968, Page 177

CLXXV
there are four lines) are often less accurate than is
usually the case with the end-rhymes4. Cf., for
example, the following stanza:
35. Óttist droUinn allar cettir æ til sanns
dásemd rétta, vel því votta, verkin hans.
The fifth ríma is composed in braghent valhent
(or braghent hringhent). The term used in A4 and D1
is slcjálfhent, in D3 liðmœlt sniðað. E.g.
33. Eikin lá þar lengi á sem lærðir inna
síðan sá það Saba kvinna
Salomon þá hún vildi finna.
There are masculine rhymes in stanzas 10, 18, 22,
24, 26, 27, 32, 45, 46, perhaps also in stanzas 2, 4,43.
As can be seen from the examples quoted, close
rhyme is characteristic of KrR. It has been the
poet’s ambition to “kveða dýrt”. He has not, however,
completely mastered the demanding forms. The ex-
pressions are often stilted and hard to understand
and there are frequent inaccuracies of rhyme and
occasionally incorrect alliteration. Xot all these faults
can have arisen under the transmission of the text.
The third ríma is the easiest to understand and in
this ríma there are not as many variants between
the MSS as there are in the other rímur. This is
because the verse-form here is comparatively straight-
forward. The poet himself draws attention to this
fact in the introductory mansöngur, “þriðja þátt með
hægan hátt skal höldum bj óða”. Where a ríma-poet who
obeyed all the severest commands of the verse-forms
would have tried to find accurate rhymes, the
poet of KrR frequently has assonances, that is rhymes
in which the vowels differ from each other, e.g.:
4. Cf. Stefán Karlsson: Gömul hljóðdvöl í ungumrímum. íslenzk
Tunga V, Reykjavík 1964, p. 11.