Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2021, Page 18

All of the above lines are clause-lines as is normal for first lines of half-
stanzas. Haustlǫng has five lines that are without rhyme and are not at
the beginning of a half-stanza. Two of them are part of a refrain, and they
are therefore identical.

9.3 þás ellilyf ása16
10.3 þá vas Ið með jǫtnum
13.7 Baugs þák bifum fáða
18.7 en berg-Dana bægði
20.7 Baugs þák bifum fáða

All the above lines are clause-lines, which means that they have a finite
verb (bolded above) in the first or the second sentence position, and also
in one of the first four metrical positions, or else they begin with a con-
nective (bolded and italicized above).
Odd lines that are not at the beginning of a half-stanza (the third lines)
are commonly clause-lines, but their percentage is different for different
poems. In Haustlǫng, some 50% of these lines are clause-lines, which is
typical (see discussion following Table 1). It could be a coincidence that
five lines in Haustlǫng are of this type. This is, however, not likely,
because other poems in the 10th century have the same feature; the third
line is never without rhyme unless it is a clause-line. The number of
poems with more than ten extant half-stanzas (and thus more than 20 odd
lines) is not large. In the following, I list all lines without rhyme in these
poems and demonstrate that all of them are clause-lines.
Glymdrápa by Þorbjǫrn hornklofi, presumably on Haraldr hárfagri
and dated to c. 900, has 16 extant half-stanzas and 32 odd lines. The fol-
lowing odd line is without a normal dróttkvætt rhyme:

4.1 Þar svát barsk at borði17

Hákonardrápa by Guthormr sindri, composed for King Hákon the good,
who reigned c. 936–961, has 14 extant half-stanzas and 28 odd lines. One
of them is without rhyme:
Þorgeir Sigurðsson18
16 This line appears to have the interlinear full-rhyme: þás vs ás-a, but I assume it to
be coincidental, since the metrical type in question was not introduced until after year
1000. See Kuhn (1969) and Myrvoll (2014:230).
17 Þar : bar-sk could rhyme, but rhyme in metrical positions 1 and 3 is not normal for
Haustlǫng and later poems.