Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2021, Page 21

In Table 1, I summarize the above discussion. Haustlǫng has 80 odd
lines of which 17 lines are without rhyme, or 21%. Of these 17 lines, five
are the third line of a half-stanza. I list the corresponding information for
all the poems:

Name of poem Number of Without Without Lines 3 and 7
odd lines rhyme, rhyme, without rhyme,
number percent number

Haustlǫng 80 17 21% 5
Glymdrápa 32 1 3% 0
Hákonardrápa (Sindri) 28 1 4% 0
Gráfeldardrápa 44 4 9% 3
Máhlíðingavísur 68 5 7% 2
Vellekla 114 13 11% 7
Húsdrápa 28 1 4% 1
Hákonardrápa (Tindr) 40 1 3% 0
Þórsdrápa 80 2 3% 1

Table 1:  Percentages of odd lines without rhyme, all of whom are clause-lines.

The total number of lines without rhyme in the table is 45. Of these, 26
are the first line of a half-stanza. The remaining 19 are the third line of a
half-stanza.
The third line of a half-stanza is often a clause-line. In Haustlǫng, Glym -
drápa, Hákonardrápa (Sindri), Vellekla, and Hákonardrápa (Tindr) around
half of the third lines are clause-lines. In Þórsdrápa and Húsdrápa they
are around 35%. In Gráfeldardrápa the percentage is near 60%. In Má -
hlíðingavísur it is over 80%. It is, nevertheless, remarkable that all the 45
odd lines without rhyme in Table 1 are clause-lines. The odds are very low
for it being a coincidence.
The following odd-numbered lines without rhyme are in Ragnars -
drápa from the 9th century. These lines are not clause-lines, and I use
them to exemplify the type of lines without rhyme that are neither in the
poem Haustlǫng nor any of its successors.
2.3 meyjar hjóls enn mæri
3.3 með dreyrfáar dróttir
9.7 jǫfrum ulfs at sinna

Because of the above lines, I can state that there is a qualitative difference
between the missing rhyme in odd lines of Ragnarsdrápa and Haustlǫng,
Haustlǫng 21