Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2021, Síða 24

instead). This is not allowed in early dróttkvætt and not in Haust -
lǫng. See the quotation from Finnur Jónsson in Section 2 (Pre -
liminaries).
3 Even lines could have an alliterating syllable in the second metri-
cal position. This is not a feature of early dróttkvætt, and not of
Haustlǫng.
4 Line-internal rhyme could be between the first and the third met-
rical position in proto-dróttkvætt (and does not involve the penult).
Such rhyme is not in early dróttkvætt, and it is not in Haustlǫng.
See quotation from Finnur Jónsson in Section 2.

All the items above are features of Bragi’s Ragnarsdrápa, but I use lausa -
vísur by Egill Skalla-Grímsson (number 6) and Torf-Einarr (number 4) to
exemplify them.
Item number 3 appears in the following half-stanza by Egill that
Snorri quotes in Skáldskaparmál of his Snorra-Edda, where it is stanza
number 140 (Faulkes 1998:40).
Upp skulum órum sverðum,
ulfs tannlituðr, glitra,
eigum dð at drýgja
í dalmiskunn fiska.

Lines 1 and 3 are clause-lines and without rhyme, which is in order in
early dróttkvætt. Lines 2 and 4 have full-rhyme as is required in early drótt -
kvætt, but line 4 has alliteration in the second metrical position, which is
a proto-dróttkvætt feature (item 3). Snorri seems to base his stanza num-
ber 56 in Háttatal (the poem) on this stanza regarding rhyme in even and
odd lines. He says the odd lines have no rhyme (háttlausa) and he calls the
meter Egill’s meter (Egils háttr).
Egill’s half-stanza has a continuation in Egils saga, which I use to
exemplify item number 2 (it is lausavísa number 6; Finnur Jónsson’s
1912–1915 edition dates it to year 924).
leiti upp til Lundar
lýða hverr sem bráðast,
gerum þar fyr sjǫt sólar
seið ófagran vigra.

Lines 1 and 3 are clause-lines, and do not need rhyme in early dróttkvætt,
but lines 2 and 4 have only half-rhymes, allowed in proto-dróttkvætt (item
2), whereas full-rhymes would be required in early and classical drótt -
Þorgeir Sigurðsson24