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Author Russom, Geoffrey

Title Beowulf and old Germanic metre / Geoffrey Russom
Published Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1998

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 235 pages)
Series Cambridge studies in Anglo-Saxon England ; 23
Cambridge studies in Anglo-Saxon England ; 23.
Contents 1. Introduction -- 2. The foot -- 3. The verse -- 4. Light feet and extrametrical words -- 5. Metrical archaisms -- 6. Alliteration -- 7. Metrical subordination within the foot -- 8. Resolution -- 9. Word order and stress within the clause -- 10. Old Saxon alliterative verse -- 11. Hildebrandslied -- 12. Conclusions -- Verses specially discussed
Summary This 1998 book is a clear and accessible account of early Germanic alliterative verse which explains how such verse was treated by the Beowulf poet. There are differences of poetic style between Beowulf and the otherwise similar verse of ancient Scandinavia and continental Europe. Such distinctions have intrigued scholars for over a century, but Russom is the first to provide a systematic explanation of Old English, Old Norse, Old Saxon, and Old High German alliterative metres. The system of alliterative rules described by Russom derives from ordinary language; the rules change with language over historical time, rather than persisting as arbitrary restrictions. Once the relations between language and metre are identified, it is possible to see how language change yielded the divergent metrical practices which gave each tradition its special character. Russom's results should interest scholars of Old English and related Germanic languages, as well as linguists and those concerned with poetic metre
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 220-224) and index
Notes Print version record
SUBJECT Beowulf -- Versification. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85013277
Beowulf fast
Subject English language -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- Versification
English language -- Old English, ca. 450-1100 -- Rhythm
Germanic languages -- Versification
Civilization, Anglo-Saxon.
Rhetoric, Medieval.
Alliteration.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh.
Alliteration
Civilization, Anglo-Saxon
English language -- Old English -- Rhythm
English language -- Old English -- Versification
Germanic languages -- Versification
Rhetoric, Medieval
Versification
Gedichten.
Beowulf (anoniem)
Oudgermaans.
Alliteratie.
Metriek.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 0511002793
9780511002793