Mythological Names in dróttkvætt Formulae II: Base-Word–Determinant Indexing (original) (raw)
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Mythological Names and dróttkvætt Formulae III: From Metric-Structural Type to Compositional System
Studia Metrica et Poetica 2(1), 2015: 7–33., 2015
This article explores patterns of language use in oral poetry within a variety of semantic formula. Such a formula may vary its surface texture in relation to phonic demands of the metrical environment in which it is realised. This is the third part of a four-part series based on metrically entangled kennings in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry as primary material. Old Norse kennings present a semantic formula of a particular type which is valuable as an example owing to the extremes of textural variation that it enables. The study concentrates on two-element kennings meaning ‘battle’. The first part in this series introduced the approach to kennings as semantic formulae and illustrated their formulaicity through evidence of the preferred lexical choices with which they were realised. The second part presented a case study illustrating that preferred word choices could extend beyond the kenning to additional elements in the line like rhyme words. The third case study presented here concentrates on the potential for a formula of this type to develop a general preference for elements of the kenning to come from one semantic category rather than another without such choices being metrically motivated per se.
Mythological Names and dróttkvætt Formulae I: When is a Valkyrie Like a Spear?
Studia Metrica et Poetica 1/1 (2014): 100-139, 2014
This article explores patterns of language use in oral poetry within a variety of semantic formula. Such a formula may vary its surface texture in relation to phonic demands of the metrical environment in which it is realized. Metrically entangled kennings in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry provide material for a series of case studies focusing on variation in realizing formulae of this type. Old Norse kennings present a semantic formula of a particular type which is valuable as an example owing to the extremes of textural variation that it enables. Focus will be on variation between two broad semantic categories in expressing the formula’s consistent unit of meaning that are otherwise unambiguously distinct: proper names for mythological beings and poetic terms for weapons and armour. This article introduces an approach to kennings as semantic formulae and includes an illustrative case study on kennings meaning ‘battle’ in the last three metrical positions of a dróttkvætt line. The case study is simultaneously used to demonstrate the degree of integration of mythological proper names in the poetic register. This article contains only the first case study of a series. It provides foundations for examining variation in the associative links exhibited by names of mythic beings as a category according to the metrical positions in which a battle-kenning is realized, as will be discussed further later in this series. In additions to insights into how language was used in the practice of this tradition, this study highlights that mythological names could be used in the poetry for purely metrical reasons without linking to the name's mythological significance.
Studia Metrica et Poetica 11(1): 7–43, 2024
This paper is the third in a three-part series that develops a model for the background of rhyme in Old Norse dróttkvætt poetry as a formalization of the same form of rhyme found across Old Germanic poetries. The first paper in this series outlined the argument and its background. The second paper explored rhyme in Old Germanic poetries outside of Old Norse. The present paper introduces rhyme in Old Norse eddic poetries in relation to what was found in other Old Germanic traditions. It then turns to dróttkvætt, discussed in relation to the broader poetic ecology in which it emerged and developed, and considers how dróttkvætt impacted that ecology and uses of rhyme in eddic poetry. Although the ultimate origin of dróttkvætt remains obscure, the discussion of rhyme in dróttkvætt requires a discussion of the history of the meter, here situated in relation to other developments in the poetic ecology that point to greater attention to cadence and rhyme under conditions conducive to formalizing a stanzaic structure. However, this exploration of the history of the poetic form highlights that rhyme may have been a secondary development of the basic meter, formalizing what began as an optional added feature that may have had only a marginal metrical role.
Studia Metrica et Poetica 10(2): 32–60, 2023
This paper is the second in a three-part series on the distinctive type of rhyme in the Old Norse dróttkvaett meter, argued to have emerged through the metricalization of uses of rhyme within a short line found across Old Germanic poetries. Whereas the first paper outlined the argument and its background, this paper explores uses of rhyme in Old Germanic poetries other than Old Norse. Rhyme involving the stressed syllable or word stem irrespective of subsequent syllables is shown to be a device of these poetic systems. Especially in Old English, such rhyme is used to support and reinforce the basic meter and may even fill a metrical function in the place of additional alliteration. The type of rhyme is argued to be an inherited feature of the poetic system, an argument also supported by the metricalized use of rhyme in Old Norse dróttkvaett poetry. Because some theories of the Old Germanic poetic form require viewing rhyme as competing and interfering with its rhythm, the rhymecompatible model used here is outlined.
Alvíssmál and Orality I: Formula, Alliteration and Categories of Mythic Being
Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 126: 17–71, 2012
This paper presents a case study on formula selection and variation in eddic poetry. It includes a general discussion of approaches to formulae in eddic poetry, problems with these, and offers a new model for addressing the relative fixity of formulaic expressions. Although focused on Old Norse poetry, this discussion has a broad relevance to approaching other oral-poetic traditions through limited medieval sources or their relationships. The paper analyzes the thirteen formulaic stanzas in Alvíssmál which ascribe poetic synonyms to different types of mythic being. The formula is approached through linguistics rather than directly from Oral-Formulaic Theory. Meter and alliteration are discussed as conditioning and determinant factors. The ‘alliterative rank’ of terms is correlated with their formulaic use to accomplish alliteration. An inclination to non-variation is demonstrated for the poem - i.e. variation in the use of formulae is avoided rather than tapping its potential. The concentration on a single text takes this discussion into detail, including e.g. observing indicators of some form of interruption in the documentation process evident through changes in use of manuscript abbreviations correlated with peculiarities in formula use. Binary models of ‘improvization’–‘memorization’ are shown to be insufficient to describe actual variation. ‘Crystallization’ is proposed as an alternative. Comparison with stanzas quoted in Snorri Sturluson’s Edda suggest that a formula and its variable element were inclined to crystallize as a whole-line unit in memory, and that constraints of alliteration, semantics and syllabic rhythm within a line limited variation as a process of social negotiation in transmission. The hypothesis of whole-line crystallization is tested elsewhere in the eddic corpus, drawing examples from Vǫluspá, Skírnismál and Þrymskviða, where it offers an explanation for grammatical peculiarities or inconsistencies associated with repeating lines.
Studia Metrica et Poetica, 2023
This paper is the first in a three-part series or tryptic that argues for the Old Germanic origins of rhyme in the Old Norse dróttkvaett meter. This meter requires rhymes on the stressed syllables of two words within a six-position line, irrespective of the syllables that follow. This first instalment introduces both the Old Germanic poetic form and the dróttkvaett meter. It outlines the background of the discussion and presents the basic argument. The second instalment presents a portrait of rhyme in Old Germanic meters outside of Old Norse, providing foundations for viewing rhyme as an inherited part of the Old Germanic poetic system. That portrait highlights the use of rhymes including the stressed vowel within a short line and the tendency to use such rhymes in the b-line, corresponding to the rhymes in even lines of dróttkvaett. The third instalment turns to dróttkvaett within its poetic ecology, beginning with a portrayal of rhyme in Old Norse eddic poetries, followed by dróttkvaett in relation to its contemporary poetic ecology and unravelling its impacts on that ecology, gradually working backward to a perspective on the ecology in which it emerged.
A Constructionist and Corpus-Based Approach to Formulas in Old English Poetry
Languages, 2024
See also: https://www.academia.edu/125335974/ This paper explores a constructionist and corpus-based approach to Old English formulaic language through an analysis of the “maþelode system” of speech introductions. The analysis is performed on a section of the York-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Poetry, comprising the poems Beowulf, Battle of Brunanburh, and Exodus. The results show that most instances of the maþelode system belong to a well-attested construction continuum, structured by the widespread Old English (and ultimately Germanic) poetic devices of variation and kenning. This continuum ranges from more fixed repetitions that exclusively involve the verb maþelian to more schematic patterns that are also attested by other speech verbs, by verbs of giving, as well as by a number of further verbs of various semantic types. The particularly high frequency of this pattern with speech verbs and verbs of giving matches the prominent role, highlighted by previous studies, of both word-exchange and gift-exchange within Old English heroic ideology, and suggests that these formulaic patterns served the purpose to characterize the protagonists of speech or giving events as heroic and/or lordly figures. Keywords: Old English poetry; formulas; oral-formulaic language; Construction Grammar; corpus linguistics; annotated corpora
Oral Poetry as Language Practice: A Perspective on Old Norse dróttkvætt Composition
In Song and Emergent Poetics – Laulu ja runo – Песня и видоизменяющаяся поэтика. Ed. Pekka Huttu-Hilttunen et al. Runolaulu-Akatemian Julkaisuja 18. Juminkeon Julkaisuja 119. Kuhmo: Juminkeko. Pp. 279–307., 2014
This is a paper from conference proceedings that offers an overview and introduction to how kennings in Old Norse skaldic poetry can become interfaced with the dróttkvætt meter as semantic formulae, their development of associations with lexical material for completing a line, and considerations of how this was related to social practice and internalizing the tradition.