Nelson Goering

Metre and clitics in Old English and Old Saxon This article attempts to extract prosodic information from Germanic (here, Old English and Old Saxon) alliterative poetry by integrating multiple theoretical frameworks. The metrical theories of Sieve...

My article on Metre and Clitics in Old English and Old Saxon has just appeared in Glossa. Basically an attempt to use metre to get a better handle on the prosody of things like prepositions and the development of articles in those languages. Really enjoyed working with Glossa -- a model journal!

Wow, yes. I mean, there are a lot of great things about living in Europe (yay trains!), but utopia it is emphatically not. And a lot of the factors that make life harder are (as is depressingly predictable) the same: racism, sexism, transphobia, Islamaphobia, etc.

YouTube video by XxX194XxX Tri Yann - Le Loup, le Renard et la Belette (La Jument de Michao)

J'ai vu le loup, le renard et la belette
J'ai vu le loup et le renard danser.

youtu.be/XL8JedSwpp0?...

"I indeed saw the wolf, and the weasel too, and with them the fierce fox, swift in the chase, an animal powerful in subtlety who is named Renard among the Gauls, plunderer of hens, (I saw them) dancing happily, drinking bowls of wine."

Three medieval dancing figures, photoshopped to have the heads of a wolf, a weasel, and a fox.

Hwæt ic þone wulf ge·seah, and ðā weosolan ēac,
and mid him ðone frēcnan fox, fēðum swiftne,
wīs-cræftig dēor, þe mid Wealhum bið
Regnheard nemned, rēafiend henna,
lācan lustum, līð-fatu drincan.

If you did translate it, you'd have at least one reader here!

Chambers also took Sievers' metrical findings on board, but marked them differently. Where Holthausen restored trisyllabic "līffrē[g]a" with a missing letter, Chambers prints "Līf-frêa", the carrot-top meant to hint at the older pronunciation. This has become a standard practice.

Another early 20c edition of Beowulf. R.W. Chambers was a leading Beowulf scholar of his generation. In 1914 he revised A.J. Wyatt's edition, and the result is one of my favourite English-language editions out there. Wonderful notes, and a lot of comments on words in the glossary.

There are a certain number of genuine (non-patronymic/matronymic) surnames in Iceland, and this is one of them. You can read a bit more about them here: www.arnastofnun.is/is/utgafa-og...

The first 17 lines of Holthausen's 2nd edition of Beowulf.

The critical apparatus of the first page of Holthausen's edition of Beowulf.

Holthausen's text is one of the first to build on Sievers' metrical findings, which explains small details like his printing of līffrē[g]a 'life-lord': the bracketed letter makes the historical, two-syllable pronunciation clearer. In his economical apparatus he duly credits Sievers for this.

The two volumes of F. Holthausen's edition of Beowulf (second edition).

Title page of F. Holthausen's Beowulf.

This is in many ways a model edition of Beowulf. Intended to provide a sound edition incorporating Sievers' discoveries about the poem's metre, it is sensibly edited, with an economical glossary, and compact but rich notes -- plus four other short Old English poems and the German Hildebrandslied.

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12. The people were not cowards, while weeping they escorted from the court
The land’s leader and the readied ones eager for battle.*
Then Hǫgni’s young heir said,
“Travel now fortunately and prudently, wherever your intent leads you.”

*Emended: the MS seems to say “from the court of the Huns”.

Two bears playing in water.

“The wolf will rule the inheritance of the Niflungs,
Old grey companies (wolves), if Gunnar is gone.
Dun-pelted bears will bite with hostile teeth,
Leaving sport for dogs, if Gunnar doesn’t return.”

(This stanza has a large number of small textual difficulties.)

Note to stanza 10:

Gunnar’s response to Hǫgni’s warning may seem abrupt: in what follows it is clear that he intends to accept the invitation, but he does not say so explicitly, nor does he ever explain his reasoning. He is, presumably, motivated by his sense of honour and fear of cowardice.

10. “Get up, Fjǫrnir,* send the golden cups of the men
Around the hall-floor into peoples’ hands.

*Otherwise unknown figure.

²Note to stanza 8: Guthrún, the sister of Gunnar and Hǫgni and wife of Atli.

³Note to stanza 8: The heath-dweller is a roundabout way of saying wolf, and the wolf's “clothing” is its fur.

2/2

¹Note to stanza 8: The speaker isn't actually specified in the manuscript, but since Gunnar has just asked his brother for advice, this is presumably Hǫgni's reply.

1/2

9. None of the clan urged Gunnar on, nor anyone else close to him,
Neither counsellors nor advisors, nor those who were powerful.
Gunnar then spoke up like a king ought to,
Renowned in the mead-hall, moved by his great spirit.

A wolf seen in profile, focused on its head. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Canis_lupus_Kopf.JPG

Hǫgni replied:¹
8. “What do you think the bride² signified when she sent us a ring
Wrapped with the clothing of the heath-dweller?³ I think she’s showing us a warning.
I found hair of the heath-dweller tied round the red ring.
The path for us two is wolfish, riding on this errand.”

7. [cont.] A single one of mine is better than would be those of all the Huns.”

*Note to stanza 7: “My helm the whitest” is “My helm and shield the whitest” in the manuscript, but 'oc skiold' disrupts both the metre and the grammar, and is probably added later.

7th century Swedish sword with gold hilt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Vikings_Begin_60_-_warrior_sword,_7th_century.jpg?fbclid=IwAR2gtIOYY9q9A6LNbkv_6IcQXpndVu6niX-2at0vcSr6b5jFixf1qspteKE

7. “We’ve got seven buildings full of swords:
On each one the hilt is made of gold.
I know my horse to be the best, and my sword the sharpest,
My bow proud above the bench, and my armour made of gold,
My helm* the whitest, come from Caesar’s hall. [cont.]

6. Then Gunnar turned his head and said to Hǫgni,
“What do you advise, younger warrior, as we hear such things?
I’m not aware of any gold on Gnita Heath
That the two of us don’t have as much again.

**Note 2 to stanza 5: There is a syntactic disfluency in the original, and the bulk of stanza 5 has material that doesn't fit very well (where did the Dnieper come into things?). Material from some other poem may have accidentally entered in here.

Wood carving from Hylestad Stave Church of Sigurd killing Fafnir. 12th century. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Hylestad_I%2C_right_-_Fafnir_and_Sigurd.jpg

*Note to stanza 5: Gnita Heath is where Sigurth killed the dragon Fáfnir and won his gold. This is the only hint in this poem in of a link between Sigurth and the Niflungs. In later legend, Guthrún is Sigurth's widow, but this is't yet part of the story or else is downplayed in the current poem.

5. “He declared that he’d also give you the broad plain of Gnita Heath –*
Of the screaming spear, and of gilt staves,
Great treasures, and the dwellings of the Dnieper,
That great forest which people call Mirkwood.”**

(Notes in replies.)

Shields and spears in a 'Germanic' style. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1094715583

4. “You’ll get to pick out shields and smoothed ash-spears,
Helmets decorated with gold and a large troop of Huns,
Silver-gilded saddle-cloths, shirts dyed Roman red,
Shafts, banners, steeds champing their bits.

3. “Atli sent me here on an errand, riding
This bit-champing horse through the mysterious Mirkwood
In order to invite you two, Gunnar [and Hǫgni], to come to the seats
Under helmets which encircle the hearth, to seek out Atli at home.

2. Courtly warriors there drank wine in a Roman hall.
Hiding their thoughts they sat silent: they were wary of the Huns’ wrath.
Then Knefrøth called forth with a cold voice;
That southern warrior sat on a high bench.

1. Atli sent a messenger to Gunnar, A bold warrior riding – he was called Knefrøth. He came to the courts of Gjúki,* and the hall of Gunnar, To the benches around the hearth, and to the sweet beer. *The previous Niflung king, Gunnar's dad.