Editing Alliterative verse (section)

===Icelandic===
Icelandic is not only descended from Old Norse, it is so conservative that Old Norse literature is still read in Iceland.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Karlsson |first1=Stefán |title=The Icelandic Language |last2=McTurk |first2=Rory W. |publisher=Viking Society for Northern Research |year=2004}}</ref>  Traditional Icelandic poetry, however, follows somewhat different rules than Old Norse, both for rhythm and alliteration. The following brief description captures the basic rules of modern Icelandic alliterative verse,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jónas Hallgrímsson: Selected Poetry and Prose |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Jonas.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu}}</ref> which was the dominant form of Icelandic poetry until recent decades, and is still a living cultural tradition.<ref name="auto">{{cite thesis |last1=Kass |first1=Sophie Antonia |title='Svá sem naglar halda skipi saman': Attitudes to Alliteration in Poetry and Lyrics in Iceland |url=https://skemman.is/handle/1946/37940 |date=May 2021}}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref>

==== Formal features ====

==== Meter, rhythm, and alliteration ====
Icelandic alliterative verse contains lines that typically contain eight to ten syllables.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Formal Features of Jónas Hallgrímsson's Poetry: Appendix A. The Scansion of Lines of Modern Icelandic Stanzaic Verse |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Prosody/Prosody-AppA.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu}}</ref> They are traditionally analyzed into feet, one per stress, with typically falling rhythm. The first foot in a line is considered a ''heavy foot'', the second, a light foot, and so on, with the third and fifth foot counting as heavy, and the second and fourth as light.<ref name="digicoll.library.wisc.edu">{{Cite web |title=Formal Features of Jónas Hallgrímsson's Poetry: Appendix B. The Rules for Alliterant-Placement in the Odd Lines of Modern Icelandic Stanzaic Verse |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Prosody/Prosody-AppB.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu}}</ref> Icelandic lines are basically Germanic half-lines; they come in pairs. The ''head-stave'' is the first stressed syllable in the second line in each pair, which must alliterate with at least one stress in the preceding line. The alliterating stresses in the first line in each pair are called props, or ''studlar'', following the usual Germanic rules about which consonants alliterate. They are subject to the following rules:<ref name="digicoll.library.wisc.edu"/>

* at least one prop must stand in a heavy foot
* if both props are in heavy feet, no more than one light foot can separate them.
* A prop can only appear in a light foot if it is immediately adjacent to a prop in a heavy foot.
* If the second prop appears in a light foot, only one foot can separate it from the head-stave in the next line
* If the second prop appears in a heavy foot, one or two feet can separate it from the head-stave in the next line.

This system allows considerable rhythmic flexibility.<ref>Adalsteinsson, R. I. (2014). ''Traditions and Continuities: Alliteration in old and modern Icelandic verse''. Torossa.{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref>

Icelandic keeps some Old Norse forms, such as ''[[fornyrðislag]], [[ljóðaháttur]]'', and ''[[dróttkvætt]].''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Formal Features of Jónas Hallgrímsson's Poetry: I. Strophic Forms |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Prosody/Prosody-I.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu}}</ref> It also has a wide variety of stanzaic forms that combine the alliterative structure described above with rhyme ([[Rímur|rimur]]), including quatrain structures like ''[[Ferskeytt|ferskeytla]]'' that rhyme ABAB, couplet structures (''stafhenduætt''), tercet structures like ''baksneidd braghenda'', and longer patterns, in which rhyming and alliteration patterns run either in parallel or in counterpoint.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Formal Features of Jónas Hallgrímsson's Poetry: Stanzaic Forms |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Prosody/Prosody-II.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu}}</ref>

==== Diction ====
Traditional poetic synonyms and kennings persisted in Icelandic [[Rímur|rimur]] as late as the 18th Century, but were criticized by modernizing poets such as Jonas Hallgrimsson, and dropped out of later usage.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004648982_003 |chapter=Introduction |title=The Reception of German Literature in Iceland, 1775-1850 |date=1985 |last1=Senner |first1=W.M. |pages=v-xii |isbn=978-90-04-64898-2 }}</ref>

==== Example ====
The following poem in ''kviðuhattr''  meter by Jónas Hallgrímsson with translation by Dick Ringler<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jónas Hallgrímsson: A Toast to Iceland |url=https://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Minni/Minni.html |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu}}</ref> illustrates how the rules for Icelandic alliterative verse work. For convenience, lines starting with a head stave are indented and both props and headstave are bolded and underlined.
{{Verse translation|
{{lang|is|
'''Íslands minni'''{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}} 
Þið þekkið fold með <u>'''b'''</u>líðri <u>'''b'''</u>rá,{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}og <u>'''b'''</u>láum tindi fjalla,{{pad|1em}}
og <u>'''s'''</u>vanahljómi, <u>'''s'''</u>ilungsá,{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}og <u>'''s'''</u>ælu blómi valla,{{pad|1em}}
og <u>'''b'''</u>röttum fossi, <u>'''b'''</u>jörtum sjá{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}og <u>'''b'''</u>reiðum jökulskalla —{{pad|1em}}
<u>'''d'''</u>rjúpi' hana blessun <u>'''d'''</u>rottins á{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}um <u>'''d'''</u>aga heimsins alla.
}}
|
A Toast to Iceland{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}
Our <u>'''l'''</u>and of <u>'''l'''</u>akes forever fair{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}be<u>'''l'''</u>ow blue mountain summits,{{pad|1em}}
of <u>'''s'''</u>wans, of <u>'''s'''</u>almon leaping where{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}the <u>'''s'''</u>ilver water plummets,{{pad|1em}}
of glaciers swelling <u>'''b'''</u>road and <u>'''b'''</u>are{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}a<u>'''b'''</u>ove earth's fiery sinews —{{pad|1em}}
the <u>'''L'''</u>ord pour out his <u>'''l'''</u>argess there{{pad|1em}}
{{pad|1em}}{{pad|1em}}as <u>'''l'''</u>ong as earth continues!
}}

==== Recent developments ====
Alliterative verse appears to have been the dominant poetic tradition in Iceland until well after World War II. In the last generation, or so, a split appears to have developed between avant garde and traditionalist approaches to Icelandic poetry, with alliteration remaining frequent in all forms of Icelandic poetry, but playing a structural, defining role only in more traditional forms.<ref name="auto"/>