Editing Alliterative verse (section)

==== 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>