Editing Alliterative verse (section)

== Old English ==
{{further|Old English literature|Old English metre}}

[[Old English]] classical poetry, epitomised by ''[[Beowulf]]'', follows the rules of traditional Germanic poetry outlined above, and is indeed a major source for reconstructing them.<ref name="Russom 1998 Old Saxon alliterative verse"/> [[J.R.R. Tolkien]]'s essay "[[On Translating Beowulf|On Translating ''Beowulf'']]{{-"}} analyses the rules as used in the poem.<ref>{{cite book | last=Tolkien |first=J. R. R. |author-link=J. R. R. Tolkien |title=The Monsters and the Critics, and other Essays | year=1983 | publisher=George Allen and Unwin |chapter=[[On Translating Beowulf|On Translating ''Beowulf'']] | orig-year=1940}}</ref> Old English poetry, even after the introduction of [[Christianity]], was uniformly written in alliterative verse, and much of the literature written in Old English, such as the [[The Dream of the Rood|Dream of the Rood]], is explicitly Christian,<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9783110866414 |title=Ingeld and Christ |date=1972 |last1=Cherniss |first1=Michael D. |isbn=978-3-11-086641-4 }}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> though poems like [[Beowulf]] demonstrate continuing cultural memory for the [[Paganism|pagan]] past.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1163/9789004305816_007 |chapter=Looking Back to a Troubled Past: Beowulf and Anglo-Saxon Historical Consciousness |title=Writing the Barbarian Past: Studies in Early Medieval Historical Narrative |date=2016 |last1=Ghosh |first1=Shami |pages=184–221 |isbn=978-90-04-30522-9 }}</ref> Alliterative verse was so strongly entrenched in Old English society that English monks, writing in Latin, would sometimes create Latin approximations to alliterative verse.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abram |first1=Christopher |title=Aldhelm and the Two Cultures of Anglo-Saxon Poetry |journal=Literature Compass |date=September 2007 |volume=4 |issue=5 |pages=1354–1377 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-4113.2007.00483.x }}</ref>

===Types of Old English alliterative verse===
Old English alliterative verse comes in a variety of forms. It includes heroic poetry like [[Beowulf]], [[Battle of Brunanburh (poem)|The Battle of Brunanburh]], or [[The Battle of Maldon]]; [[elegiac]] or "wisdom" Poetry like [[The Ruin]] or [[The Wanderer (Old English poem)|The Wanderer]], riddles, translations of classical and Latin poetry, saints' lives, poetic Biblical paraphrases, original Christian poems, charms, mnemonic poems used to memorize information, and the like.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1002/9781118441138 |title=A History of Old English Literature |date=2013 |isbn=978-1-118-45323-0 |editor-last1=Fulk |editor-last2=Cain |editor-first1=R. D. |editor-first2=Christopher M. }}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref>

===Formal features===
====Meter and rhythm====
As described above for the Germanic tradition as a whole, each line of poetry in Old English consists of two half-lines or verses with a pause or ''[[caesura]]'' in the middle of the line. Each half-line usually has two accented syllables, although the first may only have one. The following example from the poem ''[[The Battle of Maldon]]'', spoken by the warrior Beorhtwold, shows the usual pattern:

{{Verse translation|
{{lang|ang|<u>'''H'''</u>ige sceal þe <u>'''h'''</u>eardra, {{pad|1em}} <u>'''h'''</u>eorte þe cēnre,
<u>'''m'''</u>ōd sceal þe <u>'''m'''</u>āre, {{pad|1em}} swā ūre <u>'''m'''</u>ægen lȳtlað
Her lið ure <u>'''ea'''</u>ldor &nbsp; &nbsp;<u>'''ea'''</u>ll forheawen,}}
|
Will must be the harder, courage the bolder,
spirit must be the greater, as our might lessens.
Here our leader lies all overthrown ...}}

Note the single alliteration per half-line in the third line. Clear indications of Modern English meanings can be heard in the original, using phonetic approximations of the Old English sound-letter system:
<blockquote><poem>
<u>'''H'''</u>igh [courage] shall the <u>'''h'''</u>arder, {{pad|1em}} <u>'''h'''</u>eart the keener,
<u>'''m'''</u>ood shall the <u>'''m'''</u>ore, {{pad|1em}} as our <u>'''m'''</u>ain [might] littleth
here lies our <u>'''e'''</u>lder ''{{pad|1em}} <u>'''a'''</u>ll for-heaved''
</poem></blockquote>

Single 'half-lines' are sometimes found in Old English verse; scholars debate how far these were a characteristic of Old English poetic tradition and how far they arise from defective copying of poems by scribes.<ref>{{cite journal |first1=A. J. |last1=Bliss |title=Single Half-Lines in Old English Poetry |journal=Notes and Queries |volume=18 |issue=12 |date=1971 |pages=442–449 |doi=10.1093/nq/18-12-442b }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Knapp |first1=Mona |title=Hybrid prosody and single half-lines in Old English and Serbo-Croatian poetry |journal=Neophilologus |date=1 April 1980 |volume=64 |issue=2 |pages=284–289 |id={{ProQuest|1301899784}} |doi=10.1007/BF01531480 |s2cid=162116959 }}</ref>

====Rules for alliteration====
Old English follows the general rules for Germanic alliteration. The first stressed syllable of the off-verse, or second half-line, usually alliterates with one or both of the stressed syllables of the on-verse, or first half-line. The second stressed syllable of the off-verse does not usually alliterate with the others. Note that Old English only requires one alliteration in each half-line, unlike Middle English, which normally requires both lifts in the on-verse to be alliterated.{{sfn|Terasawa|2011|p=60}}<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1515/9783110198515.1.63 |chapter=Evolution of the a-verse in English alliterative meter |title=Studies in the History of the English Language III |date=2007 |last1=Russom |first1=Geoffrey |pages=63–88 |isbn=978-3-11-019089-2 }}</ref>

====Diction====
Old English was rich in poetic synonyms and kennings.<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-24561-1_4 |chapter=Old English Poetic Diction |title=The Language of Old and Middle English Poetry |date=1996 |last1=Lester |first1=G. A. |pages=47–66 |isbn=978-0-333-48847-8 }}</ref> For instance, the Old English poet could deploy a wide array of synonyms and kennings to refer to the sea: ''sæ, mere, deop wæter, seat wæter, hæf, geofon, windgeard, yða ful, wæteres hrycg, garsecg, holm, wægholm, brim, sund, floð, ganotes bæð, swanrad, seglrad,'' among others. This ranges from synonyms surviving in English, like ''sea'' and ''mere'', to rarer poetic words and compounds, to full-on kennings like "gannet's bath", "whale-road", or "seal-road".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=Archibald A. |last2=Lind |first2=L. R. |date=1953 |title=Studies in Honor of Albert Morey Sturtevant |journal=Language |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=547 |doi=10.2307/409975 |jstor=409975 |hdl=1808/6336 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

Further details about Old English versification can be found in the companion article, [[Old English metre]].