In early British poetry the picture is not quite so sharp, but it fits sweetly
enough into the same frame. It has long been a matter of controversy how its
metrical practice should be understood, but according to an authoritative
modern study syllable-counting gives better results than accentual analysis.
The characteristic three-line stanza, the englyn, typically consists of seven-
syllable lines; sometimes the first has eight syllables.^79
Germanic verse does not contribute very much to the argument. We can
certainly speak, on the basis of strong similarities between Norse, Old English,
Old Saxon, and Old High German verse-forms, of a common Germanic
tradition. There is a standard four-stress line that divides into two halves,
linked by obligatory alliteration. The first half tends to be longer than the
second, but the number of syllables is very variable. In Old Norse the verse is
mainly used in four-line stanzas in what is called ‘ancient style’ (fornyrðislag).
There is also a longer type of line with three stresses in each half, and in Norse
and English there is a form of strophic composition in which a four-stress line
alternates with a single three-stress colon.
It is not hard to suggest ways in which these measures might have evolved
from quantitative prototypes such as we have postulated. The dimensions of
the four-stress line would suit an origin from the combination of an eight-
or seven-syllable verse (G or ^^G) with its catalectic counterpart. But here we
are only observing that the data are compatible with our theory. We cannot
claim that they corroborate it.
When it comes to Slavonic metre, we are dealing with material recorded
in much more recent times. But the static nature of the forms as far back as
they can be traced, together with their diffusion throughout the Slavonic
lands, encourages the assumption that they represent a common heritage of
considerable antiquity.^80
Here again accentual developments in the languages have affected versifica-
tion to a marked degree. However, the Serbo-Croat ten-syllable epic line
preserves a recognizable quantitative cadence in performance, and more
noticeably so in poems recorded in the eighteenth century. The underlying
scheme is
××××|××∪∪−×|| ,
with the principal stresses on the first, fifth, and ninth syllables. The ninth
tends to be prolonged in recitation, and this feature is also recorded from
Moravia and Bulgaria. The ten-syllable line occurs further in Slovakia,
Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine.
(^79) Rowland (1990), 308–19.
(^80) Here and in what follows my information is drawn from Jakobson (as above, n. 63). See
also Watkins (1963), 210–12= (1994), 365–7; Gasparov (1996), 15–35.
54 1. Poet and Poesy