This 1998 book is a clear and accessible account of early Germanic
alliterative verse which explains how such verse was treated by the
Beowulf poet. There are differences of poetic style between Beowulf
and the otherwise similar verse of ancient Scandinavia and
continental Europe. Such distinctions have intrigued scholars for
over a century, but Russom is the first to provide a systematic
explanation of Old English, Old Norse, Old Saxon, and Old High
German alliterative metres. The system of alliterative rules
described by Russom derives from ordinary language; the rules
change with language over historical time, rather than persisting
as arbitrary restrictions. Once the relations between language and
metre are identified, it is possible to see how language change
yielded the divergent metrical practices which gave each tradition
its special character. Russom's results should interest scholars of
Old English and related Germanic languages, as well as linguists
and those concerned with poetic metre.
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