Old English Metre: A Crash Course

Although the Anglo-Saxons left no accounts of their metrical organisation, statistical and linguistic analysis of the poetic corpus has allowed us to come up with a good idea as to how their verse worked.

Like all early Germanic metres, Old English verse is accentual and alliterative. With very few exceptions, end rhyme does not play a structural role. And even when it is found, it never takes the place of alliteration (initial rhyme) in the earlier verse.

Stress and Line Division

The basic line consists of four stressed syllables and at least four lesser-stressed syllables (conventionally described as “unstressed”). A very strong caesura (metrical break) is found between stresses two and three. This caesura is so strong that we tend to describe the verse in terms of half-lines:

a-verse / on-verse (before the caesura)
b-verse / off-verse (after the caesura)

In modern printed editions, on- and off-verses are separated graphically by a gap of three or four spaces, as in this excerpt from Cædmon’s Hymn (ed. O’Donnell 2005, adapted from the transcription of Tanner 10 [T1]):

Nu sculon herigean heofonrices weard, meotodes meahte, ond his modgeþanc, weorc wuldorfæder— swa he wundra gehwæs, ece drihten, or onstealde!

Now we must honour the guardian of heaven,
The might of the measurer, and his thoughts,
The work of the father of glory—as he, the eternal lord,
Created the beginning of each of wonders!

Caedmon's Hymn

In Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, poetry is written from margin to margin, as in the following facsimile and diplomatic transcription from the same manuscript (adapted from O’Donnell 2005)¹. While scribes did not place each half-line on its own line, they often marked line boundaries and caesuras with a raised point or other punctuation, and there is evidence they were aware of metre as they copied (see O’Brien O’Keeffe 1990; O’Donnell 1996).

Detail from Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner 10 showing the beginning and end of Cædmon’s Hymn. Contrast and colour balance has been artificially enhanced to show detail.

[ Approx. 28 characters omitted ] Nusculon herıgean heofon| rıces ƿeard meotodes meahte ⁊hıs 〈mod〉geþanc ƿeorc| ƿuldor fæder sƿahe ƿundra gehƿæs ee{c}e 〈a{d}〉rih〈t〉en or on| stealde· he ærest sceop eorðan bearnū heofonto hrofe| halıg scyppend· þamıddangeard moncynnes ƿeard ece| drıhten æfter teode fın{r}um foldan frea ælmıhtıg· [ Approx. 3 characters omitted ]

Alliteration

The half-lines are tied together by alliteration. The rule:

One or both stressed syllables in the on-verse must alliterate with the first stressed syllable in the off-verse.
The second stressed syllable in the off-verse must not share in the alliteration.

Standard patterns (alliterating syllables in bold):

meotodes meahte, ond hıs modgeþanc,
weorc wuldorfæder— swa he wundra gehwæs,
ece drıhten æfter teode

Consonantal Alliteration

When alliterating syllables begin with a consonant, the sounds must be identical. Thus s alliterates only with s, b with b, etc. This is also true for certain s-clusters:

sp alliterates only with sp
st only with st
sc only with sc

Special cases: the letters 〈c〉 and 〈g〉 can represent two sounds each in Old English:

〈c〉 = /ʧ/ (ċyric “church”) or /k/ (cyning “king”)
〈g〉 = /j/ (ġeard “yard”) or /g/ (gōd “good”)²

In earlier poetry, poets do not distinguish these values for alliteration: any 〈c〉 alliterates with 〈c〉, and any 〈g〉 with 〈g〉, regardless of the sound.
Example (Beowulf 2482):

heardan cēape; Hæðcynne wearð
“…a hard bargain; to Hæðcyn was…”

Common, too, is alliteration between /g/ and /k/, e.g. begoten, golde, gimmas (Dream of the Rood 7):

begoten mid golde; gimmas stōdon

In later poetry (10th c. and after), poets often do distinguish (see Amos 1980). In The Battle of Maldon 32, gārrǣs and gafole (both /g/) alliterate, but forgielden (/j/) does not³:

þæt gē þisne gārrǣs mid gafole forgielden

Vocalic Alliteration

All vowels and diphthongs alliterate with each other (a, æ, e, i, o, u, y, ea, eo, ie). No distinction is made between long/short or vowel/diphthong. In practice, better poets tended to avoid like-with-like; vocalic alliteration often signals the absence of consonantal alliteration. Cædmon’s Hymn has three examples:

ece drıhten or onstealde⁴
he ærest sceop eorðan bearnum
ece drıhten æfter teode

Accentual Patterns

Most half-lines belong to a limited number of accentual patterns (metrical types) that organise stressed, unstressed, and half-stressed syllables.

Sievers Types

Eduard Sievers identified five major types (named A–E), with many subtypes:

Type A: /×/×
Type B: ×/×/
Type C: ×//×
Type D: //\×
Type E: /\×/

In this scansion: / = metrically stressed, × = metrically “unstressed,” \ = half-stressed.

Subtypes vary the number/placement of unstressed or half-stressed syllables; anacrusis adds extra unstressed syllables before the first stress (esp. in A, D, and perhaps E). Hypermetric lines (very long) follow comparable principles (notably in Dream of the Rood). See Pope & Fulk 2001, 129–158.

Mnemonic (after Bruce Mitchell; updated by Rachel Hanks):

Type A (/×/×) — Anna angry
Type B (×/×/) — gave Bob the bold
Type C (×//×) — A Clear Kicking,
Type D (//\×) — Dire, Death-bringing,
Type E (/\×/) — Earth-rending End

(It’s a mnemonic: accurate enough to remember the patterns.)

Syllable Length

Whether a syllable scans as long/short depends on length, word-stress, and clause-stress.

A syllable can be long:

By nature: contains a long vowel (often marked with a macron).
- wīc “dwelling”; wēpan “weep”; hālig “holy”
By position: followed by two+ consonants within the word or one+ at a word boundary.
- giestas “strangers”; eoh “horse”; edg “edge”
By resolution: a short stressed syllable counts as long when followed by an unaccented syllable that is not metrically required; mark with a tie.

Resolution examples (long by resolution in bold, following syllable in italics):

metudaes maecti (pattern: /͜××/×)
ōr āstelidæ (pattern: /×/͜××)
heben til hrōfe (pattern: /͜××/×)

Resolution is context-dependent; some subtypes allow short stressed/unstressed syllables without resolution. Example without resolution:

on campstede (pattern: ×/̮\×)

Word-Stress

Primary Stress

Germanic primary stress falls on the first syllable. In Old English, this remains largely true for simple words and most compounds:

unnytt “useless”; giefu “gift”; standan “to stand”

Main exceptions (stressed syllables in bold):

Prefix ge- is never stressed: gehwǣs, gesittan, gesceaft.
Most verb/adverb “prefixes” are unstressed: wiþsacan, ætgædere.
for- and be- may be stressed or not on nouns: forbod “prohibition” vs. forwyrd “ruin” (Campbell 1959/1991, §74).

Secondary Stress

Secondary stress (shown italic) falls:

on second elements of compounds: wælsleaht “slaughter”
on “heavy” derivational suffixes after a long or resolved syllable: scieppend, beorhtost (Campbell §89)
on final syllables lengthened by inflection: Hengestes (gen. sg.); ōþerne (acc. sg. m.)

Clause-Stress

Not all stressed syllables are equally prominent in context. As in PDE, content words (nouns/adjectives) tend to take higher sentence stress than function words (pronouns/conjunctions):

Would an apple be as sweet?

Out-of-position words receive heavier stress:

I went up the mountain.
Up the mountain went I.

Stress and Word Classes

Three broad metrical classes:

Always Stressed: nouns, adjectives, infinitives, participles
Sometimes Stressed: finite verbs, adverbs
Rarely Stressed: conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, relatives

This reflects a linguistic split: open classes (nouns, adjectives, etc.) are regularly stressed; closed classes (function words) are rarely stressed; “sometimes” classes mix both.

Scansion of Cædmon’s Hymn

A sample scansion using a modified Sievers system (letter + subtype; see Pope & Fulk 2001):

The following is a scansion of Cædmon’s Hymn using a modified form of the Sievers system. Letter names followed by a number (e.g. A-3) refer to common subtypes of the main five verse patterns. See Pope and Fulk 2001 for a detailed listing.

(A-type)	a-verse	b-verse	(B-type)
(A-3: ×××/×)	Nū scylun hergan	hefaenricaes uard	(E: /‿×\×/)
(A-1: /‿××/×)	metudaes maecti	end his mōdgidanc	(B: ××/×/)
(D-2: //(×)\×)	uerc uuldụrfadur	suē hē uundra gihuaes	(B-2: ××/××/)
(A-1: /×/×)	ēci dryctin	ōr āstelidæ	(A-1: /×/‿××)
(B-1: ×/×/)	Hē āerist scōp	eordu barnum	(A-1: /×/×)
(A-1: /‿××/×)	heben til hrōfe	hāleg sceppend	(A-1: /×/×)
(B-1: ×/×\)	thā middungeard	moncynnæs uard	(E: /\×/)
(A-1: /×/×)	ēci dryctin	æfter tīadæ	(A-1: /×/×)
(A-1: /×/×)	fīrum foldu	frēa allmectig	(D-1: //\×)

Other Scansion Systems

Sievers’ system is generally descriptively adequate but theoretically limited; many alternatives have been proposed. The most widely accepted is the Stress-Foot system (Russom), beyond this short introduction.

Works Cited

Amos, Ashley Crandell. 1980. Linguistic Means of Dating Old English Poetrical Texts. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy.
Bliss, A. J. 1962/1993. Introduction to Old English Metre. Oxford: Blackwell. Repr. in Old English Newsletter Subsidia 20.
Bredehoft, Thomas A. 2005. Early English Metre. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Campbell, A. 1959/1991. Old English Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon.
O’Brien O’Keeffe, Catherine. Visible Song. Transitional Literacy in Old English Verse. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 4. Cambridge: CUP.
O’Donnell, Daniel Paul. 1996. “Manuscript Variation in Multiple-Recension Old English Poetic Texts: The Technical Problem and Poetical Art.” Unpubl. PhD Diss., Yale University. Available online.
O’Donnell, Daniel Paul. 2005. Cædmon’s Hymn: A Multimedia Study, Edition, and Archive. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
Pope, John C., and R. D. Fulk. Eight Old English Poems. New York: Norton, 2001.
Russom, Geoffrey. 1987. Old English Metre and Linguistic Theory. Cambridge: CUP.
Russom, Geoffrey. 1998. ‘Beowulf’ and Old Germanic Meter. Cambridge: CUP.
Sievers, Eduard. 1885–1887. “Zur Rhythmik der germanischen Alliterationsverses.” Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 10:209–314, 451–545; 12:454–482.
Sievers, Eduard. 1893. Altgermanische Metrik. Halle: Niemeyer.

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