Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of a syllable. In addition, any syllable that begins with a vowel alliterates with any other syllable that begins with a vowel. In Old English poetry, only the alliteration of lifts is significant. The combinations sc, sp and st may alliterate only with themselves. In most poems, however, ġ can alliterate with g and ċ with c. The italic letters in this list alliterate:
clyppe | cysse |
ġeþōht | þenċan |
ēadiġ | ġeendod |
foremihtiġ | fēond |
ġecunnod | ċēole |
gōd | ġeogoð |
These words, on the other hand, contain sounds that you might expect to alliterate, but do not:
ġehāten | ġēar |
foremihtig | mǣre |
forweorðan | fēond |
stān | sāriġ |
scōp | sǣ |
In each poetic line, one or two lifts in the on-verse must alliterate with the first lift in the off-verse. The second lift in the off-verse normally does not alliterate with any of the three other stressed syllables in the line. These lines illustrate the three patterns:[1]
xa|ay: þ×æt (/)biþ ×in e/orl×e /indr\yht×en þē/aw
ax|ay: þ×æt h×ē h×is f/erðl\oc×an f/æst×e b/ind×e
aa|ax: n×e s×e hrē/o h/yġ×e h/elp×e ġ×efr/emm×an
- It is customary to mark a lift with a stroke. A backward stroke (\) marks a half-lift, and × marks an unstressed syllable, part of a drop. In this book, a stroke in parentheses marks a syllable that one would expect to receive metrical stress even though the rules of Old English accentuation indicate that it should not be stressed (seebelow).
The pattern xa|ay occurs mostly when the first lift in a verse is weak (as when it is a syllable of a finite verb). When the first lift is strong (as when it is a syllable of a noun, adjective or verbal), it normallymust alliterate, so the pattern will be ax|ay or aa|ax. A competent poet would not write a line like this one:
n×e s×e w/ō h/iġ×e h/elp×e ġ×efr/emm×an
Occasionally you will meet with transverse alliteration (the pattern ab|ab) and crossed alliteration(ab|ba). These probably were regarded as especially ornate:
Þǣr æt hȳðe stōd hringedstefnabrūnfāgne helm, hringde byrnan(Beowulf, ll. 32, 2615)
Other unusual kinds of alliteration (such as syllables in the drop alliterating with a lift) are probably incidental and without metrical significance.
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