The Berlin Anglicist and linguist Martin Lehnert (1955: 33) says that there are some 30,000 alliterative lines in Old English, 7,300 Eddic long lines, 6,000 and 335 in Old Saxon (Heliand and Genesis) and 200 in Old High German (Hildebrandslied, Muspilli etc.). The following contains some notes on alliteration in the Poetic Edda. The three main types of alliteration ([a] for alliterating, [x] for not alliterating stave) are [aa/ax] [ax/ax] and [xa/ax]. There are, however, a number of cases where the principal stave (Hauptstab, hofuðstafr, Snorri Sturluson, c.1220, quoted from A. Heusler 1918-1919, §35) is not in the normal place. Moreover, there are also several lines where no alliteration is available, and where, although I am not a medieval Icelandic poet, I would compose the line to make it more alliterative. Toward the end of the article is given a select list of 50 alphabetically arranged alliterations from the Poetic Edda.
The style of the Old Norse saga genres is sometimes reduced to two elements: litotes, taken as an embodiment of the traditional family sagas, and superlative, symbolizing the main feature of the late chivalric and lying sagas. This scheme can be useful only to some extent, as an auxiliary criterion for describing tendencies of the genre development. However, the litotes-superlative generalization eliminates much of the stylistic variation. Thus, further analyses should be based on more elements, and their functions in the narrative, as well as their usefulness to the respective ideology, should be considered. The family sagas tend to use litotes and various forms of indirect assessment, making the heroes hardly flawless, so that the audience needs to create their own opinion based on established phrases. The role of the audience of the chivalric and lying sagas is more passive, the heroes’ qualities are stated directly, often as a hyperbole, making strict difference between the pure good and pure evil, and guiding the audience to the right values.
This study examines the most characteristic features of the Scandinavian prose romances. The contrast between the translated and original chivalric sagas is illustrated on the Norwegian translation of the Song of Roland and on the late Icelandic re-working of Tristan. Our aim was to explain the changes in the context of the Old Norse culture as well as literary conventions. The Old Norse translations were partially shaped to satisfy the expectations of the target audience unused to the genre. The dissolving courtly ideals in the late-medieval Icelandic tradition are, according the author, rather similar to the development of the late German Artusroman than purely a sign of Scandinavian incomprehension of the concepts.
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