Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/53

Rh in the form. The verses become longer with three and four, and even more feet, and the most common metre, the so-called Dróttkvæði has three feet in each of the eight lines. And now we find not only alliteration, but also syllable rhymes, and indeed the lines alternate with perfect and half-rhymes. A perfect rhyme requires that two of the syllables in the same verse correspond perfectly, and a half rhyme that they have different vowels before the same consonant or combination of consonants. More seldom do we find our modern masculine and feminine rhymes. Still they occur and that in a very early period (e.g. in Egil Skallagrimsson), and sometimes we even find that the four or eight verses of a strophe have the same rhyme.

These are the most common metres, but their different elements were combined and varied in many ways. Snorre's Háttatal in the Younger Edda presents no less than one hundred and two different kinds of verses. Of course the variations are frequently very insignificant, but we occasionally find a stanza that is a perfect work of art, and furnishes proofs of the richness of the language.

The old skalds, therefore, had difficulties enough to overcome in respect to the form of their poetry, and this especially since they were not permitted to transgress the established laws. The poetic rules must be observed with the