Skip to content
Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter December 11, 2007

Old English and Old Saxon Formulaic Rhyme

  • Thomas A. Bredehoft
From the journal Anglia

Abstract

Rhyme in Old English and Old Saxon verse has most often been conceptualized as verse rhyme: rhyme that links the final stresses of two half-lines together. This essay investigates the occurrence of rhyme within the half-line (so-called ‘hending’ rhyme) in order to suggest that both Old English and Old Saxon poetry employed traditional and even formulaic rhymes. Further, similarities and differences between the two traditions indicate that this usage of verse-internal rhyme presumably stood as a feature of the very earliest West Germanic verse.

Published Online: 2007-12-11
Published in Print: 2005-November-23

© Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 2005

Downloaded on 29.3.2024 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ANGL.2005.204/html
Scroll to top button