History:
DrottkvæðrHistory: Drottkvæðr, which literally means 'recited before the retinue', is an Old Norse verse form resented by Snorri Sturluson in the Edda, composed ca. 1178-1241, in it's section Hattatal ('Enumeration of Meters'). For more information on the Edda, click here (link pending). Structure: • 8 lines per stanza • 6 syllables per line • line-internal rhyme, but no cross line... More, which literally means ‘recited before the retinue’, is an Old Norse verse form resented by Snorri Sturluson in the Edda, composed ca. 1178-1241, in it’s section Hattatal (‘Enumeration of Meters’). For more information on the Edda, click here (link pending).
Structure:
- 8 lines per stanza
- 6 syllables per line
- line-internal rhyme, but no cross line rhyme
- cross-line alliteration
- each line ends in a metrical trochee (stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable)
- alliterating sounds are called ‘staves’, so…
- 12 total staves per stanza
- 2 in odd lines, 1 in even lines
- lines work in pairs
- even line staves are called ‘head staves’ and they control the alliteration
- odd line staves are called props, and they follow the head staves
- for every pair of lines, the props in line (1) follow the head stave in line (2)
- in terms of position, the alliteration is specific:
- 1st or 3rd syllable of 1st line
- 5th syllable of 1st line
- 1st syllable of 2nd line
- Rhyme-wise:
- half rhymes in off rhymes
- consonant sound is same, but vowel is different (fish/wash)
- full rhymes in even lines
- norse rhyming-using the same vowel in the appropriate syllable; doesn’t have to come at the end of the word
- the first rhyme in the line can be anywhere, but the 2nd rhyme has to be in the 5th syllable
- half rhymes in off rhymes
- Finally, content wise. Kennings, a concept which in a way is essentially a metaphor, is central to Norse poetry and especially this one.
- Kennings are substituting one noun with another term which is ‘made known’ by another noun
- so, example; ‘battle=spear din’, ‘sword=fire of battle’
- However, it’s continued by combining Kennings.
- ‘sword=fire of spear din’
- Theme-wise, this poetry form is a brag. Skalds (norse poets) would stand up in a party and brag a DrottkvæðrHistory: Drottkvæðr, which literally means 'recited before the retinue', is an Old Norse verse form resented by Snorri Sturluson in the Edda, composed ca. 1178-1241, in it's section Hattatal ('Enumeration of Meters'). For more information on the Edda, click here (link pending). Structure: • 8 lines per stanza • 6 syllables per line • line-internal rhyme, but no cross line... More about someone either dead or alive, sometimes themselves.
Source:
Greene, Roland, and Stephen Cushman. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton University Press, 2012.
http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Prosody/Prosody-I.html
‘https://yeahwrite.me/writing-help-drottkvaett/’