Wulf and Eadwacer, eddic verse, and aural aesthetics

Abstract

This study reexamines the case for Old Norse influence on the Old English poem Wulf and Eadwacer by considering the potential adaptation of Old Norse metrical grammar to the conventions of Old English verse, which results in the poem's unusual structure, syntax, and diction. The case for Old Norse influence on the poem is reconsidered here in the light of recent studies of the imitative technique of the Old English poet, which hints at conscious adaptation of external traditions to the conventions of Old English verse, rather than at direct translation of an Old Norse source. Reappraisal of the possibilities of interpretation derived from hybrid composition technique reveals that the Wulf and Eadwacer poet worked within an adaptative process that accommodates Old English and Old Norse semantic possibilities while maintaining an aural esthetics that consciously imitates eddic verse.

Wulf and EadwacerReloaded: John of Antioch and the Starving Wife of Odoacer

“…Rosemarie Lühr and Klaus von See saw a metre resembling ljóðaháttr in lines 37-38a, instead of the usually-supposed lost half-line (38b). 59 It is also possible to find others (at lines 7, 8b-10 and the final lines at 67-68a), 55 See North (1994: 29-31), identifying several other Old Norse metres, (erroneously in my view) accepted by Rozano-García (2021). 56 See Sievers (1893: 144-146, esp.…”