Eddas, Old Story Measure or Fornyroislog

[Tinker]

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Nordic Verse
Edda Measures

Old Story Measure or Fornyroislog of the 12th century Iceland Edda Measures “the old rules,” or “the manner of the old utterances.” is similar in form to the meter used in Beowulf.

The elements of Old Story Measure are:

1. stanzaic, written in any number of quatrains.
2. accentual, written with 4 strong stresses per line. There are 2 or 3 unstressed syllables in each hemistich (half line) This is much like the Anglo Saxon Verse.
3. composed with the 3rd stressed syllable of each line alliterating with either or both of the 1st and 2nd stressed syllable, but the 4th stress rarely alliterates within the line. Instead the 4th stressed syllable of the line can cross alliterate with the following line.
   
   Woe the Time by Judi Van Gorder
   
   The reign of Odin's raven ceased
   on the Feast of Freya. He fled at night,
   his wings beat black beyond the moon,
   memory gone, mad from his loss.
   
   The hordes wailed, "Woe the time!"
   The scream of the raven, the siren of death,
   his wisdom wantonly wasted, replaced
   by a villainous vapor. Valhalla forfeit!

 

Völuspá (First stanza)       Hljóðs bið ek allar meiri ok minni       helgar kinder mögu Heimdallar       Vildu at ek Valföðr vel fyr telja       forn spjöll fira þau fremst um man

translation by Henry Adam Bellows (First 2 stanzas) Hearing I ask from the holy races, From Heimdall's sons, both high and low; Thou wilt, Valfather, that well I relate Old tales I remember of men long ago. I remember yet the giants of yore, Who gave me bread in the days gone by; Nine worlds I knew, the nine in the tree With mighty roots beneath the mold.