The variable operation of high vowel deletion in Old English has long been a point of difficulty, both descriptivelya prehistoric form like *h eafudu is attested variably as h eafudu, h eafdu, and h eafodand theoretically. Recent work, especially by Berm udez-Otero (2005b) and Fulk (2010), has indicated that plural forms like h eafudu are most likely original, but accounting for why the medial *u is preserved in this case form, and not in h eafde, the dative singular of the same word, has remained theoretically problematic. These difficulties arise from attempting to describe the prehistoric Old English process of high vowel deletion on the basis of later Old English phonology. At an earlier stage, the nominative-accusative plural *h eafudu could be exhaustively parsed into two precisely bimoraic feet: *[h ea][.fu.du]. The dative singular historically ended with a long vowel, *h eafudaē, in which the medial *u could not be accommodated within a bimoraic foot: *[h ea].fu[.dǣ ]. High vowel deletion is therefore best characterized as the deletion of unfooted high vowels in early Old English, initially operating while length in unstressed vowels remained contrastive. Both this quantitative system and the preference for precisely bimoraic units receive support from Kaluza's law, an archaic metrical phenomenon in Beowulf which prohibits resolution in secondary metrical ictus if the resulting unit would have more than two moras, and which is sensitive to prehistoric length distinctions. This original system was obscured, linguistically and metrically, in later Old English by the shortening of unstressed long vowels, triggering various morphological reanalyses of the effects of high vowel deletion. A review of these changes suggests that the system of metrical phonology described here provides a more plausible starting point for the reworkings that produced the forms found in later Old English than do alternative accounts such as those of Campbell (1983) or Ringe (2002). 12 Erfurt 275; spelled hurnitu in Corpus (CorpGl) 603. 13 Epinal 718; so also Corpus 1439. Erfurt has aebitu for aelbitu.

Neidorf (2017), The Transmission of Beowulf, synthesizes a variety of philological approaches to propose a new 'lexemic theory' of Anglo-Saxon scribal behaviour. In this response article, I build on Neidorf's arguments, suggesting ways that his theory may be adapted to account for differences between the two scribes of the Beowulf manuscript, and addressing some of the ways that metrical evidence only more weakly supports, or sometimes directly contradicts, some of Neidorf's specific claims.

Kaluza's law is a proposed restriction in the metre of Beowulf against the resolution of lightheavy sequences: words like cyning 'king' can only resolve and count as the equivalent of a single heavy syllable under more restricted circumstances than can words such as wudu 'wood'. There has been debate about how to define these 'restricted circumstances', with many investigators claiming that this limitation holds only under 'secondary stress' (sometimes broadened to include subordinated stress in general). This article reviews the operation of Kaluza's law in Beowulf, arguing that the correct conditioning is the position immediately following a heavy syllable. The level of stress carried by the (non-)resolving sequence is irrelevant. A phonological explanation for this restriction may be that the resolution ideally produces bimoraic (light-light) units; accordingly, resolution of light-heavy sequences, which is anomalous from a typological and phonological perspective, is only permitted in word-initial position, or in metrical equivalents.

No abstract

J.R.R. Tolkien produced a considerable body of poetry in which he used the traditional alliterative metre of Old Norse and Old English to write modern English verse. This paper reviews three of his longer narrative poems, published in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún and The Fall of Arthur, examining Tolkien’s alliterative technique in comparison to medieval poetry and to the metrical theories of Eduard Sievers. In particular, the two poems in The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, which are adapted from Old Norse material, show a number of metrical and poetic features reminiscent of Tolkien’s sources in the Poetic Edda. The Fall of Arthur, on the other hand, is in a style that is, in detail and in general, strongly reminiscent of Old English poetry. Throughout all these compositions, Tolkien employs a distinctive alliterative style, closely based on medieval and philological models, but adjusted according to the linguistic needs of modern English and to his own preferences.