Journal of Germanic Linguistics Late Placement of the Finite Verb in ...

238 Haukur orgeirsson
violated in unbound clauses, but Kuhn’s laws of sentence particles and
sentence openings are also abandoned wholesale. To at least some extent,
these seem to be the effects of a strong preference for the stylistic fronting
of the most important semantic element, but other factors may be at
work as well. The syntax of ljóaháttr is a rich subject for study (see,
most recently, órhallur Eyórsson 2009:71–75) but is not my focus
here.
The fornyrislag meter is the most direct Old Norse descendant of
the common Germanic alliterative verse. In general, the distinction
between bound and unbound clauses is observed in it, as in the following
strophe from Helgakvia Hjrvarssonar 10: 3
(5) Ertattu, Hiorvarr, art-not-thou Hiorvarr
heilrár konungr, wholesome-counseled king
fólcs oddviti,
host.GEN leader
óttu frægr sér; though-thou famous be
léztu eld eta
hadst-thou fire.ACC eat
iofra bygir,
kings.GEN settlements.ACC
enn eir angr viic yet they harm.ACC to thee
ecci goro.
none did.PL
‘You, Hirvarr, leader of the host, are not a king of wholesome
counsel though you are renowned. You had fire eat the settlements of
the kings, yet they did you no harm.’
The strophe in 5 contains two unbound clauses, starting with ertattu ‘you
are not’ and léztu ‘you had’, and both have the finite verb as their first
constituent. The two bound clauses, starting with óttu ‘though you’ and
enn ‘yet’ both have late placement of the finite verb. However, while the
difference between bound and unbound clauses is normally observed in
fornyrislag, there are some exceptions. Those exceptions are the subject
of this article.
3 This and all subsequent citations of poetry from the Codex Regius of the Poetic
Edda are from Neckel 1983.