Going through the archives I note that there are
very informative letters now and then (an example
of which is below).

I wonder if it would be a good idea to take the good
letters and put them on the home-page of the course.

What do you think?

Haukur

>Old Norse and Old English poetry in general don't have a fixed number
>of syllables arranged in rigid "feet" or patterns like a lot of
>English poetry does -- no iambic pentameter. What is usually counted
>are stressed syllables, and there can be a variable number of
>unstressed syllables in a line. Skaldic poetry was more formal in
>structure than Eddaic poetry, and there's where you get your more
>rigid syllabic construction.
>
>Voluspa is Fornyrðislag, or "meter of ancient words", which is
>composed both with and without a fixed number of syllables per line,
>usually 4 syllables, more or less.
>
>Other Old Norse meters:
>
>Malahattr or "meter of speeches" -- like fornyrðislag but has a
>regular number of syllables per line, usually five syllables in each
>line.
>
>Kviðuháttr or "meter of discourse" -- a variant of fornyrðislag in
>which syllables are closely counted and the lines alternate, starting
>with one line with three syllables, the next line with four.
>
>Ljoðaháttr "meter of chants" -- made up of pairs of lines, each with
>two stressed syllables and bound by alliteration, followed by a third
>line called "the full line" which has its own alliteration and either
>2 or 3 stressed syllables. Normally two segments of three lines make
>up a stanza.
>
>Galdralag "magic spell meter" -- a variant of ljoðaháttr, uses a
>fourth line which echoes and varies the third line of the stanza.
>
>Dróttkvætt "noble warrior's meter" -- Uses a three-stress line,
>normally of six syllables, always ending in a long stressed syllable
>followed by an unstressed one. The lines are linked in pairs by
>alliteration, two intitial sounds in the first line matched by the
>start of the first stressed syllable in the second line. There is
>also a system of internal rhyme: in each line the last stressed
>syllable must contain vowel and consonant that chime with those in an
>earlier syllable. In the first line a half-rhyme should be found ---
>also called skothending or "glancing hit" --- and in the second line
>the rhyme should be full --- also called aðalhending or "full hit".
>Each stanza contains eight lines, and there is usually a marked
>syntactic division at the end of line four to make the whole into two
>balancing halves.
>
>Hrynhendr háttr "flowing meter" -- derived from dróttkvætt, and uses
>all the dróttkvætt rules with the addition of requiring that the
>basic unit be extended from a three-stress, six-syllable line to a
>four-stress, eight-syllable line.
>
>::GUNNORA::
>
>
>
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