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In:From Carving Runestones to Digitizing Skaldic Poetry: Studies in Germanic philology and historical linguistics
Edited by David Bolter, Erin Noelliste, Christopher D. Sapp and Lane Sorensen
[Studies in Germanic Linguistics 11] 2026
► pp. 49–62

Chapter 4
Formal characteristics of the verses added to Njáls saga

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Abstract
On the basis of manuscript distribution alone it is possible to determine that thirty of the poetic stanzas contained in some manuscripts of Njáls saga are late compositions that were added to the saga after it was first committed to parchment. They appear in a circumscribed set of manuscripts: in some they are written in the margin, whereas in others they replace the prose that they often closely resemble. Aside from these added stanzas, Njáls saga contains a relatively limited amount of poetry, and it is apparent that some reviser undertook to remedy such a seeming defect by supplying stanzas at various dramatic moments in the saga narrative. That these added stanzas genuinely are late compositions is confirmed by various linguistic and formal features pointing to their composition ca. 1300, about twenty years after the saga is thought to have been written down. The purpose of this study is to highlight the formal features of verse construction, including alliteration, rhyme, and meter, that point to this conclusion.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Alliteration as an indicator of late composition
  • 3.Rhyme as an indicator of late composition
    • 3.1Full rhyme in odd lines
    • 3.2Imperfect rhyme
    • 3.3Innovative rhymes due to language change
  • 4.Meter, syntax, and morphology as indicators of late composition
    • 4.1Craigie’s law
    • 4.2Verb placement
    • 4.3Excrescent vowels
    • 4.4Morphological change
    • 4.5Resolution in verses of type E2
    • 4.6Restrictions on position 4 in even verses of type E3
    • 4.7Preposition placement
    • 4.8Hrynhent form
    • 4.9Verses of type A and its subtypes
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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