[1.] It will be seen that the adjectives are chiefly derivatives in -ig, -en, -er, -līc, and -sum.
[2.] Most of the adverbs belonging here end in -līce, -unga, and -inga, [§ 93, (1), (2)]: such words as æt-gǽdere, on-gḗan, on-wég, tō-gḗanes, tō-míddes, etc., are invariably accented as here indicated.
[3.] It will save the student some trouble to remember that this means long by nature (līcodon), or long by position (swynsode), or long by resolution of stress (maðelode),—see next paragraph.
[4.] Sievers’ two articles appeared in the Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, Vols. X (1885) and XII (1887). A brief summary, with slight modifications, is found in the same author’s Altgermanische Metrik, pp. 120-144 (1893).
Before attempting to employ Sievers’ types, the student would do well to read several pages of Old English poetry, taking care to accentuate according to the principles already laid down. In this way his ear will become accustomed to the rhythm of the line, and he will see more clearly that Sievers’ work was one primarily of systematization. Sievers himself says: “I had read Old English poetry for years exactly as I now scan it, and long before I had the slightest idea that what I did instinctively could be formulated into a system of set rules.” (Altgermanische Metrik, Vorwort, p. 10.)
[5.] The first perpendicular marks the limit of the anacrusis.
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