on hḗah-sétle héofones wáldend.Cri. 555.
and in a particular form of alliteration[56] it may even contain one of the alliterating sounds, as in the verse:
hwæt! we Gā́rdéna in gēardágum.Beow. 1.
The less strongly accented derivational and inflexional suffixes, though they are not allowed to alliterate, may occasionally have the rhythmical accent, on condition that they immediately follow upon a long accented syllable, e.g.
mid Wýlfíngum, þā hine Wára cýn. Beow. 461.
ne méahte ic æt hílde mid Hrúntínge. ib. 1659.
The rhythmical value of syllables with a secondary accent will be considered more fully later on.
These general rules for the accent of compound words formed of noun + noun or adjective + noun require modification for the cases where a prefix (adverb or preposition) stands in close juxtaposition with a verb or noun. The preposition standing before and depending on a noun coalesces so closely with it that the two words express a single notion, the noun having the chief accent, e.g. onwég, āwég (away), ætsómne (together), ofdū́ne (down), toníhte (to-night), onmíddum (amid); examples in verse are:
gebād wíntra wórn ǣr he onwég hwúrfe. Beow. 264.
sī́d ætsómne þā gesúndrod wǽs. Gen. 162.