[84] This is not very common in poetry of the more regular metrical structure, but is found in Ælfric’s lines, in which we find hemistichs without any alliterating letter, and others where the alliteration is continued in the following line; two-thirds, however, of his lines are formed quite correctly.
[85] Snorri, the Icelandic metrician, permits this in the case of certain monosyllabic words, but looks on it as a licence (leyfi en eigi rétt setning, Hāttatal, p. 596).
[86] The subject of the preceding paragraphs was first investigated by M. Rieger in his essay Alt- und Angelsächsische Verskunst, p. 18, where many details will be found.
[87] Cf. Sievers in Paul-Braune’s Beiträge, xii. 455; K. Luick, ib., xiii. 389, xv. 441; F. Kaufmann, ib., xv. 360; Sievers, in Paul’s Grundriss, pp. 891 ff., and in Altgermanische Metrik, §§ 88–96.
[88] In Paul-Braune’s Beiträge, xii, pp. 454, 455, Sievers gives a list of the undoubted regular lengthened verses occurring in OE. poetry.
[89] Sievers discusses the lengthened verses of these poems in Beiträge, xii. 479.
[90] Beiträge, xii. 458.
[91] Beiträge, xiii. 388, xv. 445.
[92] Altgermanische Metrik, § 94. 3.
[93] Altgermanische Metrik, § 95.