ne sē brýne bḗtmǽcgum.Dan. 265,
þē þæt wéorc stáðoláde.And. 800.
Other combinations are given by Sievers, Altgermanische Metrik, § 95, but these occur so rarely or are so doubtful that they need not be mentioned here. A few lengthened hemistichs have four beats, as
engel in þone ófn ínnan becwṓm.Dan. 238,
and others in Sievers’s Altgermanische Metrik, § 96.
Formation of Stanzas and Rhyme.
§ 40. OE. poetry is mainly narrative, and does not run into any kind of recurring stanza or strophe, but is entirely stichic. Traces of an arrangement of lines so as to form a stanza are found in Dēor, the Runic Poem, the Psalms and Hymns, the so-called First Riddle, and in the Gnomic verses of the Exeter Book, which may be compared to the Old French ‘tirades’.[94]
On the other hand, end-rhyme of the two hemistichs, combined with alliteration, is not very uncommon, though in most cases it seems only an incidental ornament, as
fýlle gefǣ́gon; fǽgere geþǣ́gon.Beow. 1014.
wórd-gyd wrécan ond ymb wér sprécan.Beow. 3172.