Vernacular and classical strands in Icelandic poetics and grammar in the Middle Ages

Abstract

Medieval Icelandic grammar and poetics based their analysis, to a great extent, on traditional Nordic scholarship. In poetics, Snorra Edda was central, but insights from Classical learning were used to supplement it in the Third and the Fourth Grammatical Treatises. A comparison between Snorri’s description of metrical form in Háttatal and Latin metrics reveals fundamental differences. In the Nordic system, the emphasis is on alliteration and rhyme, but in the Latin one rhythm is central. Furthermore, there are significant differences in the kind of phonological terminology and analysis presented in the grammatical treatises respectively, the First providing the sharpest insights, but the Second perhaps being the most original, seeking inspiration from music. The Third Treatise shows input from runic learning as well as Latin doctrine in its grammatical part, and a healthy mixture of native and Classical learning in its poetics.