Further thoughts about poetic compounds

Poetic compounds in OE are almost always woven into the metrical fabric.

The quick version: each line of OE poetry consists of two half lines, separated by a caesura or (in print) extra spaces. The first stressed syllable of the SECOND half line sets the alliteration for the entire line, and ONE stressed syllable in the first half line normally must alliterate with it, though two stressed syllables (double alliteration) can. (Remember that any stressed syllable beginning with a vowel can "alliterate"--assonate?--with any other such syllable). Since OE is a Germanic language, stressed syllables are usually the first ones, though prefixes can complicate this rule a bit. 

A few examples, with stressed syllables in all caps:

          HALges HEOFon-cyninges       HYLdo getilge (Resignation 36)

          WYRda WALdend        in þinne WULdor-dream (Resignation 44)

           SAR-cwida SECga,      ond him bið a SEFa geomor (Resignation 95)

The best sign that a compound isn´t a poetic one but just an everyday word is probably that it doesn´t fit into the scheme of alliteration. See for example the compound "mankind," which does not contribute to the f-alliteration of the following line:

          

           geFREOÞa hyra ond geFEORma hy        FÆDer mon-cynnes (l. 62)

The upshot?  The first element in most poetic compounds almost aways carries the alliteration of the line. I've been trying as hard as I can to make it fit into my rough approximation of the alliterative line. 

A CAVEAT: so far in these translations, I haven´t been following the formal metrical scheme outlined above but have been trying to suggest the alliteration where possible. Some lines do come close to  classic OE meter:

            he drove, dreary-hearted,       those two from the dwellings (Genesis A, l. 2805)

              

Quite frankly, though, I´ve been cheating. That is, I´ll sometimes include alliteration that´s not in the first syllable but buried somewhere further in the words: see the following italicized sounds/letters:

            the tribe in the fortress with a death-attack (Genesis, l. 2509)

and I also sometimes continue the alliterative scheme over the line barrier. Other lines have no alliteration at all to give a clearer sense of the literal text.

One side effect is that all this alliteration is infiltrating my conversation and writing. Yikes.