SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

or word with name as here:
The Languages oj Alvissmcil
uppheim iotnar,
altar fagrarsefr (12).
As we see, the giants' word uppheimr also alliterates
with their name, iotnar. It was noted above that ten of
the thirteen giant-words begin with a vowel. It can
however be claimed that this is, if I may say so, entirely
accidental. In all cases the name elves (aljar) comes in the
following line. The giants' word is thus determined by
the mythological name in the following line, not by the
word iptunn. Stanzas 14, 26 and 34 show that this is the
case, for here the elves of line 5 are replaced by dwarves
(14, z6) and i heliu (34). The giants' words in these
cases are skyndir, jreki and hreinaiog, which do not begin
with vowels.
One can see that the constrictions imposed by alliteration
and other technical requirements caused the poet much
difficulty. The line pairs were relatively easy to compose,
but the need to find alliterating words in the full lines
through all of thirteen stanzas proved difficult. Men, the
lEsir and the giants recur regularly, stanza after stanza,
in their special positions, in the first, second and fourth
lines respectively, for here the poet could allow himself
a certain freedom in his choice of alliterating syllable,
and for the same reason the fifth line was for the most part
reserved for the elves. But in the third and sixth lines
the poet's system breaks down beyond repair. It was
surely the difficulty of finding alliterating words which
called for the introduction of the following names, whose
significance otherwise remains unclear: ginnregin (twice),
uppregin (once), halir (once), Suttungs synir (once),
dsa synir (once) and i heliu (six times). Such an
assumption is supported by the fact that the above names
- with only one exception - appear in lines 3 and 6, the
full lines. The terminological confusion and the lack of
consistency have their roots in technical difficulties.