![\"3373983296_6d0458c03e_o\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2016\/11\/3373983296_6d0458c03e_o.jpg\")
<\/a>Meistaradeild UMF\u00cd 332 by Dagur Brynj\u00f3lfsson at Flickr.<\/p><\/div>\n
An old Icelandic children’s song, Lausav\u00edsur, goes:<\/p>\n
Hani, krummi, hundur, sv\u00edn<\/em> Hen, raven, dog, pig (Shhh I know cronk isn’t an actual word, but there’s no way I could better translate the word krunka<\/em> – it’s onomatopoeic\u00a0word for the sound a raven makes. Likewise, the official word for raven is hrafn<\/em>, krummi is just a loving nickname.)<\/p>\n What I wanted to talk about was not actually the animals though, they’re just a bonus. The main topic is Icelandic poetic metre called r\u00edma\/r\u00edmur<\/em>. R\u00edma is singular, r\u00edmur plural, but as English uses the plural form r\u00edmur for Icelandic poems like this I’ll be using that as well.<\/p>\n Chickens at Nordur-V\u00edk Youth Hostel by Jennifer Boyer at Flickr.<\/p><\/div>\n Germanic languages often have alliterative tradition for poetry, and Icelandic is no exception. There’s a set structure for how a r\u00edmur must be written and according to one of my professors there are even people with a “poetry ear”, who can immediately tell if a r\u00edmur is composed right or wrong regardless of whether they’ve actually ever studied r\u00edmur. R\u00edmur are a hundreds of years old tradition that’s recently made a strong comeback after almost disappearing for a while. The earliest surviving r\u00edmur\u00a0was written in 1480-90 and it was called \u00d3l\u00e1fs r\u00edma Haraldssonar, only found in Flateyjarb\u00f3k (= Book of Flateyjar, lit. transl. Book of Flat Islands). As an interesting fact, r\u00edmur actually helped preserve some important parts of the history of Icelandic literature: r\u00edmur were often written about existing sagas which have since disappeared, but since the r\u00edmur about them still exist we know the\u00a0story that the saga told!<\/p>\n Lausav\u00edsur is the most typical form of r\u00edmur called ferskeytt<\/em> (= four-cornered). It has four lines, alternating between odd and even number of syllables for each line. The alliteration has strict rules as well, as the same consonant has to start one line and repeat twice in another one (doesn’t matter which one happens first), and they all have to fall on stressed syllables. The one that stands alone at the beginning of a line is called h\u00f6fu\u00f0stafur<\/em>, whereas the twice-repeating ones are stu\u00f0lar<\/em>.<\/p>\n Adorable, loving dog at Ste\u00f0ji brewery by Jennifer Boyer at Flickr.<\/p><\/div>\n Confusing enough? Let’s add more confusion! The h\u00f6fu\u00f0stafur and stu\u00f0lar have to begin with the same sound, but that’s just the beginning of it and only refers to the majority of consonants. S is an\u00a0exception: if a word begins with S+Consonant, they have to be the same pair! So str\u00e1kur<\/em> (= boy) and stelpa<\/em> (= girl) rhyme, but stelpa and sp\u00f6ng<\/em> (= ribbon) don’t. However, all vowels alliterate with each other, so for example the following lines work perfectly:<\/p>\n Y<\/strong>fir kaldan e<\/strong>y\u00f0isand<\/em> (= Over the cold waste\u00a0sand \/ alone at night I roam.)<\/p>\n …ok, one more step. The rhythm. It’s not as simple as counting the syllables, because Icelandic can tie vowels together like so:<\/p>\n N\u00fa er horfi\u00f0 Nor\u00f0urland,<\/em> (= Now the Northern land has disappeared \/ now I have a home nowhere.)<\/p>\n I bolded\u00a0the two words that will be pronounced as one syllable to make the odd+even syllable rule work. Let’s look at that little children’s song about animals again:<\/p>\n H<\/strong>ani, krummi, h<\/strong>undur, sv\u00edn (7)<\/em> To top it off Icelanders also like to rhyme the ends of the lines, so let’s just say composing a poem in Icelandic metre should probably be an Olympic sport!<\/p>\n
\n hestur, m\u00fas, titlingur.<\/em>
\n Galar, krunkar, geltir, hr\u00edn<\/em>
\n gneggjar, t\u00edstir, singur.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nHorse, mouse, chickadee.
\nCrows, cronks, barks, squeals
\nNeighs, chirps, sings.<\/p>\n![\"19638438322_7b71e9edad_k\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/icelandic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2016\/11\/19638438322_7b71e9edad_k.jpg\")
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<\/a>
\n e<\/strong>inn um n\u00f3tt \u00e9g sveima.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n n\u00fa \u00e1<\/strong> \u00e9g hvergi heima.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nh<\/strong>estur, m\u00fas, titlingur. (6)<\/em>
\nG<\/strong>alar, krunkar, g<\/strong>eltir, hr\u00edn (7)<\/em>
\ng<\/strong>neggjar, t\u00edstir, singur. (6)<\/em><\/p>\n
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