Re: Muta cum liquida in JRRT (was "Double stressed" words)

Pavel Iosad scripsit:

> > > But there of Finrod's children four
> > > were Angrod slain and proud Egnor.
> >
> > Promotion again.
>
> The trouble with this is that there is not only a promotion, but a
> demotion as well - if we assume that _Egnor_ is indeed normally stressed
> on the first syllable, we'd have to demote the first syllable and
> promote the second one, unless there's a spondee there. I don't know if
> it is allowed.
It happens, yes.  Sometimes it's an open question whether we have a substituted
foot or a promotion/demotion pair.

> > > Felagund and Orodreth then
> >    - x -   x   - x  x     -
>
> Umm, there are eight syllables in the line, and seven in your scansion?
Oops.  "Felagund and Orodreth then"
         - x -   x   x -  x     -     without m-c-l
         - x -   x   - x  x     -     with m-c-l

Both are plausible, if unusual, variant lines in iambic tetrameter.

> Two iambic feet followed by two trochaic ones?
No problem.  In pentameter, trochaic substitution in the last foot is uncommon,
but tetrameter is freer, being more closely related to the native meters, all
of which are four-stress with variable numbers of slacks.

> Gorlim it was, who wearying (151) - demotion and promotion / spondee,
> anyway cf. 212: And thus sad Gorlim, led away
The first foot is probably the most common place for trochaic substitution.
Most of your other examples are accounted for thus.

> Tinfang Gelion who still the moon (503) -
> demotion-promotion-demotion-promotion? Looks impossible (plus needs a
> non-syllabic _i_, which is common in the Lay). This line I can't figure
> out. Somehow I feel it should be iambic, perhaps to uphold the -n rhyme.
I think this is trochee-trochee-iamb-iamb.  Not rhyme but consonance, and
weak consonance at that -- I think it's accidental.

> Umboth-Muilin, Twilight Meres (1730) - _ui_ broken down, no problem
> there, but _Umboth_ shows a demotion-promotion again, or else it's a
> trochaic line.
There may be loss of the first syllable here, leading to a seven-syllable line.

> of Orodreth set it: Brother mine (nine syllables, I can't figure out the
> meter)
There is definitely an extrametrical slack here, but we don't know if it's the
first or second syllable of "Orodreth".

> Note also that it is not only stress that suffers from English verse:
> such as _Beleriand_ rhyming with _land_ at least twice.
Aaak.

--
A poetical purist named Cowan           [that's me: jcowan@reutershealth.com]
Once put the rest of us dowan.          [on xml-dev]
    "Your verse would be sweeter        http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
    If it only had metre                http://www.reutershealth.com
And rhymes that didn't force me to frowan."     [overpacked line!] --Michael Kay