Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II: The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane VII
“Thou shalt, Hunding, | of every heroWash the feet, | and kindle the fire,Tie up dogs, | and tend the horses,And feed the swine | ere to sleep thou goest.”
Words in this poem
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II: The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane VII is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetic Edda, Project Gutenberg ebook #73533, the Henry Adams Bellows translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Anonymous, Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II: The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane VII, in The Poetic Edda (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #73533, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/poetic-edda/helgakvitha-hundingsbana-ii-the-second-lay-of-helgi-hundings-7.html, id L15736.
Form and metre
Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II: The Second Lay of Helgi Hundingsbane VII is 4 lines in a single stanza. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter. 80% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.0 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “Thou shalt, Hunding, | of every hero | 10 | ··/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Wash the feet, | and kindle the fire, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| Tie up dogs, | and tend the horses, | 8 | ······/˘ |
| And feed the swine | ere to sleep thou goest.” | 9 | ········· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.