To refine the word-foot theory, I have worked to incorporate statistical studies of related meters and recent developments in linguistics. The theory now provides explanations for how the meter arose, how it developed within Old Norse, Old English, Old Saxon, and Old High German, and how it evolved into the Middle English meter of poems like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.1 Here I return to the Old English (OE) period, this time with different emphases. Rather than showing how the theory explains observations in previous research, I present an updated theory on its own, with more attention to problems in alternative approaches. Rather than reviewing all available evidence for the theory, I focus on the clearest and most accessible evidence that shows why this kind of theory is required.The first task for a metrical theorist is to identify what Roman Jakobson called a metrical constant: something not required by ordinary grammar that holds true throughout a poem.2 The alliterative line consists of two verses, the first called the a-verse and the second called the b-verse. Eduard Sievers observed that most verses have four metrical positions if we assume that adjacent unstressed syllables share a single weak position called a Senkung, “dip.”3 This straightforward counting procedure would provide a metrical constant if it identified four positions in every verse, but it does not. To account for exceptions with three positions, rules have been proposed that “promote” an unstressed syllable to a stressed syllable at certain locations in the line.4 Identifying these locations has been a valuable contribution to research but does not explain the exceptions. From a strictly theoretical perspective, a rule of “promotion” is simply another way of saying that unstressed syllables are encountered where a four-position constant would require stress, something that happens about once every eight lines in Beowulf.5 Subrules permitting exceptions to more general rules can provide genuine explanations, of course, if they are supported by independent empirical evidence. A well-known example is Verner's Law, which permits well-defined exceptions to Grimm's Law. Verner's Law is accepted as a scientific principle because it is supported by discoveries about Indo-European stress placement, not because it categorizes exceptions to a useful rule of thumb.6 Adherents of Yakovlev's theory make no serious attempt to account for five-position verses, speculating that they survive from a lost earlier stage of the meter.7Sievers's system of scansion provided an invaluable account of the metrical facts. It has played a foundational role in English historical linguistics and in the editing and dating of verse texts.8 In all but a handful of difficult cases, the word-foot theory arrives from an entirely different direction at the constraints on verse form identified by Sievers, providing independent support for work based on those constraints. Sievers did not deduce his constraints from plausible hypotheses that apply to all verses, however. He did not provide a theory, strictly speaking.What all OE verse patterns have in common is that they can be filled by exactly two OE words. Verses are normally realized as phrases, and two-word phrases occur far more often in poetry than in prose.9 These facts can be explained by a hypothesis that the verse consists of two “word feet,” each foot having the pattern of an OE word. The word-foot hypothesis is simple, natural, and well supported by empirical evidence, but it challenges common assumptions about the nature of poetic form. Metrical scholarship has focused on forms that repeat a fixed pattern of syllables to create a linguistic rhythm within the line. The foot, as traditionally conceived, is a rhythmical unit. As Sievers observed, Old English meter does not employ feet of this kind.10The word-foot theory posits nine foot patterns that correspond to native word patterns, unstressed words and compounds included. Verses have a regular foot count but the permissible combinations of feet do not provide a regular linguistic rhythm. In excluding poetic rhythm from the system that defines acceptable verses, I do not mean to suggest that the topic has no theoretical significance. John Collins Pope has argued eloquently for the importance of poetic rhythm and I agree with much of what he says.11 My claim is that rhythm and meter employ two distinct rule systems, both very interesting indeed. A compelling performance of a poem, I would argue, requires alignment of metrical patterns, as represented in metrical theory, with rhythmical patterns, as represented in music theory. When a single foot pattern is iterated to create the verse or line pattern, as in iambic pentameter, alignment of the two systems is so straightforward that the metrical rules look like rhythmical rules. It is no trivial matter, though, to explain how Old English metrical patterns can be aligned with patterns that a music theorist would recognize as rhythmical.12 Further discussion of this topic would take us beyond the scope of the present article. A separate study is underway.13As Sievers sorted verses into Verstypen, “verse types,” he made every effort to arrive at the of He not the of course, for on a regular required for a the for A example of is In I a to the word foot in verse has a pattern, with a stressed syllable by an unstressed a syllable with stress for an unstressed syllable in or both The stress of and are but the on In the second foot is often filled by a stressed syllable by an unstressed A is a in are has no in the first foot and is to the has in the first foot and most often in the b-verse. of unstressed syllables is in and more in but in as for example in on he to which has four syllables more than The word-foot theory is not by the of verse but by the and of the which a native of Old English by The verse patterns are as distinct combinations of word feet and the is to explain why combinations are meter to a general for of with as and I the for meters that are for of are from of the in which the meter positions from metrical feet from from phrases, lines from for metrical are from for the linguistic Metrical are as rules that be certain at a in metrical the of a metrical the of a metrical the of a metrical principle of is from a patterns are identified if they correspond to linguistic patterns that native by and Metrical patterns are to identify if they correspond to linguistic feet work well in poetry because the word pattern of the is from a metrical a effort of be in a meter for of course, but the of a line be acceptable to the is the most principle of form. The of an is by from to provide for a theory of acceptable verses provide to the nature of poetic form. of a four-position constant make or no effort to explain these on that of no the of research on Old English A this has an rules for the verse can be by a system of rules that These rules the and of verses in to acceptable verses from acceptable rule and or more make a verse constraints on verse patterns are for a meter that foot In meters that repeat a single foot pattern, foot in locations and counting feet is a trivial can words with the foot in lines like we the first line of constraints on of foot but they are In the line the occur in the first two and the two feet are realized as in with the principle of In OE foot and in locations and take to the The of word feet with word for both feet and verses can have two in OE rules to foot patterns from verse patterns are required.The metrical are positions, which are from The position is from syllables with word The position is from syllables with word stress, which syllables and The position is from unstressed OE syllables are normally stress and the for the position is from the linguistic from the is on the most position of the verse, which is by This position be by a stressed syllable or by the of a stressed syllable by an unstressed is no in syllables with the positions from a stressed syllable normally with the unstressed syllable on an on is the unstressed syllable is and the would for syllables with stress provides for the nine foot patterns by OE with for the word The foot patterns are from to from to and from to more I employ these in is a foot pattern for every OE word pattern, for patterns that a verse, with of the in each foot A foot is normally realized as a word but is realized as a word at a in As we of word as feet is to The of a stressed syllable by an unstressed syllable is to a stressed as well as When for OE as like Here and I within is no independent evidence for the stress by Sievers in weak forms like The word-foot theory these as than as adjacent unstressed syllables to separate positions within the foot it to of four metrical positions the of a The OE word pattern is the pattern of words with a stressed syllable by an unstressed In with this word pattern is as the foot pattern, to the feet with no stress are feet with two are feet with metrical position are and feet with more than two metrical positions are a foot based on a common word pattern is more than a foot based on a more common word OE words normally have an syllable with stress by a syllable with The feet based on compounds are and common are compounds with a first an unstressed or The more feet are and is the foot pattern and words with this pattern are how on as word by as words by native are no OE compounds with the pattern and be no feet with this pattern to The metrical facts this foot can be with an foot to form an verse like the of an is the can a word of as for example in did his Here the foot is by a word and a word than by an with an the do is to an unstressed syllable the of the would be and but are no verses like This metrical be in a four-position system that adjacent unstressed syllables in weak and the The word-foot theory, on the each unstressed syllable a foot to its with two unstressed syllable share an position with a stressed syllable by and adjacent unstressed share the position by which is at a in to by in verses like at in for verses like on on the where the of syllables are with in and but not in his or A four-position constant provides no way to explain this In the word-foot theory, unstressed syllables the foot are from unstressed syllables the foot, which positions and rules of unstressed word or can be within a foot to an acceptable verse pattern, as for example in and or the more than unstressed to a foot a pattern that is common or a that would be to by than of a with its exceptions. The patterns of unstressed syllables are those in which the first foot is In these patterns, syllables the first verse by the foot from an In patterns, syllables verse and in the a verse form like iambic pentameter, which a fixed metrical pattern, to the pattern In metrical is by from the metrical pattern, called and metrical rules the of the line within acceptable In OE much is by the nine foot patterns into acceptable verse to verse patterns is more strictly than to the fixed pattern of iambic pentameter, and verse patterns that far from metrical are The verse pattern is the pattern with two which a of four metrical positions and a of two to the verse patterns with a single position are those with two positions and or more positions are and those with more than four metrical positions are constraints on verse form apply within of his or of the word-foot theory these constraints as rules that apply to all verses with the The of a rule in on the at which it a rule at the of the line than at the of the verse, which in than at the of the When two rules the rule and the rule is metrical is a rule of be if it with more than rule of in the rules apply at verse rule has a The on the that the rule or a and a of this kind make it to what of verses would count as evidence the identify of from is but not often be in separate of the acceptable verse patterns are provided in English lines are from in the in which the meter In this as in rules for stress and are from the word of a of a a and a word The its most stress on its first the The to the and its most stress on its first the The at the of the and normally in of phrases as in phrases of a or and a now but the in would as As and and more stress than of in is in the metrical from of the to the is as of the metrical of the to the a-verse metrical of the The most position in the line is the first position of the in is the first position of the b-verse. I to these as the In a verse with two positions, the second is than the the is to the a second position in the has than a second position in the position in the first foot is more than an position in the second is with linguistic In OE stressed syllables The of is related to metrical as most often on positions and is on the first and most position of the verse, normally by a or with are normally on positions where is or on an position in the first foot of the pattern or the pattern but on the more position in the second foot of the patterns and As we have observed the of on metrical as well as linguistic on positions and is on the first of the on positions in the first foot of and but is in the second foot of rule of the can be within a rule system that and to metrical have an by a more with two The is called the and the The more is called the It consists of a by the and a that the English requires within the linguistic Old English requires within the the of the is required to This is the first The as and count as however. with with and with for of word with a stressed can with and the not in The rules for are based on syllable in they are to rules for in the of the apply at the of the line and employ the for rules can be at a in with rules and are of the word-foot theory with and but the can be as the acceptable combinations of word feet by Sievers as I this as the of verse patterns with a second foot of are from from are if they are A patterns with two positions are to the and of the first foot, to the of the second The two patterns with a single by Sievers as are as and of are in OE meter to the foot and do occur in the Old which The for from the and the second foot is is as the of verse patterns that have a first foot or and a second foot with of the more patterns or patterns are to the of the first foot, to the of the second In the example for the foot is realized as a with an a The two-word example for from another poem, is as the of verse patterns in which the first foot is and the second foot has the pattern or the ordinary pattern patterns are to the of the first foot and to the of the second is as the of verse patterns in which the first foot has and the second foot is patterns are to the of the first foot, to the and of the second In and the second foot has the patterns as in In the the second foot has the patterns as in The very and very pattern once in The two-word from has a with the of pattern is the with a second as the with a first foot that is both and the as with no theoretical significance. of the word-foot theory apply to every verse with the of the and apply to but not all patterns within a by The patterns and for have and are distinct from the patterns and A word-foot rule in patterns does not apply to or rule acceptable verse patterns form a and the of the can be in a In with that the foot pattern to the can be by the foot pattern to form an acceptable verse are to the In the for verse patterns with of of of of and of and in the verse The each of these be to identify a of feet that the rule or foot patterns and are from the to constraints on a word the second foot from its the word it in which the word stress, as or than as or in the a word the second foot and its word the word is to metrical The verse to of a word to a stressed like the from which it is theorist a metrical rule be to that it does A rule verses with more than a syllables would no exceptions but would to verses from word of in way to the work by a metrical rule is to a kind of that is it is and the rules. of this called are identified with an I an in for verse the word-foot theory, two-word phrases that as verses are from those that do not and of two-word phrases is to in the As it a two-word verse can be by of an two-word by a in by with another word in the poem, or by an alternative word rules no exceptions would be very indeed. I employ from in most for with of in which both feet have more than two metrical The patterns are identified as in for acceptable verse patterns the words from in I provide the of the verse in which the word first the Old English period, the from word to well and available to Old English and word to metrical verses can often be by an alternative word by the of in it can into with which of on positions, or with which of the of the line. As in with a more than in verses of with feet of to and In verses, the normally the to do so if The of in is provided to the of each the in verses and in verses with a more foot or of would much The patterns in are the verses in I have the word that is most of the time but in the most verse compounds that are or in These poetic compounds provide and the poetic compounds are like of the a for In the first is The has the as the for of can often be by a word in an acceptable verse with a in the to a verse that would be verses with poetic compounds are because the stress in these compounds as in are by of a verse in or by of a verse that of the two feet that verses are from the metrical system by for compounds like an form of the are by two words and are difficult to from two-word the metrical system feet to they would be difficult to from two-word verses of has the for as a verse pattern has very for as a foot pattern because it is than the foot pattern and two syllables as The verse pattern and the foot pattern from the metrical to a metrical pattern if the alternative is to the words from Rather than OE as verses, to the constraints in rule more than three verses realized as compounds in an verse with the pattern a verse with the pattern realized as a a verse with the pattern and an verse with the pattern realized as a meter permits of a foot as a word with two word to the constraints in rule of a word as a foot rules the verse are of feet realized as word and the verse patterns by syllables are in the verses and the word as a foot is a These verses and in have a or on the and the of the position is by In cases, the verse pattern to a word as a foot in with which syllables with weak stress to an position as well as an syllables of this kind often as the of a OE the most in the can an The verse patterns and do not acceptable foot patterns, but they do of word as OE feet from verses very indeed. of as a foot pattern it to to a rule feet with more than three metrical as a foot pattern because words with this pattern have a to words with the pattern word patterns are employ first In Old Norse, of from the the word pattern and the foot no of with an foot, employ an verse pattern in of are we in with we as this verse alliterative on the position of the second foot and alliterative to the the foot pattern in two as the foot the of the and in the foot with The word is not a and be as a verse patterns by are by in and occur the first are from the feet that occur the first in and The unstressed are normally as syllables and the more as the of unstressed linguistic with an in syllable is by and to a stressed is as to or and like have and are to be from In be as unstressed as or as The because they a to a stressed and a to Old lost all of its unstressed but the and and at the of the line. In it in the a-verse and in the b-verse. is in the A and patterns that which are of and are normally realized as or with very and are realized as unstressed the most unstressed words. is useful in OE poetry because it for of words in required for unstressed lost in Old Norse, no and The are for in with a single in for the of in the the are in with which of The are for of and with in each that unstressed have as feet than unstressed they are more common in the unstressed have and are as with feet is acceptable in verse patterns of or A verse with a foot would be difficult to from a single foot with a of feet and verses that because is useful in Old English Old no for verses with feet in an like in can an in verse which as can an position by rule is in the patterns and the verse pattern does not correspond to an acceptable of an and a as The pattern does to a that be as Here as the feet from verses with The patterns are with verses in of verse patterns is now beyond two a word with three or more unstressed syllables provides an for a In verses with feet a word for this the with the pattern In with an on the provides an for the first of words and is in these because they no and verse not in but to in position as verses with more than two syllables positions, and to with the pattern are the verse has In the second stress has because it does not with an unstressed syllable in the word and with a syllable of These patterns are to the a-verse by the principle of The of it to the foot from an and this is in of by or more the eight with two syllables the first stress, the foot is realized as a as two or as a single word. the more word and these are of words for In for the word consists of a and an unstressed unstressed are as in or in the with As a no of that in at and in the Old lost no to two-word of and these do occur in Old English Old unstressed for feet in all the patterns that The for in the foot as an unstressed for that unstressed the first in more than those in an that to a the first in these the of are in and which Sievers a The word-foot theory provides a single for in all these the to feet from can be to more than of an OE most OE poems survive in It is all to that a theory of the meter to account for an that well be to A theory that accepted all verses as would patterns that are or to be of a four-position constant focus on of patterns and attention to patterns that are not verses is an a theory for When a is statistical can to verses from verses with but Sievers statistical evidence with to verses, but his can take us so Further requires an theory that explains why verses are and why the are as they The word-foot theory is in the of It is into theoretical linguistics and no assumptions about the of or The theory is in the its rules from an based on general that from a single metrical patterns are based on linguistic of the meter to of the in which general Metrical rules of the theory to the and of verses with a of The of these rules is to in the for the phrases of exactly two iambic as his verse it most of all in the of the earlier as he to meters and on the metrical the metrical foot as a of the that a meter is a of more and syllables based on the rhythm of ordinary This be the most in the of metrical which by and his to can be in of meter by and for as well as in work on OE meter by and a poetic iambic an of the foot plausible at first because the way to metrical in this form is to from its The of permissible foot of the metrical foot with that stress is by the of linguistic and the of from and a in certain of iambic As it these a of words. is far from all metrical theory, we and the of an that no metrical theory so far to has that the meter of a line is the metrical by the metrical of the words in verse forms a of foot patterns, the constraints on us to metrical and alliterative meters of this kind meters the second of the first In of of the foot as a word is than I the “word from an on alliterative word-foot meters do not require a fixed but rules are so that they are very difficult to and for poetic two-word verses are of in and of with a or a and a system of scansion metrical to linguistic In metrical are and to linguistic requires Here I have to a more of metrical from linguistic the word-foot theory, scansion is a straightforward of linguistic to linguistic by the most this way of that of linguistic can a metrical that is much interesting work to be not in Old English but in metrical