A New Theory of Alliterative A-Verses

Following Duggan’s work on b-verses, Inoue analyses further the “behavior of a-verses” in this article. Her argument, “contrary to prevailing views, is that the a-verse does indeed obey metrical rules of the sort Duggan finds only in the b-verse: the a-verse … can have two and only two metrical stresses, and alliteration and metrical stress do not always coincide in the a-verse” (109). Inoue assesses linguistic data mainly from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight to derive these rules and concludes by suggesting that a “full understanding of the a-verse norms” she outlines are crucial to an understanding of L’s metrical practices (132).