With words & works

*wurdą ⁊ wurką

Mjǫðr Óðins· Reconstructing Germanic verse formulae

---

This formula, paralleling alliterating *wurdą ‘word’ and *wurką ‘work, deed,’ also has many West Germanic-only variants with reflexes of Proto-West-Germanic *dādi ‘deed.’ The most common variant, however, uses the former two words, and it even has parallels in some Old Norse poetry, in which the words were no longer alliterative (orð & verk respectively). The word for ‘and’ in West Germanic reflects Proto-Germanic *andi ‘in addition’ (cf. Old Norse enn ‘yet, still’); the Old Norse ok derives from Proto-Germanic *auk ‘also’ (cf. Old English éac / Old Saxon ôk ‘also, too’). The original Proto-Germanic coordinating conjunction *ja(hw) (cf. Gothic jah), which does appear in the Hêliand 5480a example: gie wordo gie werko.

---

*wurdą jahw wurką

Old English

word ⁊ weorc

• Béowulf 1833a; Gúþlác 581a, 793a; Crist 917a, 1236a

Old Saxon

word ⁊ werk

• Hêliand 1551a, 2612a, 3473a, 3945a

• Hêliand 5480a

• Old Saxon Baptismal Vow

Old Norse

orð ⁊ verk

• Hávamál 14a

• Kátrínardrápa 24

• Harmsól 9

 

PWG *(ne) word ne werk

Old English

wordum né worcum

• Béowulf 1100a

Old Saxon

ne word ne werk

• Hêliand 1578a

 

PWG *word andi dādi

Old English

word ⁊ dǽd

• Gúþlác 619b; Andreas 596b; Genesis A 2352b

• Crist 1367b, 1582b

Old Saxon

word ⁊ dâdi

• Hêliand 1990b, 5289b

• Genesis B 440b

 

 

PWG *dādi andi word

Old English

dǽd ⁊ word

• Crist 429b

Old Saxon

dâdi ⁊ word

• Hêliand 1229b, 2966b

 

PWG *word efþau dādi

Old English

word oððe dǽd

• Genesis A 2813a

Old Saxon

word eftha werk

• Hêliand 2834a

 

---

Mjǫðr Óðins· Reconstructing Germanic verse formulae

---

philology