ABSTRACT
The verse of the Ormulum stands out as idiosyncratic in the context of Middle English poetry. 1 It oversteps the boundaries of tradition in various ways and thus sets a number of questions as to its nature and origin. The most usual way in which these queries have been answered is by pointing to certain models which Orm could have imitated. However, this often means little more than a substitution of one controversial point for another, in that both those writers convinced that the poem is dependent on foreign models and those attempting to trace it back to the native models run into difficulties trying to find near parallels for this verse. It seems, therefore, that some of the aspects of Orm’s language and rhythmical habits should be analysed in an attempt to shed more light on this problem. In the verse of the Ormulum, the poet endeavours to produce a regular syllabic metre at a very early date. A study of how this aim was met and what techniques were used to achieve it is important for our understanding of syllabic poetic tradition in Middle English. To that end, this paper concentrates on Orm’s syllabism and accentuation, on parallels to his verse in medieval Latin, and on the division of his verse into lines.
