The alliterating verb in Beowulf 2717b seah on enta geweorc (Part 1)

In Old English Beowulf, the finite verb in verse 2717b seah on enta geweorc takes precedence over two nouns in alliteration. This verse has been considered a serious violation of the so-called Sieverss Rule of Precedence, according to which finite verbs do not take precedence over nominals in alliteration (e.g. Bliss 1967; Stanley 1975; Donoghue 1987). However, the effect of Sieverss Rule of Precedence, namely, the tendency for verbs to receive weaker stress than nominals, is not something peculiar to Germanic alliterative verse but is also observed in Present-day English (Cruttenden 1997; Ladd 2008; Calhoun 2010). The rule, therefore, reflects natural prosody and there is no evidence that it is obeyed without exception in verse composition. Further, although the verb to see generally does not bear a high semantic load (Bolinger 1986, 1989), finite lexical verbs in contrast to auxiliaries show a certain amount of stress in their metrical behavior. Moreover, the alliterating verb in 2717b occurs in clause-initial position where finite verbs show a higher ratio of alliteration than in other positions in the clause (Orton 1985; Y. Suzuki 2008). Lastly, enta geweorc, which cooccurs with the alliterating verb in 2717b, as a formulaic expression rephrased elsewhere may not be strongly stressed. The unusual alliterative pattern in Beowulf 2717b, therefore, can be attributed to natural prosody and does not provide motivation for emendation as Donoghue (1987) proposes