An Introduction to Old English Edinburgh University Press

bræ´d of
t
am beorne
blódig
.
e gár
dragged from the warrior
bloody spear
However, if the initial cluster is either sc-, sp- or st-, then that cluster
alliterates only with itself, as can be seen in two further lines from the
same poem:
he sc
.
éaft
t
a mid 
e
am sc
.
y´lde
t
at se sc
.
eaft tobæ´rst
he thrust then with the shield 
so the shaft broke
and
t
æt spére sprengde
t
æt hit sprang ong
.
éan
and the spear broke
so that it sprang back
This has interesting parallels with present-day English, where /s/ +
voiceless stop clusters have a special status. There is good reason for
supposing that in both Old English and in present-day English the initial
sequence /s/ + voiceless stop function as an indivisible unit, and not
merely in alliteration, but in general matters such as determining the
internal structure of syllables.
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In contrast to the above, alliteration between vowels appears to have
no constraints, so that any vowel alliterates with any other vowel:
æ´tterne órd
Se éorl wæs 
t
e blí
t
ra
poisoned point
The earl was the happier
This situation has caused much controversy. The dominant view is that
things were simply as they appear on the surface, but another view is that
there was something preceding the apparently alliterating vowel. The
only plausible something is a glottal stop, as is found medially in non-
standard pronunciations of, say, bitter, which, of course, the Old English
scribes would have no way of representing. Of course this also means we
have no direct data to allow us to prove that this the correct view. No
doubt the controversy will persist. One argument in favour of positing
an initial glottal stop is that such a sound is indeed found in Dutch and
German. I have to say that I remain unconvinced, but you should make
up your own mind!
The final point to consider takes us back to another question about
what sounds count as identical. Here are two different examples from
Beowulf: