It is not likely that a complete shifting of accent in favour of the rhyming syllable ever took place, as the first syllables of the words usually take part in the alliteration, and therefore have a strongly marked accent. Sometimes, it is true, in the poems of this epoch, unaccented syllables do participate in the alliteration, and in the case of the words _Tuskane_, _Britane_, _summovne_, _renovne_ their Romance origin would explain the accent on the last syllable; but these words, both as to their position and as to their treatment in the line, are exactly on a par with the Germanic rhyme-words in ll. 870-2:
_For he wes =b=ýrsit and =b=éft, | and =b=ráithly =b=lédand ... And wáld that he nane =h=árm hynt | with =h=árt and with =h=ánd._
In both cases we thus have 'accented-unaccented rhymes' (cf. Chapter I in Book II), which probably were uttered in oral recitation with a certain level stress. This is probable for several reasons. First it is to be borne in mind that Germanic words in even-beat rhythms of earlier and contemporary poems were used in the same way, e.g.:
_Quhen thái of Lórne has séne the kíng Set ín hymsélff sa grét helpíng._ Barbour, Bruce, iii. 147-8.
_And bád thame wénd intó Scotlánd And sét a sége with stálward hánd._ ib. iv. 79-80.
Only in these cases the rhythmical accent supersedes the word accent which has to accommodate itself to the former, while in the uneven-beat rhythm of the four-beat alliterative line the word-accent still predominates. In the even-beat lines, therefore, the rhythmical accent rests on the last syllable of a disyllabic rhyme-word, but in the alliterative lines it rests on the penultimate. In the case of words of Romance origin, however, which during this period of the language could be used either with Germanic or with Romanic accentuation, the displacement of the word-accent by the rhythmic accent in non-alliterative words may in these cases have been somewhat more extensive; cf. e.g. rhymes like _rage: curáge: suáge_ Gol. 826-8; _day: gay: journáy_ ib. 787-9; _assáill: mettáill: battáil_ R. Coil[gh]ear, 826-8, &c. (but _[gh]one =b=érne in the =b=áttale_ Gol. 806).
As a rule, however, for these too the same level-stress accentuation must be assumed as for the rhyme-words of the first stanza of _Golagras_ quoted above (p. 102).