§ =42.= Of greater interest than this systematic combination of alliteration and rhyme is the irregular and more or less unintentional occurrence of rhyme which in the eleventh century is found frequently in the native metre. Isolated instances of rhyme or assonance may be met with even in the oldest Old English poems. For certain standing expressions linked by such a similarity of sound, mostly causing interior rhyme (i.e. rhyme within a hemistich), were admitted now and then in alliterative poetry, e.g. _siþþan ic =h=ónd and rónd | =h=ébban míhte._ Beow. 656. _=s=ǣ́la and mǣ́la; | þat is =s=ṓd métod._ ib. 1611. In other cases such rhymes are to be found at the end of two hemistichs, _Hrṓðgār máðelode, | =h=ílt scḗawode._ Beow. 1687. _=W=ýrmum bewúnden, | =w=ítum gebúnden._ Judith 115. Examples of this kind occur not unfrequently in several early OE. poems, but their number increases decidedly in the course of time from _Beowulf_, _Andreas_, _Judith_, up to _Byrhtnoth_ and _Be Dōmes dæge_. From the two last-mentioned poems, still written in pure alliterative verse, a few examples of rhyming-alliterative verses, or of simply rhymed verses occurring accidentally among the normal alliterative lines, may also be quoted here: _=B=ýrhtnōð máðelode, | =b=órd háfenode._ Byrhtn. 42. _ǣ́fre embe =st=únde | he =s=éalde sume wúnde._ ib. 271. _þǣr þā wǽterbúrnan | swḗgdon and úrnon._ Dom. 3. _=i=nnon þam gemónge | on =ǣ́=nlicum wónge._ ib. 6. _nū̀ þū scealt =g=rḗotan, | tḗaras =g=ḗotan._ ib. 82. Thus it may be taken for granted that end-rhyme would have come into use in England, even if Norman-French poetry had never been introduced, although it is certainly not to be denied that it only became popular in England owing to French influence. But can this influence explain the gradually increasing use of end-rhyme in some OE. poems written shortly before the Norman Conquest (as e.g. _Byrhtnoth_, _Be Dōmes dæge_, the poetical passage in the _Saxon Chronicle_ of the year 1036), or are we to attribute it to the influence of mediaeval hymn poetry, or, lastly, to the lingering influence of the above-mentioned Old Norse 'runhenda'? It is not easy to give a decided answer to these questions. In any case it would appear that towards the end of the Old English period combined Mediaeval Latin and French influence on English metre became of considerable importance on account of the constantly growing intercourse between the British isles and the continent. This may be seen in the more frequent use of rhyme, as indeed was only to be expected in consequence of the increasing popularity of Norman-French and Mediaeval-Latin poetry in England and the reception of Norman-French words into the language.