Gripla - 01.01.1979, Page 197

OLD NORSE COURT POETRY
193
Bardic handbooks existed for instance among the Tamil and the Welsh
(Kailasapathy 1968: 49-50). Their Icelandic counterpart is Snorri’s
Edda written about 1220. This work, while bearing the stamp of Snorri’s
classical education and genius, gives no doubt a fair idea of the instruc-
tion imparted orally to apprentice scalds for centuries before Snorri’s
time.
(c) No examples of court poetry have been found in writing from
the 9th to the 12th century, whereas the earliest example of a scaldic
verse written in runes is dated to about 1000. But considering the lack
of sources this proves nothing.
(d) The dating of scaldic poems by applying linguistic criteria is
difficult. The language of the poems is more variegated than that of
the accompanying prose, and the same verse may show both old and
young features. It is clear that old features may be preserved in a poem,
especially when it is composed in an elaborate metre. But old features
may occur in a young poem, not in order to give it an old appearance
on purpose, but simply because such features were a part of the poetic
diction.12 Thus the rule of thumb stating that a verse must be as old
as the oldest linguistic form found in it is invalid. The statement that a
poem is as young as the youngest linguistic form found in it is equally
erroneous. In both cases important arguments are simply ignored. The
fact that scholars have been working on the linguistic dating of poems
for more than a century without making much headway or reaching a
consensus shows the difficulties inherent in this, and even the impos-
sibility of the task.
One of the characteristics of poems handed down orally is the
mixture of old and new features. Kirk (1976:6) has this to say on the
language of Homer:
The diction of Homer was archaic and yet constantly renewed, and
12 In this context vindandin forna mentioned by Ólafr Þórðarson hvítaskáld
(13th century) may be of interest (Den tredje og fjærde grammatiske afhandling
i Snorres Edda 1884:87). This is the occurrence of v- in words as vreiðr ‘angry,
wroth’ and vrangr ‘wrong’, which was dropped in Icelandic before the time of the
earliest extant texts (12th century) and probably much earlier. It is hardly reason-
able to consider Ólafr a precursor of 19th century historical linguistics, but as a
scald he was well versed in poetic diction, and a knowledge of this feature prob-
ably belonged to a scald’s schooling, designated by the somewhat enigmatic term
quoted above.
Gripla 13