Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 267
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and varinn did choose this myth and can be credited with the exact empha
ses of the Rök version. varinn assigned the myth pride of place in the
inscription and selected the jarring word faigian in its first lines, a keynote
that perhaps casts vámóðr from the beginning in a role like that of the
similarly fated Baldr, though we will never know whether in fact Baldr’s
dreams of death extended to the local Swedish Vilinn variant. So under
stood, the myth of vilinn’s death and the compensation for it, the engen
dering of his replacement brother – these constitute varinn’s consolation.
thus the idea common to all three sections, bearing in mind that the
third is the most decisive, has to do with the elementary continuation of
life despite the reign of death: life persists while death comes and goes. I
consider this analysis fairly obvious for Section 1 where, however, it is
molded by its association with a heroic individual. Section 2 presents a
challenge to the critic. Clearly it too deals with life and death and offers
certain parallels to Section 1, but its affirmation of life in the midst of death
seems to contradict the individuality of Section 1 and instead of singularity
to reside in plurality, specifically in the pseudofamily structure of the
Männerbund, where, as in the U.S. Marines, there is a sense of continuity
between the living and the dead. The individual is submerged in a corpo
rate consciousness that does not directly deny death but assures that the
brotherhood will continue. The Lévi-Straussian structure of Rök’s treat
ment of the theme of life and death thus begins to emerge: a classic binary
opposition is established between the individual and the group that implies,
in the language of myth, a problem, the solution to which, the mediating
term, appears in Section 3 as deathandbirth, fatherandson, cyclicity
within the blood family.
Cultural position, cultural change
So where does this reading of Rök place it within the realm of literature or,
on the other hand, within that of life? Is it an elegy in stone, the crystalliza
tion (rather, petrification) of funeral ritual? It certainly has affiliations with
Sonatorrek and erfikvæði, but the few critics who have actually tried to situ
ate Rök have tended rather to place it within a social matrix, thus to find a
sitzimleben (rather than in der Literatur). Lönnroth speculates especially
PHILoLoGy, eLeGy, AnD CuLtuRAL CHAnGe