Gripla - 20.12.2005, Page 137

GROTTASÖNGUR 135
Grottasöngr has much in common with Völundarkvi›a. The protagonists of both
poems are superhuman beings, endowed with special qualities, who are enslaved by a
cruel king who wants to benefit from their skills as millers or as a smith; the smithy
and the mill were important in viking age culture, enabling people to create tools and
other important objects, as well as providing nourishment; skill in the use of such basic
tools, as well as the tools themselves, have taken on mythic dimensions in poetry.
The poet’s control over the subject matter is demonstrated by the skilful inter-
weaving of past, present and future, which come together in a furious climax, and by
the variation between a sparsely used objective 3rd person narrative and emotionally
charged direct speech. The sympathy with female protagonists in Grottasöngr parallels
that of many of the heroic poems, although in them the heroines are of royal birth,
while Grottasöngr takes sides with slave girls descended from giants. Several motifs in
the poem connect it with mythological lore about giants. Scholars have noted that
much of the poem is spoken by women with foresight, just as in Völuspá, and despite
important differences in scope there are clear parallels between the two poems.
Many scholars have dated Grottasöngr to the viking age, although the only certain
thing about its age is that it must be older than the Snorra Edda. Mythology and tradi-
tional lore are used as raw material for a poetic recreation of an old story. The myth is
displaced, and the poet treats traditonal material in a similar way as the poets who
composed the so-called heroic elegies. The drama is presented in the dialogue of one
central scene framed by brief third person comments, in a similar proportion as in the
‘elegies’, and in both cases there is a review of past events and a prophecy of future
events that the prose myth presents as plain narrative. The narrative form of the poem,
as well as its vocabulary and its general treatment of mythological motifs, show a
reflective attitude to traditional material and lead to the conclusion that Grottasöngr is
a late poem, probably not much older than ca. 1200. Although the poem shows signs of
oral preservation, it is likely that it was composed in a literate milieu.
Vésteinn Ólason
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar
101 Reykjavík
vesteinn@hi.is