Studia Islandica - 01.06.1975, Page 117

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Chapter V deals with the age of the poems. By using
the criteria mentioned above and others the writer comes
to the conclusion that the poems can he dated at the end
of the twelfth century or, say, about 1200, which is not
far from the dating by Andreas Heusler.
In chapter VI Icelandic sources, old and new, showing
motifs kindred to the two poems, are studied. Here the
motif of playing a game (of chess, etc.) with a supema-
tural person or a witch is particularly notable, especially
if followed by álög (a magical curse) implying command
to search for a far-away princess. This is exactly the con-
tents of our two poems.
In chapter VII the relationship of a Danish and Swedish
ballad (called „Ungen Svejdal“ or the like) to our two
poems is studied. It is shown that the ballad descends from
these, whioh at that time were, correctly, considered as
a single unit.
Chapter VIII is about similarities between our poems
and an old Welsh story about “Culhwch and Olwen”.
These similarities are very marked in the first part of the
stories; later the versions deviate.
That there is kinship between our poems and tliis Welsh
tale is not in doubt, but both dissimilarities between them,
and the fact, that in early times there was not much com-
munication between Iceland and Wales, speak against an
assumption that the poems derive from “Culhwch and
Olwen”. But what about the Gaelic area?
In chapter IX the writer considers the similarities be-
tween the Irish story “Adventures of Art” (Echtra Airt
Meic Cuind . . .) and our two poems. There is obvious kin-
ship between them, and the writer tries to show that our
poems derive their chief matter from the Irish tale in
some form. The similarity is most marked in the first half
of the narrative, but even the enumeration of Gróa’s magi-
cal songs have, mirabile dictu, some parallels in the story of
Art’s jomney. Such dissimilarities as exist might well be