Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Side 33

II Scholarly prehistory
13
people in 1839. Even if his nationalistic theory on the immigration of
the Norsemen from the North has long since been discarded by later
historians, it had nevertheless the merit, I believe, of finally rendering
obsolete the last remnants of the Euhemeristic immigration theory.
This digression into Odinology has been necessary in order to show
how the historical preconditions for attributing Eddie poetry to the æsir
themselves only gradually disappeared. According to the historical con-
ceptions of the 17th century this attribution was perfeetly acceptable.
The first printed edition of an Eddie poem was made by Peder Hansen
Resen, Mayor of Copenhagen and Professor of Ethics, who in 1665 ed-
ited Magnus Olafsson’s redaction of Snorri’s Edda (re-edited by
Anthony Faulkes with a valuable introduction in 1977) with Danish and
Latin translations, together with Håvamål and Vgluspå with comment-
ary and Latin translation. The anonymous translator of Håvamål men-
tioned that in Gylfaginning the name Hår is used of OSinn, and thence it
was easily concluded that the åss, more exaetly the “Odinus Upsalinus”,
was “author and editor” of the poem, which the Professor of Ethics had
named “Ethica Odini”.12
Neither Suhm nor Riihs believed that OSinn was the author of
Håvamål, but in line with the ideas of Olåfr hvltaskåld they thought
that he - probably the “Middle OSinn”, according to Suhm - might
have brought to the North a particular language, namely a poetic
(skaldic) language, “a Sanskrit, understandable only to the initiated”,
the poetry composed in this language being lost, however.13 In faet,
Suhm expressed his view on the age of the Eddie poems in such a
cautious way that it might almost be approved by some scholars even
today:
Men det er ei mueligt, at fastsætte alle Ting saa nøye, angaaende
saa gamle Tider, og maae man desuden vel tage sig vare for, at ei
giøre Viserne alt for gamle; dog er det rimeligt nok, at de fleste i
12 “[...] ut appareat As fuisse ejus authorem & editorem, ipsum scilicet Odinum” (ed.
Faulkes 1977: Håvamål Air; cf. Edda Islandorum h3v-ilv).
13 “Wenn wir aber diese neue Sprache gleichfalls von der neuen Poesie, die Odin einfiihr-
te, verstehen, verschwindet jede Dunkelheit; die Allegorieen, Gleichnisse, Wendungen
und Anspielungen machen sie zu einem Samskrit, das nur den Eingeweihten verstandlich
ist” (Riihs 1801: 52; cf. Suhm 1771: 118-19).