Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Side 34

14
Part One
Sæmundi Edda ere fra den hedenske Tid, i det mindste synes det
at være vidst om de tre trykte, Voluspa, Havamal og Runa Capit-
let.14
(It is difficult to be definite in these questions, and one must take care
not to attribute an exaggerated age to the poems; at any rate, it seems
that the greater part of Sæmundr’s Edda dates back to heathen times,
at least the poems that have appeared in print, Vgluspå and Håvamål.)
Along with Håvamål Resen edited VQluspå, and in the same way as
the title of the former had been rendered by “Ethica Odini”, implying
OSinn’s authorship, the latter was naturally interpreted as “Sibyllæ Vati-
cinium” (ed. Faulkes 1977: hlr). The sybils were prophetesses from
Greek antiquity, who by divine inspiration revealed events from the past
or the future. One of the most famous sibyls was Herophile from Erythrai
in Asia Minor, who died, according to St. Jerome, in the 8th century B.C.
The sibylline oracles flourished as a literary genre in particular in late
Judaic and early Christian times, but they continued far down into the
Middle Ages. These Judaeo-Christian texts were taken as authentic
prophecies from Greek heathendom revealing Christian truth and fore-
telling the advent of the Saviour and the Last Judgement, and were used
in the religious propaganda for monotheism and in Christian apologetics.
Although their authenticity was not undisputed, they were in general
taken as most valuable proofs of the truth of Christendom. Michelangelo
thus followed a well-established tradition when he painted them in the
Sistine Chapel as heathen counterparts of the prophets from the Old
Testament.15
The attribution of Vgluspå to one of the sybils was therefore, as it
were, self-evident; and, following Runolfur Jonsson, who had attributed
the poem to the Erythrean sibyl living before the Trojan war,16 Resen
14 Suhm 1771: 118. - Suhm talks about three poems because in Resen’s edition one part
of Håvamål is printed under the title “Ethica Odini” ([...] “vocata Haavamaal”), another
part as an appendix under the title “Runa Capitule” [Runatal].
15 Cf. e.g. Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopådie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft II.
R. 2(1923): 2073-2183.
16 “Ipsis Asiaticis hue terrarum concedentibus antiquius esse [...] atque hos tale carmen
ex Erythreae Sibyllae (quae ante trojani belli tempora floruisse creditur) ore natum, ex
Asia hue secum transportasse (Jonas 1651, according to Du Méril 1839: 53; cf. Ami
Magnusson 1787: x; Petersen 1865: 99).
A