Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Blaðsíða 62

42
Part One
The distinction between the extant poems and their sources threatened
to invalidate his earlier argument, based on the authenticity of Eddie
mythology, however. Granted that it can be inferred from skaldic poetry
that Old Norse mythology is old and authentically heathen, it is still pos-
sible that the skalds had their knowledge from the older layer of Eddie po-
etry and that in consequence nothing can be said on this basis conceming
the age of the extant poems. Muller therefore introduced another argu-
ment, arising from the manner in which Eddie poems are quoted in Gylfa-
ginning. In distinction to the quotations of skaldic stanzas in Snorri’s
Edda, the Eddie stanzas are quoted without the name of any author: “This
practice can only be accounted for by the author ’ s belief that the poems be-
longed to a particular type and were among the oldest that he was able to
produce.”33 It is probable that Muller was influenced in this view by Åmi
Magnusson, who in his biography of Sæmundr fro5i - written in 1696, but
notpublisheduntil 1787 in the first volume oftheArnamagnæan Edda edi-
tion - had briefly discussed the age of the Eddie poems. Without subscrib-
ing to the “stupenda antiquitas” attributed to them by some of his contem-
poraries, he did not believe that they were composed by Sæmundr and held
that they were older than his time. If Sæmundr were the poet, the author of
Snorri’s Edda - who incidentally was not Snorri inÅmi’s opinion-would
have known it, and the verses would not have been quoted anonymously.
A more specific argument brought forth by Muller is the occurrence of
certain obsolete word forms, and pronouns and negations added to the main
words as suffixes, which are a linguistic feature seldom found in prose.
Finally, Muller argued in a general way against the idea that the bulk
of Eddie poetry might have been “invented” more or less for amuse-
ment. The addition of the odd poem to an older collection is quite plau-
sible, he thought; but it is rather improbable that many poets of such out-
standing talent should have agreed in making a collection of poems in a
manner different from the ordinary skaldic poetry, and that their names
should have been forgotten.34
33 “Denne Fremgangsraaade kan allene forklares af, at hin Forfatter har anseet disse Sange
for at udgiøre en egen Classe, og høre til de ældste, han kunde citere” (Muller 1818: 122).
34 “At et enkelt yngre Digt er bleven føiet til den gamle Samling er let begribeligt, men at
flere saa fortrinlige Digtere, som disse Sanges Forfattere maa have været, skulde have for-
enet sig, om at forfatte en Række af Digte i en Smag, der afveg fra Hovedskaldenes berøm-
teste Qvæder, at disse samme Digte skulde siden være bleven satte over alle øvrige, og just
disses Forfatteres Navne forglemte, er vist nok meget urimeligt” (Muller 1818: 128-29).