Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Síða 84

64
Part One
hånd, the differences between VQluspå and Christian ideas, with the
Nordic hellish torments being in water instead of fire and moral deprav-
ity referring to the downfall of the virtues of a tribal society and not to
the rebellion against God instigated by Anti-Christ. Solarljod gives an
image of what a real mixture of heathen and Christian ideas would look
like, but VQluspå is very different from Solarljod. The history of the con-
version of the Scandinavian peoples indicates that Weinhold’s mixture
of Old Norse heathendom and Christianity would in faet be possible
only in the llth century, Dietrich held, but it would be an absurdity to
suppose that VQluspå was that late.
The most interesting aspect of Dietrich’s discussion, which is rather
modern in its way of thinking, is his reliance on “extemal” argumenta-
tion, in particular reminiscences of VQluspå in skaldic poems, the most
important being Arnorr PorSarson’s Porfinnsdråpa, st. 25, Bjgrt verdr
sol at svartri..., echoing VQluspå, st. 57: Sol tér sortna ... A fair amount
of similar evidence was adduced from poems by Ulfr Uggason, Eyvindr
skaldaspillir, Egill Skallagrfmsson, Pjobolfr or Hvini, Bragi Boddason
and others; and, concluding a discussion of Hyndluljod by dating it on
the basis of the mention of somq fornaldarsaga heroes (cf. p. 73 below)
to no later than 800, he stated that Vpluspå must have originated in the
8th century, and rather in the first than in the second half. His actual dat-
ing is thus not extremely different from that of Weinhold; they met on a
common ground of fundamental presuppositions, and both pointed to
the influence of VQluspå on skaldic poetry. Dietrich’s dating applied to
VQluspå in its actual State, however, and in accordance with the “Lieder-
Theorie” he proceeded to disentangle five separate poems, on which
VQluspå is built: 1) a poem on 05inn containing a description of the cre-
ation of the earth (st. 3-20); 2) a cycle of poems on E>orr (st. 21, 23-26);
3) a poem on Baldr, which also was a source for Baldr s draumar (st.
31-33, 35); 4) a shorter poem on the underworld (st. 36-37); and, final-
ly, 5) a poem on Ragnaipk (st. 46-66).42 Being anterior to Skirnismål,
Hymiskvida, Prymskvida and Baldrs draumar, these source poems lead
back to a first flowering of mythological epic in the 6th century, a period
which was brought to a conclusion by the mythological summaries of
421 have renumbered the stanzas according to the stanza numbers in Kuhn’s Edda edition
(1962). Dietrich’s division is: 1) 3-18; 2) 19, 21-24; 3) 29-32; 4) 33f.; 5) 42-59.