Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Qupperneq 85

IV “Normal science” - after Grimm
65
the 8th century that brought together knowledge from different poems in
the form of a series of questions and answers.43
In short, Dietrich’s view on the age of the Eddie poems, as it was laid
down mainly in his Old Norse reader, can be summarized as follows:
religious poems retelling a single myth (Hymiskvida, Prymskvida,
Hdrbardsljod, Baldrs draumar) are older than more comprehensive
poems like VQluspå and the somewhat later Hyndluljod, and Hrafna-
galdr Odins is even younger than Snorri’s Edda (Dietrich 1849:
314-15). The great bulk of heroic poetry is from the 7th or 8th centuries,
but the two Atli poems are from the 9th century; and Gudrunarkvida II
and III, where a geographical shift in the direction of Denmark is to be
noted, are from the llth or 12th century. Among the gnomic poems
Håvamål is oldest, but there is no reason to distrust the high age of
Rigspula, whereas Solarljod, Grogaldr and Alvis smal are from the llth
or 12th century.
Rosselet seems to harmonize the views of Grimm and Dietrich.
Poems like Skimismål, Hymiskvida and Prymskvida, which present their
plot in a simple and lively form, are very old, but fragments of the
younger comprehensive poems may be still older. As a totality, however,
the poems which treat extensive parts of the divine legends in cate-
chismal questions and answers, are very young, belonging to a period of
decline in old heathendom.44
43 “[...] so fiihren die quellen der so eben festgestellten Voluspå auf eine friihe etwa mit
dem 6n jahrhunderte beginnende bltitezeit des myth. epos im norden, die mit dem 8n jahr-
hundert lieder verbindend, stoffe iibersichtlich zusammenstellend und in frage und antwort
verarbeitend abschlieBt” (Dietrich 1849: 318). - Similar notes had also been struck by
Bergmann in 1838, in his work on VQluspå, which was composed by one of the early Ice-
landic immigrants, he thought, partly on the evidence of hvera lundr and Surir pointing to
a volcanic country. Bergmann also pointed to influence on Amorr and other skalds
(Bergmann 1838: 182-83; Pfeiffer 1852: 318-23). In his edition of the poem, he dated it to
the lOth century (Bergmann 1875: 171).
44 “Von den gottersaglichen Liedem sind alle diejenigen, welche fragmentarisch einen
ganzen Cyklus enthalten, in ihren einzelnen Bestandtheilen zwar alt, oft sehr alt, in der uns
vorliegenden Form aber sehr jung. So gehoren die einzelnen Bestandtheile der Voluspå
sicherlich (wenigstens zum groBten Theile) zu den altesten nordischen Dichtungen, die
Vereinigung aber, in der wir sie haben, scheint erst aus dem 13. Jahrh., vielleicht erst von
dem Sammler der Lieder herzuriihren. Das Håvamål scheint auch in seinen einzelnen
Bestandtheilen das Alter der Voluspå beiweitem nicht zu erreichen. In Grinmismål er-
scheint ziemlich Altes und ziemlich Junges gemischt. Diesen Liedern gegeniiber stehen die,
welche in epischem Rahmen ganze Abschnitte der Gottersage durch Frage und Antwort
katechismusartig abhandeln. Sie sind ihrer Entstehungszeit nach verhaltnismåssig jung,