Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Qupperneq 138
118
Part One
therefore devoted a separate chapter to the influence of the skald Gisi
Illugason and his contemporary Ivarr Ingimundarson (Neckel 1908:
421-49).
In his stylistic dating of poems like Prymskvida and Gudrunarkvida
III, Neckel thus took as his point of departure the combination of two re-
lated but distinet criteria, the degree of binding and the construction of
the stanza. This combination of more than one criterion is in principle
methodologically sound, but since the chronology of neither is indepen-
dently established with convincing arguments, it is not sufficient to
establish a chronological development. Neckel therefore used a battery
of different methods, and we have seen (above, p. 115 n. 15) that he felt
confident that the different criteria would as a rule point in the same di-
rection. His basic chronology for the different types of binding is thus
warranted in principle by the convergent evidence of a series of dating
criteria.
Among his linguistic criteria are an archaic lack of copula, an old-
fashioned syntactical type (var {tar at qveldi um komi5 snimma, Pryms-
kvida, st. 24.1-2; Neckel 1908: 50), and - as more recent forms - ér
used as a polite form of address (Rigspula, VQlundarkvida', Neckel 1908:
117, 281) or modem perfeet tense. In some cases he pointed to remnants
of South-Germanic linguistic features. Among his stylistic criteria are
variation, interpreted as an old-fashioned phenomenon, indirect speech,
taken by Heusler to be a later phenomenon, and skaldic influence re-
vealed by kennings and word order, pointing in the same direction.21
The method which is by far most used by Neckel, however, is the
study of the verbal influence of one text on another, establishing a relat-
ive chronology between the texts in question.22 Chiefly by this means,
Neckel set up series of poems where the intemal, relative chronology
sich unter den eddischen liedern, die in dieser hinsicht ebenso strenge sind wie die skal-
den, Helr., Innst. und Hrok. befinden. Wir kennen ihr vorbild: Gisi Illugason. Diese rich-
tung hat im 11., 12., 13. jahrhundert auch solche eddische dichter gewonnen, die sonst
kaum skaldischen einfliissen unterliegen. [...] Die mehrzahl der Eddapoeten aber bleibt in
diesem punkte der uralten volksmaBigen tradition treu. Selbst der Helgi- und Hymirdichter
scheuen die langeren helminge und strophen nicht” (Neckel 1908: 487-88).
21 Cf. the index, “Indirekte rede”, “Kenningar”, “Kopula, fehlende”, “Perfektum” and
“Sudgermanische sprachreste in eddischen texten”, “Variation”, and “Wortstellung”
(Neckel 1908: 501-05).
22 Anumber of instances are registered in Neckel’s index, under the entries “Quellen” and
“Nachwirkungen” of specific poems.