Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Blaðsíða 140

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Part One
having borrowed from Prymskvida rather than vice versa. The direction
of the loan is derived from his dating according to other arguments. That
is to say that the different dating criteria are not applied independently
of one another, and the consequence is that they become less effective as
arguments.
It is extremely difficult, I think, to avoid influence from one argu-
ment on the other when a series of criteria are applied to the dating of
a specific poem. If one argument seems to point clearly in one particu-
lar direction, it is always tempting to interpret more equivocal argu-
ments as also pointing in the same direction. Neckel seems to have
been little concemed with this general problem, and that is why I think
Sijmons is fully justified in his criticism, qualifying Neckel’s postulat-
ed loans as “real loans or assumed reminiscences and echoes, which in
many cases do not have the weight as evidence that Neckel credits
them with”.24
Not only verbal expressions, but also rhythmical figures and particu-
lar variants of binding may be subject to loan from one poem to another,
according to Neckel, and we have seen that he attached particular im-
portance to the distinction between original use and traditional use of a
phenomenon. He fails, however, to confront the hypothesis of loan with
the alternative possibility, that the poems in question make a similar se-
lection out of the limited stock of existent types, be it different types of
binding, stanza construction or other matters.
Another dating criterion, treated in a particularly competent manner
by Neckel, concems the development of the legends narrated in the
heroic poems. By means of comparison with German variants it is
possible to discem in some cases an evolution, which permits a chrono-
logical classification of some of the heroic poems with respect to their
legendary form. The buming of Atli’s hall, for instance, by which
Gudrun in Atlakvida achieved the total destruction of the royal court,
and herself after she had her revenge, has, according to Neckel, an old-
er form in the Nibelungenlied, where it is used in the struggle against
the Burgundians (Neckel 1908: 176-90). On the other hånd, the moti-
vation for Gudrun’s revenge is more archaic in Atlakvida, where she
24 “[...] wirkliche Entlehnungen oder behauptete Reminiscenzen, Anklange, denen er in
vielen Fallen eine Beweiskraft zutraut, die ihnen nicht innewohnt” (Sijmons 1912: 368).