Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Blaðsíða 157

VI From the tum of the century to Jan de Vries
137
1) The heroic elegy
2) Poems inserted in sagas
3) Antiquarian, leamed poetry52
Heusler’s arguments for dating are for the most part not very explicit.
The form influenced by the lyric, where an episode from an older lay
may have been expanded upon, betraying some distance from the “cru-
de heroic saga period”, probably belongs to the Christian period. On the
other hånd, these poems suppose a thorough knowledge of the “prim-
ary” legends, so that the slightest allusions to them are able to arouse
emotions among the listeners, and such knowledge is in this late period
most likely to be found in Iceland. The female elegies are assigned to the
1 lth century and the male ones to the 12th century.
In saga poetry a distinction is made between older poems inserted in a
later saga, like Vglsunga saga (cf. also Saxo’s use of Old Norse poetry),
and later poetry which is made up for use in a saga. The latter type may
even be later than the saga itself, whereas it cannot be older. Most of it
probably belongs to the 12th century. This may also apply to extant
poems from sagas which are now lost. Thus it is conceivable that Hel-
reid Brynhildar may originally have been composed in order to be in-
serted into an oral SigurSarsaga, and the bird stanzas in Fåfnismål (st.
40—44) may possibly have served as a passage leading from the dragon
legend to the Brynhildr saga.
The most characteristically Icelandic products are to be found in the
third group. Snorri in his Edda is the model of a learned poet giving a
highly artistic form to his subject, half scholarship and half art, and the
same spirit is found in a number of poems.53
To this “scholastic” group, which is so far removed from the Old Ger-
manic spirit, Heusler ascribes the great pulur, Bråvallapula included,
which is attested by Saxo and was supposed by Axel Olrik and Sophus
52 “I. Die heroische Elegie, das mehr oder weniger lyrische Situationsbild oder Riick-
blicksgedicht (seltener Traum- und Weissagungslied); die folgerichtigste Form der rein
monologische Ichbericht. [...] II. [...] die Sagaeinlagen. [...] III. [...] die antiquarische Ge-
lehrsamkeitsdichtung, die islandische Meistersingerei, die philologisch angehauchte Ed-
dapoesie” (Heusler 1906: 252-55 = 1969: 168-70).
53 “Snorris Edda ist halb ein gelehrtes Buch, halb ein Kunstwerk. Es gilt von dieser islan-
dischen Scholastik im allgemeinen: Wissenschaft und Dichterei, Forschung und Spiel,
Sammeln und Schaffen gehen wunderbar durcheinander” (Heusler 1906: 255 = 1969: 171).