Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Side 159

VI From the tum of the century to Jan de Vries
139
which allegedly flared up in a feverish manner around the year 1033.55
This suggestion is an addition to the passage on VQluspå in the first
edition of Die altgermanische Dichtung, but even this apocalyptic as-
sociation did not make Heusler admit that the poem might convey any
religious feelings.56
The most important discussion of the date of a particular poem in the
article on origin and dating concems Rigspula, “the most Icelandic of all
Eddie poems”, which Heusler dated to the period of Snorri Sturluson.
The main argument is taken from the spirit and the form of the poem.
Rigspula is a pula, its name meaning “the poetic vocabulary connected
with Rigr”,57 and its content is, among other things, etymological specu-
lation on the word konungr. It is a highly sophisticated poem which pre-
supposes the literary and intellectual work of generations preoccupied
with old lore and poetics. This conclusion is propped up with more tech-
nical discussions, mainly on the vocabulary of the poem and its descrip-
tion of social life and institutions, which is taken to be a medieval effort
to describe a Nordic primitive period.
Heusler’s article from 1906 concludes with a three-part overall pic-
ture of Eddie history:
Seit dreiBig Jahren hat man oft betont: die eddische Dichtung atmet
das Geistesleben der Vikingzeit.
Der Satz bedarf starker Einschrankung.
Sehr vieles in der Eddadichtung ist - seinem Geiste, seiner Gesit-
tung nach - vorvikingisch. Eine ganze Reihe von alten Gotter- und
Heldenliedem tragt in keinem Zuge den Stempel des bestimmten
Zeitalters, das mit dem Jahre 793 anbrach. Die groBen Dichtergedan-
Voluspa mit meinen Jiinglingen durchnahm, trat mir deutlich vor die Seele, wie anders,
wie viet skeptischer ich jetzt diesem Werke gegeniiberstehe, als in der schonen Jugend-
zeit.” (Heusler 1989: 313).
55 The argument of millennarian apocalyptic sentiment is also important in SigurSur Nor-
dal’s dating of the poem (1923: 121-23, 1952: 176-78), but he aimed at the year 1000. It
is rather unlikely, however, that apocalyptic sentiments were particularly strong at this pe-
riod, cf. McGinn 1979: 88. At any rate, there are no indications that this was the case in the
Nordic countries. Poems like Eiriksmål (and Håkonarmål) might be invoked, but they
have hardly anything to do with the millennium after the Incarnation of Christ!
56 Possibly some bewilderment conceming the Icelandic syneretism is betrayed by the
faet that Heusler also elsewhere felt the need to retouching his picture of the period, cf.
Heusler 1923: 178 and 1941: 187.
57 “[...] das an Rfgr gekniipfte Versvokabular” (Heusler 1906: 272 = 1969: 186).