Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Blaðsíða 169

VI From the tum of the century to Jan de Vries
149
vention.68 One of Nerman’s opponents wamed against treating Eddie
poetry as if it were a museum catalogue of archaeological objects (Rok-
kjær 1959: 278).
The evidence of particular archaeologically datable objects men-
tioned in Eddie poems requires a mention of each case and cannot be
evaluated in a summary way.
The identification of swords where hringr er i hjald with the ring
swords of the period of migrations has been generally accepted, but not
the assumption that the use of this expression by necessity implies
knowledge of the object, and if so, it is not certain that such knowledge
is exeluded in periods after these swords had gone out of use; even if the
Viking Age had no museums or archaeological exeavators, it probably
had many grave robbers practising a similar trade (cf. Genzmer
1951-52: 142; Nerman 1960: 242). This line of thought might also
apply to the mention of hnmkålkr, but in this case Nerman’s textual
interpretation, mentioned above, is also controversial; the word might,
according to his critics, simply denote a glass cup in general (Shetelig
1931: 311; cf. R. Beck 1935: 239). It is also possible that a poet might
use this word to denote some stately vessel, without any specific idea of
what it looked like.69
Ring swords and hnmkdlkar may have been important objects, carry-
ing some symbolic value, which made them useful in a poem, irrespec-
tive of their existence as real objects. This may also be the case with the
evocative word lindbaugr, once the word had been coined it may have
been used without a precise reference. But this is hardly the case for all
the artefacts treated by Nerman. Shetelig accepted the interpretation of
rautt guli vid gim fåstan as well as the chronological consequences
drawn from it (Shetelig 1931: 311; cf. Olson 1934: 173), even ifthetext
68 “Das Silber tritt in den Kenningar durchaus vor dem Gold zuriick. Darin spiegelt die
nordische Dichtung Zustande einer alteren Zeit wieder. Das Gold als vorherrschendes Me-
tall, nicht bios im Schmuck verwendet, sondem auch als Bezahlungsmittel (Ring-, Hack-
gold) ist charakteristisch fur die nachromische und die Volkerwanderungszeit, wahrend in
der Wikingerzeit und der sich anschlieBenden Periode, also in den Jahrhunderten der uns
erhaltenen Skaldendichtung, das Silber als das eigentliche Wertmetall bezeichnet werden
darf’ (Meissner 1921: 223).
69 “Auch als man sie im gewohnlichen Leben nicht mehr gebrauchte, kann sie in der
Dichtung von Vorzeitdingen noch lange gelebt haben. Der Stabreim hielt in ihr den Reif-
kelchfest” (Genzmer 1951-52: 142).