Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Side 188

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Part One
literature is to the best of my knowledge the only major attempt at treat-
ing its subject in a chronologically ordered, historical manner. It thus de-
serves a prominent place in this survey of the history of the dating of
Eddie poetry.
De Vries had prepared himself for this demanding task by writing
several articles where he had discussed the problem of dating, first in a
separate article “Over de dateering der PrymskviSa” (1928), where he
gave a thorough discussion of the date of one particular poem. “Uber die
Datierung der Eddalieder” (1934b) was a more general article on differ-
ent dating criteria. His most important contribution to this discussion
was a book from the same year on the treatment of OSinn and other gods
in skaldic kennings, De skaldenkenningen met mythologischen inhoud
(1934a).
In the long article on Prymskvida de Vries discussed - systematically,
if not always convincingly - different aspects of the poem having some
bearing on the question of its dating. Underlining the problems general-
ly involved in dating a poem on the basis of verbal loans from other
poems because of the difficulty in establishing the direction of influ-
ence, he picked out one instance of verbal parallels where he at last felt
on firm ground. Like Neckel, de Vries thought that the parallel between
Prymskvida 31.1-2 - 32.9-10 and Gudrunarkvida III 10.1-2 - 11.7-8,
which stretches over two consecutive stanzas, could not be fortuitous
(cf. p. 119 above), and that because the subject matter is so different, the
similarity is best explained by assuming that the two poems belong to
the same period.97 - If this is firm ground, little is to be expected from
this method of dating! His treatment of metrics on the other hånd is
marred by rather idiosyncratic verse accentuation (e.g. um saenadi, Prk.
st. 1.4, where the expletive particle is given full stress = mgn iafnadi,
Prk. st. 6.6: x x; cf. de Vries 1928: 262).
More interesting, in my view, is the discussion of ballad features in
Prymskvida - end rhyme and, in particular, the exuberant use of parallel
verse and repetitions within the poem. Freyja’s feathering he also con-
siders as a ballad motif, and the exceptionally extended inquit-formulas
97 “Wij zouden de overeenstemming tusschen beide gedichten het best kunnen verklaren
door aan te nemen, dat het eene op het andere invloed heeft uitgeoefend, ook al is het
onderwerp, dat zij behandelen, geheel verschillend, hetgeen vooral dan kan gebeuren,
wanneer zij in dezelfde periode zijn ontstaan” (de Vries 1928: 287).