Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Blaðsíða 199

VI From the tum of the century to Jan de Vries
179
betrays an immature period of transition (de Vries 1942: 59-60). Also
Hervararkvida is the romantic version of an older poem, namely
Hlgdskvida, together with which it is preserved in Hervarar saga (de
Vries 1942: 60).
A single mythological Eddie poem, Rigspula - a “philosophical
myth” according to Heusler (originally P. E. Muller) - is treated in the
same chapter, although the dating is extremely difficult, as the poem is
in many ways sui genens. De Vries opted for the 12th century, prefer-
ably the second half, but he was also tempted by the 13th century, i.e.
the reign of Håkon Håkonarson (de Vries 1942: 64-65, cf. p. 66 n. 10).
In any case, he felt confident that it was a Norwegian poem.
The second half of the 12th century, the period of “Ascent and Re-
naissance”, saw a decline in creativity, but nevertheless it was in de
Vries’s view a most important stage in the history of Eddie poetry.
The “Renaissance” spirit revealed itself above all in a renewed in-
terest in the old poetry. Court poets like Glsl Illugason and Ivarr Ingi-
mundarson had introduced Eddie metres into skaldic poetry, and mytho-
logical kennings began to crop up again. Once more it became possible
to compose mythological poems after a standstill of 150 years. Alvlss-
mål is impossible to date exaetly, but since it has a mythological content
and is probably not heathen, de Vries thought it would have to be pos-
terior to the lacuna, that is to say not earlier than about 1150.
In this way there are two particularly important periods of Eddie
mythological poetry, the late heathendom immediately preceding the
conversion, and a far later one, a renaissance period of renewed interest
in old religious lore (cf. de Vries 1941: 151). The poet of Baldr s
draumar is another who found his subject matter in old poetry, in this
case in VQluspå and Vajprudnismål, and this poem thus belongs to the
“secondary” period. In Vajprudnismål, OSinn had revealed himself as
the god of wisdom in overpowering his opponent by a final unanswer-
able question; but the corresponding question, with which Baldrs
draumar ends, is no more than an ordinary riddle, meaning “waves” (de
Vries 1942: 125 - for another opinion, cf. the second edition, de Vries
1967: 102). Like Baldrs draumar, VQluspå in skamma is an imitation of
VQluspå. Probably it is not mueh younger than Hyndluljod, with which it
has later been combined.
These three poems all have some particular purpose in addition to
their primary one as collections of mythological lore. The lists of syno-