Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Blaðsíða 212

192
Conclusion of Part One
pa3BHTHH, 3aTeM CTaHOBHTCH HdlOHHTHOH, HyjK^aeTCH B OØbH-
CHeHHH h noaTOMy iiepexojiKOBbiBaeTCH, HHTepnpeTHpyeTCH
no-HOBOMy Ha cjieayiomeH CTagini. TaKoro poga HOBbie HHTep-
npeTapHH, C KOTOpbIMH Mbl CTaJIKHBaeMCH H B OTgeJIbHblX
necHHx “3ggbi”, h b “MjiagmeH 3gge”, h b “Care o BejibcyH-
rax”, h y CaxcoHa TpaMMaTHica, h b “riecHH o HH6ejtyHrax”, -
peHHbie CBH/tCTeJIbCTBa CgBHrOB B C03H3HHH JIIOgeH, B HX
KapTHHe MHpa. Ho jnoøonbiTHbi, no-BHgHMOMy, h MHorne
HHTepnpeTapHH gpeBHeHumx aggHHecKMx necHeii yneHbiMH
HOBoro BpeMeHH, h6o nogoØHbie TOJiKOBaHHH noguac npo-
JlHBarøT CBeT He CTOJIbKO Ha 3TH neCHH, CKOJlbKO Ha nOHHTHH-
Hbifi annapaT coBpeMeHHoft HayKH hjih, bo bchkom cjiynae, ot-
fle^bHbix ee HanpaBjieHHH .7
(Of the greatest importance are, in my view, precisely those situations
where an original theme which was straightforward to people in a def-
inite phase of social and cultural development has later become op-
aque and in need of explanation, and consequently in a later phase has
been reinterpreted and given a new meaning. Reinterpretations of this
kind are to be found in various Eddie poems, as well as in Snorri’s
Edda, VQlsunga saga, Saxo Grammaticus and Nibelungenlied; and
they provide valuable evidence of the turnabouts in the minds of
people, in their map of the world. Indeed, many interpretations of the
oldest Eddie poems by modem scholars are also interesting in so far
as they shed light not so mueh upon the poems in question, as upon
the conceptual apparatus of contemporary scholarship, at all events
on some of its current tendencies.)
In the main I find both Meulengracht Sørensen’s and Gurevich’s positions
acceptable, and in the first instance it is worthwhile noting that neither the
problems of dating nor the possible complications in the textual history
of the poems prevent these eminent scholars from exploiting Eddie
poetry as sources for very old layers of Old Norse and Germanic culture.
Their arguments do not solve the problems of literary history, how-
ever. On the one hånd, a clear-cut isolation of the content from the form
is problematic, and on the other, the complications brought about by a
7 Gurevich 1979: 25; cf. Gurevich 1978.