Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1999, Page 217

and Introduction to Part Two
197
etc.”11 He thus draws a distinction between linguistic body and literary
structure, which is a spiritual entity, and he also admits the possibility
that the two entities may have separate dates. On the basis of linguistic
arguments it may be accepted that the Eddie poems in their actual form
are West Norse and not older than ca. 830, but this linguistic dating has
no validity for the spiritual structures, he maintains. In the same vein,
Erik Noreen remarks in an insightful discussion of these problems in
Den norsk-islåndska poesien (1926: 129-39) that it is quite possible that
a young poem tells an old story (1926: 129).
However, if the distinction drawn by Heusler and Noreen can be ac-
cepted in principle, it is difficult to maintain in practice. The “literary
structure” in question cannot have existed without any linguistic form;
and if that form is totally different from its extant linguistic form, it may
be argued that we are not dealing with the same poem.
First of all, I therefore think one should decide, as a matter of princi-
ple, that the objects to be dated are texts and not content - “Lied” and
not “Sage”, but not necessarily extant texts. Further, I think it is neces-
sary to postulate that there is a reasonable identity between the text as it
was composed in the oral period and the written text. If this is not true,
the dating is meaningless, and because we have decided that the dating
is not meaningless, we have to act as if this were true, which it possibly
is. Since the preliterary texts are not immediately accessible to empirical
investigation, the problem must be posited on non-empirical grounds, as
a matter of principle.
Perhaps it might be a more satisfactory solution to argue by analogy
from cognate fields of study, such as the history of ballads, where the
material is richer and more varied, and where certain aspects can even
be studied in living tradition.12 In view of the logical problems involved
11 “Ein Gedicht ist nicht nur eine Kette von Wortern, sondem auch ein Aufbau von Sze-
nen, Charakteren usf., und fur diese geistigen Werte haben die Zeitgrenze 830 und die
Sprachgrenze westnordisch keine unbedingte Geltung” (Heusler 1906: 252 = 1969: 167).
12 Cf. Vésteinn Olason: “Vel geta veriø dæmi til aø slikt kvæøi hafi varøveitt meginefni og
megineinkenni {tangaø til {taØ var skråØ a bok. Mestar likur eru samt til aø margt hafi
breyst å hinni longu leiø, og aø så sem t.d. fuldi kveøskap af somu rot yfir kirkjusmiøum
å Hylestad i Setesdal i SuØur-Noregi um faø leyti sem menn voru aø skråsetja eddukvæøi
hafi fariø meø allfråbrugønar gerøir kvæøanna {teint sem menn [tå kunnu å Islandi; munur-
inn heføi getaø veriø svipaøur og var å afbrigøum kvæøisins um Olaf liljuros, sem skrifuø
voru upp bæøi å Islandi og i Noregi å 19. old, kannski minni, kannski meiri” (Vésteinn
6lason 1992: 77).