Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series B - 01.10.1968, Blaðsíða 60
LVIII
with his description of ragnarök in Edda, where he
bases his account on Vriluspá11 * * V,: “þá drepast bræðr
fyrir ágirni sakar, ok engi þyrmir föður eða syni í
manndrápum ok sifja sliti. Svá segir í Völuspá:
Bræðr munu berjast / ok at bönum verðast, / munu
systrúngar / sifjum spilla; / hart er með höldum, /
hórdómr mikill, / skeggjöld, skálmöld, / skildir
klofnir, / vindöld, / vargöld, / áðr veröld steypist”.
A. Chr. Bang assumed that Voluspá was composed
under the influence of the Sibylline prophecies,
as its very name would seem to indicate12.
A younger Icelandic work which may conceivably
have been influenced by the Sibylline prophecies is
Krukkspá13, surviving in MSS from the 17th century
and later.
The possibility cannot be excluded that the Sibyl-
line prophecies may also have been found in Iceland
and have served as a source for B. There is, however,
no evidence to support this theory.
In the Middle Ages the most well known of the
prophetesses was the Tiburtine Sibyl14. In Germany
in the 14th century her prophecies were combined
with a version of Leg. and turned into a verse
narrative. In the succeeding centuries this narrative,
under the title “Sibyllen Weissagung”, became a
popular chapbook15. It was translated into Danish
11. Ibid. p. 186.
12. Christiania Videnskabsselskabs Forhandlinger 1879, No. 9,
particularly pp. 17-18; cf. Sophus Bugge in Nordisk tidskrift för
vetenskap, konst och industri IV, 1881, pp. 163-72.
13. Edited in Þjóðsögur og Munnmæli I, 1899, pp. 214-27, by
Jón Þorkelsson.
14. E. Sackur: Sibyllinische Texte und Forschrmgen, 1898, pp.
115-87.
15. For editions and a bibliography, see Verfasserlexikon IV,
Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters, 1953, coll. 196-98,
V, 1955, coll. 1047-48; F. Vogt in Beitráge zur Geschichte der
deutschen Sprache und Literatur IV, 1877, pp. 48-100; Hand-
wört erbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens VII, 1935-36, coll.
1655-59, VIII, 1936-37, coll. 774-78; AdBA XVI:2, p. 127.