SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

106 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
There is a far closer relationship between Voluspd and
the heroic poems of the Edda. In the best of these there
appears the same poetic sweep in which one image
creates the next.
Sva bar Helgi
af hildingum
sem Itrskaparir
askr af pyrni
el'5a sa dyrkalfr
doggu slunginn,
er ofri ferr
ollum dyrum
ok horn g16a
vil'5 himin sjalfan.s?
In the heroic poems, which are partly European in
subject-matter, another civilisation, more polished (harpmusic
and the like) than that of most of the mythological
poems, is reflected. Their philosophy of life is closely
related to that of Voluspd: the power and evil effect of
gold; the evil consequences of magic, of the breaking of
the bonds of kinship and of oaths; to die innocent, like
Siguror, is the way to man's greatest glory. All this will
be spoken of again later.
If the Eddaic poems are divided into two classes according
to the culture and taste which are reflected in them,
Voluspd undoubtedly belongs to the younger class."
In support of this can be cited the fact that various
investigators think they have found in it influences from
older poems: Bugge from Hduamdl,59 Neckel from
SiguriJarkviiJa hin meiri. 6 0 The connection with Rigspula
should also be remembered.v- All this indicates that
Voluspd is not much older than the turn of the century
about 1000.
'7 Helga kvioa Hundingsbana II st. 38.
s8 The most notable attempt at such a division is in B. S. Phillpotts, The
Elder Edda and ancient Scandinavian drama (1920) .
•• Studier, I 389.
8. Beitrdge, 347-8.
81 Cf. my commentary on st. I.