SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Vbluspd r07
V oluspd and the skaldic poems
The Eddaic and skaldic poems diverge in some respects.
Yet this divergence varies with the individual poems. Of
the Eddaic poems V oluspd is one of the closest to the
skaldic in taste and culture. There appear also to be
direct influences from them. Tefla« i tuni reminds one of
Haraldsksxeoi st. r6: [eirs i Haralds tuni hunum verpa.
Hefisk lind fyrir, d. hofousk hlifar fyrir iHdkonarmdl
st. II). Lcetr ... standa hjor til hjarta, d. Ynglingatal
st. r8: hjorr til hjarta st60. 6 3 See also my commentary
on st. 4, on the poet's notion of the creation of the earth,
and the agreement of this with the kennings of skaldic
poets. V oluspd is the only Eddaic poem which begins
with an invocation similar to that of many skaldic
poems, the only Eddaic poem which has refrains. These
two points are weighty ones. But one cannot deduce
directly from them that the author of V oluspd was a court
poet. None of the court poets whom we now know is
likely to have composed it. For the author practised
the making of verse as an athlete practises his game,
he knew the poems of the best court poets and was
touched by their spirit. This points to the poem's origin
in Iceland, for the composition of skaldic verse had
become restricted almost entirely to Iceland by the end
of the tenth century.
V olusPd and the pagan faith
No one can fail to realise that the whole of the basis
and the bulk of the matter of Voluspd are heathen. The
religion of the JEsir must have been the author's childhood
faith, whatever may have influenced him later. Much
of the poem's subject-matter is recognisable from other
.2 This does not conflict in any way with my commentary on st. 8. The
model of the description in st. 8 is Norwegian (and of all men Icelanders knew
Norwegian poetry best) but the meaning of the word tun in st. 61 can none the
less be Icelandic.
.. For other places reminiscent of Ynglingatal, see my commentary on st. 31,
45 and 47.
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