SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Valuspa 121
- as corrupt as before. They did not receive the new
world in inheritance through the virtues of Lif and
Lif'prasir, of MotH and Magni (Vafpruonismal) , but from
the blind fates. Was the same game then to be played
over and over again? The author of Valuspa could have
echoed Mynster's hymn "My soul is weary - where shall
it find rest?" His philosophy was rich and many-sided,
but it lacked cohesion and a goal. It could ease the
anguish by splitting the personality, but it could not cure it.
Then the Christian mission (probably pangbrand's
preaching) came into the picture. It probably delivered
a simple message: deny the gods who are only dust and
ashes, and believe in Christ, the angels and the saints.
This was in itself not particularly new, as most people had
heard of Christianity. But then came the great news ­
Doomsday was at hand. This was the last chance to be
converted. Now people would be judged by their works,
the evil would go to Hell, and the good would dwell in
eternal bliss with Christ himself. This end of the world
was no meaningless game, where everything was begun
again in the same way. This was the end of the battle
and the beginning of the true and perfect life. This
doctrine could give the poet peace. This was what the
old faith had lacked.
Valuspa will never be understood rightly, least of all
in its attitude to Christianity, while there is talk of the
poet's composing it for a purpose, whether to defend
heathendom against Christianity (Finnur Jonsson) or to
make a way for Christianity by showing that heathendom
"bears within itself its own death sentence" (Bjorn M.
Olsen). If this was the poet's purpose before he began to
compose the poem, and while he was engaged in its
composition, then his moderation would be inexplicable,
whichever side he inclined to. It would be especially
difficult to understand the poem's exposition, the poet's
inspiration, the dark and lightning-swift narrative, which
shows most clearly that the poem is composed as the poet