SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Voluspd 81
difficult it was to catch sight of the poem's continuity
and philosophy of life. This was why unrelated verses
were interpolated into it, while other verses which could
be ill spared were forgotten.
About the year 1065 Arnorr jarlaskald imitated the
description of Ragnarok in his porfinnsdrdpa. 2 In the
twelfth century the shorter Voluspd was composed" and
there is no doubt about the model. About 1200 an echo
of V oluspd is heard in M erlinusspd. 4 Snorri refers to
V oluspd as ancient lore (Jorn visendi) and makes it the
basis of his account of the old gods. In the Codex
Regius [R] it occupies pride of place. But from the time
of the compilation of Hauksb6k [H] until the revival of
the old learning in the seventeenth century there is no
sign of its history. I should mention, however, as it has
not been previously noted, that in a sacred poem of the
fifteenth century there are obvious marks of the influence
of Darraaarlj60, V oluspd and other Eddaic poems. This
is the Carmen votivum de Cruce (Ami Magnusson's title),
a poem about the Cross of Christ and the Day of Judgment,
and among other stanzas there is the following:
Hamrar sprungu,
en hrutu steinar,
ger6i svarta
s61 i heioi,
heimar skulfu
en himinn pipraoist
pa er drottinn vor
d6 viljandi.!
This poem is, to the best of my knowledge, the only
Catholic sacred poem written in [ornyroislag, Further
research may bring others of a similar kind to light. But
• Cf. my commentary on st. 57.
3 Cf. my commentary on st. 65.
• The monk Gunnlaugr Leifsson's translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth's
Prophecies of Merlin.
• ]6n Helgason, Islensk mi(Jaldakva,{Ji (r95r), I 242; d. also J6n :Porkelsson,
Om Digtningen pa Island i det IS. og I6. Arhundrede (r888), 77.