SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

Saga-Book of the Viking Society
followed by von See,22 says, on the other hand, that he was
66inn. It is difficult to understand why a redactor of the
fourteenth century should replace the well-known 66inn by
Heimdallr, whose cult had been all but forgotten. Heimdallr may
be seen as a fertility god, perhaps taking the form of a ram, as
Freyr might take the form of a boar. 23
According to the only plausible interpretation of the first
strophe of the Vqluspd which has yet been offered,"4 men are
distinguished from gods and called the greater and lesser children
of Heimdallr (meiri ok minni mogu H eimdallar). This need not
show that the Rigspula is older than the VQluspd, but it does show
that the tradition upon which it is based goes back to the tenth
century.
Irish and British influences have been seen on the Rigspula.
Rigr, when he comes to each house, shares the marriage bed.
This custom may have been known in Germany in the Middle
Ages,"6 but there i-, no evidence of it in Scandinavia. Such things
are, however, recorded in Irish sources.
Most of all must hang on the origin of the name Rigr. In spite
of other suggcstions.v" it seems nearly certain that it derives from
the Irish ri (oblique rig) meaning "king" The poet of the
Rigspula, and consequently the author of the ShjQldunga saga, as
well as Snorri, who must be following the Skjoldunga saga, seems
to be well aware of the meaning of this name. The third son of
the god, to whom he gives his own name, is Konr ungr, and thus
a play is made on the word kouung»,
It is altogether unlikely that this influence of Irish could have
arisen after the tenth century. K. von See"" remarks that the
Prophecies of Merlin (and probably the Historia Britonum as
we1l 2 9 ) were translated into Icelandic c. 1200, showing cultural
relations with the Celtic world even at this late date. But there
is no reason to believe that the Welshman, Geoffrey of Monmouth,
writing in Latin, knew the Irish word ri, even if he might have
called a king brenhin or arglwydd. Whether the Rigspuia was
composed in the British Isles, or by a travelled Icelander at home,
there seem to be good reasons to believe that the traditions
22 op, cii., 1.
23 Cf. R. Much in Deutsche Lslandforsctiung (1930), 63 fl.
2'See Siguri'lur Nordal, V6luspd (1923), 34 ft., and especially islenz" menning
I (1942), 207 fl.
2S See A. Olrik, Viking Civilization (1930), II2 ff., and especially J. Young,
Arkiv [or nordisk filologi XLIX (1933),97 fl.
26 See Much, op, cii., 66.
27 See Alexander J6hannesson, I slandisches etymologisches w orterbuct: (1956),
7°1'2.
"op. cit., 6'7.
29 G. Turville-Petrc, Origins of Icelandic Literature (1953), 200·2.
2 5