{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/onp/onp02.htm","path":"neu/onp/onp02.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/onp/onp02.htm","text":"THE GROUP of poems here offered comprises practically all the more considerable (non-Skaldic) verse material not in the Edda. It shows, even better than that remarkable collection, of which it is intended to be the supplement, the wealth of independent poetic inventions and forms that flourished in the Scandinavian North before and immediately after the introduction of Christianity, especially when we bear in mind that much is irretrievably lost.\nAs to contents these poems, with respect to the first group of nine, range from the genuinely \u201cheroic,\u201d realistic, dialogic-dramatic, earlier lays (such as the Biarkam\u00f3l) to the more \u201cromantic,\u201d legendary, monologic-elegiac, retrospective, later lays (like Hi\u00e1lmar\u2019s Death Song); though the lines of demarcation are by no means sharp and, in fact, nearly every poem represents an individual combination of these traits. A very different type of lay is seen in the three contemporary encomiastic poems which celebrate the life and deeds of (historic) rulers of Norway\u2014the only non-Skaldic efforts of this genre so exceedingly numerous in Old Norse literature. There is no common denominator for the four poems at the end of the volume, except possibly their arch-heathen character. As a finale the Song of the Sun marks the transition to Christian spheres of thought.\nCommon to all of this material, however, is its unliterary, that is, unbookish, character which is in marked contrast to virtually all of Anglo-Saxon epic literature, influenced as it is, to a greater or lesser degree, by Christian or classical models. That is to say, we deal here with the genuinely native expression of the North.\nIn particular, the \u201cheroic\u201d lays\u2014figuring prominently also in the Edda, but occurring only sparsely in Anglo-Saxon and Old High German literature\u2014are the concentrated expression of the ethos of Germanic antiquity, its poetry. The spirit which animates and dominates it is that of warfare under the leadership of men of heroic stature, in an age when the warlike nature p. xii of the Germanic race received an additional impulsion, viz., in that vast spectacle which we call the migration of nations; when through causes unknown to us and on a scale nowhere else recorded in history, many great and numerous peoples of Europe and Asia were set in motion and for the space of centuries wandered about in search of new homes; when the fortunes of war made swift kaleidoscopic changes in the map, and nations rose and fell overnight.\nIn such an age the purpose of song is not to beguile the time but to give to listeners a heightened sense of reality, of the verities of life lived nobly; to rouse emulation through a recital of the great deeds, the tragic fate, of the ancestors. Small wonder that the watchwords of life lived dangerously\u2014of the maintenance of honor, even in defeat and death, through courage, energetic activity, generosity, loyalty to king, clan, friend\u2014are dwelt upon to the exclusion of the gentler virtues of a settled life; and natural, that in this song there are recurrent patterns of action, such as the motives of revenge or lust for gold and power; that there are types, such as the guileless hero-king, the old wily despot, the stern grizzled warrior, rather than individuals; that the scenes are largely restricted to banquet hall and battle field. As a result, inevitably, a feeling of harsh and insistent monotony will be the first impression on readers of this literature, until greater familiarity with it will allow us, here too, to distinguish the individual in the type.\nTurning to the technique employed in this literature, it will be noted that practically all is direct speech, monologue or dialogue, with hardly any narrative of action or description of scene or explanation of motive. As in the ballad of later times, all this is implied and suggested, frequently in a masterly fashion. To be sure, the whole art practice is addressed to an audience perfectly acquainted with the \u201cstory\u201d (much as in our times a bygone generation was with biblical scenes) and to whom, therefore, the expression of the feelings alone was important. Often there is but one scene, dramatically tense, in which the quintessence of a life discharges itself in a sudden flash.\nThe vehicle for Old Germanic poetry is the alliterative verse, which in Old Norse poetic monuments is gathered into various stanzaic aggregates. Basic for it is the \u201cshort-line\u201d of two stresses and an indeterminate number of unstressed syllables. Two such \u201cshort-lines,\u201d linked by alliteration\u2014initial consonant riming with identical initial consonant, initial vowel with any initial vowel (note well, of stressed syllables only)\u2014form a \u201clong-line.\u201d Four of these, again, make up a stanza, which is called fornyrthislag, \u201cold-lore meter\u201d (as in Hi\u00e1lmar\u2019s Death Song), if the number of unstressed syllables in each \u201cshort-line\u201d is restricted, and m\u00e1lah\u00e1ttr, \u201cspeech meter\u201d (as in stanzas 3-8 of H\u00e1konarm\u00f3l), if the number of unstressed syllables is expanded.1 The measure called li\u00f3thah\u00e1ttr, \u201cchant meter\u201d (as in S\u00f3larli\u00f3th) is peculiar in that each distich is formed by a \u201clong-line\u201d followed by a \u201cfull-line\u201d with (generally) three stresses2 and alliterating in itself. It is the (not invariable) rule that the alliteration in the second (even) \u201cshort-line\u201d falls on the first stress only, whereas the first (odd) \u201cshort-line\u201d may have two alliterative syllables.\nWith respect to the stress it is important to remember that there is no modern regularity, whether of its position in the line or of its alternating with unstressed syllable(s). Of the six mutations possible with a minimum of two accented and two unaccented syllables within a \u201cshort-line,\u201d only one is not permitted, viz., x x x\u00b4 x\u00b4. All others occur, viz., x\u00b4 x x\u00b4 x\u2014x\u00b4 x\u00b4 x x\u2014x x\u00b4 x\u00b4 x\u2014x\u00b4 x x x\u00b4\u2014x x\u00b4 x x\u00b4\u20143 and will be found in this version.4\nWith slight exceptions, the poems here dealt with belong to Eddic art practice, which differs from Skaldic poetry in several p. xiv respects. Formally, Eddic verse occurs in the relatively simple meters outlined above; stylistically, it is for the most part in direct speech and uses few and relatively simple kennings. (A kenning is a figure of speech in which a person or thing is described or named by somebody or something else; in other words, it is a condensed simile. Thus, we may call a football player a \u201cknight of the grid,\u201d and a Norwegian, a \u201cson of the Vikings.\u201d In similar fashion, in the old poems, e.g., \u201cbattle\u201d is called \u201cHild\u2019s (a valkyrie\u2019s) play\u201d or \u201cthe meeting of swords,\u201d etc., and \u00d3thin, \u201cSleipnir\u2019s rider\u201d or \u201cFrigg\u2019s husband,\u201d etc.). Skaldic poetry, on the other hand, is characterized, chiefly, by an exorbitant use of frequent and complicated kennings (cf. the purely Skaldic stanzas 6-8 of H\u00e1konarm\u00f3l). Also, the meters are generally more intricate, and there is scarcely ever direct speech.\nThe principal thing to keep in mind when reading Old Germanic verse is that, in consonance with the dramatic-passionate contents, the stress is dynamic, emphasizes content. Or, as it is better stated negatively: no stress, and therefore no alliteration, may fall on elements without an important increment of meaning. Obviously then, as we should not be misled, either, by our modern insistence on regularity of stress and equal length of lines, this verse is utterly alien to our ears. Then why translate into it, rather than into some more familiar form, or else why not resign oneself to prose? Because, I contend, no other verse form will approximate the feel of Old Germanic poetry: translation into any other form, however palatable in itself, radically fails in that respect. Hence, if it is worth while to become acquainted with Old Germanic poetry, it would seem worth while also to undergo the effort of reading the verse form in which it was given expression.\nSimilarly with the language. For heightened impressiveness and elevation, poets have always drawn on the hoarded treasure of their speech, paying with doubloons and ducats and pieces of eight, rather than with the current and trivial coin of the realm. So did the men who indited these lays. Hence I make p. xv no apology for occasional archaisms in my endeavor to recreate them on the speech level of the original. In this as in following the old metrical scheme I have preferred a true, rather than a smooth, rendering.\nAs readers I have had in mind, while preparing the introducions and the notes, especially the fairly numerous class of those interested in Anglo-Saxon literature, and the specialists in Old Norse not at all, and have therefore avoided dwelling on moot points. While of course leaning on the explorations of predecessors, I have generally sailed my own course\u2014between reefs innumerable\u2014with only occasional reference to the tracks of others.5 Nevertheless I am afraid that in the notes I have erred both in giving too little and too much. On the one hand the whole world and Weltanschauung of the ancient North clamored for elucidation; on the other, as I well know, a plethora of notes is a weariness unto the flesh, besides interfering with the pleasure of reading.\nTHE MOST IMPORTANT NON-SKALDIC\nVERSE NOT INCLUDED IN\nTHE POETIC EDDA\nNOTE\nPronunciation.\u2014The acute accent over vowels signifies length. They are to be voiced in the Continental fashion, as in German or Italian. G is always hard, s, always surd. Word accent is invariably on the first syllable. The diphthongs ia, io, ill are rising.\nEddic Poems.\u2014References to the Eddic poems are to the author\u2019s translation, The Poetic Edda (University of Texas Press, 1928).\n1 A few examples of kvithuh\u00e1ttr, in which the odd lines have three, the even four, syllables, are found in the Lay of V\u00edkar.\n2 The efforts, notably of Heusler, to show that this line is but an expanded two-stress line, fail to convince me and, in fact, seem contradicted by the evidence. Cf. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 1931, pp. 475 f.\n3 Adherence to these \u201cSievers Types\u201d is not a matter of credulity on my part, as some of the critics of my Edda translation seem to imply, but of simple observation of the rhythmic facts.\n4 The question of long or short syllable need not concern the reader of the translation.\n5 The originals (nearly all) are most easily accessible in Heusler-Ranisch, Eddica Minora, and (all) in F. J\u00f3nsson\u2019s Den Norsk-Islandske Skjaldedigtning.","title":"INTRODUCTION","type":"page"}