Atlakvioa and Voluspa

Finch, R.G. ‘Atlakvioa, Atlamal, and Volsunga saga: A study in Combination and
Integration’ in Specvlvm Norroenvm: Norse Studies in Memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre,
(123-38)

Gunnel, Terry and Lassen, Annette, The Nordic Apocalypse: Approaches to Voluspa and
Nordic Days of Judgement

The Early Scholarly Reception of Voluspa from Snorri Sturluson to Arni Magnusson (3)

Snorri’s Edda
 Handbook on poetry 1220
o Including Gylfaginning = based on 6/7 of the Eddic poems
 Considered Voluspa the most important source of knowledge regarding ancient
times
o Because of the chronological scope of the poem and its cosmic time span (3)
 Voluspa = very obscure at moments
 Mundal
o Says Snorri omits material he did not understand
o Also that he remoes female figures (e.g., the giantresses)
o Snorri intended to imitate Christian myth
 Lack of interest in female deities in Snorri’s Edda
 Gylfaginning = frame narrative (5)
o How the Swedish king Gylfi visits the ‘Asians’ to learn about their great
success
o Three ‘Asians’ tell Gylfi about their gofs, the Aesir = untrustworthy fables
o Deceive Gylfi who retells stories like perverted evangelist
 Snorri speaks behind mask of Har = not his voice, cannot give insight into his own
belief (6)

The Codex Regius of the Eddic poems

 Oldest preserved manuscript containing the entire Voluspa = Codex Regius (7)
o c.1270
o written by single scribe, 50 years after Snorri wrote his Edda
 written tradition of the heroic poems as older than that of the mythic poems?
 Voluspa = prominent position at beginning
o Serves as kind of prologue to the collection of poems
 Kingenberg = a kind of synopsis of what is to follow (8)
 Absence of comments/explanations in Codex Regius = only one, so interesting (9)
  The first voice is the ancient prophetess of volva asking for silence when delivering
her prophecy
 Poem arrangement of Codes Regius (10)
o Poems about gods moving to poems about heroes
o Cosmic chronology = could explain position of Voluspa at beginning of
manuscript as opens with an account of the beginning of the world and ends
with prophecies of its destruction
 Key text for describing the chronology and fate of the pagan cosmos

Voluspa in the 17th century

 Rediscovery of Eddic poetry in 1643 (10)
 Great fire of Copenhagen in 1728
o House of Icelandic manuscript collector burnt down
o 15 manuscripts of Saemundar Edda lost
 Scholars of Voluspa (11)
o Bjorn, Runolfur Jonsson, Gudmundur Andresson

Stephan Stephanius
 Realised the importance of the Old Icelandic texts as comparative sources (12)

Bjorn at Skarosa (13)

 Commentary in 1644 or 1646
 Argues that ragnarok is an analogue to the burning of Troy or the burning of the
world on Judgement day
…

Arni Magnusson
 Argues that the authors of the poems did not believe that the poems originated with
the Aesir (19)
o Even though they composed them as if they were direct speech of the Aesir
 Heathen gods speak in first person
 Suggests that the poems composed in first person are examples of prosop<op>oeia
(personification)
 The poems were composed by heather worshippers in honour of their gods and not
by the gods – or the Asian – themselves
 Eddic poems actually date from different periods

Concluding remarks
 Source criticism only began with the work of Arni Magnusson
 Search for parallels to Nordic mythology and religious practices in the folklore of the
local Germanic regions
 Jacob Grimm (19)
o Convinced that texts with explicit Christian ideology represented a phase in
which the originally ‘pure’ antiquity of the North had been ‘polluted’ by
foreign ideas
Volupsa and Time (25)
 The concept of time is relevant to all studies of Voluspa
o Past, present, and future = a constitutive element of the poem as a narrative
 The poem is an entity existing in time
o Some idea about its place in history is a precondiction of any attempt at its
interpretation
 However, no fixed point in time determined
o Instead the poem can be compared with an organism developing throughout
time
 Such a story challenges the imagination: it forces us to fill the many gaps in the
picture… (26)
o Possible to be simply overwhelmed, filled with awe and ‘fear and pity’
(Aristotle)
 Christian audiences in 13th century
o Allegorical interpretations
 Is it old enough for a pre-Christian or non-Christian interpretation to exist?
o Formed by a heathen ideology

Time in Voluspa (27)

 Divided into 4 phases
a. Creation
b. Events following upon creation and leading to Ragnarok
c. Ragnarok itself
d. A new beginning
 First and last phases are similar but not identical
 A new beginning (27)
o An indication that a final/lasting world parrel to a biblical paradise is being
envisaged
o Or an indication that a new story is beginning, another cycle in an endless
row of cycles
 There is some progress in the history of the universe, but only within the cycle we
form part of
 How far does the story reach? (28)
o According to the Codex Regius and Hauksbok the memory of knowledge of
the volva reaches back to the time of Ymir, primeval giant
 The beginning and the end of the poem raise questions about what existed before
and after the events described
o But the poem still tells a rounded story
 1 strophe
st

o Someone addresses the audience asking for silence

 2 strophe
nd

o The speaker, a female, presents her credentials and declares that what she
remembers stretches far back (29)
o Spoken in present tense
o But address must have been made at moment in past
 o ‘Ar var alda’ (young were the years) = in Eddic poetry Ar Var is formula which
refers to a distant past and ar is connected with what in Latin is said to
happen in illo tempore
 The Volva
o Occasionally address the audience directly and refers to herself
o E.g., R29-30 = mentions a meeting with Odin that took place In her past
 Alternation in narrative between past tense and references to the present
monologue
 Ragnarok is an event lying in the future, but the poem gives the impression that it is
imminent (31)

Voluspa in time
 Contains a powerful expression of ideas and emotions derived from pre-Christian
Northern religion (34)
o Not an attempt to create any kind of heathen theology
o Not a theoretical or discursive poem, not trying to preach anything
 At most it reflects a fear that may be of a religious nature and some kind of hope
that destruction will not be final
 Affinity with Christian thought?
o A contemplation of a beginning and a terrifying end of the world
o Historical attitude to existence
 Voluspa poet’s interpretation of world history = deep tragic feeling
 What happens after Ragnarok?
o Second generation of gods return to a rejuvenated physical world
o They do not come to judge but to resume innocent games of their
forefathers
 Strophe R61 = description of a Christian paradise?
o No reason to believe that ‘dyggvar drottir’ (good people) = refers to reborn
individuals rather than to a new and virtuous race of humankind
o ‘um aldrdaga’ does not mean ‘for eternity’ but simply ‘during a lifetime’
 The Christian parallel is easily establish by Christians (35)
o But wouldn’t have any such connotations in the minds of the original
audience of the poet?
 Final section reflects a mixture of old and new?
o Pagan ideas intermingled with undigested fragments picked up from the
sermons of missionaries
 Idea of ragnarok older than advent of Christianity in Scandiavia?

Who is the ‘Mighty One’ of Hauksbok?

 Sudden appearance of powerful figure = unexpected and unprepared for (35)
o Entirely new element = a diety more powerful than those previously
presented conim from an undefined and abstract ‘above’ into a reborn world
 Introduction of new strophe into one version of Voluspa
  Modelled upon the image of the Christian God?
 Ursula Dronke (36)
o Refers to the strophe as a ‘Christian’ ‘insertion’
 The ‘inn riki’ (the ‘mighty one’ appears = out of touch with the other parts of the
poem
o Is a late attempt to mediate between the pagan world view of the poem and
the Christian world view
o E.g., Chp.3 of Gylfaginning
…

Conclusion
 How time functions in Voluspa and how the interpretation of the poem is dependent
on the time in which it is being interpreted (41)
 Poem composed around or before 1000
 Has kept is main structure but over time in oral tradition has attracted material of
Christian origin inviting a more Christian interpretation
 “we can never break the ties to our own time”
o Poem will always be interpreted from own standpoint

The Background and Scope of Voluspa (113)

 Spoken by a pagan seeress

o Alleged pre-Christian lips
o Tells of ancient things long gone and the fate which awaits the pagan gods as
the world is consumed by fire and replaced by a new one which has no place
for them
 Some descriptions were reminiscent of medieval Christian imagery
 Karl Weinhold – expressed misgivings about the alleged all-pagan background (114)
o Scenery of Nastrond (st.38), the decline of morals which preludes ragnarok
(st.45), and the image of the Judge coming from above (st.65)
 Does it present genuinely pagan concept or is their Christain influence?

The ‘Christian motifs’ of Voluspa

 Old Norse mythological motifs reminiscent of Christian imagery (115)
o The resemblance is due to borrowing
o Or the result of collateral developments

Agents of destruction: Surtr, Fenrir, and Loki

 ‘Christian’ motifs’ of Voluspa owe their occurrence to an early diffusion of Christian
imagery? (117)

Surtr
 Strophe 52 = pictures the world’s destruction through fire
o Central strophe in the ragnarok sequence of events
o Describes how Surtr advances and impending encounter with Freyr – the
fertility god of beast and soil
  Surtr as the gods’ ultimate antagonist
o Prominent role in bringing about world cataclysm
 Dronke = “a folk-legendary fire-demon and giant” (120)
 Palsson = “a fire giant”
 He became associated with volcanic phenomena in medieval Iceland?
 Surtalogi (‘flame of Surtr’) (121)
 Idea of ‘black fire’ occurs with some frequency in medieval Christian speculations
about the afterlife (122)

Manifest and Latent Biblical Themes in Voluspa (185)

Jochens, Jenny, Old Norse Images of Women

Larrington, Carolyne, The Norse Myths: A Guide to the Gods an Heroes

The Gods and Goddesses

The Aesir
 Odinn = ‘the furious one’
o Leader of the gods/Aesir
o One-eyed, beared, old
o Sometimes called the ‘All-father’
o Attribute = spear called Gungir
o War-god but unlike Freyr, he’s more of a strategist than a fighter e.g.,
teaching his chosen heroes effective battle formations
o Stirs conflict to see who is worthy to enter his great hall, Valhalla and join the
Einherjar, the warriors who will fight with the gods at ragnarok
o Patron of Kings
 Baldr
o Best and brightest of the gods; radiates light
o Blond eyelashes
o Dies young, will return after ragnarok
 o Hall: Breioablikr
o Married to Nanna, who goes to Hell with him
 Loki
o Son of a goddess and a giant
o Good-looking but nasty in tempermanet and variable in behaviour
o Exceptionally cunning
o Sexuality is polymorphous
o Married to Sgyn = has two sons (Nari and Narfi)
o Father of cosmic monsters
 Valkyries = supernatural women who dwell in Valholl
o ‘Choosers of the Slain’
o Brynhildr punished for disobeying orders and giving victory to
younger/handsomer man

The Vanir = subgroup of Gods

 Njoror
 Freyr
 Freyja

The Asynhur (Goddesses)

 Frigg
o

Heroes of the Viking World

Odinn as patron
 Heroic literature composed for the social elite = Odin figures in it largely as the
ancestor of Kings and the patron of heroes

Sigurdr and the Valkyrie

 Sigurdr betrothes himself to Brynhildr on mountain
o Leaves the heroic epic world and enters the sphere of courtly romance
 However plans of differently family for him to marry their daughter Gudrun
o Gudrun falls quickly in love
o Grimhildr gives Sigurdr a magical ‘drink of forgetting’ and he becomes
betrothed to Gudrun, oblivious to his previous vows
 Brynhildr = sworn to marry only the man who can pass through the flames
 Aided by Grimhildr’s magic Gunnarr and Sigurdr exchange appearances
o In Gunnar’s guise, Sigurdr crosses the flame-wall and spends three nights
with Brynhildr but maintains their chastity
o Brynhildr confused = sure that only Sigurdr can cross flames but here is
Gunnar claiming here
 A double wedding is celebrated
 Gudrun and Brynhildr quarrel about precedence
…
  Brynhildr is deceived into breaking her oath
 Gunnar does not want to lose Brynhildr nor her treasure
 Brynhildr wants Sigurdr dead
 Domestic strife reaches crisis point
o Gunnarr and Hogni (Sigurdr’s brother) = sworn oaths to Sigurdr
 Sigurdr is murdered
 In weightiest old Norse tradition
o Huttormr (youngest brother_ slays him whilst in bed with Gudrun
o Wakes to find herself bathed in her husband’s blood
o She’s so traumatised that at first she cannot even weep
 Brynhildr’s rage = unappeased, curses the woman who has saved Gudron’s sanity
 Vengeance seems out of the question = to kill her brothers for plotting her husband’s
death
 Brynhildr = realisation that by causing Sigurdr’s death has nothing to live for
o Mounts his funeral pyre to die
o Reunion with her beloved Sigurdr never to be parted from him again

Gudrun and Atli

 Gudrun’s family plots new marriage to Atli (the Hun) = Brynhildr’s brother
o Who resents the family’s treatment of his sister
 Atli and Gudrun have two sons
 Brothers fight and are captured
o Gunnarr refuses to reveal whearabouts of the treasure
o Hogni is killed (“laughed as they cut to his heart”
o Gunnarr also is killed
 Gudrun has taken terrible vengeance on her husband
o Offers him a drink and provides snaks
o Reveals what they are eating
o Gudrun has butchered their children and Atli has eaten them
 Stabs her drunk husband in bed, sets fire to the hall and intends to drown herself
o But waves bear her to land of King Jonakr where third marriage awaits her
 Murder of her own children and forcing their father to take back into himself the
sons who are flesh of his flesh
o Vivid sign of her rejection of the lineage into which she has been
incorporated
 Theme of mistreatment of women
o As mere objects of exchange between kin-groups
o Creatures whose feelings need by little regarded in the quest for political
advantage through the forgins of alliances

End Times and Renewal

McKinnel, John, Essays on Eddic Poetry

McTurk, Rory, Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture

Continuity? The Icelandic Sagas in Post-Medieval Times

Woman in Old Norse Poetry and Sagas

 Curiosity about the social position of women in Scnainavia before and after the
conversion to Christianity
 Lanqueur’s work on the one-sex model of sexual difference in Europe (518)
 Carol Clover
o A “one gender model with a vengeance” operated in the Norse world
 Heroines of Icelandic family sagas = begaviour and dialogue set them apart
 And mythological/legendary female figures who stood behind them
 Old Norse literature a woman could assume the social powers of a man
o Be praised for her vigour and assertiveness (519)
o Men lose their ‘maleness’ thorough humiliation
 The performance of males is monitored not just by competitive males but by women
 Women did not take an active part in the physical violence accompanying feyds
o Active in motivating and judging its outcome
o To ensure that the prowess of their men was noised about
 Codex Regius – mythological and heroic poetry
 Contains female figures of interest
o The volva, or seeress = sought out by the God Odinn to reveal detailed
information about the history of the cosmos
o Goddesses involved in counsel, strategic discussion and warnings
o Valkyries flirting with heroes and warding off malevolent underwear ogresses
o The uncompromising heroine Brynhildr = driven by treacherous deceit to
prefer the death of the man she loved to life, his and hers
o The murderous wife and mother Gudrun = drawn through three tragic
marriages and steeped so deep in vengeance that it is the delpletion of son-
avengers that eventually quiets her voice rather than any satisfaction in
retaliatory atonement
 The one-gender model posited for saga literature = limited sway (524)
 o ‘femaleness’ = represented by the olva and the valkyria embodies knowledge
of fate and power over life respectively
o Primal identifications that separate female from male in an essential way
 The conceptualization of fate in Old Norse mythology is coded feminine
 Clunies Ross
o “females tend to be strongly linked with the natural, the unconfined, the
gaint, and the mortal”
 This conception of femaleness redoubled is equated with all that is out of the gods’
control
o Power of inimical forces, alterity of giants, female sexuality = projected as the
awful spectre of a monstrous woman ramifying into a race
 The gods suspect the females in the midst of having an unsettling power, the
foreknowledge of everyone’s fates
 In most mythological poems women are silent
o Unless e.g., in Voluspa = feminie voice of omniscience is specifically
summoned to recitation
 The dominant form of many eddic poems is dialogue = makes their encounters ‘live’
o Has potential to yield important insights into female and male relations in a
range of mythological and legendary situations
 Voluspa = one of three that represent dialogue with a volva (associated with the
dead and the otherness of giants)
o Her knowledge spans the primeval past and the distant future
o Including Odinn’s own death
 Gathering of valykries – a portent of male death – prefacing the killing of Odinn’s son
Baldr
 Eddic mythological poems = forged from the point of view of the male gods
 Image of the violent bullying male able to assert his dominance
o Image consonant with popular notion of the raping and pillaging Viking (526)
 Women’s desire for self-determination esp in sexual relations
 Brynhildr and Gudrun’s extraordinary testimonies
o Presence as powerful and uncompromising women
 Bryndr’s soliloquy in response to a giantess who accosts her on her journey to the
world of the dead, accusing her of visiting another woman’s husband
o Helreio Brynhildar 13
o “I had slept in Sigurdr’s arms… they had deceived me in the taking of a
husband”
 Grief caused for Sigurdr’s Wife, Gudrun = beyond measure
o From estimating herself higher than the Valkyries now feels as little as a leaf
o Marriage arranged against wife’s will = doesn’t bode well

Raudvere, Catharina ‘Fictive Rituals in Voluspa: Mythological Narration between Agency

and Structure in the Representations of Reality’ in More than Mythology: Narratives,
Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions (97-117)
Snorri Sturluson Edda