Voluspá and the Feast of Easter..

[Lyfing]

Voluspá and the Feast of Easter..

It is generally agreed that Voluspá has been influenced by Christian ideas to some extent, but the nature of that influence has been debated. Of course it is true, as Daniel Sävborg has pointed out ( 2003, 131), that all the Old Norse poetry that survives comes from a time when Christianity was already to some extent influential in northern Europe. But there is a difference between the adoption of commonplace Christian expressions (such as calling Óðinn Alfoðr ‘Father of all’, cf. Latin Pater omnium) or general ideas (e.g. that some beings will be resurrected after Ragnarok) on the one hand, and on the other the suggestion that specific Christian texts have been used as source material for Voluspá.1 This paper will address only the latter type of infl uence, and will consider what criteria should be used in evaluating whether any particular claimed source is probable or not. I shall then go on to make a suggestion of my own.

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It therefore seems most likely that Voluspá was composed either in the late
heathen period or in the first half-century or so of Icelandic Christianity. During either of these eras, the evidence of skaldic verse makes it seem unlikely that a Christian would compose a poem on a heathen mythological subject, and even more unlikely that he would depict any of the gods as sympathetic fi gures. It also seems rather improbable that the poem was composed in the early Christian period by a recalcitrant heathen, since we should hardly expect, in that case, that it would borrow Christian concepts as readily as it seems to. The poem certainly does borrow some Christian ideas, but sometimes these seem to be either misunderstood or deliberately adapted:

1. The punishment in which the wicked must wade the grievous currents
of the river Slíðr in Voluspá 39 bears an obvious resemblance to Revelation 21:8 ( Neckel and Kuhn 1983, 9; Weber et al. 1975, 2:1903):

Sá hon þar vaða þunga strauma timidis autem et incredulis et exsecratis et
Menn meinsvara oc morðvarga, homicidis et fornicatoribus et venefi cis et
Oc þannz annars glepr eyrarúno; idololatris et omnibus mendacibus
(Voluspá 39.1–6) pars illorum erit in stagno ardenti igne et
sulphure quod est mors secunda (Rev. 21:8)

[She saw there, wading the grievous [But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the currents, / lying men and murderers, / abominable, and murderers, and whoremonand him who seduces another man’s gers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all mate.] liars, shall have their part in the lake which
burneth with fi re and brimstone: which is the second death.]10

However, in Voluspá this punishment precedes Ragnarok and seems to be part of an unsuccessful attempt by the gods to deter the rising tide of wickedness in the world. In Revelation, by contrast, it is part of a symmetrical and eternal justice which comes after the Judgement.

2. The image in Voluspá 48:5–7 of the dwarves (who normally live in rocks
and the earth) trembling outside their walls of stone is reminiscent of the terror of the powerful on Doomsday in Revelation 6:15–16 ( Neckel and Kuhn 1983, 12; Weber et al. 1975, 2:1888): stynia dvergar fyr steindurom, et dicunt montibus et petris cadite super nos (Voluspá 48:5–6) et abscondite nos a facie sedentis super thronum (Rev. 6:16)

[the dwarves groan in front of their [and (they say) to the mountains and rocks, stone doors] Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him
that sitteth on the throne]

But the dwarves apparently leave their normal dwellings for fear of being crushed when the rocks collapse, whereas the mighty in Revelation appeal in vain to the rocks to crush them rather than have to face the terror of the coming Judgement.

3. The earth rising out of the sea for a second time (Voluspá 59.1–4) and the
hall fairer than the sun which will be inhabited by trustworthy people (Voluspá 64) seem almost certainly influenced by the new heaven and earth of Revelation 21:1 and the light in the heavenly city of Revelation 22:5 ( Neckel and Kuhn 1983, 14–15; Weber et al. 1975, 2:1903, 1905):

Sér hon upp koma oðro sinni et vidi caelum novum et terram novam
iorð ór ægi, iðiagroena; primum enim caelum et prima terra abiit
(Voluspá 59.1–4) et mare iam non est (Rev. 21:1)

[She sees rise up for a second time / [And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for earth from the sea, eternally green.] the fi rst heaven and the fi rst earth were passed away; and there (is) no more sea.]

Sal sér hon standa sólo fegra, et nox ultra non erit
gulli þacþan, á Gimlé; et non egebunt lumine lucernae neque lumine
þar scolo dyggvar dróttir byggia solis oc um aldrdaga ynðis nióta. quoniam Dominus Deus inluminat illos (Voluspá 64) et regnabunt in saecula saeculorum (Rev. 22:5)

[She sees a hall stand, fairer than the [And there shall be no (more) night there; and sun, / thatched with gold, at Gimlé; / they (shall) need no candle, neither light of there bands of trustworthy folk will the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: dwell / and enjoy bliss for ever.] and they shall reign for ever and ever.]

However, whereas in Revelation these things cannot happen until after the good and the wicked have been distinguished at the Judgement (Rev. 20:12), in Voluspá they can precede the Second Coming (Vsp. 65) because the wicked have apparently all perished in Ragnarok. This illustrates an important “theological” difference, namely that the poet of Voluspá seems to have no concept that the souls of the wicked are also immortal.

Even if a Christian poet had defied the normal practice of the period by
composing a poem on a heathen mythological subject, it seems unlikely that he would have misunderstood or distorted the Christian ideas he also used. On the other hand, this is exactly what we would expect of a heathen poet who had some knowledge of Christianity: he or she might either misunderstand or deliberately adapt the concepts or images that were borrowed. It therefore seems probable that the poet of Voluspá was Christian-influenced but not actually Christian. But such a poet would be very unlikely to be literate in the Roman alphabet, or to have had any opportunity to learn Latin. The Christian sources available to him would
be limited to those that could be received orally in a vernacular language that he could understand. Besides Old Norse, he would certainly be able to follow orallydelivered texts in Old English,11 and perhaps in Old Saxon12 and (for poets from the Hiberno-Norse area and some Orcadians, Faroese, Icelanders, and Greenlanders) also in Old Irish.

...

Nonetheless, this is not ultimately a Christian poem. Its basic situation—an
encounter between Óðinn and the volva—uses and adapts a story-pattern that was probably already present in Norse heathenism, since we fi nd an allusion to it in Ynglingatal 3 ( Finnur Jónsson 1912–15, B1:7). Even if we accept every possible scriptural, liturgical, and homiletic parallel, only about twenty of the poem’s sixty six stanzas show Christian influence, and those that do are not always understood in a Christian way. However, it seems clear that there are some specific scriptural echoes in the poem, and the exerience of a catechumen over the twenty-four hours of the celebration of Easter provides one of the few clear routes by which these could have come about.

I found this in alvíssmál: Forschungen zur mittelalterlichen Kultur Skandinaviens

I think this one is great..

Later,
-Lyfing