125639 THE ELDER EDDA AND ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS C. F. CLAY, MANAGER LONDON : FETTER LANE, E.G. 4 NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY \ CALCUTTA LMACMILLAN AND co., Lm MADRAS j TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA ALL RIGHTS RESERVED at Vcntlel in Fig. i. Plate from a helmet found Uppland. 2. Fig. Bronze plate from Torsluncla, Fig. j. Bronze plate from Torshmda, Oland, Sweden. Olund, Sweden, AND ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA BY BERTHA S. PHILLPOTTS, O.B.E., Lirr.D. Formerly Pfeiflfer Student of Girton College, Cambridge Late Lady Carlisle Research Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford Principal of Westfield College (University of London) Author of Kindred and Clan CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1920 PREFACE book was begun in the spring of 1914, and only two THISchapters were unwritten in March 1916. In adding these two chapters in 1920 I have endeavoured to bring the rest of the book up to date, but the occupations of the intervening years left little time to keep abreast of the advances of scholarship, and the endeavour has not been wholly successful. My task has not been lightened by the loss of a note-book and some pages of the MS. through causes connected with the war, and I am conscious that there is much to apologise for. But it seemed better to publish the it book as is, with all its imperfections, than to wait for the uncertain hour when I could attempt an elaborate revision and expansion. My aim is simply to place before scholars a theory of the dramatic origin of the older Eddie poems. I shall be satisfied if I have made clear the grounds which have forced me to formulate the theory: should there be any truth in it, others, better fitted than it in all its on I, will work out many bearings history, religion and literature. The dedication intimates that this book is my gift to Somer- villc College, In a more fundamental sense it is the gift of Somerville College to me. It is the product of my tenure of the Lady Carlisle Research Fellowship, and the central idea of the book occurred to me while I was trying to present a rational picture of early Scandinavian literature to the College Literary and Philosophical Society. The idea struck root in favourable soil Miss Pope, Tutor in Modern Languages at Somerville, was working at a theory of the genesis of the Old French epic: Pro- fessor Gilbert Murray, Vice- President of the College, was always ready to stimulate and illumine discussion on the relation of epic and drama: Miss Spens of Lady Margaret Hall was writing her book on Shakespeare's indebtedness to folk-drama, Moreover I think that the air of Oxford was friendly to the growth of a theory viii PREFACE like mine, and gave me courage to act on the belief that a clear understanding of the form of primitive Scandinavian literature was an essential preliminary to an understanding of primitive Scandinavian history. It was only after I had written the first part of the book an attempt to solve a literary problem on purely literary lines that I was able to realise the significance of the heroic poems of the Edda as a source for Scandinavian history and religion from the sixth century onwards. Since the theories put forward have a direct bearing on the problem of Greek tragedy, and may also be of interest to mediaevalists, I have assumed that some of my readers may be unacquainted with Old Norse, and have accordingly given my quotations in English, adding the original in the notes wherever there is any doubt as to the reading. I had originally planned to give translations of the more important poems in an appendix, but joyfully abandoned the project on finding that there is some hope that the poet and scholar who has made Greek tragedy live in English dress may do a similar service to the heroic poems of the Edda. In the meantime readers may be referred to the trans- lations in Vigfiisson and Powell's Corpus Poetmim Borcale^ on which those in the present work are usually based. It is however a disadvantage to the general reader that the Editors of the Corpus made a new combination of the episodes in the Helgi Lays, so that it is not easy to trace each separate poem as it is given in the MS. For this it is necessary to refer to one of the two chief German translations. Gering's or Genzmer's. Both are scholarly. The mythical poems have been translated into English by Miss Bray, in The Elder or Poetic Edda, published by the Viking Society. References in the text are to Sophus Bulge's Norrt&n Porn- kv&$i, to Holder's edition of Saxo, and to Finnur J6nsson's critical edition of Snorri's Edda. My treatment of Icelandic proper names is explained in the Preface to my previous book Kindred and Clan. I have not sacri- ficed to consistency so far as to de-anglicise the names Sigurd, PREFACE IX Gudrun and Odin. For my treatment of Saxo's names I can, I fear, adduce no principle, and I can only hope that the multitude of Saxo's own inconsistencies may excuse mine. I am greatly indebted to Professor Chadwick for very kindly reading a rough draft of this book in 1915, and for various sug- gestions and criticisms made at that time. My thanks are also due to Professor Montelius both as author, and as President of the Swedish Royal Academy of Letters, for permission to reproduce the three illustrations in the frontispiece, two from his Civilisation of Sweden in Heathen Times, and one from Stolpe and Arne, Graffaltet vid Vendel, published by the Academy. Finally I desire to express my obligation to the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, for publishing the book with an almost pre-war celerity. B. S. P. WESTFIELD COLLEGE (UNIVERSITY OF LONDON). Jttne 2, 1920. CONTENTS Three figures : (i) from a helmet found at Vendel, (2 and 3) from a bronze plate^ Torslunda .... Frontispiece CHAP. PAGE I. The Eddie Problem I II. The Edda Poems 18 III. The Edda Poems in relation to other early Scan- dinavian verse . .28 IV. The Chant-metre Poems ..... 44 V. Mythological Poems in Old-Lore Metre . 58 (Excursus. Thryirts 2Layy p. 65) VI. Lost Poems in Chant-metre .... 74 VII. Icelandic Tradition and the Norwegian Poems . 82 VIII. Characteristics of Norwegian Eddie Poetry Traces of Popular Origin .... 88 IX. Characteristics of Norwegian Eddie Poetry (cont,} The Prose Comments . loo X. Characteristics of Norwegian Eddie Poetry (cont.} I. Stock Scenes . .in II. Theriomorphic Personages and Disguise. 115 XI. Evidence for Indigenous Drama in Scandinavia 118 XII, Plots of the Eddie Dramas Divine Protagonists . .128 XIII. Plots of the Eddie Dramas (cont.} The Ritual Marriage . 137 XIV. Plots of the Eddie Dramas (cont.} The Fertility Drama . .144 XV. Characters of the Fertility Drama . .160 XVI. Actors and Authors. The Chorus. The Scene . 176 XVII. The Beginnings of Tragedy. The Greek Analogy 191 XVIII. Conclusion 199 Index 213 CHAPTER I THE EDDIC PROBLEM "I BID the worst to him I loved the most," says Gudrun in Lax- dale Saga, when her son presses her to tell him which of her lovers in long past days had been nearest to her heart. Of all the generations of story-tellers who breathed life into the character of the Laxdale Gudrun, there was probably not one who could wholly dismiss from his mind the personality of a heroine mbre famous still, the Brynhild of the Edda poems. This must be our justification for using the tragic figure of Gudrun merely to point a contrast. Brynhild compasses Sigurd's death, as Gudrun compasses Kjartan's, and both are driven to the deed by like motives. Jealousy works on them both, and fierce resentment, but, if we read the old stories aright, they are both swayed by a deeper motive. Neither Brynhild nor Gudrun can endure the conscious- ness of loving another man better than her own husband, and each breaks the tangled web of Fate in the same way, Lest they should succumb to dishonour, the man who threatens their inmost peace must die. It is a situation of great dramatic interest, and both Edda-poet and Saga-man do justice to its psychological subtleties. But in how different a way they handle the subject! Although those who told the story of Gudrun have been so obviously stirred by the Brynhild poets, yet the conventions of their art have restrained them from all but the faintest approxi- mation to the poets' manner of presentment. Laxdale Saga adheres to the Saga tradition in spite of all temptation, and deals out speech to its characters with a sparing hand. And their brief utterances are used as much to veil their thoughts as to reveal "Notable doings to-day" says Gudrun to her husband: "I have spun twelve ells of yarn, and thou hast killed Kjartan." A pallor, which Bolli comments on, and those half-dozen words p.' i 2 THE ELDER EDDA whispered to her son in her old age that is all the self-reve- lation that the stern Saga tradition allows her, and we may well doubt whether she would have been granted even so much but for her epic prototype. How different is the tradition of the Edda ! Brynhild may express her very soul in words, if the poet's skill can but reach so far. When the news of Sigurd's death has been brought to her, she answers the reproaches of Gunnarr by a long account of the past, and openly dwells on her intention to die with Sigurd.