CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO ( 1 )

THE PERFORMANCE OF

THE POETIC EDDA

Terry Gunnell

T

here are a number of central facts that should be borne in mind by anyone who
intends to study the Eddic poems in the context of the early Middle Ages:
First of all, the two main manuscripts containing the earliest complete versions of
these works, the so-called Codex Regius and the AM 748 4 °, both come from the late
thirteenth century (see Vésteinn Ólason 2001 ; and Wessén 1945 ). Prior to this, Snorri
Sturluson quotes directly from some of the poems contained in these manuscripts in his
Prose Edda, which was written in about 1220.
Secondly, most scholars agree that the majority of the works contained in the Eddic
manuscripts must have lived in the oral tradition prior to the time at which they
were recorded, although opinions vary about how long this might apply to different
works (see e.g. Gísli Sigurðsson 1998 ; Harris 1979 , 1983 , 1985 , 2000 a, b, 2003 , 2004 ,
forthcoming; Lönnroth 1971 , 1978 , 1979 ). Some argue, logically, that a number of the
works contained in the Poetic Edda might have roots in pagan times 200 years earlier,
although considering the arguments that have been made about the workings of the oral
tradition by scholars such as Milton Parry and Albert Lord ( 1960 ), Ruth Finnegan
( 1977 ), Jeff Opland ( 1980 ), Walter Ong ( 1982 ) and John Miles Foley ( 2002 ), it must
be regarded as questionable exactly how much the texts of these works would have
remained unchanged during all of this time.
The above statement underlines a third fact, that these works were ‘collected’ rather
than composed by those who recorded them, although it seems clear that different
editorial approaches were used by those who recorded different sections of the manu-
script, the Codex Regius manuscript being a compilation of other earlier compilations
(see Lindblad 1954 , 1980 ). The mere fact that they were collected, however, does not
mean that these works were known all over Scandinavia, nor, if they were well known,
that all the ‘versions’ known at the time around Scandinavia would have taken the same
form. As Gísli Sigurðsson ( 1998 : xlv–xlvi) has argued, it is likely that the performer
would have adapted the work to suit the occasion, as happens in many other oral
cultures.
In short, the Eddic poems were essentially works that were presented ‘live’ by
performers, and received by audiences not only aurally, but also visually as one-off living
performances, not least because, as with a play, every performance of these works would