CRITICISM

Dronke, Ursula. “Art and Tradition in Skírnismál.” In English and Medieval Studies Presented to J. R. R. Tolkien on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, edited by Norman Davis and C. L. Wrenn, pp. 250-68. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1962.

Elucidates the ways in which the Eddic poem Skírnismál (Skirnir's Journey) draws upon various traditions of mythological literature, while she argues for the aesthetic and thematic coherence of the work.

Hollander, Lee M. “The Legendary Form of Hamðismál.” In Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi: (1962): 56-62.

Raises questions regarding the legendary and historical contexts of the Eddic poem Hamðismál (The Lay of Hamdir), a work concerned with jealousy and revenge.

———. “Recent Work and Views on the Poetic Edda.” Scandinavian Studies 35, no. 2 (May 1963): 101-09.

Enumerates several areas of ongoing critical contention with regard to Eddic poetry, including questions of dating, origin, and authorship.

Lönnroth, Lars. “Hjálmar's Death-Song and the Delivery of Eddic Poetry.” Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies 46, no. 1 (January 1971): 1-20.

Theorizes concerning the methods and means of oral transmission used by poets in medieval Scandinavia and applies these hypotheses to Eddic poetry.

Moberg, Lennart. “The Languages of Alvíssmál.” Saga-Book 18, part 4 (1973): 299-323.

Compares poetic phrases and linguistic constructions that appear in the languages of gods, giants, dwarves, and humans, respectively, presented in the Eddic poem Alvíssmál (The Lay of Alvis).

Motz, Lotte. “The Power of Speech: Eddic Poems and Their Frames.” Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Älteren Germanistik 46 (1996): 105-17.

Asserts the theological rather than narrative orientation of six Eddic poems, arguing that these works belong to the tradition of religious ritual incantation despite their narrative frames.

Smirnickaja, Olga. “The Impersonal Sentence Patterns in the Edda and in the Sagas.” Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi (1972): 56-88.

Studies patterns of Old Icelandic syntax, which deviate from those of other Germanic languages, in Eddic verse.

Taylor, Paul Beekman. “The Structure of Völundarkviða.” Neophilologus 47, no. 3 (July 1963): 227-36.

Calls the Eddic poem Völundarqviða (The Lay of Volund) a regeneration myth that fits the archetypal pattern of structural repetition around an essential, unifying idea that characterizes Old Norse heroic verse.

———. “The Rhythm of Völuspá.” Neophilologus 55, no. 1 (January 1971): 45-57.

Analyzes the metrical pattern of the Eddic poem Völuspá as indicative of the rhythmical scheme employed in traditional Old Icelandic poetry.