{"id":746,"date":"2023-07-05T22:24:09","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T02:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/?page_id=746"},"modified":"2023-07-11T14:53:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T18:53:15","slug":"coda-making-a-voluspa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/voluspa-entangled\/coda-making-a-voluspa\/","title":{"rendered":"Coda: Making a V\u00f6lusp\u00e1"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, what is the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em> to us today? We know its edges are indistinct. We know it was used to contain cosmologies, set down narratives. We know it means something different when discussed by different people. We’ll end here by returning to the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em> in its most basic sense: the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em> is a poem. It uses formal elements to aid communication.<\/p>\n

The V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em> was written in the Germanic tradition of alliterative verse. It has dozens of stanzas\u2014most of them quatrains\u2014though the exact number differs from version to version. It is also relatively uniform metrically. Each line is broken into two by a \u2018caesura,\u2019 a natural gap between one half-line and the other. On either side of this line break, two words will start with either the same sound or a vowel sound in an \u2018alliteration.\u2019 For the Old Norse original, these alliterative words will also bear stress (Dunn xxiii). Patricia Terry, the translator whose verse we work with in this piece, \u201ctried to suggest, if not reproduce [the poem’s] alliteration\u201d in English (xiii). For the original V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em>, the final word typically does not alliterate. This didn’t necessarily carry across in Terry’s translation. Other lines of the translation, while poetic, don’t alliterate at all. How might this change the poem in translation? Are there any stanzas in this piece that make this especially evident?<\/p>\n

She knows that H<\/span>eimdall’s\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0h<\/span>earing is h<\/span>idden.
\nwhere the h<\/span>oly tree\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0rises to the h<\/span>eavens;
\nshe sees a r<\/span>ushing\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0turbid r<\/span>iver
\npour from Odin’s pledge.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Seek you wisdom still?<\/p>\n

Veit h\u00f3n<\/span> Heim<\/span>dallar hli<\/span>\u00f3\u00f0 um f\u00f3lgit
\nundir hei\u00f0<\/span>v\u00f6num\u00a0 \u00a0 hel<\/span>gum ba\u00f0mi.
\n\u00c1 s\u00e9r h\u00f3n aus<\/span>ak\u00a0 \u00a0 aur<\/span>gum forsi
\naf ve\u00f0<\/span>i Val<\/span>f\u00f6\u00f0rs.\u00a0 \u00a0 Vit<\/span>u\u00f0 \u00e9r enn \u2013 e\u00f0a hvat?<\/p>\n

\u2014 The V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em> (trans. Terry; ed. P\u00e1lsson)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click here<\/a> or listen below to hear Julian Jamison reading the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em> in Old Norse for LibriVox, a resource for free, public domain audio books. Can you notice any metrical patterns in the recording? How is the experience of the poem different in its original language?<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/ia801609.us.archive.org\/21\/items\/multilingual_poetry_collection_001_librivox\/old_norse_voluspa_anonymous_jcj.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

\n

Experimental archeology is a technique used by scholars to gain a new perspective on the past by putting principles of archaeology into action. The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, for instance, used what they knew from archeology build a ship close as possible to how the vikings might have built one. They then sailed it to Ireland, following a viking route. The voyage influenced, in turn, how scholars conceptualized viking ships and sailing. (\u201cSea Stallion from Glendalough\u201d). To take a page from experimental archeology, we’ll end this exhibit with one final kind of making. Below are words from Terry’s translation of the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em>. Following the instructions below\u2014as closely or as loosely as you like\u2014try making a line, or a couplet, or a quatrain inspired by the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Choose a word from the first table below. Any word will do; pair it with another from either table and a connecting word of your choice. This will be your first phrase.<\/li>\n
  2. Look back at the table. All words in the same column as your first, if undivided by a space, alliterate: they either share an initial sound or both begin with a vowel. Choose two words, at least one of which should alliterate with a word in your first phrase, for your second (on the other side of the caesura).<\/li>\n
  3. Put the two phrases together. They should look something like this:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Emptiness of time\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0is the \u00c6sir’s Valhalla<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Repeat as many times as you would like! Try making a quatrain, like one of the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1’s, or experiment with form. Rules can be broken. Do you notice anything new about the text of the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 after trying your hand at writing alliterative verse?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    emptiness
    \nelves
    \neagle
    \n\u00c6sir
    \nalone
    \nash
    \nOdinland
    \nlaw<\/td>\n    		dark
    \ndead
    \ndownnothing
    \nnamesstruck
    \nstone
    \nstreams<\/td>\n    		sun
    \nsea
    \nseek
    \nsorryMidgard
    \nmorning
    \nmoon
    \nmight<\/td>\n    		Bur
    \nbarrenfought
    \nfairword
    \nwisdom
    \nwings<\/td>\n    		holy
    \nHeimdall
    \nhate
    \nhear
    \nheart
    \nhallgod
    \ngold<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Table 1. Alliterative words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    time
    \ndragon
    \ngiant<\/td>\n    		green
    \nThor
    \nslain<\/td>\n    		Valhalla
    \nnames
    \nspear<\/td>\n    		kinsman
    \nblackened
    \nshield<\/td>\n    		treasure
    \ndwarves
    \nblood<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Table 2. Other words.<\/p>\n

    \n

    Every attempt to comprehend history in some sense creates it. Borders and conjectures are necessary: they make it possible for us to grasp material across huge stretches of time. But shaping the past, no matter how inevitable an act, will always have implications. The V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 provides a useful synecdoche for Viking Studies. By looking closely at the past’s \u2018formal elements,\u2019 we internalize what it could have been like to create. We better understand history, it shapes us, and in some small sense we make it our own.<\/p>\n

    \u00ab Previous<\/a> | Home<\/a> | Next \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    So, what is the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 to us today? We know its edges are indistinct. We know it was used to contain cosmologies, set down narratives. We know it means something different when discussed by different people. We’ll end here by returning to the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 in its most basic sense: the V\u00f6lusp\u00e1 is a poem. It<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4492,"featured_media":0,"parent":697,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-nosidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-746","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":947,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/746\/revisions\/947"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/makingvikings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}