Snorri Sturluson: Kolloquium anläßlich der 750. Wiederkehr seines Todestages (review)

298 Reviews section 'Critical studies and reference works' contains general works such as those of E. de Bruyne, M . K. Pope and F. Yates, alongside Villon scholarship. It is supposed, therefore, that the works listed are those consulted for the edition. Otherwise it is odd not to include J. Favier's biography, Frappier's article on the 'Ballades du temps jadis', and P. Menard's on 'Berte au grant pie, Bietris, Alls'. In one compact volume Sargent-Baur has provided us with the complete Villon: a reliable French text, a lucid English translation, and detailed commentary based on recent scholarship. It is a book which invites reading and study of the poetry. Glynnis M . Cropp Department of European Languages Massey University Wolf, Alois, ed., Snorri Sturluson: Kolloquium anldfilich der 750. Wiederkehr seines Todestages (ScriptOralia 51) Tubingen, Gunter Narr Verlag, 1993; cloth; pp. 293; R.R.P. DM124.00. Ever since the Middle Ages, when his eulogies of the Norwegian monarchy and his strict rules for skalds in Hdttatal provoked sharp reactions, there has been lively audience response to works attributed to Snorri Sturluson. Continuing controversies centre upon his account of the heathen gods in his Edda and his manipulation of sources in his Heimskringla and separate dldfssaga helga. Although this volume will be of value chiefly to specialists, it should also act as an orientation to Snorri studies for students who can read German, the language of most of the articles. In a variety of ways the contributors wrestle with the problem of how to evaluate Snorri's literary and historiographical endeavours without straying into opposite extremes of encomium or reductionism. Risking accusations of the latter, Anthony Faulkes characterizes Snorri as only superficially acquainted with Latinate terms and methods, which he coopted into the Edda in a spirit of rough and ready bricolage. Similarly, in Stephen Tranter's view Snorri was a resourceful user of surprising models as he worked towards a sophisticated taxonomy for the inherited array of skaldic metres. Thus the paradigm of the Latin adjective became a grid upon which to map the varieties of runhendr. Snorri's Latinity stopped there, however. Though dimly aware of the liber centimeter as he composed the hundred-plus verses of his Hdttatal, he was not at home in the pages of Servius or Bede. Reviews 299 Correspondingly, when Theodore Andersson adduces convincing reasons for a favourable re-assessment of the Morkinskinna and of the school at Munkapvera, redressing Siguror Nordal's comparative neglect of this literary and historiographic centre, the corollary is to demystify Snorri's subsequent achievements in the Heimskringla and separate dldfssaga helga. Snorri emerges from Andersson's tighdy argued analysis as having mediated between two northern traditions, those of bingeyrar and Munkabvera. Complementarily, Oskar Bandle envisages Snorri as having possessed very restricted scope for free fictionalizing in his historical works. Many apparendy Snorronian motifs originate in the earlier compilations. As to the compositional aspects, Diana Whaley detects Snorri's biographical and antiquarian interests as occasionally compromising his normally rigorous selectivity. Verses where the skald introduces personal topics could indeed seem excrescent in the context of Heimskringla and the dldfssaga helga, always assuming that this particular criterion is pertinent. Like Tranter, the late Bjarne FidjestoT affirms the principle that orality and scribality should not be over-vigorously separated. Snorri's source-critical analysis of skaldic verse constitutes an intellectual achievement comparable to that represented by the phonological analysis in the First grammatical treatise. Using some of the same examples as Whaley, FidjestoT seeks to show that Snorri extrapolated from inset verses by Eyvindr skaldaspillir and Sigvatr and from his general 'knowledge of the world' to build certain prose episodes in Heimskringla. As to the specifically mythographic studies, Klaus von See plays a neoanalytical role in proceedings, advocating a dissociation of the prologue to the Edda from the main work. To some extent, Heinrich Beck shares this approach. In his view further research into comparatively neglected but potentially discrepant passages in Gylfaginning may reveal diis section as independent of the prologue and only indirectiy comparable with medieval theology. In opposition, Gerd Weber argues that the prologue, Gylfaginning, and Ynglingasaga form a unified programme and follow the approach to heathen...