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Philipotte: Sart
19
All thið coincides with Vsp. except for the mention of
the name of the battle-field. Surta logi, ’the flame of Surt’,
is evidently taken from Vsp. sviga léve and from the mention
of aldrnare, ’fire’, in Ysp. 57. Ite mention here proves
no-thing either for or against the volcanic nature of Surt, for
fire, if not the only weapon in the armoury of a
volcano-giant, is at least an important one, as the poet probably knew
only too well. In this connection it must be noted that
the Icelanders gave the name of Eldborg ’fire castle’ to the
volcano which we know to have had an eruption in the
9th or lOth Century — perhaps the first eruption they had
seen.
The mention in Fåfnesnrøl is as follows:
The development in these poems of the general
concep-tion of a battle expressed in Ysp. is conclusive as to the
latter’s superior age and trustworthiness, were any such
indi-cation needed. In Yþm. the scene of the battle is laid on
a certain plain whose name is given, and in Fm. the plain
has become that sort of battlefield with which the poet was
most familiar for a set fight — ie., an island, the approach
to which appear8 to be the bridge he calls Bilrest.
The evidence of these two poems gives us no definite
help, then, as to the nature of Surt. Snorri faithfully
repro-duces the statements both of Ysp. and of Yj>m., and his
evidence, though pointing in the main to a volcano- rather than
to a fire-god, might be passed over as secondary were it not
for his puzzling development of the ’Muspell’ mentioned in
Ysp. He says: (Sn. E. I. 40, II. 10—17): —
V. 14-15. Sígurþr kvaþ:
Hvé sá hol mr heiter
es blanda hjprlege
Surtr ok éser saman?
F&fner kvaþ:
Óskópner [hann] heitei
en þar 9II skolo
gei rom leika goþ;
Bilrpst brotnar
es þeir & bru fara etc.
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