Eddisch

The concept of Eddic is concretized in the songs compiled in the Codex Regius . What can be understood by the genre-forming attribute Eddish seems to be more or less certain: These are songs that tell of pre-Christian Germanic gods and heroes. The verses of the Song Edda , for example the Hávamál , are only Eddic because they are based on the fiction that they go back to the highest of the sir , Óðinn himself.

Eddic poems only use two or four types of verse in their stanzas:

• the Fornyrðislag (with the Málaháttr ) as well
• the Ljóðaháttr (with the Galdralag ).

Not every stanza that uses this meter is also Eddic. The Fornyrðislag also uses the Skaldic style. Eddic poetry is simply composed, almost prosaic compared to the ornate Skaldic poetry .

The distinction between Eddic and Skaldic refers to the form and content of the poems. Eddic poems address cultural convictions, materials of cosmogony and cosmology that are collectively binding and supra-personal in their design. It is also demarcated that the Eddic texts were handed down anonymously; the names of the authors of the seals are not known.

literature

• Andreas Heusler: The old Germanic poetry. Darmstadt 1957.
• Jan de Vries: Old Norse literary history. Berlin 1964–1967.
• Klaus von See: Germanic verse art. Stuttgart 1967.