Tvær Gerðir Skáldskaparmála

Abstract

This study is based on recent discussion that supports the idea that Skáldskaparmál and Gylfaginning (as well as other parts of the Edda) are independent works. It argues that the two versions of Skáldskaparmál, the Konungsbók version (often called RTW) and the Uppsala version can be explained with arguments from theories of textbook production. The article also offers a new explanation for two distinctive and unusually composed myths in the Uppsala version of the text. These might be explained by damage in the exemplar used for DG 11 4to (SnU). According to the author these explanations are not sufficient to account for all of the discrepancies between the versions. The article hypothosizes that the Uppsala version is also based on other sources earlier than the exemplar of Konungsbók. It posits that this is the case both for the list of kennings for Óðinn and for distinctive short half-lines from “Sexstefja” in which all evidence suggests that there was a written exemplar of the poem and that the half-lines were one of the verses of the drápa.