Deictic Traces of Oral Performance in the Codex Regius Version of Vǫluspá

Sammendrag

This article offers an interpretation of the references to the speaker and audience in the Codex Regius version of Vǫluspá. It is argued that these expressions can be explained from the background of oral performance, including the much debated references to the speaker in both first and third person. The immediate proximity between speaker and audience enables effects which are documented in oral storytelling from other contexts: the scene of performance is directly associated with the stories being told, even in deictic references. This article's point of departure is Lars Lönnroth's suggestion that Vǫluspá presents a double scene, a meaningful interplay between the concrete performance and the mythological frame story referred to in the poem. While Lönnroth commented mainly on Vǫluspá's first eight stanzas, this article investigates the entire poem, as preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript.