Write Mythological Poetry Explication - Essay Example

Write Mythological Poetry Explication Affiliation) Queries on the origin of mythological poetry are still unanswered. For instance, the poems in Codex Regius’s manuscript have never been answered. A few scholars have suggested that some poems may have literally been written from about the same period as the manuscript. However, the dominating trend should still be considered; these are originally oral poems. Accordingly, the mythological poems of Edda Elder are believed to be a versified version of Old Norse Myth. Even though the mythological poems are not thought to have religious or rather cultic function as they used to have before, they are still regarded as expressions of the mythological structures. This means the poems can still express heathen thoughts as well as ‘truths.’ As such, this paper seeks to study Codex Regius’s mythological poetry from a literary point of view, thus analyzing the poems as poetic language, as written texts and as art as they are presented in the manuscript. Whereas myth is a collective product of culture and believes, poetry on the other side is the art as well as an individuals’ expression. This means that through poetry, an individual creates an autonomous poetic universe. Through anthropomorphism and personification, myths project their phenomena into narratives in the external world and thus focus more on what is common or general. Conversely, poetry as a symbolic language tries to show rather the common or general concepts through the individual. From a literature poetry perspective, mythological motives serve their own purpose. For this purpose to be known, poetry must therefore be understood on its own merits and not by its own standards of meaning, as they are imported from outside. Consequently, for poetry to be understood on its merit the aspects of poetic language must be of consideration. A stanza from the beginning of Vƒluspá, the sun has been characterized sinni mána. This sun, which is known to be ‘the moon’s companion,’ makes the whole stanza to be a little bit confusing as an expression of a cosmological theory; since it is always known that the relationship between the moon and sun is in a pattern of oppositions. Moreover, it seems strange that the sun, which in the previous stanza was shining on salar steina (4-6), now no longer knows its salr. Many expertise in poetry find it hard to understand how stanza five is connected to stanza four and some of them believe that it must have been interpolated (Dronke 116). Dronke (1997) thinks lines 5 to 8 were interpolated, whereas the original lines that should have been there are missing. The lines would have helped to make the reader understand how this relates to an archaic concept of the cosmic mill through which the heavens turns the world pillar. As per what is narrated on the heavenly bodies, the reader gets to understand the stanza in a different way. From the poem’s own fictional world, the sun has a connotation of life and light while on the other hand the moon connotes death. The sun, sinni mána, which is the moon’s “companion,” thus refers to life or light as the counterpart or rather the companion of death. Equally, an approach by way of symbolic interpretation also shows that the final line tells the reader that the moon is not aware of its capability or power. Furthermore, a symbolic approach shows that the texts suggest that the death or darkness are the ultimate powers, as it is equally depicted in the poems figure of Ni›hƒggr. The figure shows a dragon with dead bodies in its feathers thus breaking the light of the fresh world using its dark and very threatening shadow in the final stanza (66). From a fictional word perspective, line 3-4 talks about the sun throwing its right arm around the edge of heaven. This is has been used to show a metaphorical reference to the sun’s course when it is out to search for its salar right through the entire poem. The sun is already shining at salar steina in stanza five. Salr in this poem has been used figuratively as the “earth,” it is a meaning that is also found in other kennings. From a narrative course perspective, salr is seen as an element, which is repeatedly used throughout the poem. From the stony salr in the beginning, the story moves to Frigg’s (33), then later to the three salr which is filled with anguish and pain Nástrƒndo (37,38) and ultimately to the bright salr in the new world. It is therefore evident that salr is not only a kenning for earth, but should also be understood as a reference to “places” or “rooms” that outlines a way from the stony and hard beginning. The hard beginning was characterized by sorrowfulness and sadness, for instance, sorrowful Fensalr that is was moistened with Frigg’s tear, and then later the reader comes across salr of anguish or pain and in the end, the poem ends with a glimpse of the bright salr at Gimlé. This text line creates a movement through different “rooms” that can be taken to be figurative expressions of mental “rooms” or rather emotional conditions. As seen in the text, the sun in the vision of ragnarƒk goes dark and later disappears in the ocean before the new world or earth emerges. Towards the last part of the poem, a picture of this world where salr at Gimlé is solo fegra is portrayed as more beautiful than the sun. This aspect can be taken to stand for a vision of ideality of eternity or even “heaven.” The reader can thus interpret the sun stretching its right arm around the “edge of heaven” as an allusion this final vision of “eternity” and “ideality.” The beginning of the poem both suggests as well as conceals what will follow. Accordingly, a complete understanding of the beginning is never available in the text until the reader has reached the end of the poem. However, in this manner the poem manifests itself as an artistic compilation and thus a beautiful work of art. . Work cited Dronke, Ursula. The poetic edda: Mythological poems. Vol. 2. Oxford University Press, USA, 1997. Read More