Evidence Against The Late Hypothesis
Many have asked, if the work actually is a propaganda work from the 12th century, why does it not end with a famous king such as Harald Fairhair? Instead it ends with the less known king Ragnvald the Mountain-High. Krag's defense that it was an old text about Ragnvald that had been inserted is considered farfetched and it actually contradicts his thesis.
Hägerdal (1994) doubts that Christian ideas were unknown in Scandinavia before the 11th century and he (1994:4) has pointed out that Borre and Skiringssal, in the part about the kings of Vestfold, were archaeologically important locations during the Viking Age but not later.
When the royal mounds at Gamla Uppsala and Ohthere's mound were excavated, they confirmed the dating given by Ynglingatal.
Sapp (2002:2, 85-98) has studied the language of Ynglingatal and other skaldic poems in kviðuháttr. He found that the expletive particle of had stopped being productive in the 11th century. Sapp's conclusion is that the poem fits the language of the 9th century best, and to a lesser degree that of the 10th century. Sapp excludes the possibility that the language is an imitation of old language, because the linguistic markers are unambiguous. Moreover, other linguistic traits show the same results: the 9th century.
Sundquist (2004) who has done the most thorough and extensive study of Ynglingatal, claims that Krag's arguments are rigid and erroneous. Instead Sundquist points out that there are obvious Swedish traditions in Ynglingatal. This concerns both kennings, place names and proper names. Some traditions go back to the Vendel Age and may be even older, such as the king's role as the keeper of sanctuaries, an aristocratic mounted culture, the divine origins of the kings, presaging, and many other peculiarities. Moreover, some of Krag's objections are not based on Ynglingatal but on the version given by Snorri in the Ynglinga saga, and consequently Krag criticizes the wrong version. Sundquist's conclusion is that Þjóðólfr of Hvinir based his work on an active Swedish tradition in the 9th century.
Read more about this topic: Ynglingatal
Famous quotes containing the words evidence against, evidence, late and/or hypothesis:
“Never say a humorous thing to a man who does not possess humour. He will always use it in evidence against you.”
—Herbert, Sir Beerbohm (1853–1917)
“We perceive that the schemers return again and again to common sense and labor. Such is the evidence of history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“How many wives have been forced by the death of well-intentioned but too protective husbands to face reality late in life, bewildered and frightened because they were strangers to it!”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“Oversimplified, Mercier’s Hypothesis would run like this: “Wit is always absurd and true, humor absurd and untrue.””
—Vivian Mercier (b. 1919)