Hello -

I'm experiencing extraordinary difficulty with e-mail; this either did not
go out or I simply didn't recieve it back from the list when I sent it
previously. If the latter is the case, I apologize for therepetition.

I'm on the last few pages of translating of one of the three variants of
Hervarar saga og Heidreks. In addition, I've been writing about the some of
the themes in the saga and their corollaries in the traditions of other Indo
European cultures, in history, etc. I am curiousto what extent linguistic
evidence could further indicate the origin of various elements of the text.
For instance, the final episode, wherein there is a confrontation between
Hunnish and Gothic armies, is frequently noted to be based on real conflicts
between these groups that likely took place in the late 4th century, but
certainly before a significant degree of assimilation into Roman culture
took place. I read in the Wikipedia entry for the saga that the forms of the
Gothic names used in the saga precede Roman influence, including that of the
sword Tyrfing. The Gothic episode in the saga is extremely different in
character from the preceding text, and gives an immediate and pronounced
impression of composition seperate from the rest of the saga. I noticed one
case where this can be quantitatively established in the language of the
Gothic/Hunnish episode, in that compound adjectives starting with "all" are
used frequently, such as allbuin as the past participle of bjugga, in this
case meaning "all prepared".

I am wondering to what extent ON text can be dated on linguistic grounds. I
know the compositional dates of the poetic Eddas is not a matter of
scholarly consensus and that deliberate archaism is always going to be an
issue in this kind of material, particularly fornaldsaga. Can anyone refer
me to a good text on analyzing linguistic features of ON text to establish
dating? Also, does anyone know of good papers on the dates of Hervarar saga
og Heidreks and on dating sagas in general? Any assistance would be greatly
appreciated.

Thank you.

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