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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