Pafnutius and Skírnir's Journey: A Discussion of Two Medieval Plays

The purpose of this book is straightforward. It aims at comparing two texts, the Eddic poem 'Skírnismál' — 'Skírnir’s speech' or 'Fǫr Skírnis' — 'Skírnir’s Journey' and two scenes from the Latin play 'Pafnutius'. The latter is a 10th century work by the Saxon dramatist Hrotsvit. The Eddic text is preserved in two manuscripts, one from the 14th and one from the 15th century. Its date of composition is difficult to establish, but arguably, it originates in the 10th century. Most researchers consider 'Fǫr Skírnis' to be a poem. Some read it as ritual drama, a few as a dramatic dialogue.
Owing to the many different research traditions that scholars have established around Old Norse Eddic texts on the one hand, and Hrotsvit’s Latin plays on the other, it has been difficult to select and evaluate relevant research contributions. Since scholars usually define Latin plays and Eddic poems as two different literary genres, they have not developed research traditions with a view to comparing Eddic text and Latin plays. Comparisons, therefore, are uncommon and there are few contributions to discuss. Indeed, comparing the texts may be a pointless exercise in the first place because one could always doubt that there was such a thing as staged theatrical drama in the 10th century.
In this book, notwithstanding, I argue that staged drama existed in the 10th century, since, irrespective of their view on religion and society, there were Northwest European upper classes that wished to sponsor such complex entertainment – at least during a short period.