It has come down to us in two manuscripts, the oldest being the Codex Regius manuscript of the Poetic Edda (R), which was put together in the late thirteenth century, the more recent being Hauksbók (H), which was written in the early fourteenth century. In Gylfaginning, which forms part of his Prose Edda written around 1220, Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) includes one third of the poem. It is assumed by most scholars that the poem, or some part of it, was composed long before it was written down and that even if the poem bears some marks of Christian influences, the poem has its origin in a heathen culture. Many scholars follow Sigurður Nordal's theory (Sigurður Nordal 1923) that the composer was a heathen person with some knowledge of the Christian religion, defending the old faith which was fading away because of the Christian mission (Ólafur Briem 1969: 20; Vésteinn Ólason 1992: 93). But there are important exceptions here. The most notable of these, among the Icelandic scholars, were Björn M. Ólsen (Björn M. Ólsen 1894) and Sveinbjörn Rafnson (Sveinbjörn Rafnsson 1999). Ólsen points out to his adversaries that the poet had to be very well versed in the Christian faith. He nonetheless maintains that even if the poet was a Christian, he had respect for the pre-Christian tradition (Björn M. Ólsen 1894: 88). At the same time, it has been pointed out that Vǫluspá was preserved as a living part of an oral tradition (Gísli Sigurðsson 1998b: xxiii), and may have even originally formed part of heathen cultic practices (Tryggvi Gíslason 2009: 88). Some have argued that it might have been presented as some kind of artistic performance (see the article by Terry Gunnell elsewhere in this volume). The main tradition among Icelandic scholars, the most notable being Sigurður Nordal , is that the poem was composed just before ad 1000, relating to