Viking poems on war and peace: a study in skaldic narrative (review)

Abstract

232 Reviews Whether or not Pagis achieves his objective of defending himself against bigotry the work is an attractive introduction to pre-modern Hebrew poetry that witi repay rereading. Alan D. Crown Department of Semitic S todies The University of Sydney Poole, Russell G, Viking poems on war and peace: a study in skaldic narrative (Toronto medievaltextsand translations, 8), Toronto.University of Toronto Press, 1991; cloth and paper; pp. xv, 217; R.R.P. CAN$45.00 (cloth), $14.95 (paper). The core of this book by Dr Russell Poole of Massey University is a study of seven Old Norse poems, the fourth of which, the famous 'Danadarljod', from Brennu-Njdls saga, is, as Poole observes, actually eddaic rather than skaldic in style. The six 'skaldic' poems are, in order of appearance in the book, (1) 'Djdddtir Antorsson: The battle of the River Nissa (from Sexstefna)'; (2) '"Fridgerdarflokkr": The peace negotiations between Haraldr and Sveinn', which, like 'The battle of the River Nissa', is probably best known from Heimskringla; (3) '"Lidsmannaflokkr": The campaigns of Knutr and borkell in England', most fully preserved in the Legendary saga of St 6ld.fr and in Flateyjarbdk; (4) 'Torf-Einan's revenge', most fully preserved in Orkney inga saga; (5) 'Egill's duel with Lj6tr\ from Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar; and (6) 'Eirikr Vi6sj£ A battle on the heath', from Heidarviga saga, Each of the first three of these poems, and also 'Danadarljod', appears according to Poole 'more or less as a unity in our sources', while the remaining three are 'reconstructed' by him from what the sources present as 'lausavisur' ('brief spontaneous improvisations'). In fact the textual situation he reveals is somewhat more complex than this might imply. The central thesis of his book is that all seven poems, considered in the light of medieval conventions, characterized by 'running commentary' on events and by considerable use of present tense. In the 'Preface', in which Poole explains that he has taken his 'cue' from work on anti-nanativity, he assumes some familiarity with the subject matter and technical terminology of the monographs on skaldic verse by E. O. G. Turvdle-Petre and Roberta Frank. He invites those new to the poetry to skip at first material dealing with subjects described as 'complex' and 'notoriously intricate'. This may weU daunt the fainthearted but, in fact those who persevere are likely to be pleasantly surprised by a book which provides linguistic and textual analysis, consideration of sources and analogues, historical research and literary criticism in an admirably lucid, accessible, and jargon-free fashion. The texts of the seven poems are normalized and clear English prose translations Reviews 233 accompany the stanzas. Norse poetic terminology is usually rendered by the 'basic' meaning so that for example, w e find 'sword' rather than 'swinging twig of the mailcoat' in the translation of 'Egill's duel with Lj6tr', stanza two. In Poole's exposition the reader is frequently, though not invariably, aided by translations of short Norse phrases and should rarely have great difficulty in following the argument. Some readers may feU that the author is occasionally over-generous in detecting unity in his texts but his case is always carefully argued and generally it is convincing. The book is attractively presented on acid-free paper, with a useful twelvepage bibliography. Slightly regrettable, as introducing an amateurish touch into an otherwise very professional production, is the representation of the letter 'eth' by a 'd' with a horizontal stroke through it. 'Thorn' was, however, available to the printer. The statement in the 'blurb' on thefirstpage that what Poole calls 'Fri ger arflokkr' is an extract from Sextefha is both surprising and unsupported elsewhere in the volume. One abbreviation used in the bibliography, ASB (for Altnordische Saga-Bibtiothek) is omitted from the 'Abbreviations'. In his acknowledgements Poole speaks of his 'attempts to survey Ultima Thule from the distant perspective of Tena Australis Incognita'. This latest addition to the small band of Norse monographs with an 'Antipodean' connection should be welcomed by all interested in skaldic poetry qua poetry or in the role that the verse plays in the fslendingasogur and konungaso'gur. John Kennedy School of Information Studies Charles Sturt University...