Skaldic Poetry Research Articles

ФУНКЦИОНАЛЬНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ СКАЛЬДИЧЕСКИХ ЖАНРОВ

The article analyses the functional characteristics of the main genres of skaldic poetry: panegyric verse, memorial poems (erfidrápur), shield poems (skjaldardrápur), head-ransom verse (höfuðlausn), love poetry (mansöngr) and libellous poems (níð). Olga Freidenberg’s conception of the salvational and chthonic functions of the word is applied to the genres of skaldic poetry which are discussed in the paper. Skaldic libellous verse (níð), rooted in rune magic, is endowed with a chthonic function, whereas head-ransoms characterised by autonominative, equitemporal semantics, acquire a salvational role. The salvational role of head-ransoms (höfuðlausn) is ensured by the use of auto-referential semantics (when the speech act is directed not at the addressee but at the creator of the poem himself), of performative formulas and of a hyper-structuralised form – runhent meter with final rhyme overloaded with sound devices. The pragmatic function of love poems (mansöngr) is determined by their intended influence on the addressee: they serve to manipulate the addressee’s mentality and behaviour, ensuring the performance of a particular action (granting favour to a skald). Erfidrápur are endowed not only with a memorial function but also with a life-affirming role, conditioned by the idea of familial renewal and vitality. The function of skaldic shield poems (skjaldardrápur) is dissociated in the article from descriptive visual imagery of material objects. It is argued in the paper that shield poems function as thesauri of mythological kennings: their poetic form facilitates the process of memorising kennings, and their prose context provides explanations and motivates their usage. Ragnarsdrápa, which alludes to, rather than describes, mythological scenes of Þorr’s fishing for Jǫrmungandr, Hamðir and Sǫrli, taking revenge on Jǫrmunrekkr, and the never-ending battle between Heðin and Hǫgni, is not descriptive, or narrative, or intentionally communicative. The marginality of the communicative function of skaldic poetry is conditioned by violation of direct word-order, the use of parataxis, which obscures the syntactic structure of a stanza, of kennings with their informative deficiency, of inserted and interlaced clauses, breaking the semantic organisation of a half-stanza, and of increased significance of sound repetitions, which is characteristic of magic and ritual.

Pre-Modern Nordic Memories in their Literary Contexts

The study of memory has become a central field in saga scholarship in recent years. The present article deals with a number of remarkable mnemonic phenomena in Old Norse-Icelandic narratives. It contextualizes them in biblical, classical, and more modern examples of memory culture. These serve as texts of reference for the Norse narratives that are in the focus of this article. Some of the analyses are inspired by the German philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s work on how myth has always already transgressed to memory (reception) and the art historian Aby Warburg’s concept of pathos formulae that produce emotional impacts and mnemonic tropes.Aspects that are treated are for instance acts of commemoration as social and cultural activities, eddic mytho-narratives as stories to remember, the importance of the body and the senses in terms of memory studies, the interrelationship of remembrance and oblivion, and finally pre-modern mediologies. Central texts discussed in the article are eddic poems such as Völuspá (The Seeress’s Prophecy), skaldic poetry and its mnemonic pictorality, Icelandic sagas and historical writings (Icelandic Book of Settlement), examples of folklore. Some outstanding features are stellar memories, the question whether the place of memory is in the human breast or brain, or the importance of avian imagery in narratives about birds as preeminent media of remembering and forgetting.The article has a comparative approach. It attempts to show how Old Norse-Icelandic literature is closely contextualized within a web of Scandinavian and non-Scandinavian narratives and thoroughly shaped by features of cultural memory, shifting constructions of and dealings with ever changing imaginations of pasts.

Nizarorustu: A Textual Analysis of the Battle of Niså

Nizarorustu: A Textual Analysis of the Battle of Niså

Dating and Authenticity of Skaldic Verse in some Sagas of Icelanders

Dating and Authenticity of Skaldic Verse in some Sagas of Icelanders

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

Men Who Brew: Masculinity and the Production of Drink in Medieval Icelandic Literature

The Karlevi runestone

The Karlevi runestone, on the island of Öland, off the south-east coast of Sweden, is inscribed with the only known full stanza of Old Norse skaldic verse in Viking Age runes (that is, from approximately AD 750–1100). It is generally dated to the end of the tenth century, making it the oldest existing record of such verse. This piece outlines the origins, distribution, and chief features of the runic alphabet; contextualizes the inscription on the Karlevi runestone and the location of the stone itself; analyses the lettering and layout of the inscription in relation to the metre, style and cultural context of the verse it holds; and finally describes the character of skaldic verse and interprets the stanza.

A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre

A Critical Companion to Old Norse Literary Genre

Existential Verse-Capping between a Female Troll and the Poet Bragi

Abstract Two formally similar stanzas of verbal contention between a troll woman and the poet Bragi Boddason display auto-definitions, one of a paranormal being antagonistic toward, and destructive of, human life, another of a creator of order and its pre-eminent expression, skaldic verse. In the irony so often deployed in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, the troll, the initiator of the contest, uses what is, for her, the antithetical medium of verbal art to proclaim her attack on it. Bragi replies in more straightforward manner and seems to be the immediate winner of the contest, since he is allowed the last word. In this, the poet’s craft may forestall Ragnark, the epitome of the troll’s objectives of chaos. The contest has affinities with the senna, flyting, and less formal exchanges of defamatory verse. It could have originated in an aristocratic patron’s challenge to a court poet or poets to devise such a pair of stanzas, his challenge then evoking the greater existential challenge of these representatives of differing orders of being. The stanzas, in multiple and varied ways, celebrate the social value of the poet, the art of skaldic verse, and its capacity to preserve cultural history against oblivion.

The Development of Education in Medieval Iceland

The Development of Education in Medieval Iceland

Crossing Borders in the Insular Middle Ages, ed. Aisling Byrne and Victoria Flood. Turnhout: Brepols, 2019, viii., 323 pp.

Abstract: In a collection of essays, thirteen writers discuss texts from medieval Britain and beyond, the common theme being translation or events abroad. Helen Fulton describes manuscripts and libraries in Wales; Elena Parina, Welsh medical texts; Victoria Flood, English Tudor versions of Welsh political prophecies. Joanna Bellis sets out Latin propaganda poems of the Hundred Years’ War; Rory McTurk, possible links between Langland and skaldic verse. Then come four studies relating to Ireland. Erich Poppe takes on the Charlemagne legend in Irish; Aisling Byrne, Irish texts on the Crusades; Mariamne Briggs, Statius in Irish; Julie Leblanc, legends in Irish about Aeneas. After that, four contributions on Iceland. Mathias Egeler surveys Otherworld islands in Norse, includ­ing the Land of Women; Sif Rikhardsdottir explores emotive literary identity in the Old North; Sarah Bacchianti analyzes Norse translations of Geoffrey of Monmouth; Sabine Heidi Walther examines the personality of Hercules in the Old Norse saga of Troy.

Ringing Changes. On Old Norse-Icelandic mál in Kormáks saga

The Old Norse-Icelandic word mál, variously “measure, speech, poetry, case, matter,” is strategically called on at various points throughout Kormáks saga. Its diverse significations all bear on the life of the warrior-poet, who is himself characterized as precipitous by nature. He achieves in his poetry what eludes him in life and love: moderation (hóf), the midway point in measures of all kinds. Subject to comparisons with other males in the saga, mocked in his masculinity by an insolent servant, and cursed by a sorceress, he does not attain the body of his beloved Steingerðr but succeeds in recreating her in ideal form in skaldic poetry. Away from Iceland on Viking expeditions, he finds an equilibrium that was denied him in Icelandic society. The overall judgment of the Christian author is of a successful career in art yet one limited in life by an impulsive character, curse (this, too, a kind of mál), the judgement of others – in all, a pagan destiny. In significant ways Kormákr prefigures the Iceland of the thirteenth century.

Showered with Praise: Weatherscapes in Late Tenth-century Skaldic Verse

Showered with Praise: Weatherscapes in Late Tenth-century Skaldic Verse

Archaic Martial Traditions in High Medieval Scandinavia: A Glimpse of Viking Age Warfare?

Most written evidence regarding warfare in Viking Age Scandinavia originates either from contemporaneous chronicles – recorded by those at the receiving end of Norse attacks – from skaldic poetry, or from high medieval Scandinavian texts. However, these sources often prove problematic: either in the form of chronicles from other parts of Europe, whichoften exaggerate the brutality of Viking raids, or from 13th century Icelandic writers, who embellish accounts of long deceased rulers. This article explores archaic martial features found in 12th- and 13th-century contemporaneous sagas and treatises to identify and analyse the continued influence of Viking Age military practices in high medieval Scandinavia. By comparing information found in three medieval texts to scholarly contributions on Viking Age warfare; skaldic poems; and archaeological evidence, this article aims to identify Viking Age military features that survived the military transformation, which followed the periods of internal struggles that the Scandinavian kingdoms underwent from the 1130s onwards.

"Abriendo las puertas a un mundo inexplorado": las primeras traducciones de la poesía escáldica en español

This paper contributes to a growing body of research investigating the role of translations in the post-medieval reception of Old Norse-Icelandic literature. In this case study, we analyse Enrique Bernardez’s Spanish translation of the skaldic verse in Egils saga Skalla-Grimssonar as a site of cultural encounter where the power relations between target and source cultures can be explored. By situating the translation within its historical-cultural context, we show how the translation reflects the trend of Europeanisation in post-Franco Spain, while simultaneously recalling its glorious past from the Reconquista to the Golden Age.

Kennings in Old English Verse and in the Poetic Edda

AbstractTo shed light on questions pertaining to the similarities and differences between kennings in Old English and in the Poetic Edda, a survey is undertaken of the density of kenning use in the two corpora. The likeliest conclusion to be drawn from a comparison of findings is that the two poetic traditions are rather similar in regard to kenning use. In both traditions, kennings are notably simpler and less riddle-like than in skaldic poetry, though theEddacontains a few kennings of sufficient complexity to suggest skaldic influence. Although kennings, on average, occur more frequently in Old English, the incidence is broadly similar to that in the Poetic Edda. Kennings are not uncommonly explained by the use of variation (apposition) in Old English, but less commonly in theEdda, although the difference does not specifically suggest discrepant attitudes toward kenning use in the two traditions, since variation is rare in theEddaunder all circumstances. Although the possibility of the influence of one tradition upon the other cannot be ruled out, the similarities, in the main, are probably best explained as the result of common inheritance. This explanation garners support from the number of instances in which more or less precise cognate kennings appear in the two bodies of literature.

Why Would the Skalds Not Have Lied about the Rulers’ Expeditions and Battles? Some Remarks on a Relic of Medieval Attitude toward Sources in Modern Medieval Studies

The article presents a critique of a research method whereby historical sources could not have possibly lied as they were targeted at the addressees who knew the actual course of the events described or referred to. This attitude toward the sources has its antecedence in Snorri Sturluson’s argument on the reliability of skaldic poetry. To his mind, the poems were biased but still valuable, in a way, as they were declaimed before the rulers who would have perceived an untrue account “as a mockery, rather than a praise”. The question arises, what kind of a situation Snorri tried to preclude: one where a mean warrior would have been shown as a great hero? Or, perhaps, one where a defector would have been portrayed as a warrior bravely marching in the first rank? The story of Giffard from the Morkinskinna saga seems to offer the answer. Giffard fled from the battlefield but had a praise poem dedicated to him, which the (real) character aptly deciphered as derision aimed at him.

Nuces Skaldicae: Kennings and their Contexts in alausavísainGísla saga Súrssonar

One of the verses spoken by the protagonist in Gisla saga Surssonar is of potential interest for comparative literature, since it appears to reflect the association found in medieval Continental European and English texts between hazelnuts and sexual dalliance. The verse can be shown to be part of a celebrated sequence of verses in which the protagonist describes a series of dreams that come to him as his life approaches its end. Discussion of the textual cruces in the stanza, its construal, and its dating (the latter a highly controversial issue) is a necessary preliminary to a consideration of the comparative evidence. The invocation of hazelnuts in Gisla saga appears to be figurative and ironical, demonstrating the confidence and flexibility of skaldic poetry in adapting international motifs and ideas to local uses.

Haraldr Sigurðarson’s arrival in Rus’ and his participation in the campaign against Poland in 1031

Haraldr Sigurðarson’s activity as a Varangian and a king, preserved and praised in skaldic poetry, allowed saga writers to make him one of the most colourful figures rooted in the popular mind of medieval Norway. While his deeds are described at some length in saga tradition, he seems to be, to some extent, a literary figure recreated by saga writers based on pieces of history found in the skaldic poems. The source material, supported by texts from beyond the Norse world, does not provide a clear picture of his acts. Incoherence, lack of detail, a narrative typical for sagas, and their late origin as well as the shadowy wording of the skaldic verses all raise questions concerning various aspects of Haraldr’s activity, including his deeds on the way from the Varangians to the Greeks. Nevertheless, the evidence concerning Haraldr’s service in Byzantium – regardless of its questionable reliability – is rich in comparison to the first part of his Varangian career, i.e. his engagement in the Rus’ forces of Yaroslav the Wise. Taking a closer look at the Norse sources – and skaldic poetry in particular – while studying Haraldr’s first steps in his Varangian career casts new light on the events that led directly to the political crisis in Poland in 1031.

Runic and Skaldic Evidence of Palatal r in West Norse

Runic evidence shows that the phonemes r and palatal ʀ merged at an early date in West Norse. I argue here that skaldic poetry also comprises valid evidence of this merger and that there is no reas ...

Power over Men and Power over Words: The Poet-King Ragnarr Loðbrók

This article addresses an aspect of the image of Ragnarr loðbrók that often eludes scholarly attention - namely, his role as a poet. Ragnarr has a prominent position in Old Norse- Icelandic literature as a king, a hero, and an ancestor of powerful kings and chieftains. In Snorra Edda, especially in the redaction of Codex Uppsaliensis, Ragnarr is also remembered as a poet. Most prominently, in Skáldatal, found in Codex Uppsaliensis and Kringla, Ragnarr is named among the first skalds; moreover, according to this list, his wife Áslaug and their sons were also skalds. To understand this intriguing statement, I shall give an overview of poetry attributed to Ragnarr and his family in Old Norse sources, explain the contexts in which Ragnarr is seen as a poet, and follow Skáldatal in placing Ragnarr and his family alongside another legendary hero and poet, Starkaðr inn gamli. This line of argument makes it possible to shed light on the liminal position occupied by Ragnarr and his family in the skaldic tradition and on the ideas about the origins and development of skaldic poetry extant in the Old Norse-Icelandic literary sources.