Bersi Skáldtorfuson, in chains, composing poetry after he was captured by King Óláfr Haraldsson (illustration by Christian Krohg for an 1899 edition of Heimskringla).
A skáld (Old Norse: [ˈskald], later [ˈskɒːld]; Icelandic: [ˈskault], meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skáldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skáldic poems were traditionally composed on one occasion, sometimes extempore, and include both extended works and single verses (lausavísur). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings and heiti, more interlacing of sentence elements, and the complex dróttkvætt metre.
More than 5,500 skáldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, a handbook of skáldic composition that led to a revival of the art. Many of these verses are fragments of originally longer works, and the authorship of many is unknown. The earliest known skald from whom verses survive is Bragi Boddason, known as Bragi the Old, a Norwegian skald of the first half of the 9th century. Most skalds of whom we know were attached to the courts of Norwegian kings during the Viking Age, and increasingly were Icelanders; the subject matter of their extended poems was sometimes mythical before the conversion, thereafter usually historical and encomiastic, detailing the deeds of the skald's patron. The tradition continued into the late Middle Ages.
The standard edition of the skáldic poetic corpus, Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning, was edited by Finnur Jónsson and published in 1908–15. A new edition was prepared online by the Skáldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages project and began publication in 2007.
Etymology[]
The word skáld (which internal rhymes show to have had a short vowel until the 14th century) is perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic: *skalliz, lit. 'sound, voice, shout' (Old High German: skal, lit. 'sound'). Old High German has skalsang, 'song of praise, psalm', and skellan, 'ring, clang, resound'. The Old High German variant stem skeltan, etymologically identical to the skald- stem (Proto-Germanic: *skeldan), means "to scold, blame, accuse, insult". The person doing the insulting is a skelto or skeltāri. The West Germanic counterpart of the skaáld is scop. Like scop, which is related to Modern English scoff, the word skáld is thus probably cognate with English scold, reflecting the importance of mocking taunts in the poetry of the skálds.[1][2]
Skáldic poetry[]
Skáldic poetry and Eddic poetry stem from the same tradition of alliterative verse, and in Old Norse as well as Icelandic, the word skáld simply means "poet". Skáldic verse is distinguished from Eddic by being associated with a single poet rather than with tradition, and by characteristically being more complex in style, using dróttkvætt ("court metre"), which requires internal rhyme as well as alliteration,[3] rather than the simpler and older fornyrðislag ("way of ancient words"), ljóðaháttr ("song form"), and málaháttr ("speech form") metres of the Eddic poems. Skáldic poetry is also characteristically more ornate in its diction, using more interlacing of elements of meaning within the verse and many more kennings and heiti, which both assisted in meeting the greater technical demands of the metre and allowed the poets to display their skill in wordplay. The resulting complexity can appear somewhat hermetic to modern readers, as well as creating ambiguity in interpretation;[4][5] but the original audiences, familiar with the conventions of the syntactic interweaving as well as the vocabulary of the kennings, may have understood much on the first hearing and derived intellectual satisfaction from decoding the remainder.[6]
Eddic poems are also largely mythological or heroic in content, while skáldic verse has a wider range of subject matter, including mythological narratives by heathen skálds, accounts of battles and the deeds of courtly patrons, and personal statements.[7][8] Eddic poetry typically includes a large amount of dialogue and rarely recounts battles; skáldic poetry, the reverse.[9] Skálds also composed spontaneous verses reacting to events, insult verses (níðvísur) such as Þorleifr jarlsskáld's curse on his former patron Jarl Hákon Sigurðarson[10] and the níð that provoked the missionary Þangbrandr into killing Vetrliði Sumarliðason,[11] and occasionally love poems and erotic verse (mansöngr); Hallfreðr Óttarsson and especially Kormákr Ögmundarson are known for their love poetry.[12]
However, the distinction is a modern one that is not absolute. Eddic poetry is defined primarily by what has been preserved in the Cōdex Rēgius manuscript, while skáldic verses are preserved in a large number of manuscripts, including many sagas, and some skáldic poetry, including prophetic, dream, and memorial poems, uses the simpler metres. Medieval Scandinavians appear to have distinguished between older and more modern poetry rather than considering skáldic verse as a distinct genre.[13]
Extemporaneous composition was especially valued, to judge by the sagas.[14] Egill Skallagrímsson is supposed to have composed his Höfuðlausn in one night to ransom his head.[15] King Harald Hardrada is said to have set his skáld, Þjóðólfr Arnórsson, a hard challenge as they were walking down the street, to compose two stanzas casting a quarreling smith and tanner through the choice of kennings as specific figures first from mythology and then from heroic legend.[16][17] However, the impression from the sagas that many Icelanders could improvise a skáldic verse on the spur of the moment is probably exaggerated.[18]
There is debate over how skáldic poetry was originally performed. General scholarly consensus is that it was spoken rather than sung;[19] although there is no evidence that the skálds employed musical instruments, some speculate that they may have accompanied their verses with the harp or lyre.[20]
Forms[]
A large number of the preserved skáldic verses are individual stanzas, called lausavísur ("loose verses"), often said to have been improvised impromptu. Long forms include the drápa, a series of stanzas with a refrain (stef) at intervals, and the flokkr, vísur, or dræplingr, a shorter series of verses without refrain.[21] There are also some shield poems, which supposedly describe (mythological) scenes on a shield presented to the poet by a patron.[22][23]
Illustration from the 18th-century Icelandic manuscript NKS 1867 of Thor's fight with the World Serpent, the subject of early skáldic verses by Bragi Boddason and Úlfr Uggason
Poems[]
The corpus of skáldic poetry comprises 5797 verses by 447 skalds preserved in 718 manuscripts.[24] Many of the longer poems are preserved only in part, in sagas and in the Prose Edda.
Most of the longer skáldic poems were composed by court poets to honor kings and jarls. They typically have historical content, relating battles and other deeds from the king's career. Examples include:
- Glymdrápa ‒ the deeds of King Harald Fairhair, by Þorbjörn Hornklofi, partially preserved
- Vellekla ‒ the deeds of Jarl Hákon Sigurðarson, by Einarr skálaglamm, partially preserved
- Bandadrápa ‒ the deeds of Jarl Eiríkr Hákonarson by Eyjólfr dáðaskáld, partially preserved
- Knútsdrápa ‒ the deeds of King Cnut the Great, three poems by Sigvatr Þórðarson, and Óttarr svarti (partially preserved)
- Geisli ‒ the deeds of King Olaf Haraldsson, Saint Olaf, a Christian drápa by Einarr Skúlason
A few surviving skáldic poems have mythological content:
- Ragnarsdrápa, a shield poem by Bragi Boddason, partially preserved: originally consisted of sections on two mythological scenes and two from the deeds of his patron, Ragnarr Loðbrók
- Haustlöng ‒ a shield poem by Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, partially preserved
- Húsdrápa ‒ by Úlfr Uggason describing mythological scenes depicted on the walls of Olaf the Peacock's feast hall in Iceland, partially preserved
- Þórsdrápa ‒ deeds of the god Þórr, two partially preserved poems by Eilífr Goðrúnarson and Eysteinn Valdason
- Ynglingatal ‒ on the mythological and legendary history of the Ynglingar, presented as ancestors of the Norwegian kings, by Þjóðólfr of Hvinir
- Háleygjatal ‒ a similar work on the Hlaðir dynasty, by Eyvindr skáldaspillir
To these could be added two poems relating the death of a king and his reception in Valhǫll:
- Eiríksmál ‒ on the death of King Eric Bloodaxe, by an unknown skald
- Hákonarmál ‒ on the death of King Hákon the Good, by Eyvindr skáldaspillir
Some extended works were composed as circumstance pieces, such as the following by Egill Skallagrímsson:
- Sonatorrek ‒ a lament on the deaths of his sons
- Höfuðlausn ‒ in praise of Eric Bloodaxe, his enemy, to ransom his head
- Arinbjarnarkviða ‒ in praise of his friend Arinbjörn
References[]
- ↑ "scold" - etymonline.com.
- ↑ Margaret Clunies Ross (2011) [2005]. A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics. Cambridge: Brewer. p. 13, note 12. ISBN: 9781843842798 .
- ↑ Kari Ellen Gade. "Dróttkvætt". Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.
- ↑ Lee M. Hollander (1947) [1945]. The Skálds: A Selection of Their Poems, With Introductions and Notes. Princeton: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Princeton University Press. pp. 1–2. OCLC 602867700.
- ↑ Hallvard Magerøy (August 15, 2020). "Skaldediktning". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Retrieved March 11, 2021.
- ↑ Vésteinn Ólason (2006). "Old Icelandic Poetry". In Daisy Neijmann (ed.). A History of Icelandic Literature. Histories of Scandinavian Literature. 5. Lincoln, Nebraska / London: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, University of Nebraska. p. 32. ISBN: 9780803233461 .
- ↑ Clunies Ross, p. 22.
- ↑ Hollander, p. 19.
- ↑ Stefán Einarsson (1957). A History of Icelandic Literature. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, The Johns Hopkins Press. pp. 45–46.
- ↑ Einarsson, p. 61.
- ↑ Bo Almqvist (1974). Norrön niddiktning: traditionshistoriska studier i versmagi (Nordiska texter och undersökningar 23) (in Swedish). 2 Nid mot missionärer, Senmedeltida nidtraditioner. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. p. 60. OCLC 492984504.
- ↑ Einarsson, p. 60.
- ↑ Clunies Ross, pp. 13–16.
- ↑ Angus A. Somerville; Russell Andrew McDonald (2013). The Vikings and Their Age. Companions to Medieval Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 127. ISBN: 9781442605220 .
- ↑ Hollander, p. 67.
- ↑ Turville-Petre, pp. 100–01.
- ↑ Hollander, pp. 189–91.
- ↑ Clunies Ross, pp. 59–60.
- ↑ Kari Ellen Gade (1995). The Structure of Old Norse Dróttkvætt Poetry. Cornell University Press. p. 25. ISBN: 0801430232 .
- ↑ Knut Helle (2003). 'The Cambridge History of Scandinavia. Cambridge University Press. pp. 551–. ISBN: 978-0-521-47299-9 .
- ↑ E. O. G. Turville-Petre (1976). Scaldic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford University. p. 39. ISBN: 9780198125174 .
- ↑ Einarsson, p. 46.
- ↑ Hollander, pp. 26–27.
- ↑ Tarrin Wills (August 17, 2018). "Skaldic Project: Statistics". Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.