Skaldic poetry

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Skaldic poetry was one of the most significant literary products of the Western Middle Ages and among the most complex. In the Middle Ages, from c. The earliest skalds were Norwegian, but the skaldic art was practiced in most of the Viking Age Norwegian colonies, particularly in Orkney and in Iceland. During the course of the eleventh century, Icelandic skalds came to dominate the field and their role as royal encomiasts continued until the later thirteenth century. Even though the Conversion to Christianity forced the originally pagan skalds to modify the diction of their poetry with its allusions to the old gods, skaldic verse came to be used in medieval Iceland in a wide range of literary settings. From the mid-twelfth century, skaldic meters and skaldic diction came to be used in Iceland for the poetry of Christian devotion and continued for this purpose until at least the end of the fourteenth century. Lines were linked in pairs by both internal rhyme and alliteration.

Skaldic poetry

For Viking Age kings, reputation was extremely important. A positive reputation meant more followers, more allies, and ultimately, more political success. In Viking Age Scandinavia there was no manuscript culture, and carving runes into wood and stone did not make for an ideal medium for recording or spreading information. Instead, the recording of famous deeds fell to figures called skalds —or poets. The skald was a figure who made his living by performing poetry in praise of Scandinavian rulers in their halls. Kings and jarls would pay handsomely for a poem which gave them a good reputation. The Icelandic sagas tell us that some kings gave gold rings and swords in exchange for poems, and others gave ships and even islands for them. In other words, without the work of Old Norse poets, events like famous battles would simply be forgotten. This would have been an alarming prospect for Viking Age kings, whose power and that of their descendants depended in part on their deeds being remembered. It is also largely thanks to the skalds of the Viking Age that we know so much about the events that took place in Scandinavia itself in this period. The reason why skaldic poetry was seen to be such a good way to preserve information, and why it was therefore worth so much, is quite complicated. Without going into too much detail, composing in this metre required very precise consideration of syllables, stress, and sound. This meant that skaldic poems would have to be remembered exactly. If words or syllables are changed, then this poetry becomes corrupted—in other words, its metre and possibly its meaning becomes confused.

This service uses cookies. The skaldic poetry chapters are preliminary to a fuller study of late medieval skaldic verse.

We use cookies on this website, mainly to provide a secure browsing experience but also to collect statistics on how the website is used. You can find out more about the cookies we set, the information we store and how we use it on the cookies page. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. Bragi is thought to have been the first skaldic poet whose work has survived. What would he have meant by the term skald?

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Skaldic poetry

It was used extensively in the Poetic Edda to bring the old tales of Norse mythology to life. The two types of Old Norse poetry are Eddic and Skaldic. Eddic poetry appears in the Codex Regius , the Icelandic medieval manuscript containing 31 poems. The Codex Regius was used to create the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda is the contemporary name for an untitled series of anonymous Old Norse poems. It differs from the Prose Edda , a collection of texts compiled and described by Snorri Sturluson.

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A third of the book focuses on Olaf II Haraldsson. Many of these verses are fragments of originally longer works, and the authorship of many is unknown. Each line of the stanza has two vocally stressed syllables, also known as "lifts", with a somewhat arbitrary number of other syllables. The reason why skaldic poetry was seen to be such a good way to preserve information, and why it was therefore worth so much, is quite complicated. The lines are linked in alliterating pairs, and the first line of each pair must have two alliterating syllables. Gade, Kari Ellen. The next part of the verse turns to the topic of warfare. Mundal, Else. Most of the Eddaic poems are preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript, but a few others survive in manuscripts like the fragmentary AM I 4to. Tools Tools. Although this poetry only appears in manuscripts from after the Viking Age had ended, it is thought that much of it was composed in the Viking Age, and that it was passed down in oral tradition until it could be committed to vellum by Icelandic scribes. Old Norse religion and mythology. This article is about early Norse poets. University of Chicago. For other uses, see Scald.

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This has led to the production of a number of specialised editions, dictionaries and commentaries on the Poetic Edda and its adjuncts, which has had the effect of isolating them from the rest of the corpus and sometimes exaggerating their differences from it. Originally published in Swedish in , this survey of both eddic and skaldic poetry is somewhat outdated, but still offers a sound introduction to the range of extant Old Norse verse. You have sent nine. The resulting verse form goes well beyond the requirements of Germanic alliterative verse and strongly resembles Celtic Irish and Welsh verse forms. Skaldic 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. Each stanza has eight lines, and each line has six syllables. Old Icelandic Poetry. This "breaking up of lines" was dictated by ear, not pen. The skaldic corpus from the early Viking Age to the end of the fourteenth century. Old Norse poet.