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Skald

This article is about early Norse poets. For other uses, seeScald.

Askald,orskáld(Old Norse:[ˈskɔːld];Icelandic:[ˈskault],meaning "poet" ) is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds ofOld Norse poetryinalliterative verse,the other beingEddic poetry.Skaldic poems were traditionally composed to honor kings, but were sometimesex tempore.They include both extended works and single verses (lausavísur). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing manykennings,which require some knowledge of Norse mythology, andheiti,which are formal nouns used in place of more prosaic synonyms.Dróttkvættmetreis a type of skaldic verse form that most often use internal rhyme and alliteration.

Bersi Skáldtorfuson,in chains, composing poetry after he was captured by KingÓláfr Haraldsson(illustration byChristian Krohgfor an 1899 edition ofHeimskringla)

More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in severalsagasand inSnorri Sturluson'sProse Edda,a handbook of skaldic 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 isBragi Boddason,known as Bragi the Old, a Norwegian skald of the first half of the 9th century. Most known skalds were attached to the courts of Norwegian kings during theViking Age,and increasingly were Icelanders. The subject matter of their extended poems was sometimes mythical before theconversionto Christianity, thereafter usually historical andencomiastic,detailing the deeds of the skald's patron. The tradition continued into theLate Middle Ages.

The standard edition of the skaldic poetic corpus,Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning,was edited byFinnur Jónssonand published in 1908–1915. A new edition was prepared online by theSkaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Agesproject and began publication in 2007.

Etymology

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The wordskald(which internal rhymes show to have had a short vowel until the 14th century) is perhaps ultimately related toProto-Germanic:*skalliz,lit. 'sound, voice, shout' (Old High German:skal,lit. 'sound').Old High Germanhasskalsang,'song of praise,psalm', andskellan,'ring, clang, resound'. The Old High German variant stemskeltan,etymologically identical to theskald-stem (Proto-Germanic:*skeldan), means "to scold, blame, accuse, insult". The person doing the insulting is askeltoorskeltāri.TheWest Germaniccounterpart of the skald is thescop.Likescop,which is related to Modern Englishscoff,the wordskaldis probably cognate with Englishscold,reflecting the importance of mocking taunts in the poetry of the skalds.[1][2]

Skaldic poetry

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A minstrel sings of famous deedsbyJ. R. Skelton,c. 1910

Skaldic poetry and Eddic poetry stem from the same tradition ofalliterative verse,and in Old Norse as well as Icelandic, the wordskaldsimply means "poet" or "composer". Skaldic verse is distinguished from Eddic by characteristically being more complex in style and by usingdróttkvætt( "court metre" ), which requires internal rhyme as well as alliteration,[3]rather than the simpler and olderfornyrðislag( "way of ancient words" ),ljóðaháttr( "song form" ), andmálaháttr( "speech form" ) metres of the Eddic poems. Skaldic poetry is also characteristically more ornate in its diction, using more interlacing of elements of meaning within the verse and many more kennings andheiti.This 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 somewhathermeticto modern readers, as well as creating ambiguity in interpretation;[4][5]but the original audiences would have been familiar with the conventions of the syntactic interweaving as well as the vocabulary of the kennings.

Eddic poems are characterized by their mythological, ethical, and heroic content,[6]while skaldic verse has a wider range of subject matter. One of the main topics was mighty kings and the deeds of courtly patrons.[7]Eddic poetry typically includes a large amount of dialogue and rarely recounts battles; skaldic poetry, the reverse.[8]Skalds also composed spontaneous verses reacting to events, insult verses (níðvísur) such asÞorleifr jarlsskáld's curse on his former patron JarlHákon Sigurðarson[9]and theníðthat provoked the missionaryÞangbrandrinto killingVetrliði Sumarliðason,[10]and occasionally love poems and erotic verse calledmansöngr.Hallfreðr Óttarssonand especiallyKormákr Ögmundarsonare known for their love poetry.[11]

A large amount of Eddic poetry has been preserved in theCodex Regiusmanuscript. Skaldic verses are preserved in a large number of manuscripts, including many sagas, and some skaldic 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 skaldic verse as a distinct genre.[12]

Compositions done without preparation were especially valued, to judge by the sagas.[13]Egill Skallagrímssonis supposed to have composed hisHöfuðlausnin one night to ransom his head.[14]KingHarald Hardradais said to have set his skald,Þjóðólfr Arnórsson,as he was 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.[15][16]It is not common though that skaldic verse are a spur of the moment thing.

Although there is no evidence that the skalds employed musical instruments, some speculate that they may have accompanied their verses with theharporlyre.[17]

Forms

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A large number of the preserved skaldic verses are individual stanzas, calledlausavísur( "loose verses" ), often said to have been improvised. Long forms include thedrápa,a praise poem consisting of a series of stanzas with arefrain(stef) at intervals, and theflokkr(similar todrápa,without a refrain),vísur‘verses, stanzas’, ordræplingr‘little drápa’, a shorter series of verses without refrain.[18][19]There are also some shield poems, which supposedly describe mythological scenes on a shield presented to the poet by a patron.[20][21]

Poems

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Illustration from the 18th-century Icelandic manuscriptNKS 1867of Thor's fight with theWorld Serpent,the subject of early skaldic verses byBragi BoddasonandÚlfr Uggason

Most of the longer skaldic 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:

A few surviving skaldic poems have mythological content:

To these could be added two poems relating the death of a king and his reception inValhalla:

Some extended works were composed as circumstance pieces, such as the following byEgill Skallagrímsson:

History

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The origin story for poetry comes from a myth by Snorri Sturlson. The story depicts poetry as a liquid that takes various forms. The point of this is to show that poetry has gone through and will continue to go through change. Thedróttkvættmetre appears to have been an innovation associated with a new fashion in formally more elaborate poetry associated with named poets. The metre has been compared to Irish and Latin poetic forms, which may have influenced its development.[22][23][24]Origins in magic have also been suggested, because of the existence of skaldic curses (such asEgill Skallagrímsson's on KingEric Bloodaxe)[25]and because there are 10th-century magical inscriptions onrunestonesin the metre.[26]Since the first example of skaldic poetry of which we know isBragi Boddason'sRagnarsdrápafrom the early 9th century, some have argued that he and his associates invented it,[27]but his work is already highly accomplished, suggesting that this style of poetry had been developing for some time.[28]Bragi (whom many scholars consider was deified as the godBragi)[29]was a Norwegian, and skaldic poetry is thought to have originated in either Norway or the Scandinavian Baltic.[30]

Most of the skalds of whom we know spent all or part of their careers as court poets,[5]either those of kings, particularly the kings of Norway, or those of jarls, particularly theHlaðir jarls,a dynasty based in what is nowTrøndelagsome of whose members ruled all or part of Norway as heathens in alternation with the Christian converters KingOlaf Tryggvasonand KingOlaf Haraldsson(Saint Olaf). They produced praise poetry telling of their patrons' deeds, which became an orally transmitted record and was subsequently cited in history sagas.[31]One example of this is the Helmskringla by Snorri Sturlson. A third of the book focuses on Olaf II Haraldsson. Their accuracy has been the subject of debate,[5]but the verse form guards against corruption and the skalds traditionally criticized as well as advised their patrons.[32][33]Skalds at the court at Hlaðir have been credited with developing theValhallacomplex and the cult ofOdinas an aristocratic, educated form of heathenism influenced by Christianeschatology.[34][35]Poetic ability was highly valued; the art was practised by the Norwegian kings themselves,[36]and several skalds, such asEgill Skallagrímsson,are the subject of their own biographical sagas.[37][31]

Snorri Sturluson,illustration by Christian Krohg (1899)

Icelandic skalds came to dominate at Norwegian courts; the last prominent Norwegian skald wasEyvindr skáldaspillir,[38][39]and from the second half of the 10th century, all known court skalds were from Iceland or the Orkney Islands.[5]By the end of the 10th century, skaldic poetry had become increasingly internally complex, and in the 11th century Christian skalds reacted against this complexity by using far fewer kennings, especially avoiding those referencing heathen deities.[40]In the 12th century, a century after the conversion of Iceland, some skalds reintroduced heathen kennings as literary formulae,[41]interest in ancient tradition was revived, anddrápurwere produced on historical figures, such asEinarr Skúlason'sGeislion Olaf Tryggvason, composed 150 years after his death.[42][43]Skalds experimented with new metres, notablyhrynhent,which uses longer lines thandróttkvætt[40]and was probably influenced by Latin metres. This metre arose in the 10th century and was popularized in the 11th byArnórr jarlaskáld,whoseHrynhenda(c. 1045} is about KingMagnus the Good;in the 12th century it was the dominant metre of religious skaldic poetry.[44]

Despite these adaptations, the skaldic tradition itself was endangered by the popularity of newer and simpler forms of poetry and loss of knowledge of the kenning tradition.[45]Snorri Sturluson'sProse Edda,a handbook produced around 1220 that includes a guide to the metres, an explanation of kennings and their mythological and heroic bases grounded in contemporary learning, and numerous examples that preserve many skaldic verses, enabled skaldic poetry to continue in Iceland after the tradition of court poetry ended in the 13th century.[46]

Christian religious poetry became an increasingly important part of the skaldic tradition beginning in the 12th century.Eysteinn Ásgrímsson'sLiljawas particularly influential: it uses thehrynhentmetre and almost no kennings, and was much imitated.[47]Christian skaldic poetry died out in Iceland only with theProtestant Reformationof the 16th century, although that produced after 1400 is rarely studied as part of the skaldic corpus.[48]

Notable skalds

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Main article:List of skalds

More than 300 skalds are known from the period between 800 and 1200 AD. Many are listed in theSkáldatal,a list of court skalds by the ruler they served that runs from the legendaryRagnar Lodbrokto the late 13th century and includes some poets from whom no verses are preserved.[39][49][50]Notable names include:

Manylausavísurattributed in sagas to women have traditionally been regarded as inauthentic,[51]and few female skalds are known by name.[52]They include:

Editions

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The first comprehensive edition of skaldic poetry, byFinnur Jónsson,wasDen norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning,published in 4 volumes in Copenhagen in 1908–15 (2 volumes each diplomatic and corrected text; with Danish translations).[53]Later editions includeErnst A. Kock[sv]'sDen norsk-isländska Skaldedigtningen,published in 2 volumes in Lund in 1946–50, andMagnus Olsen'sEdda- og Skaldekvad: forarbeider til kommentar,published in 7 volumes in Oslo in 1960–64 (analysis in Norwegian).[54]In the early 21st century, theSkaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Agesproject has prepared a new edition with associated database online;[55]5 of a projected 9 volumes had been published as of 2018.[56]This edition groups the poems according to the type of prose source in which they are preserved.[57]

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  • PolishrockgroupSkaldowie(literallyThe Skalds), which debuted in 1965, takes its name form the skalds.
  • Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages released in 2007.
  • NorwegianfolkgroupWardrunareleased in 2018 an album titledSkald,which included a track by the same name.
  • FrenchneofolkgroupSkáldborrowed its name from the skalds.
  • Swedishpower metalgroupSabatonfrequently themes songs around historic battles and wars, analogous to old skald poems.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"scold".etymonline.com.RetrievedJune 1,2019.
  2. ^Margaret Clunies Ross(2011) [2005].A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics.Cambridge: Brewer. p. 13, note 12.ISBN9781843842798.
  3. ^Kari Ellen Gade (26 May 2009)."Dróttkvætt".Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.2.RetrievedMarch 5,2021.
  4. ^Lee M. Hollander(1947) [1945].The Skalds: A Selection of Their Poems, With Introductions and Notes.Princeton: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Princeton University Press. pp. 1–2.OCLC602867700.
  5. ^abcdHallvard Magerøy (August 15, 2020)."Skaldediktning".Store norske leksikon(in Norwegian).RetrievedMarch 11,2021.
  6. ^Hollander, Lee M.The Poetic Edda.University of Texas Press (Austin), 1962. ISBN 0-292-73061-6, p. xv
  7. ^Clunies Ross, p. 22.
  8. ^Stefán Einarsson(1957).A History of Icelandic Literature.New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, The Johns Hopkins Press. pp. 45–46.
  9. ^Einarsson, p. 61.
  10. ^Bo Almqvist(1974).Norrön niddiktning: traditionshistoriska studier i versmagi(Nordiska texter och undersökningar 23) (in Swedish). Vol. 2Nid mot missionärer, Senmedeltida nidtraditioner.Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell. p. 60.OCLC492984504.
  11. ^Einarsson, p. 60.
  12. ^Clunies Ross, pp. 13–16.
  13. ^Angus A. Somerville; Russell Andrew McDonald (2013).The Vikings and Their Age.Companions to Medieval Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 127.ISBN9781442605220.
  14. ^Hollander, p. 67.
  15. ^Turville-Petre, pp. 100–01.
  16. ^Hollander, pp. 189–91.
  17. ^Knut Helle (2003).The Cambridge History of Scandinavia.Cambridge University Press. pp. 551–.ISBN978-0-521-47299-9.
  18. ^E. O. G. Turville-Petre(1976).Scaldic Poetry.Oxford: Clarendon Press, Oxford University. p. 39.ISBN9780198125174.
  19. ^Hallberg, Peter. Translated by Paul Schach and Sonja Lindgrenson.Old Icelandic Poetry.University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1975) ISBN 0-8032-0855-3, p. 107
  20. ^Einarsson, p. 46.
  21. ^Hollander, pp. 26–27.
  22. ^Ross, 22
  23. ^Gade,The Structure of Old Norse Dróttkvætt Poetry,pp. 8–11, 250–51, cited in Clunies Ross.
  24. ^Turville-Petre, pp. xxvi–xxviii.
  25. ^Hollander, pp. 58–50.
  26. ^Einarsson, pp. 44–45.
  27. ^Turville-Petre, pp. xxi–xxiv.
  28. ^Hollander, pp. 4, 25–26.
  29. ^Clunies Ross, p. 105.
  30. ^Einarsson, p. 44.
  31. ^abChristina von Nolcken (October 2000)."Egil Skallagrimsson and the Viking Ideal".University of Chicago.RetrievedMarch 11,2021.
  32. ^Hollander, p. 6.
  33. ^Turville-Petre, p. lxxiv.
  34. ^Helmut de Boor(1964) [1930]. "Die religiöse Sprache der Vǫluspá und verwandter Denkmäler". In Roswitha Wisniewski; Herbert Kolb (eds.).Kleine Schriften(in German). Vol. 1:Mittelhochdeutsche Literatur.Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 209–83.
  35. ^Folke Ström(1981). "Poetry as an instrument of propaganda. Jarl Hákon and his poets". InUrsula Dronke;et al. (eds.).Speculum Norroenum: Norse Studies in Memory of Gabriel Turville-Petre.Odense: Odense University Press. pp. 440–58.
  36. ^Hollander, p. 197.
  37. ^Hollander, pp. 6–7.
  38. ^Turville-Petre, p. 42.
  39. ^abÓlason, p. 28.
  40. ^abEinarsson, pp. pp. 56–57.
  41. ^Jan de Vries(1964) [1941].Altnordische Literaturgeschichte.Grundriß der germanischen Philologie 15 (in German). Vol. 1:Vorbemerkungen, Die heidnische Zeit, Die Zeit nach der Bekehrung bis zur Mitte des zwölften Jahrhunderts(2nd ed.). Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 228–29.OCLC1856216.
  42. ^Einarsson, p. 67.
  43. ^Ólason, p. 44.
  44. ^Clunies Ross, pp. 128–29.
  45. ^Sverrir Tómasson (2006). "Old Icelandic Prose". In Daisy Neijmann (ed.).A History of Icelandic Literature.Histories of Scandinavian Literature. Vol. 5. Lincoln, Nebraska / London: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, University of Nebraska. p. 153.ISBN9780803233461.
  46. ^Einarsson, pp. 66–67.
  47. ^Einarsson, pp. 73–76.
  48. ^Clunies Ross, p. 5.
  49. ^Clunies-Ross, pp. 30–31.
  50. ^Rudolf Simek;Hermann Pálsson(1987). "Skáldatal".Lexikon der altnordischen Literatur.Kröners Taschenausgabe 490 (in German). Stuttgart: Kröner. p. 317.ISBN3520490013.
  51. ^Clunies Ross, p. 60, note 15.
  52. ^Zoe Borovsky (Winter 1999)."Never in Public: Women and Performance in Old Norse Literature".The Journal of American Folklore.112(443): 6–39.doi:10.2307/541400.JSTOR541400.S2CID54582601.
  53. ^Clunies Ross, pp. 15–16.
  54. ^Turville-Petre, "Select Bibliography", pp. lxxix–lxxx.
  55. ^Tarrin Wills (July 27, 2017)."Skaldic Project - Cross-Platform Interface".Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.Archived fromthe originalon December 17, 2019.
  56. ^"Published volumes".Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.19 July 2017.RetrievedMarch 8,2021.
  57. ^Clunies Ross, pp. 16–17.


Further reading

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