Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond

Poetic Variety in Medieval Iceland and Norway

Martin Chase

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780823257812
• eBook ISBN: 9780823257836
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: Literature

Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond shines light on traditional divisions of Old Norse–Icelandic poetry and awakens the reader to work that blurs these boundaries. Many of the texts and topics taken up in these enlightening essays have been difficult to categorize and have consequently been overlooked or undervalued. The boundaries between genres (Eddic and Skaldic), periods (Viking Age, medieval, early modern), or cultures (Icelandic, Scandinavian, English, Continental) may not have been as sharp in the eyes and ears of contemporary authors and audiences as they are in our own. When questions of classification are allowed to fade into the background, at least temporarily, the poetry can be appreciated on its own terms. Some of the essays in this collection present new material, while others challenge long-held assumptions. They reflect the idea that poetry with "medieval" characteristics continued to be produced in Iceland well past the fifteenth century, and even beyond the Protestant Reformation in Iceland (1550). This superb volume, rich in up-to-date scholarship, makes little-known material accessible to a wide audience.

NOTES

INTRODUCTION / MARTIN CHASE

1. ONP, s.v. skáldligr.

2. Hallfreðar saga, ed. Bjarni Einarsson, Stofnun árna Magnússonar á Íslandi, Rit 15 (Reykjavík, 1977), 44.

3. Ibid., 36.

4. P. E. Müller, “Om Authentien af Snorres Edda, og Beviset derfra kan hentes for Asalærens Ægthed,” Det Skandinaviske Litteraturselskabs Skrifter 8 (1812): 1–97, at 30, 72–74, 77–78, and passim.

5. Theodor Wisén, ed., Carmina Norrœna: Ex Reliquiis Vetustioris Norrœnæ Poësis Selecta, Recognita, Commentariis et Glossario Instructa, 2 vols. (Lund, 1886).

6. Gudbrand Vigfusson and F. York Powell, eds., Corpus Poeticum Boreale: The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue from the Earliest Times to the Thirteenth Century, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1883).

7. Roberta Frank, Old Norse Court Poetry: The Dróttkvætt Stanza, Islandica 42 (Ithaca, NY, 1978).

8. Finnur Jónsson, ed. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning [Skj], 4 vols., vols. AI, AII, Tekst efter håndskrifterne; Vols. BI, BII, Rettet tekst (Copenhagen, 1912–1915).

9. Gustav Neckel and Hans Kuhn, eds., Edda: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, 2 vols., I: Text, Germanische Bibliothek, 4th series: texts, 5th ed. (Heidelberg, 1983).

10. Andreas Heusler and Wilhelm Ranisch, eds., Eddica Minora: Dichtungen Eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken (Dortmund, 1903).

11. Terry Gunnell, “Eddic Poetry,” in A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, ed. Rory McTurk, Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture (Malden, Mass, 2005), 82–100, at 82.

12. Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. Phillip Pulsiano and Kirsten Wolf (New York, 1993), 149–52.

13. Ursula Dronke, ed. and trans., The Poetic Edda 2: Mythological Poems (Oxford, 1997), 162–238.

14. Ursula Dronke, ed. and trans., The Poetic Edda 3: Mythological Poems II (Oxford, 2011), 139–52.

15. Dronke, ed. and trans., Poetic Edda 2, 154–58.

16. Carolyne Larrington, trans., The Poetic Edda, Oxford World Classics (Oxford, 1996), xi.

17. Andy Orchard, trans., The Elder Edda: A Book of Viking Lore (London, 2011).

18. Klaus von See, Beatrice La Farge, Simone Horst, and Katja Schulz, Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda, 8 vols. (Heidelberg, 1993–2012). See “Das Konzept” at http://www.skandinavistik.unifrankfurt.de/edda/zwecke/konzept/index.html.

19. Jón Helgason, Norges og Islands Digtning, in Litteratur-Historie, B: Norge og Island, ed. Sigurður Nordal, Nordisk Kultur 8 B (Stockholm, 1953), 4 (my translation).

20. Anne Holtsmark. “Eddadiktning,” in KLNM, 3:480–88.

21. Joseph Harris, “Eddic Poetry,” in Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, ed. Carol Clover and John Lindow, Islandica 45 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1985; repr., with new preface, Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching, Toronto, 2005), 68–156, at 68.

22. Ibid., 68–69.

23. Gunnell, “Eddic Poetry,” 82.

24. Ibid.

25. Larrington, trans., The Poetic Edda, x.

26. Margaret Clunies Ross, A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics (Cambridge, 2005).

27. Clunies Ross, A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics, 7.

28. Ibid., 14.

29. Roberta Frank, “Skaldic Poetry,” in Clover and Lindow, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide, 160.

30. Íslensk Bókmennta Saga 1, ed. Guðrún Nordal, Sverrir Tómasson, and Vésteinn Ólason; Íslensk Bókmennta Saga 2, ed. Böðvar Guðmundsson, Sverrir Tómasson, Torfi H. Tulinius, and Vésteinn Ólason, 2nd ed. (Reykjavík, 2006).

31. Eddukvæði fjalla um efni úr lífi goðanna eða segja frá löngu liðnum hetjum á forsögulegum tíma, en stundum leggja þau mönnum lífsreglur; dróttkvæðin eru oftast kveðin til að lofa einhvern sem enn lifir eða er nýlega látinn, ellegar þar er minnst atburða sem nýlega hafa gerst. Eddukvæði eru kveðin undir einföldum bragarháttum og skáldskaparmál þeirra er ekki fjarska torskilið; dróttkvæði eru oftast kveðin undir öðrum, miklu erfiðari og flóknari bragarháttum, og þar ernotað skáldskaparmál sem verður að læra með sérstakri ástundun ef þau eiga að verða skiljanleg. Eddukvæðin eru ekki bundin nafni tiltekinna skálda, en mikill hluti dróttkvæða er eignaður nafngreindum skáldum (Íslensk Bókmennta Saga 1, 53, cf. Jón Helgason, Norges og Islands Digtning, 5).

32. Ibid.

33. Íslensk Bókmennta Saga 1, 483–513.

34. Íslensk Bókmennta Saga 2, 285–378.

35. Katrina Attwood, “Christian Poetry,” in McTurk, A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, 43–63.

36. Shaun Hughes, “Late Secular Poetry,” in McTurk, A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, 205–22.

37. Terry Gunnell, “Eddic Poetry,” in McTurk, A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, 82–100.

38. Diana Whaley, “Skaldic Poetry,” in McTurk, A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, 479–502.

39. Finnur Jónsson, ed. Skj. These guidelines were recently reaffirmed by Bjarne Fidjestøl in his entry on “Skaldic Verse” in Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia, ed. Phillip Pulsiano and Kirsten Wolf (New York, 1993), 592–4.

40. Clunies Ross, A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics, 6.

41. Diana Whaley et al., eds....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Announcement Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• The Sources of Merlínússpá: Gunnlaugr Leifsson’s Use of Texts Additional to the De gestis Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth
• The Genesis of Strengleikar: Scribes, Translators, and Place of Origin
• Einarr Skúlason, Snorri Sturluson, and the Post-Pagan Mythological Kenning
• Skáldskaparmál as a Tool for Composition of Pseudonymous Skaldic Poetry
• Háttatal Stanza 12 and the Divine Legitimation of Kings
• Creating Tradition: The Use of Skaldic Verse in Old Norse Historiography
• Rattus rattus as a Beast of Battle? Stanza 12 of Ragnars Saga
• Wit and Wisdom: The Worldview of the Old Norse-Icelandic Riddles and Their Relationship to Eddic Poetry
• Devotional Poetry at the End of the Middle Ages in Iceland
• Love and Death in the Icelandic Ballad
• Steinunn Finnsdóttir and Snækóngs Rímur
• Notes
• Bibliography
• List of Contributors
• Index
• Series Page