Chase - Eddic, Skaldic, and beyond: poetic variety in Medieval Iceland and Norway

EDDIC, SKALDIC, AND BEYOND

FORDHAM SERIES IN MEDIEVAL STUDIES

Mary C. Erler and Franklin T. Harkins, series editors

Copyright 2014 Fordham University Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond : Poetic Variety in Medieval Iceland and Norway / edited by Martin Chase, S.J.

pages cm. (Fordham Series in Medieval Studies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8232-5781-2 (hardback)

1. Old Norse poetryHistory and criticism. 2. EddasHistory and criticism. 3. Scalds and scaldic poetryHistory and criticism. I. Chase, Martin, editor of compilation.

PT7170.E33 2014

839'.61009dc23

2014002166

Printed in the United States of America

16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1

First edition

CONTENTS

MARTIN CHASE

RUSSELL POOLE

INGVIL BRGGER BUDAL

CHRISTOPHER ABRAM

MIKAEL MALES

KEVIN J. WANNER

ROLF STAVNEM

RORY M c TURK

HANNAH BURROWS

MARTIN CHASE

PAUL ACKER

SHAUN F. D. HUGHES

The indebtedness of this book to the archival collections of the Arnamagnan Institutes in Reykjavk (Stofnun rna Magnssonar slenskum frum) and Copenhagen (Den Arnamagnanske Samling) as well as the National and University Library of Iceland (Landsbkasafn slands Hsklabkasafn) is apparent on nearly every page, but it should nevertheless be acknowledged. Perhaps less apparent is the debt to the Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages project, under the general editorship of Margaret Clunies Ross, and its database, maintained by Tarrin Wills. As references in many of the contributions to the book note, the project has led to a new flowering of interest in skaldic poetry and opened new possibilities for research. I am particularly grateful to the Arnamagnan Instute in Copenhagenits leader, Matthew Driscoll, its librarian, Ragnheiur Msesdttir, and its staff and students. I have enjoyed the hospitality of the institute often and extensively, and I value not only the collections, but the scholarly assistance, advice, and colleagueship I have found there over the years. The same goes for the Dictionary of Old Norse Prose: I have been helped by more friends on the dictionary staff than I can name here, but I would like to mention especially Chris Sanders, now sorely missed. The Jesuit community of Sankt Knuds Stiftelse has been a home away from home for me in Copenhagen, and I thank Gerhard Sanders, S. J. for generous hospitality and fraternal support.

In New York, thanks are due to the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies and its director, Maryanne Kowaleski. Maryanne conceived, organized, and sponsored the conference and symposia that planted the seeds for this collection. I thank my friend and Fordham colleague Mary Erler for ongoing sage advice and encouragement at many levels, and in particular for her comments on the manuscript and the ways in which she has facilitated the publication of this book as co-editor, together with Franklin Harkins, of the Fordham Series in Medieval Studies. The managing editor of Fordham University Press, Eric Newman, has been upbeat and accommodating through thick and thin, and Will Cerbone, the copy editor for the book, has brought to it a scholarly competence and eye for detail on which many of the contributors have remarked. We were indeed fortunate to haveon this side of the Atlantican editor who can catch typos in quoted diplomatic editions and suggest ways of polishing our translations. The book would have been a different one without the advice of the anonymous readers for the Press, so much so that I regret that they must remain anonymous. Many thanks to both of you. Fordham University supported the costs of publication with a Faculty Research Grant.

The mention of those sine quae non would not be complete without thanking the staff of the Walsh Library at Fordham. Charlotte Labbe, head of interlibrary loan, and her staff have worked their magic throughout; John DAngelo and the circulation staff have e-mailed countless scans of journal articles across campus and across the ocean, often within minutes of the requests; and Betty Garity, head of acquisitions, has never said no. Finally, what others tend to say in the customary concluding mention of long-suffering partners, offspring, or cats, I can say of my Jesuit brothers at Fordham.

Martin Chase

For at least a century, it has been customary to divide the vernacular poetry of medieval Scandinavia into two genre categories: eddic poetry ( eddukv i ) and skaldic poetry ( drttkv i ). What counts as skaldic and what counts as eddic has as much to do with traditional and conventional labels as it does with characteristics of the poetry itself.

The designation skaldic has been assigned to poetry by known authors (skalds) that follows the system of metrics and diction explained by Snorri Sturluson in his Edda , a three-part guide to the poetic art of the skalds. The Snorra Edda , apparently conceived as a poetic manual intended to facilitate the comprehension and appreciation of the poetry of the Viking-Age skalds for thirteenth-century readers, has been enormously influential. Almost from the time of its composition, it has been regarded not just as a guide to understanding skaldic poetry, but as the definer and arbiter of the genre: the extent to which poetry conforms to or deviates from Snorris rules for poetic composition in the Snorra Edda has traditionally determined the judgment of its quality, or indeed, whether it is even deserving of the name skaldic. The first part of the Snorra Edda , Gylfaginning , recounts in narrative form myths associated with traditional Nordic religion. A knowledge of the myths is necessary to understand the allusions to them in the elaborate kenningsperiphrastic metaphors characteristic of skaldic dictionwhich subsequently are treated in Skldskaparml , the middle section of the work. Gylfaginning , in many cases the only textual witness of the stories it recounts, has often been regarded as an authentic literary record of the myths of the pre-Christian North. The last section of the Snorra Edda , Httatal , defines and gives examples of the intricate, syllable-counting meters of the skalds.

Skld means in Old Norse (and Modern Icelandic) simply poet, and the corresponding adjective (Old Norse skldligr , Modern Icelandic skldlegur ) means poetic, in the most general sense of the word. The adjective has been documented just twice in medieval contexts, in two different versions of Hallfre ar saga . Modern Icelandic usage normally refers to skaldic poetry as drttkv i (literally court poetry), the Old Norse name for the meter used in most (but by no means all) skaldic poetry. The term skldakv i occurs occasionally in twentieth-century Icelandic scholarship, but should probably be considered a Danism. Finnur Jnssons use of the word may well have given it the meaning it has today.