Margaret Clunies Ross - Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders

Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders

Studies in Old Norse Literature

Print ISSN 2514-0701

Online ISSN 2514-071X

Series Editors

Professor Sif Rkharsdttir

Professor Carolyne Larrington

Studies in Old Norse Literature aims to provide a forum for monographs and collections engaging with the literature produced in medieval Scandinavia, one of the largest surviving bodies of medieval European literature. The series investigates poetry and prose alongside translated, religious and learned material; although the primary focus is on Old Norse-Icelandic literature, studies which make comparison with other medieval literatures or which take a broadly interdisciplinary approach by addressing the historical and archaeological contexts of literary texts are also welcomed. It offers opportunities to publish a wide range of books, whether cutting-edge, theoretically informed writing, provocative revisionist approaches to established conceptualizations, or strong, traditional studies of previously neglected aspects of the field. The series will enable researchers to communicate their findings both beyond and within the academic community of medievalists, highlighting the growing interest in Old Norse-Icelandic literary culture.

Proposals or queries should be sent in the first instance to the editors or to the publisher, at the email addresses given below.

Professor Sif Rkharsdttir, sifr@hi.is

Professor Carolyne Larrington, carolyne.larrington@sjc.ox.ac.uk

Boydell & Brewer, editorial@boydell.co.uk

Previous volumes in the series are listed at the end of this book.

Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders

Margaret Clunies Ross

D. S. BREWER

Margaret Clunies Ross 2022

All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation

no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,

published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,

transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,

without the prior permission of the copyright owner

The right of Margaret Clunies Ross to be identified as

the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with

sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published 2022

D. S. Brewer, Cambridge

ISBN 978 1 84384 639 0 (hardback)

ISBN 978 1 80010 612 3 (ePUB)

D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd

PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK

and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.

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website: www.boydellandbrewer.com

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate

In memory of Kari Ellen Gade (19532022) friend and colleague

Tables

1: Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders

2: Relative Size of Sagas of Icelanders

3: Sagas of Icelanders containing Poetry generally dated between 120050

4: Sagas of Icelanders containing Poetry generally dated between 125080

5: Sagas of Icelanders containing Poetry generally dated between 12801400 or later

6: Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders quoted in Old Icelandic non-saga Sources

a: Encomia by Icelandic Skalds for Icelanders of the Tenth and Early Eleventh Centuries mentioned or cited in Sagas of Icelanders and/or other Icelandic Texts

b: Encomia for Foreign Dignitaries of the TenthEleventh Centuries mentioned/recorded only in Sagas of Icelanders

c: Other long Poems named, cited or partially cited in Sagas of Icelanders

8: Sagas of Icelanders without Poetry

The tables are placed at the end of the chapters in which they fall.

Acknowledgements

I have been living with the subject of skaldic poetry in Old Norse literature for a long time. During the last twenty years or so the project Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages has been my constant intellectual companion, while the last five years, from 2017 to the present, have been spent working, together with colleagues, on the edition of poetry in sagas of Icelanders that comprises Volume V in this series. It therefore seemed natural to try and articulate the various ways in which poetry in these sagas works within the saga texts as wholes and that is what I have attempted to do in this book. Needless to say, I have depended on the work of many others in this enterprise, most of them my fellow editors of the poetry in Volume V.

I am grateful to all with whom I have collaborated in this long-running project, but particularly to the General Editors of the series, Kari Ellen Gade, Gurn Nordal, Edith Marold, Diana Whaley, Tarrin Wills and Hannah Burrows, as well as to Soffa Gun Gumundsdttir, all of whom have shared ideas and interpretations of the poetry discussed here. I would like to single out Kari Ellen Gade for special mention, not only for her unparalleled knowledge of skaldic poetry in all its dimensions, but also because she read the whole manuscript at my request and offered many helpful suggestions for improvement along with a number of corrections that should not have been there. I am also grateful to Lars Lnnroth for his comments on an earlier version of the first three chapters. I would also like to give special thanks to my son, Alfred Hiatt, who read the whole manuscript and suggested several improvements to its argument and style, all of which I have implemented. Any remaining deficiencies are of course my own responsibility.

Sigla for Poetry Cited in This Book

1. Poetry from Volumes IIV, VIVIII of SkP

Anon Brdr 1 IV (Ldn 23): Vol. IV. Anonymous, stef of Brardrpa [Drpa for Brr Hallason]

Anon (FoGT) III : Vol. III. Anonymous Stanzas from the Fourth Grammatical Treatise

Anon Hafg 2 IV (Ldn 5): Vol. IV. Anonymous, Hafgeringadrpa [Drpa of the Ocean Fences]

Anon Krm VIII : Vol. VIII. Anonymous, Krkuml [Speeches of the Crow]

Anon (Ldn) 4 IV (Ldn 20): Vol. IV. Anonymous, Lausavsur from Landnmabk

Anon Lil VII : Vol. VII. Anonymous, Lilja [Lily]

Anon Mhkv III : Vol. III. Anonymous, Mlshttakvi [Proverb Poem]

Anon Nkt II : Vol. II. Anonymous, Nregs konungatal [Enumeration of the Kings of Norway]

Anon Pl VII : Vol. VII. Anonymous, Plcitusdrpa [Drpa about Plcitus]

Arn Herm III : Vol. III. Arnrr jarlaskld rarson, Poem about Hermundr Illugason

Arn orfdr II : Vol. II. Arnrr jarlaskld rarson, orfinnsdrpa [Drpa about orfinnr]

Bjbp Jms I : Vol. I. Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jmsvkingadrpa [Drpa about the Jmsvkingar]

Bragi Rdr III : Vol. III. Bragi inn gamli [the Old] Boddason, Ragnarsdrpa [Drpa about Ragnarr]

Eil dr III : Vol. III. Eilfr Gornarson, rsdrpa [Drpa about rr]

ESk Lv II : Vol. II. Einarr Sklason, Lausavsur

Eskl Vell I : Vol. I. Einarr sklaglamm [Tinkle-scales] Vellekla [Lack of Gold]

Eyv Hl I : Vol. I. Eyvindr skldaspillir [Plagiarist, Destroyer of Poets] Finnsson, Hleygjatal [Enumeration of the Hleygir (People of Hlogaland)]

Eyv Lv I : Vol. I. Eyvindr skldaspillir Finnsson,