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65-610: In the Poetic Edda , Hunding is a king of the Saxons , slain by Helgi Hundingsbane . The Gesta Danorum mentions a Danish king Helgo who slew Hundingus, king of Saxony, in single combat. The historical core of the story is likely a conflict between the Eastern Geats (the wolf-clan) and the Lombards (the hound-clan). Hunding itself is a patronymic translating to "son of a hound", while

130-511: A glorious Judge beneath the earth. In the beginning, when naught was, there was neither sand nor sea nor the cold waves, nor was earth to be seen nor heaven above. There was a Yawning Chasm [chaos], but grass nowhere, ( Vigfússon & Powell 1883 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFVigfússonPowell1883 ( help ) † I remember of yore   were born the Jötuns, they who aforetime   fostered me : nine worlds I remember,   nine in

195-525: A series of stanzas with a refrain ( stef ) at intervals, and the flokkr (similar to drápa , without a refrain), vísur ‘verses, stanzas’, or dræplingr ‘little drápa’, a shorter series of verses without refrain. There are also some shield poems, which supposedly describe mythological scenes on a shield presented to the poet by a patron. 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 They typically have historical content, relating battles and other deeds from

260-415: A short vowel until the 14th century) is perhaps ultimately related to Proto-Germanic : * skalliz , lit.   'sound, voice, shout' ( Old High German : skal , lit.   'sound'). Old High German has skalsang , 'song of praise, psalm ', and skellan , 'ring, clang, resound'. The Old High German variant stem skeltan , etymologically identical to

325-403: 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 the harp or lyre . A large number of the preserved skaldic verses are individual stanzas, called lausavísur ("loose verses"), often said to have been improvised. Long forms include the drápa , a praise poem consisting of

390-610: A word for bitch . The Lombards' original ethnic name, Winnili , has also been connected with "savage dogs" by Much. In Eddaic account of a feud between the Hundings and the Wulfings surrounding Helgi Hundingsbane may correspond to the Lombard story, and Malone (1926) explains the whole story of Lamicho as the Hunding version of the same feud. Jacob Grimm (1848) compared the story of Lamicho to

455-461: Is a type of skaldic verse form that most often use internal rhyme and alliteration. More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson 's Prose 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

520-699: Is about King Magnus the Good ; in the 12th century it was the dominant metre of religious skaldic poetry. 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. Snorri Sturluson 's Prose 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

585-658: Is arguably the most important extant source on Norse mythology and Germanic heroic legends . Since the early 19th century, it has had a powerful influence on Scandinavian literature , not only through its stories, but also through the visionary force and the dramatic quality of many of the poems. It has also been an inspiration for later innovations in poetic meter , particularly in Nordic languages , with its use of terse, stress -based metrical schemes that lack final rhymes, instead focusing on alliterative devices and strongly concentrated imagery. Poets who have acknowledged their debt to

650-517: Is given below: Ek man jǫtna ár of borna, þás forðum mik fœdda hǫfðu ; níu mank hęima, níu ívíði, mjǫtvið mæran fyr mold neðan. Ár vas alda þars Ymir byggði, vasa sandr né sær, né svalar unnir ; jǫrð fansk æva né upphiminn ; gap vas ginnunga, ęn gras hvęrgi. ( Finnur 1932 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFFinnur1932 ( help ) (unchanged orthography) The Jötuns I remember early born, those who me of old have reared. I nine worlds remember, nine trees,

715-563: Is the medieval Icelandic manuscript Codex Regius , which contains 31 poems. The Eddic poems are composed in alliterative verse . Most are in fornyrðislag ("old story metre "), while málaháttr ("speech form") is a common variation. The rest, about a quarter, are composed in ljóðaháttr ("song form"). The language of the poems is usually clear and relatively unadorned. Kennings are often employed, though they do not arise as frequently, nor are they as complex, as those found in typical skaldic poetry . Like most early poetry,

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780-756: Is thought to have originated in either Norway or the Scandinavian Baltic. Most of the skalds of whom we know spent all or part of their careers as court poets, either those of kings, particularly the kings of Norway, or those of jarls, particularly the Hlaðir jarls , a dynasty based in what is now Trøndelag some of whose members ruled all or part of Norway as heathens in alternation with the Christian converters King Olaf Tryggvason and King Olaf Haraldsson (Saint Olaf). They produced praise poetry telling of their patrons' deeds, which became an orally transmitted record and

845-559: Is to show that poetry has gone through and will continue to go through change. The dróttkvætt metre 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. Origins in magic have also been suggested, because of the existence of skaldic curses (such as Egill Skallagrímsson 's on King Eric Bloodaxe ) and because there are 10th-century magical inscriptions on runestones in

910-550: Is unknown. The earliest known skald from whom verses survive is Bragi 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 the Viking Age , and increasingly were Icelanders. The subject matter of their extended poems was sometimes mythical before the conversion to Christianity, thereafter usually historical and encomiastic , detailing

975-494: The Codex Regius manuscript. 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. Compositions done without preparation were especially valued, to judge by

1040-754: The Codex Regius continues with heroic lays about mortal heroes, examples of Germanic heroic legend . The heroic lays are to be seen as a whole in the Edda , but they consist of three layers: the story of Helgi Hundingsbani , the story of the Nibelungs , and the story of Jörmunrekkr , king of the Goths . These are, respectively, Scandinavian, German, and Gothic in origin. As far as historicity can be ascertained, Attila , Jörmunrekkr , and Brynhildr actually existed, taking Brynhildr to be partly based on Brunhilda of Austrasia , but

1105-542: The Codex Regius include Vilhelm Ekelund , August Strindberg , J. R. R. Tolkien , Ezra Pound , Jorge Luis Borges , and Karin Boye . The Codex Regius was written during the 13th century, but nothing was known of its whereabouts until 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson , then Bishop of Skálholt . At the time, versions of the Prose Edda were known in Iceland, but scholars speculated that there once

1170-409: The skald- stem ( Proto-Germanic : * skeldan ), means "to scold, blame, accuse, insult". The person doing the insulting is a skelto or skeltāri . The West Germanic counterpart of the skald is the scop . Like scop , which is related to Modern English scoff , the word skald is probably cognate with English scold , reflecting the importance of mocking taunts in the poetry of

1235-884: The strophe in question, is the younger derivative work. The few demonstrably historical characters mentioned in the poems, such as Attila , provide a terminus post quem of sorts. The dating of the manuscripts themselves provides a more useful terminus ante quem . Individual poems have individual clues to their age. For example, Atlamál hin groenlenzku is claimed by its title to have been composed in Greenland and seems so by some internal evidence. If so, it must have been composed no earlier than about 985, since there were no Scandinavians in Greenland until that time. More certain than such circumstantial evidence are linguistic dating criteria. These can be arrived at by looking at Skaldic poems whose dates are more firmly known. For instance

1300-543: The "Dvergatal" or "Roster of Dwarfs", is considered by some scholars to be an interpolation . The problem of dating the poems is linked with the problem of determining where they were composed. Iceland was not settled until approximately 870, so anything composed before that time would necessarily have been elsewhere, most likely in Scandinavia . More recent poems, on the other hand, are likely Icelandic in origin. Scholars have attempted to localize individual poems by studying

1365-456: The 1670s. Some early translators relied on a Latin translation of the Edda , including Cottle . Opinions differ on the best way to translate the text, on the use or rejection of archaic language, and the rendering of terms lacking a clear English analogue. Still, Cottle's 1797 translation is now considered very inaccurate. A comparison of the second and third verses (lines 5–12) of the Vǫluspá

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1430-696: The 16th century, although that produced after 1400 is rarely studied as part of the skaldic corpus. More than 300 skalds are known from the period between 800 and 1200 AD. Many are listed in the Skáldatal , a list of court skalds by the ruler they served that runs from the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok to the late 13th century and includes some poets from whom no verses are preserved. Notable names include: Many lausavísur attributed in sagas to women have traditionally been regarded as inauthentic, and few female skalds are known by name. They include: The first comprehensive edition of skaldic poetry, by Finnur Jónsson ,

1495-458: The Earth Ymir struck camp when time began. No land, sand or sea folding on itself, no sky, earth or grass swaying atop its girth, only the cavern of chaos's gaping gulf. ( Dodds 2014 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFDodds2014 ( help ) I remember giants born early in time those nurtured me long ago; I remember nine worlds, I remember nine giant women, the mighty Measuring-Tree below

1560-518: The East , where the Cynocephali are glossed as healf hundingas . Poetic Edda The Poetic Edda is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse . It is distinct from the closely related Prose Edda , although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse poetry . Several versions of the Poetic Edda exist: especially notable

1625-465: The Eddic poems were minstrel poems, passed orally from singer to singer and from poet to poet for centuries. None of the poems are attributed to a particular author, though many of them show strong individual characteristics and are likely to have been the work of individual poets. While scholars have speculated on hypothetical authors, firm and accepted conclusions have never been reached. Accurate dating of

1690-446: 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 and heiti . 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 somewhat hermetic to modern readers, as well as creating ambiguity in interpretation; but

1755-748: The German legends of the origins of the Welfen , in German legend tracing their ancestry to fostered babes who were given the surname of "whelps" (Harris 2004). Hundings also appear in Sturlaugs saga starfsama , where they are a tribe of Cynocephali dwelling in Hundingjaland, which is apparently in much the same latitudes as Bjarmaland . These Hundings may relate to those Cynocephali mentioned by Adam of Bremen . The Hundingas are mentioned in such Old English literary works as Beowulf and Widsith . Widsith mentions

1820-478: The Hundings as a clan ( sibb ) would be the descendants of Hunding. Being named a "hound" or "dog" was by no means an insult in pre-Christian Germanic culture, but that the animal was rather a symbol of the warrior, while in Christian Germanic culture, it became associated with heathendom, "heathen hounds" being an appellation especially of the pagan Vikings (cf. Ulfhednar ). The name of Lamicho , king of

1885-456: The Hundings twice, once in a list of Germanic clans, as ruled by Mearchalf , and a second time among outlandish tribes and peoples, in the sequence mid hæðnum ond mid hæleþum ond mid hundingum "with heathens, heroes and dog-people", implying a re-interpretation of the name as a remote people of "heathen hounds". This re-interpretation is complete in a later Anglo-Saxon manuscript on the Marvels of

1950-562: The Learned , a larger-than-life 12th century Icelandic priest. Modern scholars reject that attribution, but the name Sæmundar Edda is still sometimes associated with both the Codex Regius and versions of the Poetic Edda using it as a source. Bishop Brynjólfur sent the manuscript as a present to the Danish king, hence the Latin name Codex Regius, lit.   ' Royal Book ' . For centuries it

2015-496: The Lombards, may mean "little barker" (Harris 2004). In Paulus' Historia Langobardorum , the Lombards terrorize their neighbors by spreading the word that they had dog-headed warriors, possibly a reference to ulfhednar . In Paulus's account, Lamicho is one of seven sons of a "prostitute" ( meretrix ), who is fostered by king Agelmund. This "prostitute" has been explained by Rudolf Much (followed by Höfler and others) as going back to

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2080-534: The Tree, the glorious Fate Tree   that springs 'neath the Earth. 'Twas the earliest of times   when Ymir lived ; then was sand nor sea   nor cooling wave, nor was Earth found ever,   nor Heaven on high, there was Yawning of Deeps   and nowhere grass : ( Bray 1908 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFBray1908 ( help ) I remember yet   the giants of yore, Who gave me bread   in

2145-434: The Tree. The wonderful Ash, way under the ground When Ymir lived long ago Was no sand or sea, no surging waves. Nowhere was there earth nor heaven above. But a grinning gap and grass nowhere. ( Auden & Taylor 1969 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFAudenTaylor1969 ( help ) I remember giants   of ages past, those who called me   one of their kin; I know how nine roots   form nine worlds under

2210-544: The chronology has been reversed in the poems. Several of the legendary sagas contain poetry in the Eddic style. Their age and importance is often difficult to evaluate but the Hervarar saga , in particular, contains interesting poetic interpolations. The Elder or Poetic Edda has been translated numerous times, the earliest printed edition being that by Cottle 1797 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCottle1797 ( help ) , though some short sections had been translated as early as

2275-486: The cult of Odin as an aristocratic, educated form of heathenism influenced by Christian eschatology . Poetic ability was highly valued; the art was practised by the Norwegian kings themselves, and several skalds, such as Egill Skallagrímsson , are the subject of their own biographical sagas. Icelandic skalds came to dominate at Norwegian courts; the last prominent Norwegian skald was Eyvindr skáldaspillir , and from

2340-413: The days gone by ; Nine worlds I knew,   the nine in the tree With mighty roots   beaneath the mold. Of old was the age   when Ymir lived ; Sea nor cool waves   nor sand there were ; Earth had not been,   nor heaven above, But a yawning gap,   and grass nowhere. ( Bellows 1923 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFBellows1923 ( help ) I call to mind

2405-607: The deeds of the skald's patron. The tradition continued into the Late Middle Ages . The standard edition of the skaldic poetic corpus, Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning , was edited by Finnur Jónsson and published in 1908–1915. A new edition was prepared online by the Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages project and began publication in 2007. The word skald (which internal rhymes show to have had

2470-481: The earth   where the Ash Tree rises. Nothing was there   when time began, neither sands nor seas   nor cooling waves, Earth was not yet,   nor the high heavens, but a gaping emptiness   nowhere green. ( Terry 1990 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFTerry1990 ( help ) I, born of giants, remember very early those who nurtured me then; I remember nine worlds, I remember nine giant women,

2535-402: The earth. Early in time Ymir made his settlement, there was no sand nor sea nor cool waves; earth was nowhere nor the sky above, a void of yawning chaos, grass was there nowhere ( Larrington 2014 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFLarrington2014 ( help ) I remember the giants born so long ago; in those ancient days they raised me. I remember nine worlds, nine giantesses, and

2600-452: The famed tree of fate down under the earth. It was early in ages when Ymir made his home, there was neither sand nor sea, nor cooling waves; no earth to be found, nor heaven above: a gulf beguiling, nor grass anywhere. ( Orchard 2011 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFOrchard2011 ( help ) I remember being reared by Jotuns, in days long gone. If I look back, I recall nine worlds, nine wood-witches, that renowned tree of fate below

2665-578: The former became r- around the year 1000, but in some Eddic poems the word vreiðr , younger form reiðr , is seen to alliterate with words beginning in an original v- . This was observed already by Olaf ‘White Skald’ Thordarson , the author of the Third Grammatical Treatise , who termed this v before r the vindandin forna ; 'the ancient use of vend '. In some cases, old poems may have been interpolated with younger verses or merged with other poems. For example, stanzas 9–16 of Völuspá ,

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2730-423: The geography, flora, and fauna to which they refer. This approach usually does not yield firm results. For example, there are no wolves in Iceland, but we can be sure that Icelandic poets were familiar with the species. Similarly, the apocalyptic descriptions of Völuspá have been taken as evidence that the poet who composed it had seen a volcanic eruption in Iceland – but this is hardly certain. The Codex Regius

2795-450: The great central tree, beneath the earth. There was in times of old, where Ymir dwelt, nor sand nor sea, nor gelid waves ; earth existed not, nor heaven above, 'twas a chaotic chasm, and grass nowhere, ( Thorpe 1866 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFThorpe1866 ( help ) I remember the Giants born of yore, who bred me up long ago. I remember nine Worlds, nine Sibyls,

2860-418: The ground. It was early in the ages when Ymir made his dwelling: There was not sand nor sea nor chill waves. Earth was not to be found nor above it heaven: a gulf was there of gaping voids and grass nowhere, ( Dronke 1997 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFDronke1997 ( help ) I recall those giants, born early on, who long ago brought me up; nine worlds I recall, nine wood-dwelling witches,

2925-502: The kin of etins which long ago did give me life. Nine worlds I know, the nine abodes of the glorious world-tree the ground beneath. In earliest times did Ymir live: was nor sea nor land nor salty waves, neither earth was there nor upper heaven, but a gaping nothing, and green things nowhere. ( Hollander 1962 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFHollander1962 ( help ) I tell of Giants from times forgotten. Those who fed me in former days: Nine worlds I can reckon, nine roots of

2990-501: 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 in Valhalla : Some extended works were composed as circumstance pieces, such as the following by Egill Skallagrímsson : 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

3055-417: The metre. Since the first example of skaldic poetry of which we know is Bragi Boddason 's Ragnarsdrápa from the early 9th century, some have argued that he and his associates invented it, but his work is already highly accomplished, suggesting that this style of poetry had been developing for some time. Bragi (whom many scholars consider was deified as the god Bragi ) was a Norwegian, and skaldic poetry

3120-461: The mighty Measuring-Tree below the earth. Young were the years when Ymir made his settlement, there was no sand nor sea nor cool waves; earth was nowhere nor the sky above, chaos yawned, grass was there nowhere. ( Larrington 1996 ) harv error: no target: CITEREFLarrington1996 ( help ) I remember giants born early in time, who long ago had reared me Nine worlds I remember, nine wood-ogresses, glorious tree of good measure, under

3185-463: 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, while skaldic verse has a wider range of subject matter. One of the main topics was mighty kings and the deeds of courtly patrons. Eddic poetry typically includes a large amount of dialogue and rarely recounts battles; skaldic poetry,

3250-500: The particle of , corresponding to ga- or ge- in other old Germanic languages, has been shown to occur more frequently in Skaldic poems of earlier date. Applying this criterion to Eddic poetry, Bjarne Fidjestøl found large variation, indicating that some of the poems were much older than others. Other dating criteria include the use of the negative adverb eigi 'not', and alliteration of vr- with v- . In western dialects of Old Norse

3315-628: The poems are also quoted in Snorri 's Prose Edda , but usually only in bits and pieces. What poems are included in an edition of the Poetic Edda depends on the editor. Those not found in the Codex Regius are sometimes called the "eddic appendix". Other Eddic-like poems not usually published in the Poetic Edda are sometimes called Eddica minora and were compiled by Andreas Heusler and Wilhelm Ranisch in their 1903 book titled Eddica minora: Dichtungen eddischer Art aus den Fornaldarsögur und anderen Prosawerken . English translators are not consistent on

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3380-486: The poems has long been a source of scholarly debate. Firm conclusions are difficult to reach; lines from the Eddic poems sometimes appear in poems by known poets. For example, Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed in the latter half of the 10th century, and he uses a couple of lines in his Hákonarmál that are also found in Hávamál . It is possible that he was quoting a known poem, but it is also possible that Hávamál , or at least

3445-498: The reverse. Skalds also composed spontaneous verses reacting to events, insult verses ( níðvísur ) such as Þorleifr jarlsskáld 's curse on his former patron Jarl Hákon Sigurðarson and the níð that provoked the missionary Þangbrandr into killing Vetrliði Sumarliðason , and occasionally love poems and erotic verse called mansöngr . Hallfreðr Óttarsson and especially Kormákr Ögmundarson are known for their love poetry. A large amount of Eddic poetry has been preserved in

3510-438: The sagas. Egill Skallagrímsson is supposed to have composed his Höfuðlausn in one night to ransom his head. King Harald Hardrada is 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. It is not common though that skaldic verse are

3575-567: The second half of the 10th century, all known court skalds were from Iceland or the Orkney Islands. 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. In the 12th century, a century after the conversion of Iceland, some skalds reintroduced heathen kennings as literary formulae, interest in ancient tradition

3640-404: The seed from which Yggdrasil sprang. It was at the very beginning, it was Ymir's time, there was no sand, no sea, no cooling waves, no earth, no sky, no grass, just Ginnungagap. Skaldic poetry A skald , or skáld ( Old Norse : [ˈskɔːld] ; Icelandic: [ˈskault] , meaning "poet") is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of

3705-588: The skalds. Skaldic poetry and Eddic poetry stem from the same tradition of alliterative verse , and in Old Norse as well as Icelandic, the word skald simply means "poet" or "composer". Skaldic verse is distinguished from Eddic by characteristically being more complex in style and by using dróttkvætt ("court metre"), which requires internal rhyme as well as alliteration, rather than the simpler and older fornyrðislag ("way of ancient words"), ljóðaháttr ("song form"), and málaháttr ("speech form") metres of

3770-470: The tradition of court poetry ended in the 13th century. Christian religious poetry became an increasingly important part of the skaldic tradition beginning in the 12th century. Eysteinn Ásgrímsson 's Lilja was particularly influential: it uses the hrynhent metre and almost no kennings, and was much imitated. Christian skaldic poetry died out in Iceland only with the Protestant Reformation of

3835-580: The translations of the names of the Eddic poems or on how the Old Norse forms should be rendered in English. Up to three translated titles are given below, taken from the translations of Bellows , Hollander , and Larrington with proper names in the normalized English forms found in John Lindow 's Norse Mythology and in Andy Orchard's Cassell's Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend . After the mythological poems,

3900-504: The two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse , the other being Eddic poetry . Skaldic poems were traditionally composed to honor kings, but were sometimes ex tempore . They include both extended works and single verses ( lausavísur ). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings , which require some knowledge of Norse mythology, and heiti , which are formal nouns used in place of more prosaic synonyms. Dróttkvætt metre

3965-654: Was Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning , published in 4 volumes in Copenhagen in 1908–15 (2 volumes each diplomatic and corrected text; with Danish translations). Later editions include Ernst A. Kock  [ sv ] 's Den norsk-isländska Skaldedigtningen , published in 2 volumes in Lund in 1946–50, and Magnus Olsen 's Edda- og Skaldekvad: forarbeider til kommentar , published in 7 volumes in Oslo in 1960–64 (analysis in Norwegian). In

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4030-453: Was another Edda, an Elder Edda , which contained the pagan poems that Snorri quotes in his Prose Edda . When Codex Regius was discovered, it seemed that the speculation had proved correct, but modern scholarly research has shown that the Prose Edda was likely written first and that the two were, at most, connected by a common source. Brynjólfur attributed the manuscript to Sæmundr

4095-430: Was revived, and drápur were produced on historical figures, such as Einarr Skúlason 's Geisli on Olaf Tryggvason, composed 150 years after his death. Skalds experimented with new metres, notably hrynhent , which uses longer lines than dróttkvætt and was probably influenced by Latin metres. This metre arose in the 10th century and was popularized in the 11th by Arnórr jarlaskáld , whose Hrynhenda (c. 1045}

4160-520: Was stored in the Royal Library in Copenhagen , but in 1971 it was returned to Iceland. Because air travel at the time was not entirely trustworthy with such precious cargo, it was transported by ship, accompanied by a naval escort. Poems similar to those found in the Codex Regius are also included in many editions of the Poetic Edda . Important manuscripts containing these other poems include AM 748 I 4to , Hauksbók , and Flateyjarbók . Many of

4225-468: Was subsequently cited in history sagas. 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, but the verse form guards against corruption and the skalds traditionally criticized as well as advised their patrons. Skalds at the court at Hlaðir have been credited with developing the Valhalla complex and

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