Ormr Steinþórsson

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Ormr Steinþórsson was a skald about whom little is known. Seven fragments of poetry by him are quoted in the Skáldskaparmál section of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda. One of those fragments is also quoted in the Third Grammatical Treatise by Óláfr Þórðarson while an additional fragment is quoted in Laufás-Edda. [1] Most of the fragments are in the hálfhnept meter.

Skald profession

The term skald, or skáld, is generally used for poets who composed at the courts of Scandinavian and Icelandic leaders during the Viking Age and Middle Ages. Skaldic poetry forms one of two main groupings of Old Norse poetry, the other being the anonymous Eddic poetry.

<i>Skáldskaparmál</i>

The second part of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda the Skáldskaparmál is effectively a dialogue between Ægir, the Norse god of the sea, and Bragi, the god of poetry, in which both Norse mythology and discourse on the nature of poetry are intertwined. The origin of a number of kennings is given; then Bragi delivers a systematic list of kennings for various people, places and things. He then goes on to discuss poetic language in some detail, in particular heiti, the concept of poetical words which are non-periphrastic, and again systematises these. This in a way forms an early form of poetic thesaurus.

Snorri Sturluson Icelandic historian, poet and politician (1179–1241)

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker to the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He was the author of the Prose Edda or Younger Edda, which consists of Gylfaginning, a narrative of Norse mythology, the Skáldskaparmál, a book of poetic language, and the Háttatal, a list of verse forms. He was also the author of the Heimskringla, a history of the Norwegian kings that begins with legendary material in Ynglinga saga and moves through to early medieval Scandinavian history. For stylistic and methodological reasons, Snorri is often taken to be the author of Egil's saga.

Finnur Jónsson grouped Ormr with Icelandic poets from ca. 900 to ca. 1050 on the basis of the character of his verse. He described Ormr as "apparently a capable poet" and the contents of his verses as "erotic-ironic". [2] More recent scholars have suggested that Ormr was a 12th-century poet and that five or six of his fragments belong together with a fragment of Snæfríðardrápa attributed to Haraldr hárfagri in Flateyjarbók. Ormr may have based the poem on a fairy-tale about Haraldr's love for Snæfríðr. [3]

<i>Flateyjarbók</i> manuscript

Flateyjarbók is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name Codex Flateyensis.

Notes

  1. ↑ Eysteinn Björnsson.
  2. ↑ Finnur Jónsson 1920:520, "Til alle de nævnte skjalde skal der föjes enkelte, som kun anføres enkelte gange og hvis liv og lævned er ubekendt, men som dog på grund af beskaffenheden af deres vers må henføres til dette tidsrum. ... Ormr Steinþórsson. af ham anfører Snorra-Edda nogle brudstykker, hvoraf de fleste er digtede i halfnept versemål; indholdet er af erotisk-ironisk art. Ormr synes at have været en dygtig skjald." Finnr has a footnote to the word erotisk-ironisk stating: "Netop dette indhold forbyder at antage (G. Þorláksson: Udsigt 54), at et halfhnept vers af Björn breiðvíkingakappe (se ovf. s. 501) hører herhen."
  3. ↑ Faulkes 1998:161.

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References

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