Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- Chapter One Introduction: The Old Norse Poetic Corpus
- Chapter Two An Indigenous Typology of Old Norse Poetry 1: Technical Terms
- Chapter Three An Indigenous Typology of Old Norse Poetry 2: Genres and Subgenres of Skaldic Verse
- Chapter Four Circumstances of Recording and Transmission: Poetry as Quotation
- Chapter Five Old Norse Poetic Aesthetics
- Chapter Six The Impact of Christianity on Old Norse Poetry
- Chapter Seven Poetics and Grammatica 1: The Twelfth Century
- Chapter Eight Poetics and Grammatica 2: The Edda of Snorri Sturluson
- Chapter Nine Poetics and Grammatica 3: The Third and Fourth Grammatical Treatises
- Chapter Ten The Icelandic Poetic Landscape in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
- Chapter Eleven Conclusion
- Appendix: Snorri Sturluson's View of Figurative Language
- References
- Index
- The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century
Chapter Two - An Indigenous Typology of Old Norse Poetry 1: Technical Terms
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Editorial Note
- Abbreviations
- Chapter One Introduction: The Old Norse Poetic Corpus
- Chapter Two An Indigenous Typology of Old Norse Poetry 1: Technical Terms
- Chapter Three An Indigenous Typology of Old Norse Poetry 2: Genres and Subgenres of Skaldic Verse
- Chapter Four Circumstances of Recording and Transmission: Poetry as Quotation
- Chapter Five Old Norse Poetic Aesthetics
- Chapter Six The Impact of Christianity on Old Norse Poetry
- Chapter Seven Poetics and Grammatica 1: The Twelfth Century
- Chapter Eight Poetics and Grammatica 2: The Edda of Snorri Sturluson
- Chapter Nine Poetics and Grammatica 3: The Third and Fourth Grammatical Treatises
- Chapter Ten The Icelandic Poetic Landscape in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
- Chapter Eleven Conclusion
- Appendix: Snorri Sturluson's View of Figurative Language
- References
- Index
- The Scandinavians from the Vendel Period to the Tenth Century
Summary
Having reviewed the modern division of Old Norse poetry into eddic- and skaldic-type verse, and discovered a number of complicating factors that make a simple division of the corpus difficult, I will now examine ways in which Viking Age and medieval Scandinavians classified Old Norse poetry and what that can tell us of the uses to which they put the poetic arts and the values they ascribed to them. This poetry and medieval Norse attitudes towards it developed first in an oral society and many signs are displayed of a close relationship between poetic genres and social interactions. Much of the verse is agonistically toned, meaning that it represents direct interpersonal interaction and confrontation between protagonists, often of an aggressive kind. In a great deal of the poetry the speaking voice of the poet or the protagonist of the action is audible.
Titles and types of poetry
The nomenclature of eddic poems whose medieval titles are known indicates that they were classified as speech-related genres of various kinds, that is, they were conceptualised as speech acts in an Austinian sense. In terms of their form, they are either catalogue poems, often presented as dramatic dialogues, or narratives of mythic or heroic adventures. Their names suggest that, to medieval people, their role as speech acts was predominant and it is notable that, particularly among the mythological poems, the verses are often presented as the direct discourse of gods and heroes or other authoritative beings. Titles of individual poems distinguish the mál (‘speech, words’) at the most general discourse level (e.g. Hávamál, ‘Speech of the High One [Óõinn]’, Skírnismál, ‘Speech of Skírnir’, Alvíssmál, ‘The Words of All-Wise [a dwarf]’, Hamõismál, ‘Words of [or about] Hamõir’) from the spá (‘prophecy’, e.g. Vǫluspá, ‘Prophecy of the Sibyl’, Merlínússpá, ‘Prophecy of Merlin’), the ljóõ (‘chant’, e.g. Hárbarõsljóõ ‘ Chant of Hárbarõr [Óõinn]’, Hyndluljóõ, ‘Chant of Hyndla [a giantess]), the senna (‘diatribe or invective’, e.g. Lokasenna, ‘Loki's Invective’), the hvǫt (‘incitement’, e.g. Guõrúnarhvǫt, ‘Incitement of Guõrún’) and the grátr (‘lament’, e.g. Oddrúnargrátr, ‘Lament of Oddrún’). Mythological poems like Hymiskviõa and Ãrymskviõa (‘Poem about Ãrymr [a giant]’), whose titles’ second element, kviõa, probably denotes a narrative poem, embody continuous narratives of one or more known myths but are less common than the speech genres within the mythological group (see Klingenberg 1983).
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- A History of Old Norse Poetry and Poetics , pp. 29 - 39Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2005