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Eyjólfr Dáðaskáld
Eyjólfr dáðaskáld (''poet of deeds'') was a skald active in the early 11th century. He was the court poet of Eiríkr Hákonarson for whom he composed the ''Bandadrápa'', his only known poem. Eight stanzas and a refrain are preserved of the ''Bandadrápa'' in the kings' sagas, primarily ''Heimskringla'', and in ''Skáldskaparmál''. The content of the poem is also summarized in ''Fagrskinna''. The preserved parts of ''Bandadrápa'' relate Eiríkr's early deeds; his killing of Skopti, his becoming a jarl Jarl is a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. ''Jarl'' could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the petty k ... at a young age, his raids in the Baltic and his attack on Ladoga. Judging from the ''Fagrskinna'' summary the complete poem was much more extensive, going up to the battle of Svöldr and beyond. It may have been composed around t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skald
A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionally composed on one occasion, sometimes extempore, and include both extended works and single verses ('' lausavísur''). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings and heiti, more interlacing of sentence elements, and the complex ''dróttkvætt'' metre. 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 is unknown. The earliest known skald from whom verses survive is Bragi Boddason, known as Bragi the Old, a Norwegian skald of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eiríkr Hákonarson
Erik Hakonsson, also known as Eric of Hlathir or Eric of Norway, (, 960s – 1020s) was Earl of Lade, Governor of Norway and Earl of Northumbria. He was the son of Earl Hákon Sigurðarson and brother of the legendary Aud Haakonsdottir of Lade. He participated in the Battle of Hjörungavágr, the Battle of Svolder and the conquest of England by King Canute the Great. Name Eric is referred to in various ways in the medieval sources and by modern scholars. He most commonly witnessed charters as ''Yric dux'' ("Duke Eric") but his name is also spelled ''Yric'', ''Yrric'', ''Iric'', ''Eiric'' or ''Eric'' in 11th-century Latin and Old English sources. In Old Norse sources, using normalized orthography, he is most commonly ''Eiríkr jarl'' ("Earl Eric") or ''Eiríkr jarl Hákonarson'', but sometimes as ''Eirekr''. Modern historians usually use a variant of Eiríkr/Eirik/Eric and his patronym, Hákonarson/Hakonarson/Hakonson, meaning "son of Haakon". In modern Norwegian, it would be ''E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kings' Sagas
Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were composed during the twelfth through the fourteenth centuries, primarily in Iceland, but with some written in Norway. Kings' sagas frequently contain episodic stories known in scholarship as '' þættir'', such as the '' Íslendingaþættir'' (about Icelanders), ''Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa'', '' Hróa þáttr heimska'', and '' Eymundar þáttr hrings'' (about people from elsewhere). List of Kings' sagas Including works in Latin, and in approximate order of composition (though many dates could be off by decades) *A Latin work by Sæmundr fróði, c. 1120, lost. *The older version of ''Íslendingabók'' by Ari fróði, c. 1125, lost. *''Hryggjarstykki'' by Eiríkr Oddsson, c. 1150, lost. *''Historia Norvegiæ Historia may refer to: * His ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heimskringla
''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derived from the first two words of one of the manuscripts (''kringla heimsins'', "the circle of the world"). ''Heimskringla'' is a collection of sagas about Swedish and Norwegian kings, beginning with the saga of the legendary Swedish dynasty of the Ynglings, followed by accounts of historical Norwegian rulers from Harald Fairhair of the 9th century up to the death of the pretender Eystein Meyla in 1177. The exact sources of the Snorri's work are disputed, but they include earlier kings' sagas, such as Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna and the 12th-century Norwegian synoptic histories and oral traditions, notably many skaldic poems. He explicitly names the now lost work ''Hryggjarstykki'' as his source for the events of the mid-12th century. Although Sno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skáldskaparmál
''Skáldskaparmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Language of Poetry'; c. 50,000 words; ; ) is the second part of the ''Prose Edda''. The section consists of a dialogue between Ægir, the divine personification 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 (like ''steed'' for ''horse''), and again systematises these. This in a way forms an early form of poetic thesaurus. References Bibliography * Further reading * Anthony Faulkes"The sources of ''Skáldskaparmál'': Snorri’s intellectual background" in: Alois Wolf (ed.), ''Snorri Sturluson'', Volume 51 of ScriptOralia, Gunter Narr Verlag (1993), 59–76. External ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fagrskinna
''Fagrskinna'' ( ; is, Fagurskinna ; trans. "Fair Leather" from the type of parchment) is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It is an intermediate source for the ''Heimskringla'' of Snorri Sturluson, containing histories of Norwegian kings from the 9th to 12th centuries, as well as skaldic verse. Description ''Fagrskinna'' is one of the kings' sagas, written around 1220. It takes its name from one of the manuscripts in which it was preserved, ''Fagrskinna'' meaning 'Fair Leather', i.e., 'Fair Parchment'. ''Fagrskinna'' proper was destroyed by fire, but copies of it and another vellum have been preserved. An immediate source for the ''Heimskringla'' of Snorri Sturluson, ''Fagrskinna'' is a central text in the genre of kings' sagas. It contains a vernacular history of Norway from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, from the career of Halfdan the Black to the Battle of Re in 1177, and includes extensive citation of skaldic verses, some of them preserved nowhere else. It ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jarl (title)
Jarl is a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia. In Old Norse, it meant "Germanic chieftain, chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. ''Jarl'' could also mean a sovereign prince. For example, the rulers of several of the petty kingdoms of Norway had the title of ''jarl'' and in many cases they had no less power than their neighbours who had the title of king. It became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced by duke (''hertig''/''hertug''/''hertog''). The word is etymologically related to the English earl. Etymology The term ''jarl'' has been compared to the name of the Heruli, and to runic ''erilaz''. Proto-Norse ''eril'', or the later Old Norse , came to signify the rank of a leader. Norway In later medieval Norway, the title of ''jarl'' was the highest rank below the king. There was usually no more than one ''jarl'' in mainland Norway at any one time, and sometimes none. The ruler of the Norwegian dependency of Orkney held the ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staraya Ladoga
Staraya Ladoga (russian: Ста́рая Ла́дога, p=ˈstarəjə ˈladəɡə, lit=Old Ladoga), known as Ladoga until 1704, is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, north of the town of Volkhov, the administrative center of the district. It used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries. It was dominated by Varangians who became known as the Rus'. For that reason, it is sometimes called the first capital of Russia. History Origin Dendrochronology suggests that Ladoga was founded in 753. Until 950, it was one of the most important trading ports of Eastern Europe. Merchant vessels sailed from the Baltic Sea through Ladoga to Novgorod and then to Constantinople or the Caspian Sea. This route is known as the trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks. An alternative way led down the Volga River along the Volga trade route to the Khazar capital of Atil, and then ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Svöldr
The Battle of Svolder (''Svold'' or ''Swold'') was a large naval battle during the Viking age, fought in September 999 or 1000 in the western Baltic Sea between King Olaf of Norway and an alliance of the Kings of Denmark and Sweden and Olaf's enemies in Norway. The backdrop of the battle was the unification of Norway into a single independent state after longstanding Danish efforts to control the country, combined with the spread of Christianity in Scandinavia. King Olaf Tryggvason was sailing to, or home from, an expedition in Wendland (Pomerania), when he was ambushed by an alliance of Svein Forkbeard, King of Denmark, Olof Skötkonung (also known as Olaf Eiríksson or Olaf the Swede), King of Sweden, and Eirik Hákonarson, Jarl of Lade. According to the Saga of King Olaf I Tryggvason, he had 60 warships plus the contribution of 11 warships from the Jomvikingsbr> His ships were captured one by one, last of all the '' Ormen Lange (longship), Ormen Lange'', which Jarl Eirik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Einarr Skálaglamm
Einarr Helgason, known by the epithet ''skálaglamm'' ("tinkle-scales") was a 10th-century Icelandic skald. He was a court poet of Lord Hákon to whom he dedicated his magnum opus, the '' Vellekla'' (''Gold Dearth''). Einarr's added name ''skálaglamm'' means "tinkle-scales" and refers to a set of balances and weights with divinatory powers, given to him by Hákon. The part of Einarr's poetry that has come down to us is preserved in the Kings' sagas, the ''Prose Edda'', ''Egils saga'' and ''Jómsvíkinga saga''. According to Egils saga, Einarr was a friend of Egill Skalla-Grímsson and once gave him a decorated shield which he had received in Norway. Egill was greatly displeased since tradition compelled him to compose a ''drápa'' on the shield. According to Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viking Age Poets
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9–22. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, Volga Bulgaria, the Middle East, and North America. In some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a collective whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Estonia, and Kievan Rus'. Expert sailors and navigators aboard their characteristic longships, Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in the British Isles, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, and the Baltic coast, as well as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
11th-century Poets
The 11th century is the period from 1001 ( MI) through 1100 ( MC) in accordance with the Julian calendar, and the 1st century of the 2nd millennium. In the history of Europe, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages. There was, after a brief ascendancy, a sudden decline of Byzantine power and a rise of Norman domination over much of Europe, along with the prominent role in Europe of notably influential popes. Christendom experienced a formal schism in this century which had been developing over previous centuries between the Latin West and Byzantine East, causing a split in its two largest denominations to this day: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. In Song dynasty China and the classical Islamic world, this century marked the high point for both classical Chinese civilization, science and technology, and classical Islamic science, philosophy, technology and literature. Rival political factions at the Song dynasty court created strife amongs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
