''Íslendingadrápa'' (''The
drápa
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 ...
of the Icelanders'') is a
skaldic poem
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 traditional ...
composed in Iceland in the 12th or 13th century. It is preserved only in AM 748 Ib 4to, one of the manuscripts of the
Prose Edda
The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...
. The manuscript identifies the author as one Haukr Valdísarson, a man otherwise unknown. The poem consists of 26 ''
dróttkvætt
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...
'' stanzas and the first two lines of the 27th. At that point, the preserved part of the manuscript terminates and the end of the poem is lost.
The poem relates the deeds of a number of Icelandic heroes and
skalds from the 10th and 11th centuries, including
Egill Skallagrímsson,
Grettir Ásmundarson,
Kormákr Ögmundarson
Kormákr Ögmundarson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ) was a 10th-century Icelandic skald. He is the protagonist of ''Kormáks saga'' which preserves a significant amount of poetry attributed to him. According to ''Skáldatal'' he was also the c ...
and
Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld Hallfreðr Óttarsson or Hallfreðr vandræðaskáld (''Troublesome Poet'') (c. 965 – c. 1007) was an Icelandic skald. He is the protagonist of ''Hallfreðar saga'' according to which he was the court poet first of Hákon Sigurðarson, then of Ó ...
.
Carol J. Clover has called the poem "a kind of native ''
de viris illustribus'' and ''
de casibus virorum illustrium'' combined".
[Clover 2005, p. 180.]
Notes
References
* Clover, Carol J. and John Lindow (2005). ''Old Norse-Icelandic Literature : A Critical Guide.'' University of Toronto Press.
* Guðrún Nordal (2001). ''Tools of Literacy : The Role of Skaldic Verse in Icelandic Textual Culture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries''. University of Toronto Press.
* Eysteinn Björnsson (2002). ''Index of Old Norse/Icelandic Skaldic Poetry''. Published online at: http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/skindex/skindex.html See in particular ''Íslendingadrápa'' at http://www.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/skindex/isl.html from the editions of
Finnur Jónsson
Finnur Jónsson (May 29, 1858 – March 30, 1934) was an Icelandic-Danish philologist and Professor of Nordic Philology at the University of Copenhagen. He made extensive contributions to the study of Old Norse literature.
Finnur Jónsson was b ...
and E. A. Kock.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Islendingadrapa
Skaldic poems