''Glymdrápa'' ("''

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 din") 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 by

Þorbjörn Hornklofi Þórbjǫrn Hornklofi (Modern Norwegian: ''Torbjørn Hornklove'') was a 9th-century Norwegian skald and one of the court poet of King Harald Fairhair. His poetry has sometimes been regarded as a contemporary source of information regarding King Har ...

, the court poet of King Harald I of Norway (''Haraldr hárfagri''). Composed toward the end of the 9th century, the poem recounts several battles waged by King Harald, mostly as he was uniting

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Composed in ''

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 ...

'', only seven stanzas and two half-stanzas are preserved, chiefly in the ''

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 ...

'' (''Haralds saga hárfagra''). ''Glymdrápa'' is the oldest praise poem to a king (''konungsdrápa'') which has come down to us. The poem has few clear geographical or historical points of reference, and the two sagas which quote it, ''Heimskringla'' and ''

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 ...

'' interpret it differently. In ''Heimskringla'', the poem is said to recount Harald's fight against the people of

Orkdal Orkdal is a former municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 2020 when it joined Orkland Municipality. It was part of the Orkdalen region. The administrative centre of the municipal ...

Oppdal is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Dovre region and the traditional district of Orkdalen. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Oppdal. Other villages in the municipality include Lønse ...

forest (''Uppdalsskógr''), first against Huntiof, King of Nordmøre (''Húnþjófr''), his son Solve Klove (''Sölvi'') and his father-in-law King Nokkve (''Nökkvi''), king of

Romsdal Romsdal is a traditional district in the Norwegian county Møre og Romsdal, located between Nordmøre and Sunnmøre. The district of Romsdal comprises Aukra, Fræna, Midsund, Molde, Nesset, Rauma, Sandøy, and Vestnes. It is named after ...

; second against Sölvi and his allies Arnviðr, king of Sunnmøre, and Auðbjörn, who ruled over the Fjords in the districts of

Nordfjord Nordfjord ( en, Northern fjord—in contrast to Sunnfjord) is a traditional district of Norway. Geography The region is located in the northern part of Vestland county in Western Norway. It centers on the Nordfjorden and it comprises the muni ...

and Sunnfjord. ''ca 863 - Slaget ved Solskjel'' (Middelalder på Sunnmøre)
/ref> Lastly Harald's battles in Gotland and finally his expedition westwards to fight

Vikings 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 se ...

, which led him to the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

. According to ''Fagrskinna's'' account, part of the poem relates events of the

Battle of Hafrsfjord The Battle of Hafrsfjord ( no, Slaget i Hafrsfjord) was a great naval battle fought in Hafrsfjord sometime between 872 and 900 that resulted in the unification of Norway, later known as the Kingdom of Norway. After the battle, the victorious Vikin ...

, the decisive battle in King Harald's

unification of Norway The Unification of Norway (Norwegian Bokmål: ''Rikssamlingen'') is the process by which Norway merged from several petty kingdoms into a single kingdom, predecessor to modern Kingdom of Norway. History King Harald Fairhair is the monarch who ...

References

Primary Sources

*
Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway
', translated Lee M. Hollander.(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992) *''Fagrskinna: A Catalogue of the Kings of Norway'', translated by Alison Finlay (Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004)

Other sources

* Boyer, Régis (1990) ''La Poésie scaldique''. Paris: Éd. du Porte-glaive. . * Faulkes, Anthony (ed.) (1998) ''Snorri Sturluson: Edda. Skáldskaparmál''. Vol. 2, ''Glossary and Index of Names''. London: Viking Society for Northern Research.

External links

Two editions of ''Glymdrápa''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glymdrapa Skaldic poems Cultural depictions of Harald Fairhair

See also

References

Primary Sources

Other sources

Related Reading

External links