Ragnarsdrápa (Ragnar's
Poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
) 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 traditionally ...
said to have been composed in honour of the Scandinavian hero,
, but likely actually addressed to some later Ragnar. It is attributed to the oldest known
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 ...
,
Bragi Boddason
Bragi Boddason, known as Bragi the Old (Old Norse: ''Bragi hinn gamli'') was a Norwegian skald active in the first half of the 9th century, the earliest known skald from whom verses have survived. Portions of his ''Ragnarsdrápa'' are preserved ...
, who lived in the 9th century, and was composed for the Swedish king
Björn at Haugi
Björn at Haugi ("Björn at the Barrow" from the Old Norse word ''haugr'' meaning mound), Björn på Håga, Björn II or Bern was, according to '' Hervarar saga'', a Swedish king and the son of Erik Björnsson, and Björn ruled together in diarch ...
. Bragi describes the images on a decorated shield which Ragnar had given to him. The images included:
*the attack of
Hamdir and Sorli
Hamdir (Old Norse: ), Sörli (O.N.: ), and Erpr (O.N.: ) were three brothers in Germanic heroic legend who have a historic basis in the history of the Goths.
Legend
According to the Edda and ''Völsunga saga'', Hamdir and Sörli were the sons of ...
against King
Jörmunrekkr
*the never-ending battle between
Heðinn and Hǫgni.
*
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...
's fishing for
Jörmungandr
In Norse mythology, Jörmungandr ( non, Jǫrmungandr, lit=the Vast gand, see Etymology), also known as the Midgard Serpent or World Serpent ( non, Miðgarðsormr), is an unfathomably large sea serpent or worm who dwells in the world sea, encir ...
(The Midgard Serpent)
*
Gefjun
In Norse mythology, Gefjon (Old Norse: ; alternatively spelled Gefion, or Gefjun , pronounced without secondary syllable stress) is a goddess associated with ploughing, the Danish island of Zealand, the legendary Swedish king Gylfi, the legenda ...
's ploughing of
Zealand
Zealand ( da, Sjælland ) at 7,031 km2 is the largest and most populous island in Denmark proper (thus excluding Greenland and Disko Island, which are larger in size). Zealand had a population of 2,319,705 on 1 January 2020.
It is the 1 ...
from the soil of Sweden
The extant fragments of ''Ragnarsdrápa'' are preserved in
Snorri Sturluson
Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of the ...
's ''
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 ...
''.
Lee M. Hollander
Lee Milton Hollander (November 8, 1880 – October 19, 1972) was an American philologist who specialized in Old Norse studies. Hollander was for many years head of the Department of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas at Austin. ...
, ''The Skalds: A Selection of Their Poems, With Introduction and Notes'', The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1945, repr. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University, 1947, , pp. 25–26. The episodes of Hamdir and Sorli and Heðinn and Hǫgni are explicitly ascribed to ''Ragnarsdrápa'' while the other parts are inferred by scholars to belong to the same poem, describing the images on the four quarters of the shield, in four stanzas each with, presumably, a lost refrain.
[
The poem is often compared with '']Húsdrápa
''Húsdrápa'' (Old Norse: 'House-Lay') is a skaldic poem partially preserved in the Prose Edda where disjoint stanzas of it are quoted. It is attributed to the skald Úlfr Uggason. The poem describes mythological scenes carved on kitchen panels. ...
'' and ''Haustlöng
''Haustlǫng'' (Old Norse: 'Autumn-long'; anglicized as ''Haustlöng'') is a skaldic poem composed around the beginning of the 10th century by the Norwegian skald Þjóðólfr of Hvinir.
The poem has been preserved in the 13th-century ''Prose Ed ...
'', which also describe artworks depicting mythological scenes. Like Haustlöng, it uses archaic and complex kennings in a manner which strains the syntax. Although the 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 a ...
metre violates some of the rules developed later, it is well executed; this and the complexity of language demonstrate that there had already been considerable development of skaldic verse.[Hollander, p. 26.]
See also
* Ekphrasis
The word ekphrasis, or ecphrasis, comes from the Greek for the written description of a work of art produced as a rhetorical or literary exercise, often used in the adjectival form ekphrastic. It is a vivid, often dramatic, verbal descrip ...
References
External links
Ragnarsdrápa
in Old Norse in 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 ...
's edition, at Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad, Norway.
Two editions of the original text
on Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
)
The first two half-stanzas read aloud
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ragnarsdrapa
Cultural depictions of Ragnar Lodbrok
Skaldic poems
Works based on art