Skapti Þóroddsson (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

: ;

Modern Icelandic Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian langua ...

: ; died 1030) was an Icelandic

lawspeaker A lawspeaker or lawman (Swedish: ''lagman'', Old Swedish: ''laghmaþer'' or ''laghman'', Danish: ''lovsigemand'', Norwegian: ''lagmann'', Icelandic: , Faroese: ''løgmaður'', Finnish: ''laamanni'', kl, inatsitinuk) is a unique Scandinavi ...

and

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 traditionall ...

. He became lawspeaker in 1004, succeeding his uncle Grímr when the latter's voice failed him. He held office till his death in 1030, longer than anyone else. According to the ''

Íslendingabók ''Íslendingabók'' (, Old Norse pronunciation: , ''Book of Icelanders''; ) is a historical work dealing with early Icelandic history. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari Þorgilsson, working in the early 12th century. The work originally exi ...

'' he instituted judicial reform by establishing the "fifth court", a national court of appeals. According to the '' Skáldatal'', Skapti was a court poet of

Hákon Sigurðarson Haakon Sigurdsson ( non, Hákon Sigurðarson , no, Håkon Sigurdsson; 937–995), known as Haakon Jarl (Old Norse: ''Hákon jarl''), was the ''de facto'' ruler of Norway from about 975 to 995. Sometimes he is styled as Haakon the Powerful ( n ...

but no details on that career are known. According to 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, derive ...

'', he composed a poem on king Óláfr Haraldsson and sent his son Steinn to perform it for the king. The only piece of poetry by Skapti which has come down to us is decidedly Christian and can not have been composed at Hákon's court.

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 th ...

cites the following half-stanza by Skapti in a discussion of Christian

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...

s in the ''

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, ...

''. Skapti is mentioned in some of the

Icelanders' sagas The sagas of Icelanders ( is, Íslendingasögur, ), also known as family sagas, are one genre of Icelandic sagas. They are prose narratives mostly based on historical events that mostly took place in Iceland in the ninth, tenth, and early el ...

, for example ''

Njáls saga ''Njáls saga'' ( ), also ''Njála'' ( ), ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' ( ) or ''"The Story of Burnt Njáll"'', is a thirteenth-century Icelandic saga that describes events between 960 and 1020. The saga deals with a process of blood feuds in the I ...

'' where he is insulted by Skarphéðinn Njálsson.

References

Íslendingabók
Finnur Jónsson's edition
Lovsigemandsrækken
Brodeur's translation

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skapti Thoroddsson Lawspeakers 10th-century Icelandic poets 11th-century Icelandic poets 1030 deaths Year of birth unknown