The ''Sólarljóð'' (''The Song of the Sun'') is an
Old Norse poem
Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century (see Eggjum stone) to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was preserved in Iceland ...
, written in
Iceland ca 1200. It is written in the traditional metric style of the ''
Poetic Edda'', but with content from Christian visionary poems.
The poem is anonymous, even though it is in some manuscripts assigned to
Sæmund. In 82 ''
ljóðaháttr'' stanzas it gives a narrative, in which a deceased father is addressing his son from another world. The father doesn't reveal his identity until the last stanzas.
The title of the poem is given in stanza 81, and no doubt derives from the allusion to the Sun at the beginning of the stanzas 39–45, all beginning with ''
Sól ek sá ...'' "The Sun I saw ...". The first stanzas (1-24) give ''examples'' of the lives, death and fate of different, anonymous persons. Stanzas 25-32 are ''advice'', similar to those in ''
Hávamál
''Hávamál'' ( ; Old Norse: ,Unnormalised spelling in the :Title: Final stanza: ../ref> classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of he High One€™) is presented as a single poem in the Icelandic , a collection of Old Norse poems fr ...
'', while 33-38 is a "psychological biography" of the narrator's life. No 39-45 are the sun stanzas; followed by a section (46-56) where the narrator is placed in some
limbo between life and death. The next section, stanzas 57–80, describes his impressions of Hell and Heaven, often compared to ''The
Divine Comedy''. The last two stanzas are addressing the son, and the hope for resurrection.
Though written in the traditional metric style of the old Norse religious and wisdom poetry, the poem draws heavily on inspiration from European medieval visionary literature and the metaphors of contemporary Christian literature. Despite its references to Norse mythology, it bears no signs of syncretism, but bears a convinced testimony of the Christian religion.
["Solarljod er virket i Eddaversemålet Ljodahatt og gjenlyder av Eddakvad, mest av Haavamaal, men trods alt som er av hedensk arv i diktet, gir det ikke uttryk for blandingsreligion. Det gamle toner med, fordi det var blit sterkt i tiden, digteren bruker et sprog som mængden gjerne vil høre, men han bruker det til at ramme det hedenske livssyn." (Paasche, 1924, page 399)]
Excerpt
The two last stanzas in the edition of Ólafur Briem follow.
:81. ''Kvæði þetta,
:''er þér kennt hefig,''
:''skaltu fyr kvikum kveða:''
:''Sólarljóð,''
:''er sýnast munu''
:''minnst að mörgu login''.
:82. ''Hér við skiljumst''
:''og hittast munum''
:''á feginsdegi fira;''
:''drottinn minn''
:''gefi dauðum ró,''
:''en hinum lÃkn, er lifa''.
References
Editions
*
Sophus Bugge
Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic ...
(1867)
Sólarljóð(''Old Norse'')
*
Björn M. Ólsen
Björn Magnússon Ólsen (14 July 1850 – 16 January 1919) was an Icelandic scholar and politician. He was a member of the , the first Rector (academia), rector of the University of Iceland, and a professor of Icelandic language and culture ...
(1915
Sólarljóð pdf (''Icelandic'')
Sólarljóð Guðni Jónsson's edition with normalized spelling (''Old Norse'')
*Bergmann, "Les Chants de Sol", Strasbourg & Paris, 1858.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solarljodh
1200 works
12th-century poems
Old Norse poetry
Visionary poems
Limbo
Anonymous works
Fiction about the afterlife