''Vellekla'' (
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 ...
for "shortage of gold"
[Einar Helgason Skålaglam]
in ''Store norske leksikon''.) is a partially preserved ''
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 ...
'' (series of
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...
s with
refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...
) composed in the late 10th century by the Icelandic
skald Einar Helgason ''skálaglamm''. It is one of the two drápas he made for
Hákon ''jarl''. It speaks of the
Battle of Hjörungavágr
The Battle of Hjörungavágr (Norwegian: ''Slaget ved Hjørungavåg'') is a semi-legendary naval battle that took place in the late 10th century between the Jarls of Lade and a Danish invasion fleet led by the fabled Jomsvikings. This battle playe ...
and Hákon's campaign in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
, among other things.
[Einarr Helgason Skálaglamm]
in ''Nordisk Familjebok''.
Structure and preservation
Vellekla is not preserved as a complete poem in any manuscript but individual verses and sequences of verses are preserved as
quotations in several prose works. Various verses attributed to Einarr Skálaglamm but not ascribed to a particular poem have also
been taken by scholars to be a part of Vellekla.
As reconstructed by 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 ...
, most of the central narrative content of the poem is preserved in the kings' sagas
Kings' sagas ( is, konungasögur, nn, kongesoger, -sogor, nb, kongesagaer) are Old Norse sagas which principally tell of the lives of semi-legendary and legendary (mythological, fictional) Nordic kings, also known as saga kings. They were comp ...
; 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 ...
, 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 ...
, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta
''Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta'' or ''The Greatest Saga of Óláfr Tryggvason''
is generically a hybrid of different types of sagas and compiled from various sources in the fourteenth century, but is most akin to one of the kings' sagas. It ...
and Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey") is an important medieval Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes ...
.
Finnur believed that verses preserved in 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, in ...
, where Hákon is directly addressed, belong to the beginning
and end of the poem. Two lines are also preserved in the Third Grammatical Treatise
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (disambiguation)
* Third Avenue (disambiguation)
* Hig ...
. In Finnur's reconstruction, the total
number of verses is 37, of which 16 are half-verses and 21 are complete verses.[Eysteinn Björnsson.]
Editions
* Finnur Jónsson (ed.). ''Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning''. Vols 1A-2A (tekst efter håndskrifterne) and 1B-2B (rettet tekst). Copenhagen and Christiania slo Gyldendal, 1912–15; rpt. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1967 (A) and 1973 (B), vol. 1A, pp. 122–31, 1B, pp. 117–24.[Emmerson (2006:195–196).]
* Lindquist, Ivar (ed.) (1929). ''Norröna lovkväden från 800- och 900-talen. 1. Förslag till restituerad täxt jämte översättning'', pp. 44–55. Lund: Gleeruppp.[
* Kock, Ernst A. (ed.) (1946–50). ''Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen'', vol. 1, pp. 66–9. Lund: Gleerup.][
]
Translations
* Freudenthal, Axel Olof (1865).
Einar Skålaglams Vellekla, öfversatt och förklarad
'. Frenckell.[
* Hollander, Lee M. (trans.) (1945). ''The Skalds: A Selection of Their Poems''. New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation; Princeton: Princeton University Press.][
]
Notes
References
* Aschehoug & Gyldendal (2005).
Store norske leksikon
', vol. 1, 4th ed. Kunnskapsforlaget.
* Eysteinn Björnsson. ''Einarr skálaglamm''. http://www3.hi.is/~eybjorn/ugm/skindex/eskal.html
* Finnur Jónsson (1920). ''Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie''. Anden udgave. Første bind. København: G.E.C Gads forlag. Available online at https://archive.org/stream/denoldnorskeogol01finnuoft
* Meijer, Bernhard (ed.) (1904).
Nordisk familjebok
'. Stockholm: Nordisk familjeboks tryckeri.
External links
Vellekla
Old Norse edition and English translation at Skaldic Project.
Skaldic poems
Sources of Norse mythology
Ladejarl dynasty
{{Norse-myth-stub