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Aldarháttur
''Aldarháttur'' ('signs of the times') is a seventeenth-century Icelandic poem by the famous poet and churchman Hallgrímur Pétursson. It is one of the first poetic examples of Icelanders regarding their medieval past as a golden age. Origin The poem was almost certainly composed in 1663, inspired by the Icelanders officially accepting the King of Denmark as their absolute monarch in 1662.Margrét Eggertsdóttir, 'From Reformation to Enlightenment', trans. by Joe Allard, in ''A History of Icelandic Literature'', ed. by Daisy Nejmann, Histories of Scandinavian Literature, 5 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), pp. 174-250 (at p. 211). Form The poem is hexametrical, written in leonine metre. It is the first example of the adaptation of this metre to Icelandic poetry, showing the influence of early modern humanism in Iceland. However, it also draws on the language of medieval Icelandic skaldic verse. Thus the poem combines Classical and indigenous traditions in a strik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hallgrímur Pétursson
Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 – 27 October 1674) was an Icelandic poet and a minister at Hvalsneskirkja and Saurbær in Hvalfjörður. Being one of the most prominent Icelandic poets, the Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík and the Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbær are named in his honor. He was one of the most influential pastors during the Age of Orthodoxy (1580–1713). Because of his contributions to Lutheran hymnody, he is sometimes called the Icelandic Paul Gerhardt. Biography left, The Hallgrímskirkja in Saurbær. Hallgrímur Pétursson was likely born at Gröf in Skagafjörður. He grew up at Hólar, where his father was the bell-ringer and his cousin Guðbrandur Þorláksson the resident bishop. As a young man, he left Hólar for unknown reasons and travelled to mainland Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the '' Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages, Gold being the first and the one during which the Golden Race of humanity ( ''chrýseon génos'') lived. After the end of the first age was the Silver, then the Bronze, after this the Heroic age, with the fifth and current age being Iron. By extension, "Golden Age" denotes a period of primordial peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity. During this age, peace and harmony prevailed in that people did not have to work to feed themselves for the earth provided food in abundance. They lived to a very old age with a youthful appearance, eventually dying peacefully, with spirits living on as "guardians". Plato in '' Cratylus'' (397 e) recounts the golden race of humans who came first. He clarifies that Hesiod did not mean literally made of gold, but good and noble. In classical Greek mytholog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonine Verse
Leonine verse is a type of versification based on internal rhyme, and commonly used in Latin verse of the European Middle Ages. The invention of such conscious rhymes, foreign to Classical Latin poetry, is traditionally attributed to a probably apocryphal monk Leonius, who is supposed to be the author of a history of the Old Testament (''Historia Sacra'') preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris. This "history" is composed in Latin verses which rhyme in the center. It is possible that this Leonius is the same person as Leoninus, a Benedictine musician of the twelfth century, in which case he would not have been the original inventor of the form. It is sometimes referred to disparagingly as "jangling verse" by classical purists, for example 19th century antiquaries, who consider it absurd and coarse and a corruption of and offensive to the high ideals of classical literature. In English, the rhyme may be between a word within the line (often before a caesura) and the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humanism
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" has changed according to the successive intellectual movements that have identified with it. During the Italian Renaissance, ancient works inspired scholars in various Italian cities, giving rise to a movement now called Renaissance humanism. With Enlightenment, humanistic values were re-enforced by the advances in science and technology, giving confidence to humans in their exploration of the world. By the early 20th century, organizations solely dedicated to humanism flourished in Europe and the United States, and have since expanded all over the globe. In the current day, the term generally refers to a focus on human well-being and advocates for human freedom, autonomy, and progress. It views humanity as responsible for the prom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skaldic Verse
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 composed on one occasion, sometimes extempore, and include both extended works and single verses ('' lausavísur''). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings and heiti, more interlacing of sentence elements, and the complex ''dróttkvætt'' metre. More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda'', a handbook of skaldic composition that led to a revival of the art. Many of these verses are fragments of originally longer works, and the authorship of many is unknown. The earliest known skald from whom verses survive is Bragi Boddason, known as Bragi the Old, a Norwegian skald of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Icelandic Commonwealth
The Icelandic Commonwealth, also known as the Icelandic Free State, was the political unit existing in Iceland between the establishment of the Althing in 930 and the pledge of fealty to the Norwegian king with the Old Covenant in 1262. With the probable exception of hermitic Irish monks known as Papar, Iceland was an uninhabited island until around 874. The Icelandic Commonwealth had a unique political system whereby chieftains (''goðar'') established a common legal code and settled judicial disputes at the Althing, a national assembly. However, there was no executive body in Iceland that enforced the legal code. The Icelandic Commonwealth has consequently been characterized as a stateless society. During the 13th century, Iceland came under the control of the Norwegian Kingdom. Goðorð system The medieval Icelandic state had a unique judicial structure. The first settlers of Iceland were greatly influenced by their Norwegian roots when creating their own form of government ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bjarki Karlsson
Bjarki Karlsson (born 1965) is an Icelandic poet, translator, linguist, and systems analyst. His first poetry collection, ''Árleysi alda'', won the Bókmenntaverðlaun Tómasar Guðmundssonar (Tómas Guðmundsson Award) for 2013. and the Bókmenntaverðlaun starfsfólks bókaverslana in the poetry category in the same year. The book was Iceland's best-selling poetry collection in 2013. Personal life He is active in Ásatrúarfélagið where he was a board member from 2011 to 2013.Allsherjarþing 2013 Ásatrúarfélagið. After stepping down from the board he has continued to work with the organization's website. Bibliography Poetry [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Icelandic Literature
Icelandic literature refers to literature written in Iceland or by Icelandic people. It is best known for the sagas written in medieval times, starting in the 13th century. As Icelandic and Old Norse are almost the same, and because Icelandic works constitute most of Old Norse literature, Old Norse literature is often wrongly considered a subset of Icelandic literature. However, works by Norwegians are present in the standard reader ''Sýnisbók íslenzkra bókmennta til miðrar átjándu aldar'', compiled by Sigurður Nordal on the grounds that the language was the same. Early Icelandic literature The medieval Icelandic literature is usually divided into three parts: * Eddic poetry * Sagas * Skaldic poetry The ''Eddas'' There has been some discussion on the probable etymology of the term "Edda". Most say it stems from the Old Norse term ''edda'', which means great-grandmother, but some see a reference to Oddi, a place where Snorri Sturluson (the writer of the '' Prose Edda'') w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nordic Literature
Scandinavian literature or Nordic literature is the literature in the languages of the Nordic countries of Northern Europe. The Nordic countries include Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway (including Svalbard), Sweden, and Scandinavia's associated autonomous territories (Åland, Faroe Islands and Greenland). The majority of these nations and regions use North Germanic languages. Although majority of Finns speak Uralic languages, Finnish history and literature are clearly interrelated with those of both Sweden and Norway who have shared control of various areas and who have substantial Sami populations/influences. These peoples have produced an important and influential literature. Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, was largely responsible for the popularity of modern realistic drama in Europe, with plays like ''The Wild Duck'' and ''A Doll's House''. Nobel prizes for literature, itself a Scandinavian award, have been awarded to Selma Lagerlöf, Verner von Heidenstam, Kar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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