Þorleifr Rauðfeldarson, known by the

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

''jarlsskáld'' or ''jarlaskáld'' ("earls'/earl's poet") was an Icelandic

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally compo ...

in the second half of the 10th century. He was one of the court poets of

Jarl Jarl was a rank of the nobility in Scandinavia during the Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. The institution evolved over time and varied by region. In Old Norse, it meant "chieftain", specifically one appointed to rule a territory in a king's stea ...

Hákon Sigurðarson Haakon 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 (), though the '' Ágrip'' and ''Historia Norwe ...

and composed ''

drápur A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry in alliterative verse, the other being Eddic poetry. Skaldic poems were traditionally comp ...

'' on both the jarl and King

Sweyn Forkbeard Sweyn Forkbeard ( ; ; 17 April 963 – 3 February 1014) was King of Denmark from 986 until his death, King of England for five weeks from December 1013 until his death, and King of Norway from 999/1000 until 1014. He was the father of King Ha ...

, but little of his work survives. He is the protagonist of ''Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds'', a largely fictional tale in the

Flateyjarbók ''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey, Breiðafjörður, Flatey") is an important medieval Iceland, Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and p ...

version of ''

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 is also mentioned in '' Svarfdœla saga'' and as a skald in a number of other sources, including ''

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and ov ...

'' and ''

Skáldatal ''Skáldatal'' (''Catalogue of Poets'') is a short prose work by Snorri Sturluson in Old Norse. It was preserved in two manuscripts: DG 11, or ''Codex Uppsaliensis'', which is one of the four main manuscripts of the ''Prose Edda'' (first quarter of ...

''.

Life

According to ''Svarfdœla saga'', ch. 11 or 12, Þorleifr was one of twin sons of Ásgeir Rauðfeldarson o
Brekka
in

Svarfaðardalur Svarfaðardalur (, "Svörfuður's valley") is a large valley in central north Iceland. It is a part of the Dalvíkurbyggð municipality. The Svarfaðardalsá River flows along the valley, having its mouth near to the town of Dalvík. About 10 km ...

, born when their mother was out tending sheep. According to "Þorleifs þáttr jarlaskálds", written in the late 13th or early 14th century, he was the youngest of three sons. He went to Norway as a young man, but left after coming into conflict with Jarl Hákon over trading rights; Hákon burned his ship and killed the crew. He then went to Denmark, where he became a courtier of Sweyn Forkbeard's but returned to Norway to recite a ''

níð In historical Germanic peoples, Germanic society, (Old Norse, in runic: , ; ) was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honour and the status of a villain. A person affected with the stigma is considered a nithing (, , , or ). Middle ...

'' verse at Hákon's court that caused the jarl's hair to fall out, after which Sweyn dubbed him ''jarlsskáld'', "the earl's poet". After returning to Iceland he lived in Mýrdalur, but Hákon, with the assistance of his tutelary goddesses Þorgerðr Hǫlgabrúðr and Irpa, sent a wooden figure containing a man's heart that successfully killed him at the

Alþingi The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what la ...

in about 990. He was buried there at

Þingvellir Þingvellir (, anglicised as ThingvellirThe spelling ''Pingvellir'' is sometimes seen, although the letter "p" is unrelated to the letter thorn (letter), "þ" (thorn), which is pronounced as "th".) was the site of the Althing, Alþing, the annual ...

.Kate Heslop
"Þorleifr jarlsskáld Rauðfeldarson"
, ''

Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages is a project which is editing the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic skaldic poetry., along with all poetry written down in runes. The project will publish nine volumes and is supported by a website. The c ...

'', 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2021. The final chapter recounts how a shepherd and unsuccessful skald named Hallbjǫrn sat on Þorleifr's grave-mound and Þorleifr came to him in a dream and taught him the art of poetry. Jan de Vries, ''Altnordische Literaturgeschichte'', 2 vols., Volume 2: ''Die Literatur von etwa 1150 bis 1300, Die Spätzeit nach 1300'', Grundriß der germanischen Philologie 16, Berlin: de Gruyter, 1967, p. 429 . This story clearly incorporates many fantasy elements, and it is likely that Þorleifr spent longer at Jarl Hákon's court,"Þorleifr Rauðfeldarson jarlaskáld", in:

Rudolf Simek Rudolf Simek (born 21 February 1954) is an Austrian philologist and religious studies scholar who is Professor and Chair of Ancient German and Nordic Studies at the University of Bonn. Simek specializes in Germanic studies, and is the author ...

and

Hermann Pálsson Hermann Pálsson (26 May 1921 – 11 August 2002) was an Icelandic language scholar and translator, "one of the most distinguished scholars of Icelandic studies of his generation". Often working in collaboration with others such as Magnus Magnus ...

, ''Lexikon der altnordischen Literatur'', Kröners Taschenausgabe 490, Stuttgart: Kröner, 1987, pp. 357–58 . but his composition of the ''níð'' verse is reported in several sources, including

Oddr Snorrason Oddr Snorrason whose name is also sometimes Anglicized as Odd Snorrason was a 12th-century Icelandic Benedictine monk at the Þingeyraklaustur monastery (''Þingeyrarklaustur''). The monastery was founded in 1133 and was the first in Iceland. Wor ...

's Latin life of

Óláfr Tryggvason Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken ( Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King ...

, so that detail must have been current by the end of the 12th century.

Poems

Other than the ''níð'' verse on Jarl Hákon, which is probably genuine, surviving work by Þorleifr jarlsskáld includes six probably spurious '' lausavísur'', the refrain from a ''drápa'' for King Sweyn that reportedly had 40 verses, and one and a half verses of a ''drápa'' for Jarl Hákon. Of this ''Hákonardrápa'', the full verse is:

In modern literature

Þórarinn Eldjárn Þórarinn Eldjárn (born 22 August 1949) is an Icelandic writer, particularly well known in Iceland for his humorous poetry books for children. Life and work Þórarinn is the son of Kristján Eldjárn, the third president of Iceland (in off ...

's ''Hér liggur skáld'' (2012) is about Þorleifr jarlsskáld.Þórunn Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir
"Mjög troðnir marvaðar mitt í dal Svarfaðar"
, ''Vísir'', 6 December 2012. Retrieved 7 March 2021 .

References

External links

at Skaldic Index, archived fro

on 11 August 2011
''Jarlsníð''
text and translation, ed. Kate Heslop, at the

project
"Þorleifs þáttur jarlaskálds"
in modernised Icelandic {{DEFAULTSORT:Thorleifr Jarlsskald 10th-century Icelandic poets