Vetrliði Sumarliðason (

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

: ;

Modern Icelandic Icelandic ( ; , ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Since it is a West Scandinavian language, it ...

: ) was a 10th-century 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 ...

. He was the great-grandson of Ketill hængr ("salmon"), one of the settlers of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. He lived in Fljótshlíð, in the south of the island. Vetrliði was pagan and opposed the conversion to Christianity. He composed defamatory verses ('' níð'') about

Þangbrandr Þangbrandr was a missionary sent to Iceland by king of Norway Óláfr Tryggvason to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. Snorri Sturluson described him as follows: Origins Þangbrandr's origins are uncertain. In no less than two Icelandic s ...

, a missionary sent to Iceland by

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 ...

. He was killed by the priest (or by the priest and his companion Guðleifr Arason). In some versions, another skald,

Þorvaldr veili Þorvaldr (inn) veili ("the Ailing") was an Icelandic skald who lived in the last part of the 10th century. The ''Brennu-Njáls saga'' relates the circumstances of his death. Þorvaldr was pagan and opposed the conversion to Christianity. According ...

, was murdered for the same reason. A stanza was composed by an unknown author about Vetrliði's death: This episode is related in many sources: '' Kristni saga'', ''

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 ...

'', '' Brennu-Njáls saga'',

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 ...

's '' Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar'' and ''

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 ...

''. Only one stanza of his work survived, a '' lausavísa'' praising

Thor Thor (from ) is a prominent list of thunder gods, god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred g ...

for having killed

giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) * Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'g ...

and giantesses: :Thou didst break the leg of Leikn, :Didst cause to stoop Starkadr, :Didst bruise Thrívaldi, :Didst stand on lifeless Gjálp. : ::—''Skáldskaparmál'' (11)
Brodeur's translation
ref> Brodeur, Arthur Gilchrist (trans.). 1916.
Snorri Sturluson: The Prose Edda
'. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation.

References

External links

Vetrliði's ''lausavísa'' in the original language.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vetrlidhi Sumarlidhason 10th-century Icelandic poets Year of death missing Icelandic male poets Year of birth unknown