A SELECTION OF SKALDIC POEMS

• Main Author: Elena A. Gurevich
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2016-12-01
• Series: Studia Litterarum
• Subjects: Old Norse literature; skaldic poetry; praise poems; lausavísur; dróttkvætt; kenning; þættir; poetic translation
• Online Access: http://old.studlit.ru/1-3-4/Gurevich.pdf
• ISSN: 2500-4247; 2541-8564

Rendering skaldic poetry into another language is a challenge for translators. The main feature of this poetic system is its highly intricate form governed by rigid rules. Skaldic poetry emerged in Norway in the pre-written period and existed for more than half a millennium, from the middle of the 9th Сentury to the end of the 14th; from the 10th Сentury onwards it was composed almost exclusively by the Icelanders. Skaldic art was highly valued at the Scandinavian court: by glorifying the exploits of the kings in praise-poems, skalds immortalized their deeds in human memory. Taking its origin from the Old Norse epic verse, skaldic poetry differs from the former in terms of subject matter (contemporary and often momentary events as opposed to mythological and heroic past), formal properties (a highly complex poetic technique as opposed to an unsophisticated form), and attitude to authorship. Whereas epic poems were created and transmitted by anonymous singers, skaldic verses were produced by authors who often made their personal skills a poetic theme. The introduction to the current selection of Russian translations of skaldic poems contains a description of metrical and syntactical structure of the basic poetic unit, vísa (stanza), composed in the main skaldic metre, dróttkvætt (‘court meter’). It also discusses the most important element of skaldic language, i.e. simple and multi-member kenning (periphrasis substituted for the nouns of common speech). The selection includes examples of praise poems and of lausavísur (‘loose stanzas’) composed by Icelandic skalds of the 11th and 12th Centuries which have been preserved in the þættir, short stories incorporated into the sagas of Norwegian kings.