The Nordic Skalds

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise.
Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Corey Marks. Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet.
Jack Gilbert. Jane Hirshfield. Jean Vengua. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). J. Zimmerman (tanka).
Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Kay Ryan.
Laureate Poets: Britain; USA.
Louise Glück. Len Anderson. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A).
Richard Hugo. Robert Bly. Sara Teasdale. Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

On the Skalds
by J. Zimmerman

The Skalds by Lee M. Hollander.
Structure of the skalds.
The skalds: an annotated list.
Kings and others contemporary with the skalds. Links. Books.

The Skalds: A Selection of Their Poems, With Introduction and Notes by Lee M. Hollander.

Hollander's is the most helpful book for people that cannot read books in Icelandic, Norwegian, or German.

First published in 1945 by the American-Scandavian Foundation.
Republished in 1968 as an Ann Arbor paperback.
Highly recommended.
Look for it at your local library.
Look for it in used book stores.
Generous introduction, which presents history, context, form, etc.
Ten sections on the poets:
A section on the so-called "Erotic" (though I find that one skald's eroticism is another person's sociopathy) tells of poets:

The skalds: an annotated list.

The information here is based primarily on the information in The Skalds by Lee M. Hollander. The skalds are ordered by their estimated year of birth.

They began in the early ninth century in Norway. The Icelandic skalds became dominant at the end of the tenth century and developed a strong tradition into the fourteenth century. Icelanders continue to create and admire skaldic verse today.

Bragi Boddason. Skald to Swedish King Biorn.
Thorbiorn Hornklofi. Skald to King Harold Fairhair.
Thiódólf of Hvin. Skald to King Harold Fairhair and then to Thorlief the Wise .
Úlf. At the marriage feast of the daughter of Olaf pá (~978 AD).
Egil Skallagrímsson. Hollander considers Egil "the most original and also the most versatile of skalds. His was the genius which may have composed some of the great poems the Poetic Edda."
? Skald to King Eric Bloody-Axe. Skald to King Hákon the Good.
Einar Helgason (b. ~950); grandson of early settler in Iceland.
Kórmak Ogmundarson (b. ~945). One of the "erotic" skalds, though one skald's eroticism is another person's sociopathy.
Hallfred Ottarsson (b. ~970). One of the "erotic" skalds, though one skald's eroticism is another person's sociopathy.
Gunnlaug Illugason (b. ~984). One of the "erotic" skalds, though one skald's eroticism is another person's sociopathy.
Sigvat Thordarson.
Arnor Thordarson.
Thiodolf Arnorsson.
Harold Sigurdarson.
Sneglu-Halli.
Snorri Sturluson (b. ~1178 in West Iceland). A remote descendent of the great Egil Skallagrímsson. Snorri wrote:
1. History of the Norwegian Kings, "undoubtedly the best history written in the Middle Ages, a large book without a dull page, packed full of thrilling incidents and shrewd characterizations." [Hollander].
2. Snorri's Edda or the Prose Edda. The first part is various myths, "stories that were a very treasure-house for later poets, as they had formed the basis of innumerable kennings of the earlier skalds." [Hollander]. The second part tells how Odin gained the Mead of Poetry and then describes (prosily) poetic speech. as they had formed the basis of innumerable kennings of the earlier skalds." [Hollander]. The third part shows various meters of Skaldic and Eddic verse, and was written ostensibly in praise of King Híkon Híkonarson and the regent of Norway, Earl Skuli.
We know of the earlier poets primarily through the quotations of their work by Snorri.
However, Snorri Sturluson appears to have been a nasty man:
"He married twice - both times into great wealth. And this he increased still further by unscrupulous methods; ... his life was anything but exemplary, and his death by murder, in 1241, but the fitting end of a career of duplicity and tortuous politics. His fame rests on his literary genius, all in all the greatest of ancient Scandinavia." [Hollander].

Kings and others contemporary with the skalds.

Swedish King Biorn.
King Harold Fairhair.
Thorlief the Wise .
King Eric Bloody-Axe.
King Hákon the Good.

Structure of Skaldic verse.: The forms of skaldic verse varied, as the hundreds of Skalds vied to outdo each other, between political factions, within political factions, and with the prominent skalds of the past.

Links.

Forms of skaldic verse.
Snorri's Edda.
Book log of The Skalds: a Selection of Their Poems by Lee Milton Hollander.
Laureate: the Poets Laureate of Britain
Laureate: the Poets Laureate of the U.S.A.
Best Poems by the Best Poets - Some Lists of Winners.

Books.

Other Books of Poetry Form.

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