Skaldic poetry

Skaldic poetry is a Norse poetic tradition known for intricate meters, dense allusions, and kennings. Composed chiefly in Old Norse, it includes praise poems, memorial verses, and other forms.

Kennings: A kenning is a compound or phrase that metaphorically names something, such as “whale-road” for the sea. Skalds used compressed metaphorical names to make diction dense and allusive.
Court poetry: Court poetry is verse composed for or performed in the presence of a ruler or royal court. Skalds often praised Scandinavian rulers in verse delivered at their courts.
Viking Age: The Viking Age is the period of Scandinavian expansion, raiding, trade, and settlement conventionally dated from the late eighth to the eleventh century. Much early skaldic poetry was composed amid the political world of Viking-Age Scandinavia.
Ragnarsdrápa: Ragnarsdrápa is a fragmentary skaldic poem attributed to Bragi Boddason, describing mythological scenes depicted on a shield. Its ekphrastic descriptions show how kennings could turn pictured scenes into elaborate verse.
Dróttkvætt: Dróttkvætt is a strict Old Norse stanza form with six metrical lines, internal rhyme, and alliteration. This elaborate meter became a defining form for courtly skaldic verse.
Hákonarmál: Hákonarmál is a tenth-century skaldic poem by Eyvindr skáldaspillir about King Hákon the Good’s death and reception in Valhalla. It shows how a skaldic poem could memorialize a ruler through pagan imagery.
Bragi Boddason: Bragi Boddason was a ninth-century Norse poet, traditionally regarded as one of the earliest named skalds. His surviving fragments offer an early glimpse of the developing skaldic tradition.
Húsdrápa: Húsdrápa is a fragmentary skaldic poem by Úlfr Uggason describing mythological carvings in a hall in Iceland. It offers another surviving example of verse interpreting visual scenes through myth.
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in nearby words. Alliterative patterns organize skaldic lines alongside their internal rhymes.
Eiríksmál: Eiríksmál is an anonymous Old Norse poem portraying the dead king Eiríkr Bloodaxe welcomed into Valhalla. Its praise of a dead king exemplifies skaldic memorial poetry.

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