For the English writers of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles<\/a><\/em>, the capture of Canterbury was a grievous event: the 1011 entry laments that \u201cthere misery could be seen in the place where joy was often seen previously\u201d. But that is not at all how the taking of Canterbury is viewed in \u00d3ttarr\u2019s verse. Here, the assault offers grounds for celebration, an instance of the king\u2019s military prowess.<\/p>\n Old Norse poetry such as \u00d3ttarr\u2019s, in other words, gives us access to a perspective on the Viking Age from the Vikings themselves. Such poetry is full of journeys and battles, dominated by charismatic war-leaders who wield weapons, conquer lands, and share out treasure to their followers.<\/p>\n The stereotype of the Vikings as great warriors derives largely from this self-image that was cultivated by their poets. But that is by no means the only subject matter that we find in this body of verse. In the Viking Age, poetry was used to tell mythological stories about the gods and their cosmos, celebrate special occasions, woo prospective lovers, insult rivals, and commemorate everything from a generous gift to a well-decorated interior.<\/p>\n Composed in the Old Norse language, Viking poetry is the great under-used resource for exploring and understanding the early medieval Scandinavian world. Only in such poetry, and in the less eloquent corpus of runic inscriptions, can we hear the Vikings speak for themselves. Given that their actions and ideas have predominately been mediated to us through texts produced by their victims \u2013 in places such as England and France \u2013 its value cannot be overestimated. And the value of the verse is by no means purely historical. This is powerful and even dizzying poetry, marked by verbal ingenuity, imaginative invention and sheer, varied humanity.<\/p>\n Old Norse poetry was oral: it was composed without writing, recited publicly at social gatherings, received through the ear, and transmitted through memorisation. It was only decades or even centuries later that it was committed to writing, especially in Iceland, in the later medieval age of literacy.<\/p>\n Oral poetry is different from literate poetry in multiple ways. To compose oral poetry, you have to learn linguistic and metrical systems, and internalise a repertoire of potential words and phrases and formulae. The oral poet also has to command the attention of a public audience, not all of whom may be connoisseurs of such an art form. And you have to appeal to the ear, with arresting sound patterns and memorable locutions.<\/p>\n Viking poetry has customarily been divided into two main types, called \u2018eddic\u2019 and \u2018skaldic\u2019. These terms are modern rather than medieval ones, but they act as helpful labels for a distinction that seems to have been recognised by the Scandinavians themselves.<\/p>\n Eddic poetry was anonymous, easy to understand, mythological or legendary in content, and composed in a metre very similar to that used in other Germanic poetries (such as the Old English Beowulf<\/em><\/a>). Most of the eddic poetry that we have is preserved in the Codex Regius<\/em> manuscript, so named because it was gifted to the King of Denmark, having been discovered in Iceland by Brynj\u00f3lfur Sveinsson, bishop of Sk\u00e1lholt, in the 17th century.<\/p>\n This collection of poetry has come to be known as the Poetic Edda<\/em>, and contains 29 poems. These include tales about the beginning and the end of the Norse cosmos, poems that tell stories of the gods Odin and Thor, and ones dedicated to heroes such as Sigurd, who killed the dragon Fafnir and claimed his cursed gold for his own.<\/p>\n Skaldic poetry tended to be composed for specific events or patrons, and it is often attributable to named poets whose itinerant careers can be reconstructed. We know that \u00d3ttarr the Black composed not only for \u00d3l\u00e1fr Haraldsson of Norway, but also for a Norwegian magnate called Dala-Gu\u00f0brandr, for the Danish monarchs Swein Forkbeard<\/a> and Cnut the Great<\/a>, and two Swedish kings as well. We also know something of \u00d3ttarr\u2019s family background: he was an Icelander, and probably the nephew of Sigvatr \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0arson, the pre-eminent poet of the early 11th century.<\/p>\n Skaldic poetry was, then, an international medium. It can also be connected to historical facts \u2013 named poets, datable poems and known locations \u2013 in a way that is rare for early medieval poetry. It was composed in a dense, intensive style, and poets both drew on communal traditions and endeavoured to outshine each other with ingenious innovations.<\/p>\n \u00d3ttarr\u2019s poem for \u00d3l\u00e1fr Haraldsson is called H\u00f6fu\u00f0lausn<\/em> or Head-Ransom<\/em> (later traditions claim that the poet had offended the king, and had to save his skin, or ransom his head, by composing a praise-poem). It begins with both a call for hearing and an assurance of the poet\u2019s own excellence: \u201cListen, noble king with your retinue, to the memory of the dark one (ie \u00d3ttarr), because I know how to compose.\u201d<\/p>\n As the example of \u00d3ttarr suggests, skaldic poets were not noted for their modesty. A famous 10th-century skald, Egill Skalla-Gr\u00edmsson, came to the court of King Eric Bloodaxe in York and declared that he \u201ccarried poetry to the fields of England\u201d, as if the country had been hitherto lacking in such a prestige item.<\/p>\n The first two lines at the start of this article read in Old Norse: Atg\u00f6ngu vannt, yngvi, \/ \u00e6tt siklinga mikla<\/em>. Although skaldic poetry alliterates like other early verse (here, At-<\/em>, yng-<\/em> and \u00e6tt<\/em> alliterate with one another as they all start with vowels), it also shows a number of other demanding features not found in poetry such as Beowulf<\/em>. These include a precise counting of syllables (six to each line) and a bravura pattern of internal rhyme.\u00a0There is a specialist vocabulary to draw on \u2013 here yngvi<\/em> is a poetic term for \u2018king\u2019 or \u2018ruler\u2019 \u2013 and a system of metaphors called \u2018kennings\u2019, whereby a ship can be the \u2018reindeer of the ocean\u2019, or a sword can be the \u2018lightning of battle\u2019.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in his Head-Ransom<\/em>, \u00d3ttarr praises the king as the \u201cfeeder of the ospreys of the wound-sea\u201d: the wound-sea is blood, the ospreys of blood are carrion birds, and the feeder of the carrion birds is therefore the king as warrior, generously despatching a pile of enemies as the sign of a good day\u2019s work.<\/p>\n Norse gods don\u2019t fight battles as often as kings such as \u00d3l\u00e1fr Haraldsson. Yet they, too, have their problems and in Viking poems are constantly at odds with their enemies, the giants. The giants (or j\u00f6tnar<\/em> in Old Norse) of mythology are not fairy-tale creatures \u2013 they are instead depicted as having social structures similar to that of the gods themselves, and can communicate eloquently. It is not uncommon for a god (particularly Odin) to find himself in a wisdom contest with a giant, as in the poem Va\u00fer\u00fa\u00f0nism\u00e1l<\/em> or Vafthrudnir\u2019s Sayings<\/em>.<\/p>\n Here, Odin and the giant Vafthrudnir set their wits against each other and ask and answer questions about the Norse mythical world, its origins and cosmology. For example, Odin asks Vafthrudnir about the beginnings of the world, inquiring: \u201cWhence came the Earth \/ or the sky above?\u201d to which Vafthrudnir answers that: \u201cOf the flesh of Ymir \/ was the Earth shaped, \/ and cliffs of his bones, \/ the sky of the skull \/ of the hoar-frost-cold giant, \/ the sea of his sweat.\u201d<\/p>\n The violent destruction of the primordial giant Ymir\u2019s body to create the Earth is attested in a number of other Old Norse sources, including the eddic poem V\u00f6lusp\u00e1<\/em> (The Seeress\u2019s Prophecy<\/em>), which is the first poem in the Poetic Edda<\/em>.<\/p>\n The wisdom contest format allows us to observe not only the authority of Odin \u2013 he always wins \u2013 but also to learn about the Viking cosmos and world-view as the contestants ask and answer their questions. Viking poetry is often competitive, and insults can loom large, as part of the honour and shame culture of the early medieval world. The eddic poem Lokasenna<\/em> or Loki\u2019s Quarrel<\/em> is full of insults of sexual indiscretion. Among the cutting accusations that Loki hurls at the other gods is the suggestion that the wife of the martial Tyr has borne Loki\u2019s child, and he says to the war-god that \u201cnot an ell nor a penny \/ have you ever had for this \/ injustice, wretched one\u201d.<\/p>\n So not only has Tyr been cuckolded by Loki, but he also hasn\u2019t received any compensation for the offence. Tyr has not done what would normally have been considered the manly thing in this culture and taken vengeance on Loki, thus rendering this insult doubly shameful.<\/p>\n Competition also features in verses by a female poet called Steinunn Refsd\u00f3ttir. Composing in late 10th-century Iceland, in the last years of paganism there, Steinunn used her verse to brag that a missionary\u2019s ship had been destroyed by the power of Thor. The god, she said, broke \u201cthe bison of the place of the gull\u201d (ie ship), after Christ \u201cdid not protect\u201d it. Here, poetry gives us an insight into religious rivalries in the age of conversion<\/a>. In a head-to-head comparison between the vigorous Thor and the ineffective Christ, Steinunn declares a clear win for the former.<\/p>\n A different sort of rivalry can be found in verses attributed to two other Icelandic poets who were competing for the attention of the same woman, and used poetry as the medium through which to pursue their long-running feud. One of them, Bj\u00f6rn Arngeirsson, insulted his opponent by accusing him of being a rusilkv\u00e6\u00f0r<\/em> (\u2018rubbish poet\u2019) whose mother became pregnant through swallowing a hrognkelsi<\/em> or lumpfish. In response, the rival poet, \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0r Kolbeinsson, responded that Bj\u00f6rn was \u201cremoved from truth and wisdom\u201d and could produce only hv\u00edtm\u00e1l<\/em> (\u2018white or cowardly speech\u2019).<\/p>\n So Viking poetry could be low and lampooning as well as lofty and panegyric. And as these verses suggest, such poetry also enables us to access Viking humour. The poet Sigvatr, \u00d3ttarr\u2019s uncle, composed a set of Austrfararv\u00edsur<\/em> (Verses on a Journey to the East<\/em>), a comic travelogue about all the misfortunes that befell him on a diplomatic mission to Sweden. These included blisters on his feet, leaking boats and excessively cumbersome luggage.<\/p>\n Viking poetry could also transport its audience into the realms of tragedy. Norse poets understood love and loss just as keenly as we do and expressed those feelings in poignant verse. Among the tragic figures of the Norse legendary corpus is Brynhild. Stripped of her role as a Valkyrie when she falls in love with a man on the battlefield, Brynhild is later tricked and manipulated into marrying a man she doesn\u2019t love.<\/p>\n Heartbroken and furious, she orchestrates the murder of the one who wronged her and sets herself alight on a pyre. As she recounts the wrongs done to her and predicts devastation to come, the dying Brynhild addresses her husband, saying: \u201cI call many things to mind, how things went against me \/ when you dealt me the wounds of betrayal; \/ deprived of desire I was while I lived.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat did the Vikings use poetry for?<\/h3>\n
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Two types of Old Norse poetry: eddic and skaldic\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Old](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/AKG606889webready-b4516f0.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Old")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div> Eddic poetry was anonymous, easy to understand, mythological or legendary in content… Skaldic poetry tended to be composed for specific events or patrons, and it is often attributable to named poets <\/blockquote> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div>
![\"Norse](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/gr0034966H-2webready-40ccd6c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"VIKING")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>Divine verse: gods and giants in Viking poetry\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Viking humour and tragedy within the verse<\/h3>\n
![\"Norse](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2024\/05\/2B02TM9webready-63c47bf.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Norse")
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