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Sneglu-Halli
''The Tale of Sarcastic Halli'' (Icelandic ''Sneglu-Halla þáttur'') is an Icelandic þáttr that despite being criticized for its lack of proper structure, has been praised for its strong comedic effect. The þáttr tells the tale of a battle of wits between Sarcastic (or Skinny) Halli and Thjodolf master-poet in their attempts to appeal to King Harald. The þáttr is contained in the kings' saga ''Morkinskinna'', and an extended version exists in ''Flateyjarbók'', which is the basis for the English translation. Plot synopsis ''Flateyjarbók'' version Sarcastic Halli, an Icelander named for his sharp wit, entered into King Harald’s service and into competition with the court's master-poet, Thjodolf, to see who was the best. After quickly composing an insulting verse of the court's dwarf, Halli’s great skill is acknowledged by the king. Halli soon becomes a critic of the king and his dining practices, as the king would start eating first and remove all food after he was f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 region's westernmost and most list of countries and dependencies by population density, sparsely populated country. Its Capital city, capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which is home to about 36% of the country's roughly 380,000 residents (excluding nearby towns/suburbs, which are separate municipalities). The official language of the country is Icelandic language, Icelandic. Iceland is on a rift between Plate tectonics, tectonic plates, and its geologic activity includes geysers and frequent Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions. The interior consists of a volcanic plateau with sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, and many Glacial stream, glacial rivers flow to the sea through the Upland and lowland, lowlands. Iceland i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
þáttr
The ''þættir'' (Old Norse singular ''þáttr'', literally meaning a "strand" of rope or yarn)O'Donoghue (2004:226). are short stories written mostly in Iceland during the 13th and 14th centuries. The majority of ''þættir'' occur in two compendious manuscripts, '' Morkinskinna'' and ''Flateyjarbók'', and within them most are found as digressions within kings' sagas. Sverrir Tómasson regards those in ''Morkinskinna'', at least, as '' exempla'' or illustrations inseparable from the narratives that contain them, filling out the picture of the kings' qualities, good and bad, as well as adding comic relief.Sverrir Tómasson (2006:111-13). Íslendinga þættir The short tales of Icelanders or ''Íslendinga þættir'' focus on Icelanders, often relating the story of their travels abroad to the court of a Norwegian king. List of short tales: * '' Albani þáttr ok Sunnifu'' * '' Arnórs þáttr jarlaskálds'' * '' Auðunar þáttr vestfirzka'' * '' Bergbúa þáttr'' * '' Bolla þ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harald Hardrada
Harald Sigurdsson (; – 25 September 1066), also known as Harald III of Norway and given the epithet ''Hardrada'' in the sagas, was List of Norwegian monarchs, King of Norway from 1046 to 1066. He unsuccessfully claimed the Monarchy of Denmark, Danish throne until 1064 and the List of English monarchs, English throne in 1066. Before becoming king, Harald spent 15 years in exile as a mercenary and military commander in Kievan Rus' and chief of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire. In his Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, chronicle, Adam of Bremen called him the "''Thunderbolt of the North''". In 1030, the fifteen-year-old Harald fought in the Battle of Stiklestad along-side his half-brother Saint Olaf, Olaf Haraldsson. Olaf sought to reclaim the Norwegian throne, which he had lost to Danish king Cnut two years previously. Olaf and Harald were defeated by forces loyal to Cnut, and Harald was forced into exile to Kievan Rus'. Thereafter, he was in the army of Gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morkinskinna
''Morkinskinna'' is an Old Norse kings' saga, relating the history of Norwegian kings from approximately 1025 to 1157. The saga was written in Iceland around 1220, and has been preserved in a manuscript from around 1275. The name ''Morkinskinna'' means "mouldy parchment" and is originally the name of the manuscript book in which the saga has been preserved. The book itself, GKS 1009 fol, is currently in the Royal Danish Library in Copenhagen. It was brought to Denmark from Iceland by Þormóður Torfason ( Tormod Torfæus) in 1662. The saga was published in English in 2000 in a translation by Theodore M. Andersson and Kari Ellen Gade. Contents The saga starts in 1025 or 1026 and in its received form, ends suddenly in 1157, after the death of King Sigurðr II. Originally, the work may have been longer, possibly continuing until 1177, when the narratives of '' Fagrskinna'' and '' Heimskringla'', which use ''Morkinskinna'' as one of their sources, end. Apart from giving the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flateyjarbók
''Flateyjarbók'' (; "Book of Flatey, Breiðafjörður, Flatey") is an important medieval Iceland, Icelandic manuscript. It is also known as GkS 1005 fol. and by the Latin name ''Codex Flateyensis''. It was commissioned by Jón Hákonarson and produced by the priests and scribes Jón Þórðarson and Magnús Þórhallsson. Description ''Flateyjarbók'' is the largest medieval Icelandic manuscript, comprising 225 written and illustrated vellum leaves. It contains mostly sagas of the Norse kings as found in the ''Heimskringla'', specifically the sagas about Olaf Tryggvason, Olaf II of Norway, St. Olaf, Sverre I of Norway, Sverre, Hákon the Old, Magnus the Good, and Harald Hardrada. But they appear here expanded with additional material not found elsewhere (some of it being very old) along with other unique differences. Most—but not all—of the additional material is placed within the royal sagas, sometimes interlaced. Additionally, the manuscript contains the only copy of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Senna (poetic)
Senna is a form of Eddic poetry consisting of an exchange of insults between participants, ranging from the use of expletives to accusing an opponent of moral or sexual impropriety. It traditionally existed in an oral form, with the skald Þórarinn Stuttfeldr once describing the poetry of his opponent as being like ''leirr ens gamla ara'', 'the mud of the old eagle', literally claiming that his poetry was like dung. Moreover, Þórarinn Stuttfeldr makes a reference to the myth of the Mead of Poetry, in which Odin, in shape of an eagle, defecates a part of the stolen mead which becomes the mead of the rhymesters, and thus stands for bad poetry in general. There are also numerous written examples of ''senna'' in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, including '' Ölkofra þáttr'' (''The Tale of the Ale-Hood'') in which a carpenter is accused of setting fire to the wood of six powerful chieftains while burning charcoal, and the eddic poem ''Lokasenna'', which consists of a duel of words ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skaldic Poetry
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 composed to honor kings, but were sometimes ex tempore. They include both extended works and single verses ('' lausavísur''). They are characteristically more ornate in form and diction than eddic poems, employing many kennings, which require some knowledge of Norse mythology, and heiti, which are formal nouns used in place of more prosaic synonyms. ''Dróttkvætt'' metre is a type of skaldic verse form that most often use internal rhyme and alliteration. More than 5,500 skaldic verses have survived, preserved in more than 700 manuscripts, including in several sagas and in Snorri Sturluson's ''Prose Edda'', a handbook of skaldic composition that led to a revival of the art. Many of these verses are fragments of originally longer works, and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nordic Countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous administrative division, autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland. The Nordic countries have much in common in their way of life, History of Scandinavia, history, religion and Nordic model, social and economic model. They have a long history of political unions and other close relations but do not form a singular state or federation today. The Scandinavism, Scandinavist movement sought to unite Denmark, Norway and Sweden into one country in the 19th century. With the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden (Norwegian independence), the independence of Finland in the early 20th century and the 1944 Icelandic constitution ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denmark
Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous administrative division, autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the north Atlantic Ocean.* * * Metropolitan Denmark, also called "continental Denmark" or "Denmark proper", consists of the northern Jutland peninsula and an archipelago of 406 islands. It is the southernmost of the Scandinavian countries, lying southwest of Sweden, south of Norway, and north of Germany, with which it shares a short border. Denmark proper is situated between the North Sea to the west and the Baltic Sea to the east.The island of Bornholm is offset to the east of the rest of the country, in the Baltic Sea. The Kingdom of Denmark, including the Faroe Islands and Greenland, has roughly List of islands of Denmark, 1,400 islands greater than in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It shares Anglo-Scottish border, a land border with Scotland to the north and England–Wales border, another land border with Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish Sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population was 56,490,048. London is both List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, the largest city and the Capital city, capital. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic. It takes its name from the Angles (tribe), Angles, a Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe who settled du ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenning
A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech, a figuratively-phrased compound term that is used in place of a simple single-word noun. For instance, the Old English kenning () means , as does (). A kenning has two parts: a base-word (also known as a head-word) and a determinant. So in ''whale's road'', ''road'' is the base-word, and ''whale's'' is the determinant. This is the same structure as in the modern English term ''skyscraper''; the base-word here would be ''scraper'', and the determinant ''sky''. In some languages, kennings can recurse, with one element of the kenning being replaced by another kenning. The meaning of the kenning is known as its referent (in the case of ''whale's road'', ''sea'' is the referent). Note that ''skyscraper'' is not a kenning, as it is not a circumlocution for a simpler term; it just means . Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English alliterative verse. They continued to be a feature of Icelandic poe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a Dependencies of Norway, dependency, and not a part of the Kingdom; Norway also Territorial claims in Antarctica, claims the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. Norway has a population of 5.6 million. Its capital and largest city is Oslo. The country has a total area of . The country shares a long eastern border with Sweden, and is bordered by Finland and Russia to the northeast. Norway has an extensive coastline facing the Skagerrak strait, the North Atlantic Ocean, and the Barents Sea. The unified kingdom of Norway was established in 872 as a merger of Petty kingdoms of Norway, petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for years. From 1537 to 1814, Norway ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
