Ljóðaháttur
   HOME





Ljóðaháttur
Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinavia. Much Old Norse poetry was originally preserved in oral culture, but the Old Norse language ceased to be spoken and later writing tended to be confined to history rather than for new poetic creation, which is normal for an extinct language. Modern knowledge of Old Norse poetry is preserved by what was written down. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was composed or committed to writing in Iceland, after refined techniques for writing (such as the use of vellum, parchment paper, pens, and ink) were introduced—seemingly contemporaneously with the introduction of Christianity: thus, the general topic area of Old Norse poetry may be referred to as Old Icelandic poetry in literature. There are also around 122 verses preserved in Sw ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Alliterative Verse
In meter (poetry), prosody, alliterative verse is a form of poetry, verse that uses alliteration as the principal device to indicate the underlying Metre (poetry), metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of alliterative verse are those found in the oldest literature of the Germanic languages, where scholars use the term 'alliterative poetry' rather broadly to indicate a tradition which not only shares alliteration as its primary ornament but also certain metrical characteristics. The Old English language, Old English Epic poetry, epic ''Beowulf'', as well as most other Old English poetry, the Old High German ''Muspilli'', the Old Saxon ''Heliand'', the Old Norse language, Old Norse ''Poetic Edda'', and many Middle English poems such as ''Piers Plowman'', ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', Layamon's Brut and the ''Alliterative Morte Arthur'' all use alliterative verse. While alliteration is common in many poetic traditio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their Viking expansion, overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia, and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 8th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid- to late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not precise, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse (Old West Nordic, often referred to as ''Old Norse''), Old East Norse (Old East Nordic), and Old Gutnish. Old West Norse and O ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a literary device. A common example is " Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers". Historical use The word ''alliteration'' comes from the Latin word ''littera'', meaning "letter of the alphabet". It was first coined in a Latin dialogue by the Italian humanist Giovanni Pontano in the 15th century. Alliteration is used in the alliterative verse of Old English poems like Beowulf, Middle English poems like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Old Norse works like the Poetic Edda, and in Old High German, Old Saxon, and Old Irish. It was also used as an ornament to suggest connections between ideas in classical Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit poetry. Today, alliteration is used poetically in various languages around the world, including Arabic, Irish, German, Mongolian, Hungari ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Svipdagsmál
''Svipdagsmál'' (Old Norse: , 'The Lay of Svipdagr') is an Old Norse poem, sometimes included in modern editions of the ''Poetic Edda'', comprising two poems, '' The Spell of Gróa'' and '' The Lay of Fjölsviðr''. The two works are grouped since they have a common narrator, Svipdagr. Moreover, they would appear to have a common origin since they are closely similar in use of language, structure, style and metre ( ljóðaháttr). These two poems are found in several 17th-century paper manuscripts. In at least three of these manuscripts, the poems are in reverse order and separated by a third Eddic poem titled '' Hyndluljóð''.McKinnell (2005:202). For a long time, the connection between the two poems was not realized, until in 1854 Svend Grundtvig pointed out a connection between the story told in ''Grógaldr'' and the first part of the medieval Scandinavian ballad of ''Ungen Sveidal''/''Herr Svedendal''/''Hertig Silfverdal'' ( TSB A 45, DgF 70, SMB 18, NMB 22). Then ...
[...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]  




Hyndluljóð
''Hyndluljóð'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Hyndla') is an Old Norse poem often considered a part of the ''Poetic Edda''. It is preserved in its entirety only in ''Flateyjarbók'', but some stanzas are also quoted in the ''Prose Edda'', where they are said to come from '' Völuspá hin skamma''. __NOTOC__ ''Hyndluljóð'' is believed to be a relatively late Eddic poem, dating to the second half of the 12th century or later, although including much older traditions, such as that of the 4th c. Gothic king Ermanaric. In the poem, the goddess Freyja meets the völva Hyndla and they ride together towards Valhalla. Freyja rides on her boar Hildisvíni and Hyndla on a wolf. Their mission is to find out the pedigree of Óttarr so that he can touch his inheritance, and the lay consists mostly of Hyndla reciting a number of names from Óttarr's ancestry. Because of the reference in the ''Prose Edda'' to ''Völuspá hin skamma'', since Sophus Bugge's first edition of the Eddic poems, st ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Codex Wormianus
The Codex Wormianus or AM 242 fol. is an Icelandic vellum codex dating from the mid-14th century. It contains an edition of the Prose Edda and some additional material on poetics, including the First Grammatical Treatise. It is the only manuscript to preserve the Rígsþula. The manuscript is believed to have been written in the Benedictine monastery Þingeyraklaustur in Þingeyrar in northern Iceland around 1350. It was obtained by the runologist Ole Worm from the Icelandic scholar Arngrímur Jónsson in 1628, according to an inscription on the first page of the work. In 1706, Árni Magnússon obtained the document from Ole Worm's nephew, Christian Worm. Today it remains part of the Arnamagnæan Manuscript Collection at the Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. The scribe who wrote Codex Wormianus worked on a number of manuscripts, including the '' Stjórn'' codex AM 227 fol. References External linksOnline facsimile of AM 242 fol.by the University of Copenhag ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Rígsþula
''Rígsþula'' or ''Rígsmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Lay of Ríg') is an Eddic poem, preserved in the Codex Wormianus (AM 242 fol), in which a Norse god named Ríg or Rígr, described as "old and wise, mighty and strong", fathers the social classes of mankind. The prose introduction states that Rígr is another name for Heimdall, who is also called the father of mankind in '' Völuspá''. However, there seems to be some confusion of Heimdall and Odinn, see below. In ''Rígsþula'', Rig wanders through the world and fathers the progenitors of the three classes of human beings as conceived by the poet. The youngest of these sons, Jarl ('earl, nobleman'), inherits the name or title "Ríg" and so in turn does his youngest son, Kon the Young or ''Kon ungr'' (, king). This third Ríg was the first true king and the ultimate founder of the state of royalty as appears in the ''Rígsþula'' and in two other associated works. In all three sources he is connected with two primordial Danish ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Prose Edda
The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some extent written, or at least compiled, by the Icelandic scholar, lawspeaker, and historian Snorri Sturluson 1220. It is considered the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Norse mythology, the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, and draws from a wide variety of sources, including versions of poems that survive into today in a collection known as the ''Poetic Edda''. The ''Prose Edda'' consists of four sections: The Prologue (Prose Edda), Prologue, a euhemerism, euhemerized account of the Norse gods; ''Gylfaginning'', which provides a question and answer format that details aspects of Norse mythology (consisting of approximately 20,000 words), ''Skáldskaparmál'', which continues this format before providing lists o ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Skalds
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 th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

AM 748 I 4to
AM 748 I 4to is an Icelandic vellum manuscript fragment containing several Eddaic poems. It dates to the beginning of the 14th century. AM 748 I is split into two parts. AM 748 I a 4to is kept in the Arnamagnæan Institute in Copenhagen. AM 748 I b 4to is kept at the Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies in Reykjavík. The six sheets which have been preserved of AM 748 I a 4to contain the following poems, all mythological. *''Grímnismál'' (complete) *''Hymiskviða'' (complete) *'' Baldrs draumar'' (complete) *''Skírnismál'' (partial) *'' Hárbarðsljóð'' (partial) *''Vafþrúðnismál'' (partial) *'' Völundarkviða'' (only the beginning of the prose prologue) AM 748 I a 4to is the only mediaeval manuscript to preserve '' Baldrs draumar''. The other poems are also preserved in Codex Regius. References AM 748 I 4toFacsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or ot ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Codex Regius
Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ... leaves. The work originally contained a further eight leaves, which are now missing. It is the sole source for most of the poems it contains. In scholarly texts, this manuscript is commonly abbreviated as [R] for Codex Regius, or as [K] for Konungsbók. The codex was discovered in 1643, when it came into the possession of Brynjólfur Sveinsson, then Bishop of Skálholt in Iceland, who in 1662 sent it as a gift to King Frederick III of Denmark; hence the name. It was then kept in the Royal Library in C ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]