Eysteinn Ásgrímsson (c. 1310 – March 14, 1361) was an

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

ic monk, ecclesiastical inspector, and ''

skald A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionall ...

'' (poet); ', the best known and possibly the best medieval Icelandic Christian poem, is attributed to him.

Life

Eysteinn Ásgrímsson was at the until 1343, when he was sent to prison for beating up the abbot and possibly also for breaking his vow of

chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...

. This may have been when he composed ''Lilja'', which is marked by a deep concern with sinfulness. After his release he was sent to the monastery at

Helgafell Helgafell (, "holy mountain") is a small mountain on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula of Iceland. The mountain is high. A temple in honor of Thor Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a ...

and then became an official at the see of

Skálholt Skálholt (Modern Icelandic: ; non, Skálaholt ) is a historical site in the south of Iceland, at the river Hvítá. History Skálholt was, through eight centuries, one of the most important places in Iceland. A bishopric was established in Sk� ...

. He went to Norway in 1355 with the bishop and returned in 1357 as an inspector of the Skálholt see; the bishop was so angry at this appointment that he

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

him. After returning to Norway in 1360, Eysteinn died the following March at the Helgisetr monastery in Niðarós (Trondheim).

''Lilja''

''Lilja'' ("the lily", in medieval Christian imagery symbolizing purity and thus also the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

), is generally attributed to Eysteinn and is the best known and possibly the best of the medieval Icelandic poems that adapted the complex structure and diction of

skaldic poetry A skald, or skáld (Old Norse: , later ; , meaning "poet"), is one of the often named poets who composed skaldic poetry, one of the two kinds of Old Norse poetry, the other being Eddic poetry, which is anonymous. Skaldic poems were traditionall ...

to Christian subjects. It consists of 100 verses surveying the religious history of man, with the Passion and Crucifixion in the center.Stefán Einarsson, p. 75. Eysteinn avoided both complicated

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...

s and loan-words as far he could, modifying the skaldic tradition on classical models based on the Christian ideal of ''claritas'' as enunciated by St.

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...

, and rather than

dróttkvætt In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...

, composed the poem in the

hrynhent In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...

meter, which was closer to Latin hymnody and was subsequently nicknamed ''liljulag'' after the poem. The poem's

numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

includes the hundred verses corresponding to the number of letters in ''

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Ann ...

'', and so the poem has traditionally been interpreted as dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The poem was emulated in the 15th century and an edited version included in the 1612 Icelandic Protestant anthology '.Stefán Einarsson, p. 76.

References

Editions

* (Volume with Danish translation viewable online in the US a
the Hathi Trust
. * * Icelandic male poets 1310 births 1360 deaths Skalds 14th-century Icelandic people 14th-century Icelandic poets {{Iceland-writer-stub