Eyvindr Finnsson ( 915–990), known by the

epithet An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...

''skáldaspillir'' ("Skald-player"), was a 10th-century Norwegian

skald 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 compo ...

. He was the court poet of king Hákon the Good and earl Hákon of Hlaðir. His son Hárekr later became a prominent chieftain in Norway. His preserved longer works are: *'' Hákonarmál'' - Composed in memory of king Hákon and tells of his reception in

Valhalla In Norse mythology, Valhalla ( , ; , )Orchard (1997:171–172) is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. There were five possible realms the soul could travel to after death. The first was Fólkvang ...

. The poem is similar to the earlier '' Eiríksmál''. *'' Háleygjatal'' - Recounts the ancestors of earl Hákon back up to

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

and tells of their deaths. The poem is similar to the earlier '' Ynglingatal''. * Some 14 stand-alone stanzas (''lausarvísur'') on historical events. Among Evyindr's most celebrated ''lausarvísur'' is the following, attested in '' Haralds saga Gráfeldar'', supposedly composed during the 960s or 970s:

Snýr á Svǫlnis vôru — svá hǫfum inn sem Finnar birkihind of bundit brums — at miðju sumri.

It is snowing on the spouse of Svǫlnir .e. the spouse of Óðinn, Jǫrð (the Old Norse equivalent of English ‘earth’)br> in the middle of summer;
we have tied up the bark-stripping hind of the bud .e. goatbr> inside just like the Saami.Russell Poole (ed.) 2012, ‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir Finnsson, Lausavísur 12’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Brepols, Turnhout, p. 231. Translation adapted slightly to make the conventions of the edition clearer to the general reader.

Eyvindr drew heavily on earlier poetry in his works. The cognomen ''skáldaspillir'' means literally "spoiler of poets" and is sometimes translated as "plagiarist", though it might also mean that he was better than any other poet. He is mentioned in the second verse of the Norwegian national anthem.

Editions and translations

* Evindr skáldaspillir Finsson, in Diana Whaley (ed.), ''Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035'', Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2012), https://www.skaldic.org/skaldic/m.php?p=skald&i=57

References

Skáldatal
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eyvindr skaldaspillir 10th-century Norwegian poets Norwegian male poets 10th-century Icelandic poets