''Skáldatal'' (''Catalogue of Poets'') is a short prose work by Snorri Sturluson in
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 ...
. It was preserved in two manuscripts: DG 11, or ''Codex Uppsaliensis'', which is one of the four main manuscripts of the ''
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 exten ...
'' (first quarter of the 14th century), and Kringla, the main manuscript of the ''
Heimskringla'' from around 1260, which was lost in the fire of Copenhagen in 1728. Several copies of it exist. ''Skáldatal'' lists court poets of Norwegian rulers from legendary times until the assassination of Snorri in 1241. The two copies add rulers until 1260 and 1300. Rulers in Denmark and Sweden that are mentioned ''Heimskringla'' are generally also in'' Skáldatal''. The archetype of'' Skáldatal'' by Snorri Sturluson can be restored with some confidence as shown by Þorgeir Sigurðsson. He showed that the Kringla version has added poets from ''Heimskringla'' that are not in DG 11 and that DG 11 seems to have edited inconvenient information related to Snorri.
Steinvör Sighvatsdóttir is one of three women listed as a poet in ''Skáldatal''. Another is Vilborg under King
Olaf III of Norway (d. 1069), the third is
Áslaug wife of
King Ragnar.
See also
*
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 ...
*
Skaldic poetry
External links
editionprinted
Guðni Jónsson. Based on a C-version by Jón Sigurðsson. It includes poets from both version. Skalds that are misplaced in one versions appear in two places in this edition.
Pageat the
Skaldic Project
Skáldatal, stained with bloodÞorgeir Sigurðsson. 2023. "Skáldatal Snorra Sturlusonar blóði drifið", ''Són'' 21, pp. 66–108.
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Skaldic poetry