Tryggvaflokkr (the " Flokkr-poem of Tryggvi") was an

Old Norse poem Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in Old Norse, during the period from the 8th century (see Eggjum stone) to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was preserved in Iceland ...

about

Tryggve the Pretender Tryggvi "the Pretender" (Old Norse ''Tryggvi Ólafsson'', Norwegian ''Tryggve Olavsson'') was a Viking chieftain who lived in the early eleventh century, and came from "west across the sea" (probably from the Norse settlements in England and Irel ...

, an 11th-century

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and s ...

chieftain who purported to be the son of

Olaf Tryggvason Olaf Tryggvason (960s – 9 September 1000) was King of Norway from 995 to 1000. He was the son of Tryggvi Olafsson, king of Viken ( Vingulmark, and Rånrike), and, according to later sagas, the great-grandson of Harald Fairhair, first King of ...

and tried to conquer Norway in 1033. It is usually attributed to Sighvat Thordarson, a

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 ...

and court poet of

Canute the Great Cnut (; ang, Cnut cyning; non, Knútr inn ríki ; or , no, Knut den mektige, sv, Knut den Store. died 12 November 1035), also known as Cnut the Great and Canute, was King of England from 1016, King of Denmark from 1018, and King of Norway ...

. The only surviving portion of the poem is that quoted by

Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson ( ; ; 1179 – 22 September 1241) was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was elected twice as lawspeaker of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. He is commonly thought to have authored or compiled portions of th ...

in the ''

Heimskringla ''Heimskringla'' () is the best known of the Old Norse kings' sagas. It was written in Old Norse in Iceland by the poet and historian Snorre Sturlason (1178/79–1241) 1230. The name ''Heimskringla'' was first used in the 17th century, derive ...

'': {{poemquote, For fame eager, forth fared from the north King Tryggve, whilst Svein from the south forth sailed to join the battle From fray not far was I. Fast they raised their banners Swiftly then-rang sword 'gainst sword-began the bloodshed.Hollander 536.

Notes

References

*Snorri Sturluson. ''Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.''

Lee Hollander Lee Milton Hollander (November 8, 1880 – October 19, 1972) was an American philologist who specialized in Old Norse studies. Hollander was for many years head of the Department of Germanic Languages at the University of Texas at Austin. ...

, transl. Univ. of Texas Press, 2002. Skaldic poems 11th-century poems