Gripla - 01.01.1979, Qupperneq 190

SIGRÚN DAVÍÐSDÓTTIR
OLD NORSE COURT POETRY
Some Notes on its Purpose,
Transmission and Historical Value
Nu saa som ofte leverede de Lærde
i al Troskyldighed blot Beviser en
gros for Tanker, som var fremhers-
kende i Tiden, og som de saa at sige
havde indaandet med Atmosfæren.
Paul V. Rubow
1.0 Most of the scholarly literature on Old Norse court poetry deals
with individual poets or poems. Less attention has been paid to the
more fundamental questions of purpose, transmission and historical
value. It is also significant that in the past Old Norse court poetry has
often been dealt with as if it was more or less unique. This is far from
being the case, and it is of some interest to examine, however briefly,
what court poetry in Scandinavia has in common with court poetry
elsewhere.
In this paper the following problems will be considered:
(1) The poems were composed for the benefit of chieftains or kings
and were delivered at their courts. But why?
(2) After the poems were delivered they were handed down. But
how?
(3) The poems were committed to writing, often many centuries
after they were composed. But why?
It goes without saying that the study is based on sources of a later
date than the period in which Old Norse court poetry flourished, and
this makes the conclusions less certain. Parallels from societies where
more is known about court poetry may be used to throw some light
on the less clear Old Norse tradition, although this method has its
limitations.
Gratitude is due to Óskar Halldórsson and to Professor Jónas Kristjánsson for
comments on a preliminary version of this paper.