Gripla - 01.01.1979, Page 193

OLD NORSE COURT POETRY
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This is not to deny that the reciting of court poetry may have been
an esteemed and popular entertainment.5 But where court poetry as a
living tradition has been investigated it has been shown to have a more
complicated and serious function.
This is shown by Vansina (1973:147) who divides traditional African
poetry into two main categories, personal and official. Official poetry
is delivered in public at the instigation of chiefs. Old Norse court poetry
would fit admirably into this category. Vansina says:
Official poetry is either straight propaganda, or else awakens
feelings which, in the eyes of the community as a whole, ought to
be aroused and meditated upon.
And furthermore (1973:148):
Official poetry is more likely to convey the attitudes and behaviour
patterns which society wants to impose upon its members.
Kailasapathy (1968:77) has this to say about Tamil court poetry:
There is considerable evidence to suggest that the praises of the
bards were designed not only to please pleasure-seeking, flattery-
loving princes, but also to serve as propaganda and publicity for
them among others. It has been observed that the bards were the
counterparts in the Heroic Age of the modern mass-media.
The same seems to be true of Old Norse court poetry. It follows
that it must have served an important political purpose. The following
were apparently its main features:
(a) To serve as a medium for the chiefs’ propaganda for themselves
and their power.
5 Jackson (1962:37-38) who discusses the purpose and function of medieval
literature points out that genres with no obvious social connotations may have the
greatest social impact:
It is, curiously enough, in the less obviously didactic works that the social ele-
ment is strongest. Although the primary purpose of the courtly romance and
the national epic was to entertain, the idealized setting of the former and the
historical background of the latter made its authors (and audience) very
sensible of conformity to a set of values, often idealized, and of the demands
of a particular social milieu. . . . The authors of these works were conscious
of their impact and proud of their influence. They believed in the morality
which they depicted and in the ethical value of the stories they told.