Gripla - 20.12.2009, Blaðsíða 206
GRIPLA206
Skaldic poetry, sagas and continental literature
By the 13th century, Christianity had therefore shaped the lives of medieval
Icelanders in a very deep way on all levels. In this, they were participants in
the common “civilisation of the medieval West”.15 the consequences for
their cultural production were wide-ranging. Mention has already been
made of the subtle dialectic between religious morals and warrior ethics in
the sagas of Icelanders. In what follows, I will present the results of recent
studies which show how the contact with Europe was decisive in fostering
and shaping the development of Icelandic literature in the twelfth and thir
teenth centuries.
In her 2001 book, Tools of Literacy, Guðrún Nordal undertakes to show
that what can be conceived of as the most ancient and least Christian of
Icelandic cultural practices in the 13th century is actually heavily influenced
by Latin learning.16 I am re ferring here to skaldic poetry, probably the
most hermetic type of ancient Germanic poetry, characterized by complex
metrics and an elaborate system of poetic speech based on the “kenning”.17
the “kenningar” very often refer to the ancient pagan myths and are a
good example of intertextuality, since the skaldic poets used their audi
ence’s knowledge of myth to convey their message. Skaldic poetry was
practised in pagan times but seems to have been adapted to Christian pur
poses by court poets of the missionary kings of Norway. These poems are
believed to have been memorized and transmitted more or less unchanged
from one generation to another until they were written down in the late
12th or 13th century.18
15 I have, of course, jacques Le Goff’s great book in mind here, La Civilisation de l’Occident
médiéval (Paris: Arthaud, 1964). english translation: Medieval civilization, 400–1500,
transl. by Julia Barrow (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990).
16 Guðrún nordal, Tools of Literacy. The Role of Skaldic Verse in Icelandic Textual Culture of the
Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (toronto: university of toronto Press, 2001).
17 A useful presentation of skaldic poetry is Roberta frank’s Old Norse Court Poetry: the
Dróttkvætt Stanza (Ithaca: Cornell university Press, Islandica 42, 1978).
18 This is actually a debated subject within the field of medieval Icelandic studies. See
Bjarni einarsson’s Skáldasögur. Um uppruna og eðli ástarskáldsagnanna fornu (Reykjavík:
Menningarsjóður, 1961). See also theodore M. Andersson’s response “Skalds and trou
ba dours,” Mediaeval Scandinavia (1969): 7–41. the debate has gone on since then, see for
example Alison finlay, “Skald Sagas in their literary context 3: the love triangle theme,”
Skaldsagas. text, vocation and desire in the Icelandic Sagas of poets, ed. Russell Poole (Berlin:
Gruyter, 2000), 232–271 .