Gripla - 20.12.2013, Blaðsíða 21

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with a gift of poetry that praised both the gift of the shield and, indirectly,
its giver86 on a public occasion where the object itself was on display.87 A
third ekphrasis is the partially extant Húsdrápa of úlfr uggason, which
praises a hall and its internal decorations. to judge from Laxdœla saga, this
poem was recited as a reciprocal gift at a wedding feast where the magnifi-
cent chieftain óláfr pá had lavished hospitality upon the poet and others.88
the dating of these poems is a matter of inference rather than secure
documentation. Both versions of Skáldatal, a late twelfth-century or early
thirteenth-century compilation,89 place Bragi and his purported patrons
Ragnarr loðbrók, Eysteinn beli and Bjǫrn at Haugi almost at the beginning
of their lists. the Ragnarr reference (though not, be it noted, the loðbrók
part) is apparently corroborated by the title Ragnarsdrápa, which has the
authority of snorri sturluson.90 the limited linguistic evidence may be
compatible with a ninth-century dating for Ragnarsdrápa,91 if we assume
that certain phonological changes proceeded at a quicker pace in denmark
and norway than in sweden. eysteinn beli is named in Ragnarssona þáttr
as an under-king of Ragnarr loðbrók in the upp-svíaveldi region.92 Bjǫrn
at Haugi for his part was probably a norwegian magnate flourishing in
the last third of the ninth century, although many scholars have identified
him with the Swedish king Bjǫrn (Lat. Bernus), from the first third of that
century.93 In addition, both Egils saga Skallagrímssonar and Landnámabók
86 Clunies Ross, ‘stylistic and Generic definers’, 173, 176.
87 Clunies Ross, ‘stylistic and Generic definers’, 178; cf. john Hines, ‘ekphrasis as speech-
Act: Ragnarsdrápa 1–7’, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 3 (2007): 228.
88 e.o.G. turville-Petre, Scaldic Poetry (oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), 67–8.
89 Guðrún nordal, Tools of Literacy: The Role of Skaldic Verse in the Icelandic Textual Culture of
the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (toronto: university of toronto Press, 2001), 121.
90 Edda: Skáldskaparmál, ed. Anthony faulkes, 2 vols. (London: Viking society for northern
Research, 1998), 1:50–1 and 1:72–3; Edda, trans. Anthony faulkes (London: Penguin,
1987), 106 and 123.
91 finnur jónsson, ‘om skjaldepoesien og de ældste skjalde’, Arkiv for nordisk filologi 6 (1890):
150–1; contrast sophus e. Bugge, ‘om Ægtheden af Bragi den gamles Vers’, in Bidrag til
den ældste skaldedigtnings historie (oslo, 1894), 1–107; Alexander Bugge, ‘skaldedigtningen
og norges ældste historie’, [Nordisk] Historisk Tidskrift 21 (1910): 178; cf. jan de Vries,
Altnordische Literaturgeschichte, 2nd rev. ed., 2 vols. (Heidelberg: de Gruyter, 1964–7),
1:125.
92 Danakonunga sǫgur, ed. Bjarni Guðnason, íslenzk fornrit, vol. 35 (Reykjavík: Hið íslenska
fornritafélag, 1982), 79.
93 Cf. jón jóhannesson, ‘Björn at Haugi’, in Afmælisrit helgað Einari Arnórssyni hæstaréttardóm-
ara sextugum 24. febrúar 1940, ed. Guðbrandur jónsson (Reykjavík: ísafoldarprentsmiðja,
sCHoLARs And skALds