Skald

“ We know the names of several hundred skalds, and a very large number of their lays are preserved either complete or in fragments. As genuine historical persons we do not, as above indicated, find them before the time of the Norwegian king Harald Fairhair in the end of the ninth and in the beginning of the tenth century. This king, who was himself a skald, gathered round him the most famous poets of his time, and in his great deeds they found ample materials for their songs. ”

“ Rumor ran among his people that he still was not dead; grounding on some movement by the ships of that traitorous Sigwald, they fancied Olaf had dived beneath the keels of his enemies, and got away with Sigwald, as Sigwald himself evidently did. "Much was hoped, supposed, spoken," says one old mourning Skald; "but the truth was, Olaf Tryggveson was never seen in Norseland more." Strangely he remains still a shining figure to us; the wildly beautifullest man, in body and in soul, that one has ever heard of in the North. ”

“ Jatgeir—You have a wife.
King Skule—Her I took to bear me sons.
Jatgeir—But you have a daughter, my lord—a gracious and noble daughter.
King Skule—Were my daughter a son, I would not ask you what gift I need. [Vehemently.] I must have some one by me who sinks his own will utterly in mine—who believes in me, unflinchingly, who will cling close to me in good hap and ill, who lives only to shed light and warmth over my life, and must die if I fall. Give me counsel, Jatgeir Skald! ”

“ An important result of this was, that the Saga became the property of the people, and not of the favored few. In the next place, our Norse Icelandic ancestors took a profound delight in poetry and song. The skald sung in the mother-speech, and taking the most of the material for his songs and poems from the old mythological tales, it was necessary to study and become familiar with these, in order that he might be able, on the one hand, to understand the productions of others, and, on the other, to compose songs himself. ”

“ ORNULF. Well well, I will try it; and thou, Dagny, give heed, that
afterwards thou may'st carve the song on staves.
(The men approach with the torches, forming a group around him;
he is silent for a time, reflecting; then he says:)
Bragi's [1] gift is bitter
when the heart is broken;
sorrow-laden singer,
singing, suffers sorely.
Natheless, since the Skald-god gave me skill in song-craft, in a lay loud-ringing be my loss lamented!
(Rises.)
Ruthless Norn [2] and wrathful wrecked my life and ravaged, wiled away my welfare, wasted Ornulf's treasure. ”

“ The strange wild tales of the Scandinavian mythology have been, and are still, frequently introduced into Danish poetry and romance. [2] The were sung of in the poems or historic tales of the Skalds, who, though of Icelandic origin, spread their productions over Sweden, Denmark, and Norway; and they were often alluded to in the Sagas, [3] or narrations, which were so much valued in these rude ages. A good specimen of the old Skaldic poems is the "Quida, or Death Song of Regnar Lodbrok," one of the earliest poets of Denmark, son of Sigurd Ring, king of that and the adjacent countries. ”

“ The men, swinging and emptying the drinking horns, sprang over the flames, and the Skalds, in songs which they composed at the moment they rose, vied with each other in praises of Halfred and his deeds with hammer and harp, and of the Singing Swan, and the hall, and the feast. ”

“ The greatest in volume is made up of the sagas: narratives mainly in prose, ranging all the way from authentic history of the Norwegian kings and the early Icelandic settlements to fairy-tales. Embodied in the sagas is found the material composing the second group: the skaldic poetry, a vast collection of songs of praise, triumph, love, lamentation, and so on, almost uniformly characterized by an appalling complexity of figurative language. There is no absolute line to be drawn between the poetry of the skalds and the poems of the Edda, which we may call the third group ”

“ The tide of Norse energy was not yet at the full, the fury and the terror were waxing fast, and the fever of unrest was ever spreading through the North. Men were always coming back with tales of monasteries filled with untold wealth, and rich provinces to be won by the sword. Skalds sang of the deeds done in the south, and shiploads of spoil confirmed their lays. Little wonder then that Estein should feel his heart beat high as he stood by the great tiller. ”

“ It does not appear that the Runic letters had ever been employed to much extent, on parchment, to record passing events, or to preserve the lays, which memory alone had transmitted from generation to generation. Like all other people of antiquity, the Scandinavians had their bards, synonymous with the rhapsodists of Greece. They were known by the name of Skalds, and were both poets and historians. 'They were the companions and chroniclers of kings, who liberally rewarded their genius, and sometimes entered the lists with them in trials of skill in their own art. ”

“ That one is Skuld, Urd's sister, and thus a nipt Nara like Urd herself.
(d) Ynglingatal (Ynglingasaga, ch. 20) . Of King [Pg 615] Dygve, who died from disease, it is said that jódis Narva (jódis Nara) chose him. The right to choose those who die from disease belongs to the norns alone (see No. 69) . Jódis, a word doubtless produced by a vowel change from the Old Germanic idis, has already in olden times been interpreted partly as horse-dis (from jór, horse) , partly as the dis of one's kin (from jod, child, offspring) . In this case the skald has taken advantage of both significations. ”

“ By turning to the surviving poems of the Skalds, whose dates can be approximately reckoned from the sagas, we can fix an inferior limit for certain of the legends given above, placing them definitely in the heathen time. Reference has already been made to the corroboration of the Valhalla belief supplied by the elegies on Eirik Bloodaxe and Hakon the Good. ”

“ Thjódólfr of Hvin, Norwegian skald of the ninth century, 14, 99, 119, 130, 134, 137, 173, 197, 202, 205, 206, 208, 214, 216, 226, 227, 232.
Thor, son of Mennón and Tróán, and grandson of Priam, 6.
Thor (to be identified with the above) , son of Odin and Jörd ("Earth") , also called Ása-Thor and Öku-Thor, 22, 28, 35, 41, 54-70, 73, 76, 81, 83, 85, 89, 96, 107-111, 114-129, 136, 143, 145-147, 204, 221.
Thórálfr, an Icelandic skald, 102.
Thorbjörn Lady's-Skald, an Icelandic skald of the eleventh century, 109, 110, 194. ”

“ A royal feast it was that the old king gave that night, and the golden mead flowed from the twisted cups in living streams, while the Skalds sang the valorous deeds of heroic Danes of old.
Then rose Beowulf to speak. "To-night Grendel cometh again, expecting no one to fight him for many a time hath he levied his toll and escaped without harm. Here alone with myself will I keep vigil, and alone will I fight the foul fiend. To-morrow morning the sun will glorify my victory or I shall be a corpse in the dark and noisome home of the ogre." ”

“ Thor asks what the earth, the sky, the moon, and so on, are called “in each of all the worlds,” but there is no apparent significance in the fact that the gods call the earth one thing and the giants call it another; the answers are simply strings of poetic circumlocutions, or “kennings.” Concerning the use of these “kennings” in skaldic poetry, cf. introductory note to the Hymiskvitha.
Mogk is presumably right in dating the poem as late as the twelfth century, assigning it to the period of “the Icelandic renaissance of skaldic poetry.” ”

“ When he came to King Olaf he soon found the skalds Gissur and Ottar, and they were very glad at his coming. Without delay they went to the king, and told him that a man was come who was their countryman, and one of the most considerable in their native land, and requested the king to receive him well. The king told them to take Hjalte and his fellow-travellers into their company and quarters. Now when Hjalte had resided there a short time, and got acquainted with people, he was much respected by everybody. The skalds were often in the king's house, for they were well-spoken men ”

“ Now it was a belief of theirs that as the measuring went, so would the luck go: if the measuring-wand seemed to grow less when they tried it again and again, so would that house's luck grow less: and if it grew greater, so would the luck be. This time the measure always grew less, though they tried it three times over.
So Ogmund built him a house on the sandhills, and lived there ever after. He married Dalla, the daughter of Onund the Seer, and their sons were Thorgils and Cormac. ”

“ Hereafter both rode home, and all was quiet and tidingless that winter through; but Raven had nought of Helga’s fellowship after her meeting with Gunnlaug.
CHAPTER XIV. Of the Holmgang at the Althing.
Now in summer men ride a very many to the Althing: Illugi the Black and his sons with him, Gunnlaug and Hermund; Thorstein Egilson and Kolsvein his son; Onund, of Mossfell, and his sons all, and Sverting, Hafr-Biorn’s son. Skapti yet held the spokesmanship-at-law. ”

“ Then Skallagrim set free the men whose lives he had spared, and bade them go to king Harold and tell him the whole tale of what had been done there, and who had been the doers of it. 'Ye shall also,' said he, 'bear to the king this ditty:
'For a noble warrior slain Vengeance now on king is ta'en: Wolf and eagle tread as prey Princes born to sovereign sway. Hallvard's body cloven through Headlong in the billows flew; Wounds of wight once swift to fare Swooping vulture's beak doth tear.'
After this Skallagrim and his men took out to their ships and captured ship and her cargo. ”

“ The Sapphic verses of the Scalds often conveyed a double meaning, and perhaps this species of wit caused the idea of the bards being a species of jesters. That they were magnificently rewarded there is no doubt, seeing that Hiarne, the Scald, wrote an epitaph on Frotho I. of Denmark, which so delighted the people that they elected the poet to the vacant throne. The people must have been poor judges of poetry, for the epitaph is but an indifferent production. ”

“ TALE SIX THE STRANGE ADVENTURE OF SCHALU’S WIFE
For several years Schalu reigned over his new-found kingdom, quietly, wisely and well, ably advised and assisted by his faithful friend, Saran. His people loved him, and there was happiness and prosperity throughout the land. One day a group of men stood without the council chamber and begged an audience with the Khan. Schalu graciously admitted them and asked what it was they desired.
“Sire,” said they, “we are come from the people to ask you a boon, not so much for ourselves as for your Majesty. ”

“ As judge supreme by Urda’s wave the causes to decide.
Saga Forsete’s footsteps close with graver and with shield
Had follow’d, to record in runes whatever time reveal’d:
But every morning her return the anxious gods await,
To hear her ’fore Alfader’s throne her narrative relate.
But Niord, to Skada married, soon the ill-match’d union rued:
She bade him to the nuptial-couch on Dovre’s summit rude;
In every corner of the rock the eddying whirlwind roars,
While Skada’s brother o’er the sea, the tall Vandhose, soars: [209]
His arms cling to the sky ”

“ But I say to thee, Skallagrim: go thy road, and leave a luckless man to his ill fate. Otherwise it shall be thine also. Good friend hast thou been to me; now let us part and wend south and north. The King will be glad to greet thee yonder in London, Lambstail.”
“But one severing shall we know, lord,” said Skallagrim, “and that shall be sword’s work, nor will it be for long. It is ill to speak such words as these of the parting of lord and thrall. Bethink thee of the oath I swore on Mosfell. ”

“ Eyvind Scald-Spoiler replied in verse that it would ill befit a man like King Haakon to flee from the sons of Gunhild. "Manly speech is that, and in accordance with my mind," answered the king; and when the other warriors with one accord clamored for battle, he put on his armor, buckled his sword about his loins, and seized spear and shield. On his head he wore a golden helmet which flashed in the sun. ”

“ At last, when Schalu was returning after another fruitless journey into a far land to visit a lady of great renown, he happened to pass a small house on the outskirts of his kingdom. And standing in the doorway was the most beautiful damsel his eyes had ever looked on. She was tall and slim, with long, black hair reaching almost to her ankles. Her eyes were big and black as midnight, and her lips were red. Moreover, there was a soft magic in her face, a something so lovely that the Khan stood spellbound, gazing at her in silence for a long time. ”

“ Cadman interrupted laughingly. "I'm not such a bad shot myself, you know!"
"The Grass Jungle is crowded—I say crowded—with the worst kinds of blood-eaters. You may want an extra good shot; at the very top notch of practice, what's more."
As Dickson Sahib came out with it, he noticed Skag's surprise, and challenged him:
"Bless your soul, man, I believe it's your grip that grips us!"
Skag's serene face got warm, but Cadman assented.
"Skag dwells in the fundamentals," he explained; "most of us never touch 'em. He's practically incapable of fear; and the idea of failure never occurs to him." ”