It is perhaps not surprising that much of the bulk of Old Norse-Icelandic scholarship has focused on the body of work which is the most Icelandic, the most Nordic, or the most Germanic. This body of work has for a long time been tied to the Icelandic independence movement and it remains a large influence in the Icelandic national identity. Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond is a recent attempt by scholars to shine light on topics which have not received as much attention as others, and examine, in the words of editor Martin Chase, “poetry that slides across the boundaries of genre or periodization or cultural origin [that] has tended to be left by the wayside” (8). The book contains eleven essays on a range of subjects, and despite its name, there is very little work on eddic poetry, and most of the emphasis is on skaldic poetry or beyond, such as ballads or Icelandic rímur.
The first essay, “The Sources of Merlínússpá: Gunnlaugr Leifsson’s Use of Texts Additional to the De gestis Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth” by Russell Poole, gives an interesting accounting for the different sources of Merlínússpá. Due to a number of irregularities between the original text and Gunnlaugr’s translation, Poole argues that Gunnlaugr drew on a range of sources all discussing the same events and slotted those he liked best into his translation.
Ingvil Brügger Budal’s “The Genesis of Strengleikar: Scribes, Translators and Place of Origin” deals with the origins of a collection of translated Anglo-Norman lais. She re-evaluates the arguments that the translations were published in Norway and instead argues for a translation based in England, possibly around Oxford, due to the unlikelihood of Old French manuscripts making it to Norway in the amount required for the project.
Christopher Abram’s essay, “Einarr Skúlason, Snorri Sturluson, and the Post-Pagan Mythological Kenning,” re-examines the role Einarr Skúlason played in the revival of pagan motifs in skaldic poetry over a century after the conversion. Abram argues that Einarr was one of the sources, if not the only one, for a great deal of information about Freyja which appears in Snorra Edda and is thus suspect. Whilst Abram’s warning that we cannot trust Snorri’s mythological information is a common refrain in the field, his discussion of Einarr’s poetry is definitely worth reading.
In “Skáldskaparmál as a Tool for Composition of Pseudonymous Skaldic Poetry,” Mikael Males argues that authors used Skáldskaparmál as a handbook for creating “old” poetry. Through a close analysis of various stanzas in various sagas, Males claims that at least some of the poetry in the sagas was composed by the saga authors instead of the saga characters, and that in order to give the poetry the right sense of age, the saga authors used Skáldskaparmál as a handbook for creating archaic verse.
Kevin J. Wanner’s “Háttatal Stanza 12 and the Divine Legitimation of Kings” re-evaluates the question of why Háttatal favors Jarl Skúli Bárðarson over King Hákon Hákonarson despite stanza 12 which suggests that God favors Hákon as king of Norway. Drawing on Christian theology, Wanner essentially argues that God’s grace was not necessarily permanent and that Snorri therefore hoped that God would change his mind.
Rolf Stavnem’s essay, “Creating Tradition: The Use of Skaldic Verse in Old Norse Historiography,” explores the use of verse in sagas about King Óláfr Tryggvason. By comparing how the stanzas are used, he concludes that some saga authors sometimes used poetry as extra information without necessarily agreeing with it, or that the authors picked the stanzas they wanted and made them fit the narrative they were creating.
Continuing the theme of verse in sagas, Rory McTurk’s “Rattus Rattus as a Beast of Battle? Stanza 12 of Ragnars Saga” offers up a new translation for a troublesome stanza in Ragnars saga loðbrókar. Whilst controversial, his translation has the benefit of not requiring any emendation, which until now had been the most common way of making sense of this stanza.
Hannah Burrows’s essay, “Wit and Wisdom: The Worldview of the Old Norse-Icelandic Riddles and Their Relationship to Eddic Poetry,” is the only essay in this book which deals with eddic poetry. She compares riddles in Hervarar saga to eddic wisdom poems and concludes that, unlike wisdom poems, riddles are not about education, but rather they aim to confuse and subvert expectations. Her work could perhaps have benefited from knowledge on the work done by folklorists on riddles, and her conclusion sounds very much like the theory of congruent incongruity in humorology.
Martin Chase’s “Devotional Poetry at the End of the Middle Ages in Iceland” presents an overview of a rather overlooked corpus of work: that of Icelandic devotional poetry in the late Middle Ages. He provides a strong overview of this body of poetry as well as some of the reasons for why it has been overlooked. Whilst he does not go into much detail, his essay makes a good argument for greater attention to be paid to this type of poetry.
Paul Acker’s “Love and Death in the Icelandic Ballad” takes a look at two ballads, Gunnars kvæði and Trimstrams kvæði, both of which are based on Icelandic sagas: Njáls saga and Trimstrams saga ok Ísöndar respectively. Acker argues that Gunnars kvæði is quite original in that it explicitly takes a woman’s point of view, whilst Tristrams kvæði draws more on a ballad tradition which was in full bloom at the time.
The final essay is Shaun F. D. Hughes’ “Steinunn Finnsdóttir and Snækóngs Rímur” which deals with a woman poet alive in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hughes provides an entertaining and accessible translation and offers up interesting commentary about the strange gender dynamics which run throughout the Snækóngs rímur.
This book contains valuable essays looking at often marginalized or ignored topics within the Old Norse-Icelandic corpus. For anyone interested in Old Norse poetry, it is more than a worthwhile read.
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[Review length: 984 words • Review posted on January 21, 2015]