Halldórr skvaldri
Halldórr skvaldri (
He composed the poem Útfarardrápa about the feats of
In the assessment of
Biography and works
Halldor was born early enough to compose an elegy for
According to Snorri Sturluson's Skáldatal, Halldór wrote elegies (in the Skaldic verse forms of the drápa and flokkr) for:[3]
- Sóni Ívarsson, jarl of Götaland (c. 1100)
- Jarl Karl Sónason (c. 1140, Sweden)
- King Magnús berfœttr ‘Barelegs’ Óláfsson of Norway (d. 1103)
- King Sigurðr jórsalafari‘Jerusalem-farer’ Magnússon (d. 1130)
- King Haraldr gilli(-kristr) ‘Servant (of Christ)’ Magnússon (d. 1136)
- King Eiríkr eymuni ‘the Long-remembered’ of Denmark (d. 1137)
- King Sørkvir Kolsson of Sweden (c. 1150)
- Jarl Jón Sørkvisson(Sweden).
- King Ingi Haraldssonof Norway (d. 1161)
These poems do not, however, survive.
The surviving parts of Halldórr's corpus are, like most skaldic verse, preserved only as quotations in prose Kings' sagas. These are:
- Útfararkviða: one stanza only, in Sigurðr Jórsalafari's expedition to Palestine and Byzantium around 1108–11, preserved in Magnússona saga, Heimskringla, and Hulda-Hrokkinskinna. There has been some debate about the attribution to Halldórr. The name Útfararkviða was given by the modern editor Finnur Jónsson.[4]
- Útfaradrápa: an account of Sigurðr jórsalafari's expedition to the Mediterranean basin. These stanzas have been identified with the poem which, according to Sverris saga, a skald called Máni 'kvað síðan Útfarardrápuna er Halldórr skvaldri orti um Sigurð konung Jórsalafara, móðurfǫður Magnús konungs' ('later recited the Útfarardrápa which Halldórr skvaldri composed about King Sigurðr Jórsalafari, the maternal grandfather of King Magnus') to Magnus V of Norway in 1184.[5] The poem survives in varying degrees through quotation in Fagrskinna, Magnússona saga, Heimskringla, Morkinskinna, the Third Grammatical Treatise, and Hulda-Hrokkinskinna.
- Haraldsdrápa records Magnús inn blindi Sigurðarson in 1134–1135, apparently predating Haraldr's death in 1136. The poem survives in varying degrees in quotations in Codex Frisianus, Fagrskinna, Hulda-Hrokkinskinna, Heimskringla, Magnúss saga blinda og Haralds gilla, and Morkinskinna. The title was coined by modern editors.[6]
Editions and translations
Halldórr's poems are reconstructed as accurately as possible from the surviving quotations in Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300, ed. by Kari Ellen Gade, Skaldic poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2009), pp. 482–96. A text and translation bades on Gade's edition is available at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/m.php?p=skald&i=117.
References
- ISBN 3-11-016330-6.
- ^ Åke Ohlmarks, Fornnordiskt lexikon (Tiden, 1995), s.v. Halldor Skvaldre.
- ^ Snorri Sturluson, Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei, ed. by Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols (Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum, 1848-87; rprt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966), III, 252, 254-5, 258, 260, 262-3, 267, 272, 276-7, 283; cf. III, 367-70, cited at http://abdn.ac.uk/skaldic/db.php?id=117&if=default&table=skalds Archived 2015-06-01 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "skaldic project". abdn.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
- ^ Sverris saga, ed. by Þorleifur Hauksson, Íslensk fornrit, 30 (Reykjavík: Hið Íslenzka Fornritafélagið, 2007), p. 130.
- ^ "skaldic project". abdn.ac.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2015.