come in Valho ̨ll and among the gods; and the conclud-
ing praise of the greatness and uniqueness of the late
king, followed by words of grief over the situation of
the country now enslaved. This three-part structure is
also underlined by the meter. The traditional epic meter
fornyrðislag is used for the battle section; the parts in
which mythical persons are protagonists and the con-
cluding praise use ljóðaháttr meter. For that reason,
some scholars have assumed that two different poems
have been combined in Hákonarmál (Sahlgren 1927).
But this change of meter is characteristic of the genre of
“eddic panegyrics,” as well as the epic presentation and
the use of mythical scenes and motifs for the purpose
of praise. In the battle scenes, however, the poem is
infl uenced to a greater extent by skaldic metaphors and
kennings used to create impressive imagery.
As to the themes, the poem is cognate with Eiríksmál,
although there are considerable differences. Whereas
Eiríksmál is confi ned to a single scene, the entry of the
king into Valh o ̨ll, Hákonarmál also contains the battle
and the praise of the king. There are also differences in
religious attitudes, Valho ̨ ll and Óðinn are presented very
unfavorably. The valkyries, not Óðinn, choose the hero,
and they also determine victory or defeat. Whether be-
cause of his Christian faith or his fear, the king does not
want to go to Óðinn. Moreover, the king’s welcome in
Va l h o ̨ ll is surpassed by his reception among the gods, for
whom the poet uses the collective terms characteristic of
the late-pagan religion of the environment of the earls of
Hlaðir (b nd, regin, ró ̨ ð, heiðin goð). Unlike Eiríksmál,
the poem reveals intense national feelings. The king is
shown as a sovereign defending his kingdom, protect-
ing the sanctuaries. His character is praised; there is no
better king to some after him. And the gods who have
invited him to join them are the gods worshiped in the
environment of the earls of Hlaðir.
Taking into account the last stanza, where the poet
speaks of the enslaved people, we have to assume that
the poem was composed for the earls of Hlaðir after
Hákon’s death, when Haraldr gráfeldr’s rule had become
increasingly oppressive.
Most scholars accept the statement in Fagrskinna
that Eiríksmál was the model for Hákonarmál. There
are some very obvious parallels between the two poems.
But there have also been voices in favor of the priority
of Hákonarmál (Wadstein 1895, von See 1963); they
argue that the poem’s conception of Valho ̨ ll is more
archaic, and its poetic quality greater. Yet, both lines of
argument are unconvincing, and it seems more correct
to assume that the author of the Hákonarmál deliber-
ately made his poem different from Eiríksmál, and had
political motives for surpassing his model (Wolf 1969,
Marold 1972).
Eyvindr’s Häleygjatal was composed for Earl Hákon
after his victory over the Jómsvíkingar in 985. This
poem, as the opening stanza announces, traces the earl’s
ancestors to the gods. Only fragments are left: nine
complete stanzas and seven half-stanzas are contained
in Heimskringla, Snorra Edda, Fagrskinna, and Flatey-
jarbók. A 13th-century Icelandic MS (cf. Storm 1899:
111, Anm. 4), whose author probably used Háleygjatal
to enumerate twenty-seven earls of Hlaðir, permits the
conjecture that the poem also enumerated twenty-seven
ancestors of Earl Hákon, just as Ynglingatal, which
was presumably the model for Háleygjatal, does for
the Ynglingar. The kviðuháttr meter also follows Yn-
glingatal (cf. Storm). The stanzas preserved show that
Háleygjatal also relates how each of the princes met his
death. The burial place of a prince is mentioned in only
one case. The fi rst of Hákon’s ancestors is Sæmingr,
the son of Óðinn and the giantess Skaði. The opening
stanzas contain two traditional elements: the request
for silence and the paraphrasing of “poem” by the myth
of Óðinn’s mead, the drink of poetical inspiration; this
pattern shows clearly that the poem was composed as
a panegyric.
The poem is connected with Ynglingatal by the meter,
the genealogical content, and the concentration on the
deaths of the princes. There are also certain similarities
between the kennings and other metaphorical phrases
in the two poems. Therefore, it has been generally
supposed that Háleygjatal was composed for political
reasons, following the model of Ynglingatal, in order to
prove that the family of the earls of Hlaðir was just as old
as the Ynglingar’s, their rivals for the power in Norway,
and that the earls were also descended from the gods.
However, it has sometimes been argued that Ynglingatal
is later than Háleygjatal (Wadstein 1895).
The fact that Eyvindr was called “skáldaspillir”
plays a certain role in this discussion. The term was
interpreted as “destroyer of skalds,” and it was thought
that this name implied that the poet had imitated older
poems, especially their kennings. But since the style of
skaldic poetry was highly traditional, we must beware of
regarding these analogies from a modern point of view
and dismissing them as lacking originality. It would be
better to interpret the name of “skáldaspillir” as “who
puts the other skalds in the shade” (Wadstein 1895, M.
Olsen 1916).
Eyvindr’s lausavísur are composed in dróttkvætt
meter, the ceremonial, courtly style. The fi rst six of them
have to do with the battle of Fitjar: the fi rst announces
the arrival of the enemies’ army to the king, the second
calls the warriors to the battle. Stanzas 3–5 focus on one
episode of the battle, the encounter of Hákon góði and
Eyvindr skreyja (“bragger”). Stanza 6 is an answer to a
well-known poem by Glúmr Geirason, skald of Haraldr
gráfeldr, which praised his victory over Hákon. Eyvindr
answered with a stanza recalling a previous victory of
Hákon over the sons of Eiríkr.EYVINDR FINNSSON SKÁLDASPILLIR