Stanza 7 is a conventional praise of Haraldr gráfeldr.
In stanza 10, the cool relation between king and skald
is obvious. The remaining stanzas could be regarded as
refl ecting the author’s critical attitude toward Haraldr’s
rule. In stanzas 8 and 9, he complains about the greed
of the king, to whom he must even give his own gold
(st. 10). Stanza 12 complains about the bad weather,
for which in the contemporary view the king was re-
sponsible (cf. the fact that in Vellekla Earl Hákon was
praised for bringing back good harvests). Stanzas 13 and
14 may also be read in this light: they deal with fi shing
and buying herring, partly in humorous paraphrases. In
exchange for herring, the poet is forced to give a needle,
which he had received as a present from the Icelanders.
Seen in connection with the preceding stanzas, stanzas
13 and 14 could imply that the poet has lost his fortune
as a consequence of his confl ict with the king, and is
forced in bad years to live by fi shing for herring and
selling his last possessions.
See also Hákon góði (the good) Haraldsson
Further Reading
Editions
Finnur Jónsson, ed. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. Vols.
1A–2A (tekst efter håndskrifterne) and lB–2B(rettet tekst).
Copenhagen and Christiania [Oslo]: Gyldendal, 1912–15;
rpt. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger, 1967 (A) and 1973
(B), vol. 1A, pp. 64–74, vol. 1B, pp. 57–65 [Hákonarmal,
Háleygjatal, lausavísur].
Lindquist, Ivar, ed. Norröna lovkväden från 800– och 900–talen.
- Förslag till restituerad täxt jämte översättning. Lund: Gle-
erup, 1929, pp. 10–7 [Hákonarmál], pp. 74–5 [Háleygjatal
1–4].
Kock, Ernst A., ed. Den nossk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols.
Lund: Gleerup, 1946–49, vol. 1, pp. 35–40 [Hákonarmál,
Háleygjatal, lausavísur].
Translations
Hollander, Lee M., trans. Old Norse Poems: The Most Important
Non-Skaldic Verse Not Included in the Poetic Edda. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1936; rpt. Millwood:
Kraus, 1973.
Leach, Howard G. A Pageant of Old Scandinavia. Princeton:
Princeton University Press; New York: American-Scandina-
vian Foundation, 1946.
Literature
Wadstein, Elis. “Bidrag till tolkning och belysning av skalde- och
Eddadikter.” Arkiv förnordisk fi lologi 11 (1895), 64–92.
Storm, Gustav. “Ynglingatal, dels Forfatter og Forfattelsestid.”
Arkiv för nordisk fi lologi 15 (1899), 107–41.
Olsen, Magnus. “Fortjener Hákonarmáls digter tilnavnet ‘skal-
daspillir?” In Til Gerhard Gran, 9. des. 1916. Kristiania
[Oslo]: Aschehoug, 1916, pp. 1–9.
Paasche, Frederik. “Hákonarmál.” In Til Gerhard Gran, 9. des.
1916, pp. 10–6.
Genzmer, Felix. “Das eddische Preislied.” Beitr ge zur Geschichte
der deutschen Sprache und Literatur 44 (1919), 138–68.
Noreen, Erik. “Anmärkninger till Eyvinds dikter.” Studier i
fornvästnordisk diktning (1921), 45–62.
Noreen, Erik. “Eiríksmál och Hákonarmál.” Nordisk Tidskrift för
vetenskap konst och industri, udg. av. Letterstedska Förenin-
gen (1922), 535–42.
Sahlgren, Jöran. Eddica et Scaldica. Fornvästnordiska studier 1.
Nordisk Filologi, 1. Lund: Gleerup, 1927, pp. 40–109.
Flornes, H.M, “‘Spåteme.’ Merknader til ei lausavise av Eyvind
Finsson.” Maal og minne (1939), 15–16.
Midtun, S. D. “En lausavísa av Øyvind Finsson.” Maal og minne
(1940), 143–4.
Olsen, Magnus. “Skaldevers om nøds-år nordenfjells.” Festskrift
til Konrad Nielsen på 70-årsdagen 28.8.1945. Studia Septen-
trionalia, 2. Oslo: Brøgger, 1945, pp. 176–92.
Lie, Hallvard. “Et upåaktet gammelnorsk ord: hausi og Hákonar-
mál 6.” Arkiv för nordisk fi lologi 63 (1948), 200–3.
Wolff, Ludvig. “Eddische-skaldische Blütenlese.” In Edda,
Skalden, Saga: Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Felix
Genzmer. Ed. Hermann Schneider. Heidelberg: Winter, 1952,
pp. 92–107.
Holm-Olsen, Ludvig. “Øyvind Skaldaspillir” Edda 53 (1953),
145–65; See, Klaus von. “Zwei eddische Preislieder:
Eiríksmál und Hákonarmál.” In Festgabe für Ulrich Pretzel
zum 65. Geburtstag dargebracht von seinen Freunden und
Schülern. Ed. Wemer Simon et al. Berlin: Schmidt, 1963,
pp. 107–17.
Schier, Kurt. “Freys und Fróðis Bestattung.” In Festschrift für
Otto Höfl er zum 65. Geburtstag. Ed. Helmut Birkhan et al.
Vienna: Notring, 1968, pp. 389–409.
Wolf, Alois. “Zitat und Polemik in den Hákonarmál Eyvinds.”
In Germanische Studien. Ed. J. Erben and E. Thurnher.
Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, 15. Innsbruck:
Institut für Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft der Universität
Innsbruck, 1969, pp. 9–32.
Marold, Edith. “Das Walhallbild in den Eiríksmál und den
Hákonarmál.” Mediaeval Scandinavia5 (1972), 19–33.
Schier, Kurt. “Háleygjatal.” Kindlers Literatur Lexikon 5. Zurich:
Kindler, 1970, pp. 1396–7; See, Klaus von. Edda, Saga, Skal-
dendichtung. Heidelberg: Winter, 1981, pp. 522–5.
Edith MaroldEZZO (d. after 1065)
Presumed author of the Cantilena de miraculis Christi
(Song on Christ’s Miracles), more commonly known
as the Ezzolied (Ezzo’s Song), the fi rst vernacular Ger-
man work of mature literary quality since the Old High
German Christus und die Samariterin (Christ and the
Samaritin Woman, ca. 900). The earliest connection
between the name Ezzo and a hymn composed around
the middle of the eleventh century is found in the Vita
altmanni. The Vita (ca. 1130) describes, among other
events from the life of Altmann (d. 1091), a pilgrimage
to the Holy Land in which the Passau bishop took part
in 1064/1065. Also participating in this pilgrimage, ac-
cording to the Vita, was a cleric named Ezzo who wrote
a Cantilena de miraculis Christi in German. That the
cantilena in the vernacular by someone named Ezzo
and the Ezzolied are one and the same thing is a virtual
certainty.
The work exists in two redactions, the Strasbourg
(Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire, manuscript
no. germ. 278, fol. 74v. “S”), and the Vo r a u (no. 276,EZZO