its more-or-less accurate preservation in an oral tradition, until the advent of literacy
enabled the text to be fixed in a different, and more permanent, way. The extent to
which the form of skaldic verse is fixed is much greater than in other early Germanic
genres, so that, while all verse is designed to be memorable, skaldic verse seems particu-
larly designed to be memorable in exactly the form in which it was originally composed.
It is characterised by complex metrical rules applied within a small poetic space: almost
any changes to the text may violate one or more of these metrical rules (Gade 1995 :
1 – 7 ). As Snorri said, as long as the poem is ‘correctly composed’ in the first instance, and
then ‘carefully interpreted’, it will not be ‘corrupted’.
Skaldic verse that can in this way be relatively confidently attributed to the Viking
Age needs to be defined somewhat more narrowly. In the Viking Age, kings and
chieftains employed poets who composed formal poems in their praise, recording and
celebrating their warlike and other accomplishments (Frank 1978 : 120 – 5 ). This genre
(known from its form as dróttkvætt ‘composed in court metre’) flourished particularly in
the late tenth and eleventh centuries. The poets were mainly Icelanders and the kings
were mainly Norwegian, though Swedish, Danish and English kings, and other rulers,
could also be celebrated. The poems were composed in the poet’s head and recited before
an audience of the king and his retainers, or of his heirs if it was posthumous. The
skaldic poet often appears as an authorial presence in his text, drawing attention to his
sources. His authorial personality is also of importance outside the text, guaranteeing its
authenticity and authority. For historians like Snorri, the poet is the authority for the
information they take from his poems. But it is also clear to us that the poet is in some
sense the creator of that information. Handsomely rewarded for his poem, he presents a
flattering and definitive version of the life and works of the king or chieftain being
praised, securely enmeshed in the strict and complex forms of dróttkvætt which ensure its
enduring testimony. The poem then becomes part of the treasure-chest of other poets,
who ensure it is remembered and passed on.
Arnórr Þórðarson’s Þorfinnsdrápa records the earl of Orkney’s raids on mainland
Scotland in the late 1020 s, including a battle against a Scottish leader called Karl
Hundason, at Tarbat Ness, south of the River Oykell:
Ulfs tuggu rauð eggjar,
eitt þar’s Torfnes heitir,- ungr olli því þengill –
(þat vas mánadag) fránar.
Sungu þar, til þinga,
þunn fyr Ekkjal sunnan,
sverð, es siklingr barðisk
snarr við Skotlands harra.
Bright blades grew red on the wolf’s mouthful [carrion] at a place
called Torfnes. Young, the ruler caused that. It was a Monday.
Slender swords sang there south of the Ekkjall, as the princeling,
swift into conflict, fought with Scotland’s lord. (Whaley 1998 : 236 – 7 )This is a typical dróttkvætt stanza, with eight half-lines of six syllables each, alliteration
binding the half-lines into pairs, and internal rhyme (full rhyme in the even-numbered
–– Judith Jesch ––