Robert Ferguson, author of The Vikings: A History, claims “a mastery of poetry was a must for any young Viking who wanted to make a name for himself. . . . Young Icelandic warrior-poets (or ‘skalds,’ as they were known) such as Gunnlaug Snaketongue, Kormak Ogmundarson, and Hallfred the Troublesome Poet, were documenting the ecstasies and despairs of romantic love as early as the late 10th century, some 200 years before the medieval troubadours we typically credit as being the world’s first true Romantic poets.”
This writer clearly knows too much to have written the stupid headline.
I might quibble that romantic poetry isn’t a chief theme in Viking poetry. The more romantic sagas tend to be later ones, heavily influenced by continental models.
The real importance of poetry, in pre-literate or semi-literate societies, is as an information storage and retrieval system. Facts locked into the poetic form tend to remain unchanged through generations, and chieftains looked to poems as one of the most certain ways to leave a legacy that would last forever.
I read ‘Erling’s Word’ recently, and I seem to remember one or two characters that were composing bits of poetry.
– I enjoyed the novel a lot Lars, with some very powerful scenes and some intriguing characters. (It was quite short and I wondered if the publisher had ‘edited’ it.)
– Of your three novels that I’ve read it was by far my favorite. (I’m looking forward to a chance to read the sequel.)
You need to read The Year of the Warrior. Sadly, it’s a double volume, so you’re buying EW all over again, but the sequel’s in there. And then there’s West Oversea.
The publisher did edit it a bit, but he actually had me add some stuff. All to the good, too.
I have ‘The year of the Warrior’ I just haven’t got around to the second half yet.
– I put a request in at the library for ‘West Oversea’ so we’ll see if they bite.