Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T14:28:11.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Poets’ Sagas

from Part III - The Saga Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2024

Heather O'Donoghue
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Eleanor Parker
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

This chapter focuses on a major subgroup of Islendingasögur, the poets’ sagas or skalds’ sagas. While many Íslendingasögur include skaldic verses placed in the mouths of characters, in poets’ sagas the verses are attributed to and spoken by known poets, who were predominantly Icelanders. The role some of these Icelanders played as court poets to rulers of Norway is often depicted in short narratives or þættir, and is here argued to represent the beginnings of the development of poets’ sagas. Four sagas are concerned with the more personal aspects of the poets’ lives back in Iceland, and the narrative follows a distinct and repeated pattern of rivalry with another man, in some cases also a poet, who marries the object of the protagonist’s desire. These sagas, Kormáks saga, Hallfreðar saga, Bjarnar saga Hítdœkappa and Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, are analysed in detail to highlight the centrality and similarity of the love-triangle pattern, with Egils saga displaying a vestigial element of it. Themes of love, grief and insult (nið) are discussed, and the chapter concludes by contrasting the bitterness of the poets’ rivalries with the strength of their devotion to their patrons.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×