A SELECTION OF SKALDIC POEMS
Journal Title: Studia Litterarum - Year 2016, Vol 1, Issue 3
Abstract
Rendering skaldic poetry into another language is a challenge for translators. The main feature of this poetic system is its highly intricate form governed by rigid rules. Skaldic poetry emerged in Norway in the pre-written period and existed for more than half a millennium, from the middle of the 9th Сentury to the end of the 14th; from the 10th Сentury onwards it was composed almost exclusively by the Icelanders. Skaldic art was highly valued at the Scandinavian court: by glorifying the exploits of the kings in praise-poems, skalds immortalized their deeds in human memory. Taking its origin from the Old Norse epic verse, skaldic poetry differs from the former in terms of subject matter (contemporary and often momentary events as opposed to mythological and heroic past), formal properties (a highly complex poetic technique as opposed to an unsophisticated form), and attitude to authorship. Whereas epic poems were created and transmitted by anonymous singers, skaldic verses were produced by authors who often made their personal skills a poetic theme. The introduction to the current selection of Russian translations of skaldic poems contains a description of metrical and syntactical structure of the basic poetic unit, vísa (stanza), composed in the main skaldic metre, dróttkvætt (‘court meter’). It also discusses the most important element of skaldic language, i.e. simple and multi-member kenning (periphrasis substituted for the nouns of common speech). The selection includes examples of praise poems and of lausavísur (‘loose stanzas’) composed by Icelandic skalds of the 11th and 12th Centuries which have been preserved in the þættir, short stories incorporated into the sagas of Norwegian kings.
Authors and Affiliations
Elena A. Gurevich
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP26121
- DOI 10.22455/2500-4247-2016-1-3-4-340-356
- Views 337
- Downloads 15
Religious Dimension of German “Unending Book” in the Children’s Fantasy by Cornelia Funke
This article examines a fantasy genre in the work of Cornelia Funke against the background of Protestantism and “Als ob” (“as if”) philosophy. Alongside, it also explores fantastic Romantic novels written by modern Germa...
GORKY STUDIES: A NEW PHASE
The A. M. Gorky Institute of World Literature is acknowledged center of the international Gorky Studies. The paper discusses all the stages of the development of the Gorky research from 1937 to the present. The Institute...
Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess by Alfred de Musset: Construction of Subjectivity in French “Black” Romanticism
This essay examines Gamiani, or Two Nights of Excess, erotic novel by Alfred de Musset written at the beginning of the 1830s and widely popular in France until up to the 1920s. When writing the novel that belongs to th...
The Face of the Other in Emmanuel Levinas and Alexey Uhktomsky
The author compares ethical concepts of a Russian physiologist and philosopher Alexey A. Ukhtomsky and a French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Both use the word “face” as a philosophical term. The paper examines the “fa...
“Between Death and Life” by A.N. Apukhtin: Reincarnation Plot as the Narrative Problem
A. N. Apukhtin’s story “Between Death and Life” (written shortly before the author’s death) was not published during his lifetime and has been largely overlooked by Russian scholars. However, it is interesting for its...