Icelandic sagas are a unique layer of world literature. They do not have many of the points that the modern readership is used to - stories built on a love or detective plot, descriptions of the nature and feelings of the characters. The unprepared reader may find it particularly difficult to read unusual verses often found in sagas.
In the Viking era, a very peculiar poetry arose in northern Europe, which was called "skaldskap", and poets who composed such verses - skalds. In European history, this is the first case after antiquity when poetry was not folklore, but author's, conscious.
The main expressive means of the skalds was not rhyme, but a special technique not found in any other poetic tradition - kenning. This is a combination of two nouns. The first word is the allegorical name of the subject, which stands for kenning, and the second, taken in the genitive case, is something with which this subject is associated. If we are talking about a person, then the name of any god or goddess often acts as the main word. A man or a warrior is called "Battle Njerd", "Shield Baldrom", "Slam Thur", a woman - "Nanna Flax", "Leek Frey", "Monist's Nal". Mythological names are optional, a man can be called a “Maple of a boat”, and a woman can be called a “grove of necklaces”.
Many kennings are built solely on associations: death is called the “withering vein, ” the sword is called the “serpent of the shelom, ” blood is called the “river of wounds, ” crows are called “ghouls of the Valkyries, ” but there are those that require knowledge of mythological subjects in the era Vikings knew all the listeners of the Skaldic verses. For example, the Normans believed that the halls of the sea giant Aegir are illuminated by the brilliance of gold, so one of the cannings of gold is the “flame of the tide."
The organizing principle in the poetry of skalds was the poetic rhythm, as well as alliteration - the repetition of syllables with the same or similar consonants (this feature is most often lost in translation). With the help of these means, Kennings lined up in a stanza - visu. It was in the form of vis that the Normans improvised verses in different situations. But sometimes the visas united in a cycle, turning into a rather large work - such, for example, “The Hanging Joy” written by king Harald Surov on the occasion of his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise.
Another common skaldic genre was drape - a three-part song of praise. In the first part, the skald attracts the attention of listeners, in the second - describes the deeds of the one whom it praises, in the third - asks for a reward. Often there was a chorus in the drape, which - by analogy with a part of the ship - was called "shtemnom". Skald, who had dedicated the king to "draining without stub, " could be accused of disrespect for the ruler.
Another genre - nid - was the opposite of drapes. This is a blasphemous poem, which was by no means written to “pour out emotions”: it was believed that a nid could have very serious consequences for the one against whom it was directed. For this reason, there are few examples of nida - such dangerous verses were afraid to repeat and write down.
There were love skaldic verses - manseng, but not every skald risked creating in this genre. This was regarded as love magic, was not welcomed by society and could even lead to blood feud.
Skald’s poetry shared the fate of the legacy of the Viking era as a whole: just as Leyk Eriksson’s voyage didn’t become America’s discovery for Europe, so skald’s finds were unclaimed in the subsequent development of European poetry. But today, this poetry is amazing.
