Eddic, Skaldic, and Beyond

This collection of essays on Old Norse-Icelandic poetry is concerned with the blurring of boundaries between genres and periods. Many of the texts and topics taken up here have been difficult to categorize and have consequently received less attention than they perhaps deserve. The boundaries between genres (skaldic and eddic), periods (Viking Age, medieval, early modern) or cultures (Icelandic, Scandinavian, English, Continental) may not have been as sharp in the eyes and ears of contemporary authors and audiences as they seem to our own. When questions of classification are allowed to fall into the background, at least temporarily, it becomes easier to appreciate the poetry on its own terms, rather than focus on its ability or failure to live up to anachronistic expectations. Some of the essays in this collection present new material for consideration, while others revisit long-held assumptions about authors and texts and challenge or suggest revision of them. They reflect the idea that poetry with "medieval" characteristics continued to be produced in Iceland well beyond the fifteenth century, the traditional end of the medieval period of Scandinavian and English literature, and even beyond the Protestant Reformation in Iceland (1550). All of these studies point out the need for more work: much research has been focused on the "best" skaldic poetry (that which follows Snorri's Sturluson's definitions most closely) and the most purely Nordic and Germanic of the eddic poems, but poetry that slides across the boundaries of genre or periodization or cultural origin has tended to be left by the wayside. Some of the articles present new and persuasive evidence, some submit possible interpretations for consideration and evaluation, and some hope to awaken interest in and appreciation for unpublished and undervalued materials.