Máni (Máni)

12th century; volume 2; ed. Kari Ellen Gade;

Lausavísur (Lv) - 3

III. Lausavísa (Lv) - 1

IV. Lausavísa (Lv) - 1

Skáldatal (SnE 1848-87, III, 255, 264, 277) lists Máni, or Skáld-Máni (Máni), as one of Magnús Erlingsson’s court poets. Nothing is known about his family, but he must have been an Icelander, because he later returned to Iceland and is mentioned in Stu (see Máni Lv 4^IV). He appears in a rather pitiful condition at Magnús’s court in May 1184 after a pilgrimage to Rome (ÍF 30, 130). It is not known what happened to him after Magnús’s death (on 15 June 1184), but he may have joined the retinue of Magnús’s opponent, Sverrir Sigurðarson, before returning to Iceland (so LH 1894-1901, II, 76; SnE 1848-87, III, 644). He was still alive c. 1215, when he composed a st. about the gifts which the Norw. jarl Hákon galinn ‘the Crazy’ sent to Snorri Sturluson in Iceland in return for a praise poem that Snorri had presented to the jarl (see Máni Lv 4^IV). Máni is said to have composed a panegyric about Magnús Erlingsson, but nothing is preserved of that poem. Of his poetic oeuvre, five sts survive: three in Sv (Lv 1-3 below), one in Stu Ísls (Máni Lv 4^IV) and one in SnE (Skm) and TGT (Máni Lv 5^III).