Ormr Barreyjarskáld — OBarr^III

Ormr Barreyjarskáld (or Barreyjaskáld) ‘Poet of Barra’ (OBarr) (cf. ON Barrey, island in the Outer Hebrides) is known only from a single helmingr and a couplet preserved in mss of SnE (SnE 1998, I, 34, 37) and from a reference in Þorgils saga ok Hafliða to a saga about Ormr recited by a priest, Ingimundr, at a wedding at Reykjahólar in 1119 (Stu 1946, I, 27; Brown 1952, 18). This saga is there said to have included vísur margar ‘many verses’ and to have had a good flokkr towards the end. It is not certain when Ormr lived; Skj B places him in the second half of the tenth century, while Faulkes proposes the tenth or eleventh centuries (SnE 1998, II, 498). It has been suggested (e. g. Skj; SnE 1998, II, 498) that he may have come from Orkney, although his nickname indicates the Hebrides. Frag 1 may indicate that Ormr was a Christian. The form of the first element of his nickname is often given in mss of SnE in the genitive plural Barreyja-, but he has conventionally been referred to by the singular form Barreyjar- ‘of Barra’ (there is only one island of the name Barra in the Hebrides).

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
4. Stu 1946 = Jón Jóhannesson, Magnús Finnbogason and Kristján Eldjárn, eds. 1946. Sturlunga saga. 2 vols. Reykjavík: Sturlungaútgáfan.
5. Brown, Ursula, ed. 1952. Þorgils saga ok Hafliða. London: Oxford University Press.
6. Internal references
7. Edith Marold 2017, ‘Snorra Edda (Prologue, Gylfaginning, Skáldskaparmál)’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
8. (forthcoming), ‘ Anonymous, Þorgils saga ok Hafliða’ in Guðrún Nordal (ed.), Poetry on Icelandic History. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 4. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=103> (accessed 25 April 2024)