2. Corpus

a. Content

All known skaldic poetry from its beginnings to the end of the fourteenth century will be edited, i.e. essentially the same corpus as that of Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning, ed. Finnur Jónsson, 1912-15, with the addition of metrical runic texts.

b. Arrangement

i.       Arrangement of the corpus as a whole

The published edition will comprise nine volumes, instead of the three originally proposed.

Aside from the Bibliography in Volume IX, this volume will also contain indices of first lines of all verses, names of skalds, personal names found in the skaldic corpus, indigenous terms incapable of precise translation (e.g. hersir), place names and major battles. All editors will supply lists of such terms found in the poetry they are editing to their Volume Editor.

Evidence for the assignment of stanzas to extended poems will be reconsidered, i.e. the reconstructions of poems offered in Skj will not necessarily be retained.

ii.      Arrangement within volumes

The extended poems will be arranged by presumed author and date, judged from the ms. attributions. Lausavísur will be grouped according to their prose sources, i.e. sets of stanzas from individual prose sources will be kept together, e.g. verses from Gunnlaugs saga, Njáls saga, or those from Snorra Edda not assignable to extended poems.

'Unidentified fragments' will be ordered as most appropriate. Often, wherever there is sufficient evidence to warrant it, this will be a chronological sequence. 

iii.     Ordering of stanzas within extended poems

This will be reconsidered by individual editors, and will not necessarily be identical with that of Skj. Evidence and difficulties will be briefly outlined in an introductory note.

iv.     Various ways of categorising

Since no way of organising the corpus is ideal, various groupings will be reviewed in the Introduction and Indices, e.g.:

·   Generic groupings (e.g. níð, mythological or genealogical poetry).

·   Types of ms context, e.g. konungasögur, Íslendingasögur, poetological works, etc.

The poetry of some individual skalds will be presented in two or more locations, but these will be traceable through the index of skald names.

‡ v.   Attribution to more than one skald

a.      Stanzas of which different parts are attributed to different skalds. E.g. Hharð starts a verse, SnH completes it. The complete verse edition should be assigned to one of them (who is preferred, e.g., because he is credited with the majority of lines, or with the opening lines). The Text and Translation should also be printed along with the other skald's poetry, with a cross-reference to the complete edition.

b.       Whole stanzas attributed to more than one skald. The complete verse edition should be assigned to one of the skalds on the basis of the primary evidence and scholarly opinion. There should be a cross-reference to the alternative skald after the list of works in his Biography. If appropriate, e.g. if the disputed stanza would belong in a specific poem of the alternative poet, it may also be mentioned in the Introduction to that poem.

References