6. Málaháttr and Haðarlag
Kari Ellen Gade 2009, ‘Málaháttr and Haðarlag’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols [check printed volume for citation].
Málaháttr ‘speech metre’ and Haðarlag ‘Hǫðr’s metre’ are variants of fornyrðislag with five rather than four metrical positions per half-line. Haðarlag has internal rhyme, as in dróttkvætt. Consider the following half-stanza in Haðarlag from Sturla Þorðarson’s Hrafnsmál (Sturl Hrafn 1/1-4, c. 1264):
Sóttu sóknhvattar
sveitir háleitan
geira glymstæri
glyggs ór Finnbygðum.
Sóknhvattar sveitir sóttu háleitan glymstæri glyggs geira ór Finnbygðum. ‘Battle-keen companies sought the sublime din-increaser of the storm of spears [battle > warrior] from the settlements of the Saami.’
Sturla’s poem is the only poem in Haðarlag among the poetry edited in SkP II, while an anonymous lausavísa from Hákonarsaga Hákonarsonar (Anon (Hák) 3, c. 1233) is in málaháttr.
References
- Bibliography
- SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
- Internal references
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2009, ‘Sturla Þórðarson, Hrafnsmál 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 2. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 728.