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

(See also >> 2. Reconstruction of poems).

i. Arrangement of corpus as a whole.

It is likely that the published edition will comprise nine volumes, instead of the three originally proposed. See >> 1. Introduction 7: Publication details.

For the most part, the arrangement of the poetry into volumes follows the categories we have established for the editing process itself, so that the published volumes and the arrangement of material within them will mirror the way the texts will have been produced during the editorial process. They will be arranged chronologically within each volume, to the extent that a chronology can be determined. We can also expect that whichever of the General Editors has charge of a particular category will also have the major responsibility for preparing that volume for publication. Volume 4 will comprise texts from two groups, C and G, as neither is large enough to fill a volume on its own. Volumes 6 and 7 will be taken from Groups E and F, rearranged to put all the poetry centrally devoted to Christian subjects in the one volume. A complete listing of the contents of these volumes appears in >> 1. Introduction. In establishing the volumes and their contents, attention has also been paid to rough equality of size.

Aside from the Bibliography in Volume 9, 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, major battles and references to named mythological beings, attributes and places. All editors will supply lists of such terms found in the poetry they are editing to their Coordinating Editor.

Evidence for the assignment of verses 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 verses 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 verses 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:

• Verses 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.

• Whole verses 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 verse would belong in a specific poem of the alternative poet, it may also be mentioned in the introduction to that poem.

References