Skáldhelgi Þórðarson — ShÞIII
skaldsVol. 3, 351 — — ed. Kari Ellen Gade
Poetry
verses addressed to a sorceress3
Biography
Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘(Biography of) Skáldhelgi Þórðarson’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 351.
Skáldhelgi ‘Poet-Helgi’ Þórðarson (ShÞ) was an Icelander who must have lived at the beginning of the eleventh century. According to Landnámabók (ÍF 1, 86, 212-13), he was the great-grandson of the settler Ásgeirr, who came to western Iceland with Hrómundr of Gilsbakki and settled at Hamarr near Helgavatn. Skáldhelgi was married to Þordís, great-granddaughter of the famous chieftain Miðfjarðar-Skeggi. His life is commemorated in seven rímur (see LH 1894-1901, I, 504; Jón Þorkelsson 1888, 134-6), which were most likely based on a now lost saga about him. The rímur focus on his love affairs, travels and final days in Greenland, where he is said to have been the last lawspeaker (LH 1894-1901, I, 504). All that remains of Skáldhelgi’s poetry is the couplet edited here, as well as three stanzas addressed to a sorceress (ShÞ Sorceress 1-3V) preserved in ms. BLAdd 11242ˣ. These may have been contained in the no longer extant saga (see Jón Helgason 1976), and they are therefore published in SkP V.
References
- Bibliography
- ÍF 1 (parts 1 and 2) = Íslendingabók; Landnámabók. Ed. Jakob Benediktsson. 1968. Rpt. as one volume 1986.
- Jón Þorkelsson [J. Thorkelsson]. 1888. Om digtningen på Island i det 15. og 16. århundrede. Copenhagen: Høst & søns forlag.
- LH 1894-1901 = Finnur Jónsson. 1894-1901. Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Gad.
- SkP V = Poetry in Sagas of Icelanders. Ed. Tarrin Wills, Kari Ellen Gade and Margaret Clunies Ross. Forthcoming.
- Jón Helgason. 1976. ‘Vísur Skáld-Helga’. In Guðni Kolbeinsson et al. 1976, 253-9.
- Internal references
- Not published: do not cite (LdnIV)
- Not published: do not cite (ShÞ Sorceress 1V)
other information
Skáldhelgi Þórðarson (ShÞ)
11th century
Skj AI, 308; BI, 286
volume 3
main editor: Kari Ellen Gade