Poem on Knútr Sveinsson — Mark KnútrIII
Markús SkeggjasonKari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Markús Skeggjason, Poem on Knútr Sveinsson’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 292. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1302> (accessed 19 April 2024)
This half-stanza, Markús Skeggjason’s ‘Poem on Knútr Sveinsson’ (Mark Knútr), is preserved in mss A (main ms.) and B of Skm (SnE). Because B is now almost illegible, 744ˣ has been used in its place. The helmingr is attributed to Markús, i.e. the Icelandic lawman Markús Skeggjason, in all mss. According to Skáldatal (SnE 1848-87, III, 258, 267, 283), Markús Skeggjason (see his Biography in SkP II) composed poetry in honour of two sons of the Danish king Sveinn Úlfsson, namely Eiríkr inn góði ‘the Good’ (d. 1103) and Knútr Sveinsson (S. Knútr, r. 1080-6). Hence it cannot be established with certainty whether the present helmingr belonged to a poem about Knútr, but Markús’s extant hrynhent encomium about Eiríkr, Eiríksdrápa (Mark EirdrII), was composed after Eiríkr’s death in 1103, which makes it likely that the half-stanza could have been part of an earlier dróttkvætt poem honouring Knútr (so LH 1894-1901, II, 52; Fidjestøl 1982, 153). It is not certain that the poem was a drápa, however, and the title Knútsdrápa ‘Drápa about Knútr’ is Finnur Jónsson’s tentative construct (Skj; cf. Jón Sigurðsson’s Kvæði um Knút Danakonúng ‘Poem about Knútr, king of the Danes’, SnE 1848-87, III, 349). Fidjestøl (1982, 153) argues that Mark Frag 1 and 2 may also have belonged to the poem about Knútr, while Jón Sigurðsson (SnE 1848-87, III, 350) includes our Frag 2 in that poem and suggests that the helmingr edited below could have been the poem’s refrain (stef).
References
- Bibliography
- SnE 1848-87 = Snorri Sturluson. 1848-87. Edda Snorra Sturlusonar: Edda Snorronis Sturlaei. Ed. Jón Sigurðsson et al. 3 vols. Copenhagen: Legatum Arnamagnaeanum. Rpt. Osnabrück: Zeller, 1966.
- Fidjestøl, Bjarne. 1982. Det norrøne fyrstediktet. Universitet i Bergen Nordisk institutts skriftserie 11. Øvre Ervik: Alvheim & Eide.
- LH 1894-1901 = Finnur Jónsson. 1894-1901. Den oldnorske og oldislandske litteraturs historie. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Gad.
- SkP II = Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300. Ed. Kari Ellen Gade. 2009.
- Internal references
- 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].
- (forthcoming), ‘ Snorri Sturluson, Skáldskaparmál’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. . <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=112> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Jayne Carroll 2017, ‘(Biography of) Markús Skeggjason’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 292.
- Jayne Carroll 2009, ‘ Markús Skeggjason, Eiríksdrápa’ 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, pp. 432-60. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1301> (accessed 19 April 2024)
- Kari Ellen Gade (ed.) 2017, ‘Markús Skeggjason, Fragments 1’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 293.
- Not published: do not cite ()
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