Thómasdrápa — Ólhv ThómdrIII
Óláfr hvítaskáld ÞórðarsonMargaret Clunies Ross 2017, ‘ Óláfr hvítaskáld Þórðarson, Thómasdrápa’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 301. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1325> (accessed 25 April 2024)
Two dróttkvætt couplets (Ólhv Thómdr) are all that remain of a poem, possibly a drápa, in honour of one Thomas, generally considered to be S. Thomas Becket (1120?-70), Archbishop of Canterbury, who was canonised in 1173. On the popularity of S. Thomas of Canterbury in Iceland generally and among the clergy in particular, see Notes to Anon Heil 1-4VII.
These couplets are cited by the author of FoGT to illustrate the rhetorical figure of apostrophe, an exclamatory address to a particular person or thing, and are attributed to a certain Óláfr. Although the author of the treatise gives no patronymic, it is generally assumed by modern scholars that the poet was Óláfr hvítaskáld ‘White Skald’ Þórðarson (d. 1259). No medieval title of the poem from which these extracts come is known to exist, but the name ‘Thomas drapa’ appears in Árni Magnússon’s copy of the two couplets in 761aˣ(84r), where he speculates on whether the composer was Óláfr svartaskáld ‘Black Skald’ Leggsson or some other Óláfr. The text of this poem is extant only in ms. W, the sole medieval examplar of FoGT.
References
- Internal references
- (forthcoming), ‘ Unattributed, The Fourth Grammatical Treatise’ 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=34> (accessed 25 April 2024)
- Kirsten Wolf (ed.) 2007, ‘Anonymous Poems, Heilagra manna drápa 1’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry on Christian Subjects. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 7. Turnhout: Brepols, pp. 872-3.
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