Fragment — Þham FragIII
Þorkell hamarskáld
Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘ Þorkell hamarskáld, Fragment’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 482. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=3307> (accessed 28 April 2024)
This
helmingr in
fornyrðislag metre (
Þham Frag) is found in mss R (main ms.),
Tˣ, U, A, B (and
744ˣ) and C of
Skm (
SnE). The poet is identified as
Þorkell hamarskáld in all mss except in U, which has Arnórr (i.e.
Arnórr jarlaskáld Þórðarson,
ArnII). The half-stanza could be a fragment of a royal encomium (see
Fidjestøl 1982, 152), but the identity of the donor of the weapon, who appears to be a Norwegian king, cannot be established with any certainty. It could be either Óláfr kyrri ‘the Quiet’ Haraldsson (r. 1067-93) or his son Magnús berfœttr ‘Barelegs’ (r. 1093-1103), because Þorkell is said to have composed encomia in honour of both (see
SnE 1848-87,
III, 262, 275-6, 618 and
Þham MagndrII). The fact that the gift was sent across the ocean could mean that Þorkell, whose ethnicity is unknown, was an Icelander (see Þham Biography in
SkP II).
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.
- 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].
- Diana Whaley 2017, ‘(Biography of) Arnórr jarlaskáld 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. 3.
- (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 28 April 2024)
- Kari Ellen Gade 2017, ‘(Biography of) Þorkell hamarskáld’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 482.
- Kari Ellen Gade 2009, ‘ Þorkell hamarskáld, Magnússdrápa’ 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. 409-14. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=1433> (accessed 28 April 2024)
CloseInformation about a text: poem, sequence of stanzas, or prose work
This page is used for different resources. For groups of stanzas such as poems, you will see the verse text and, where published, the translation of each stanza. These are also links to information about the individual stanzas.
For prose works you will see a list of the stanzas and fragments in that prose work, where relevant, providing links to the individual stanzas.
Where you have access to introduction(s) to the poem or prose work in the database, these will appear in the ‘introduction’ section.
The final section, ‘sources’ is a list of the manuscripts that contain the prose work, as well as manuscripts and prose works linked to stanzas and sections of a text.