description

Halldórr skvaldri (Hskv) is otherwise unknown. True to his nickname, skvaldri ‘Prattler’, Halldórr is said to have composed about numerous rulers and noblemen, but little of that poetry has been preserved. According to Skáldatal (SnE 1848-87, III, 252, 254-5, 258, 260, 262-3, 267, 272, 276-7, 283), he commemorated the following persons: Sóni Ívarsson, jarl of Götaland (c. 1100), King Magnús berfœttr ‘Barelegs’ Óláfsson of Norway (d. 1103) and his sons, King Sigurðr jórsalafari ‘Jerusalem-farer’ (d. 1130) and King Haraldr gilli(-kristr) ‘Servant (of Christ)’ (d. 1136), King Eiríkr eymuni ‘the Long-remembered’ of Denmark (d. 1137), the Swed. jarl Karl Sónason (c. 1140), King Sørkvir Kolsson of Sweden (c. 1150), King Ingi Haraldsson of Norway (d. 1161) and the Swed. jarl Jón Sørkvisson. See SnE 1848-87, III, 367-70. What survives of Halldórr’s poetic oeuvre are two poems about Sigurðr jórsalafari (Hskv Útkv, 1 st.; Hskv Útdr, 12 sts) one poem about Haraldr gilli (Hskv Hardr, 5 sts), and a fragment of an encomium (Hskv Frag^III), which has been edited in SkP III.