Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages

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Note to stanza

1. 57. Bjarni byskup Kolbeinsson, Jómsvíkingadrápa, 5 [Vol. 1, 963]

[8] sǫgukvæði ‘narrative poem’: The meaning of this hap. leg. depends largely on which sense of sǫgu (nom. sg. saga f.) is relevant, out of the possible range of ‘something spoken, a story, narrative, history’ (cf. CVC, Fritzner: saga; AEW: saga 1; also Meulengracht Sørensen 1993a, 33-6, 50-1). LP glosses sǫgukvæði as historisk dikt ‘historical poem’ but Lindow (1982, 110) comments that Bjarni’s use of the term ‘has much to say about skaldic narrative [...] indicat[ing] the possibility of a skaldic poem intended not for ornament, praise, or lyric, but to tell a story’; see Introduction for further discussion of Bjarni’s intentions in composing Jóms.

