ADELE CIPOLLA

A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS:

SKÁLDATAL IN HEIMSKRINGLA AND EDDA
MANUSCRIPTS

As is widely known, Skáldatal is a list of court poets and of their aristocratic patrons,
from the 9th to the 13th century, i.e. from Starkaðr inn gamli to the Sturlung fam-
ily. It is recorded twice, both inside Snorri’s Heimskringla and in Edda manuscripts.
However, being contained in a shorter and in a longer version, respectively, in Kring-
la (the lost vellum codex of the Norwegian kings’ history) and in Uppsala-Edda,
Skáldatal was omitted in some editions of both Snorri’s works (and, before them, in
the 17th-century transcripts of the lost Kringla). In spite of editorial attempts to pub-
lish it as a unique autonomous writing, by means of hybrid editions which conflated
the varia lectio in new redactional units, its textual variability is highly meaningful
and reveals different contextual attitudes. The aim of this paper is to inventory the
evolving editors’ approaches to its specific textual issues.

Skáldatal,1 the first literary history of Iceland (as Bjarni Guðnason called
it),2 is in its current form a list of court poets from the emergence of skaldic
art to the 13th century, in which the skalds’ names are coupled with those
of their aristocratic patrons. Some of the kings’ names, however, are not
connected with any poet, so the ‘hypotext’ of Skáldatal might actually have
been a konungatal, a simple list of sovereigns (to be used as a reminder in
the kings’ sagas composition). The skalds were subsequently added to this
earlier catalogue of kings in response to new textual purposes, giving the

Edda Snorra Sturlusonar – Edda Snorronis Sturlæi, III: Præfationem, commentarios in

1

carmina, Skáldatal cum commentario, indicem generalem, Hafniæ 1887, pp. 251-286.
2
Danakonunga sǫgur: Skjǫldunga saga, Knýtlinga saga, Ágrip af sǫgu Danakonunga,
Bjarni Guðnason gaf út, Reykjavik 1982, p. xi: “ […] fyrstu bókmenntasögu Íslendinga”. Cf.
Guðrún Nordal, “Skáldatal and its manuscript context in Kringla and Uppsalaedda”, in Sagas
and the Norwegian Experience, 10th International Saga Conference, Trondheim, 3rd-9th
Aug. 1997, Preprints, Trondheim 1997, pp. 205-212.

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 68 ADELE CIPOLLA

list its final shape.3 Skáldatal is recorded twice within Heimskringla4 and
Snorra Edda manuscripts, being found in a shorter and a longer version,
respectively, in the lost vellum Kringla (K) and in Uppsala-Edda (U).5 Both
K and U include Snorri among the poets, associating him with the Nor-
wegian kings Sverrir, Ingi Barðarson, Hákon IV, and with the jarls Hákon
galinn and Skúli.
In both manuscripts the chronological arrangement of the rulers’ names
meets ethnic and hierarchical criteria,6 listing first the Scandinavian sover-
eigns of the heroic age (identified mainly as Swedes, with Ragnarr loðbrók
the only presumed Dane),7 then the historical Norwegian kings, the Norwe-
gian jarls, and finally a few more recent Danish kings of the Knytling line-
age, among them Svein Forkbeard, Canute the Great, Canute the Saint and
Valdemar II. The catalogue in U (1300-1325) extends to a later period than
in K (1258-around 1270), and consequently shows a larger number of items.
U adds two further groups of rulers, one with the Anglo-Saxon kings Æthel-
stan and Æthelred, as patrons of Egill and Gunnlaugr ormstunga (a couple
of eminent old poets who, however, do not play any role in Heimskringla),8

3
“[…] recensus qui a celebrantibus appellatur, haud scio an rectius a celebratis appel-
landum sit”: Catalogus librorum Islandicorum et Norvegicorum aetatis mediae, editorum,
versorum, illustratorum, Skáldatal sive poetarum recensus Eddae Upsaliensis, Theodorus
Möbius concinnavit et edidit, Lipsiae 1856, p. ix. Cf. Margaret Clunies Ross, “Poets and eth-
nicity”, in Á austrvega: Saga and East Scandinavia, Preprint papers of the 14th International
Saga Conference, Uppsala, 9th-15th August 2009, ed. by Agneta Ney et al., Gävle 2009, vol.
I, pp. 185-192.
4
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson gaf út, I-III, Reykjavik 1941-
1951. Snorri’s authorship of Heimskringla, though generally accepted, is not supported by any
vellum evidence; cf. Diana Whaley, Heimskringla. An Introduction, London 1991, pp. 13-14.
5
MS Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, DG 11 (ff. 22r-24r): Snorre Sturlason, Eddan,
Uppsala 2003 (electronic facsimile on CD-ROM); Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-
handskriften DG 11 (vol. II), Transkriberad text och paleografisk kommentar av A. Grape, G.
Kallstenius och O. Thorell; Inledning och ordförråd av Olof Thorell, Uppsala 1977, pp. 43-47.
6
As Margaret Clunies Ross has pointed out, “the list makes no mention of the ethnicity
of the poets who served the kings and jarls of Norway and other Scandinavian societies” (Clu-
nies Ross, “Poets and ethnicity” …, p. 186).
7
Bjǫrn at Haugi (the third of the listed rulers) may have been either a Norwegian or the
Swedish king elsewhere known as Bernus (Margaret Clunies Ross, “Poet into myth: Starkaðr
and Bragi”, Viking and Medieval Scandinavia 2 (2006), pp. 31-43, at 31 n. 3).
8
“[…] the majority of poets whose compositions appear only in sagas of Icelanders […]
do not appear in Skáldatal, nor do those skalds who composed poetry on Christian subjects,
unless those subjects happened to relate to Scandinavian kings” (Clunies Ross, “Poets and
ethnicity” …, p. 185).

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 69

the other with the skalds associated with the hersar (the lowest rank in the
aristocratic hierarchy).9 In U the rulers’ names are transcribed vertically on
the left margins, alongside the three columns where the poets’ names are
written down.
Some short texts are inserted in Skáldatal into the series of names, to mark
different sections focusing on single characters. They do not all appear in
both manuscripts; twice, but only in K, they are introduced by headings, to
the first of which we owe the current title of Skáldatal. The K and U versions
have in common the four passages quoted below (a fifth passage, to be found
only in U, will be discussed later), which introduce the skalds related to the
Scandinavian legendary kings, Starkaðr for the Danes (1)10 and Erpr lútandi
for the Swedes (2),11 the historical Norwegian kings and skalds, with Harald
Fairhair and Þjóðólfr of Hvinir (3), and the Norwegian jarls and their skalds,
with Hákon of Hlaðir and Eyvindr skáldaspillir (4).12

1. Scalda tal Dana kononga oc Svia. Starkaðr hinn gamli var scáld. hans qvæði
ero fornuzt þeirra er menn kunno nu.13 hann orti um Dana kononga. Ragnarr
konongr loðbrok var scáld oc Aslaug kona hans oc sønir þeirra.14

2. Erpr lutandi vá vig i véum oc var ætlaðr til draps. hann orti drapo um Saur
konongs hund15 oc þa hǫfut sitt firir.16

9
They were political dignitaries of the prehistoric period, who, from the time of Harald
Fairhair, were ranked below the jarls.
10
Hans-Peter Naumann, “Starkaðr”, in Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde,
XXIX, hg. von Heinrich Beck et al., Berlin / New York 2005, pp. 538-541.
11
The text about Erpr lútandi (no. 2) in the K version is placed after the name of Bjǫrn at
Haugi, while in U it is inserted between the lists of Eysteinn beli’s and Bjǫrn at Haugi’s poets
(Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, p. 43a,15-20).
12
The texts are from K: Edda Snorra Sturlusonar …, III, pp. 251, 259 (1); 252, 260 (2);
253, 261 (3); 256, 265 (4). Cf. Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, pp. 43,1-3 (1);
43a,15-20 (2); 43c,6-14 (3); 45b,11-18 (4).
13
nu] om. U.
14
‘Catalogue of the poets of Danish and Swedish kings. Starkaðr the Old was a skáld. His
poems are the earliest among those of which people have knowledge today. He composed for
Danish kings. King Ragnarr loðbrók was a skáld, and his wife Áslaug and their sons’. (The
translation of quoted Old Norse texts, unless otherwise specified, is mine).
15
Sor konvng at haugi] U.
16
‘Erpr lútandi slayed a man in a sanctuary and was charged with homicide. He com-
posed a drápa for Saur konungshund ransoming his head’.

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 70 ADELE CIPOLLA

3. Her (hefr) up Scalda tal Noregs kononga. Þjoðolfr hinn Huinversci orti um
Rognvald heiðum hæra Ynglingatal brœðrung Haralldz hins hárfagra. oc talði
xxx. langfeþra17 hans. hann sagði fra dauða hvers þeirra oc legstað.18

4. Eyvindr Scalldaspillir orti vm Hacon hinn rika qvæþi þat er heitir Haleygja-
tal.19 oc talði þar langfegða hans til Oðins oc sagði fra dauða hvers þeirra ok
legstað.20

The layout of 1 extends across the whole page in U (f. 22r,1-3), while the
following texts appear each in a single column. Only the first one is marked
by a larger red capital letter (and by two parallel red lines, which border the
first left vertical column of f. 23ra, which contains rulers’ names). Hence the
first text, in the layout of U, has to be seen as a kind of introductory rubric (or
general title) to the whole Skáldatal.
Recent trends in Snorri criticism21 have proved how significant the scru-
tiny of the manuscripts’ context is to a general understanding of his works.22
The following analysis will concern Skáldatal, its codicological and thematic
features, endeavouring to outline the specific aim of each of its copies within
the textual culture that produced them. Unfortunately the precious informa-
tion provided by the manuscripts’ layout and composition has been substan-
tially reduced, for K was destroyed and, apart from a single extant leaf (Lbs fr.

17
langfegða] U.
18
‘Here begins the Catalogue of the poets of Norwegian kings. Þjóðólfr of Hvinir com-
posed for Rǫgnvaldr heiðumhæri, a relative of Harald Fairhair, the Ynglingatal. He also count-
ed thirty paternal ancestors of his. He told their death and their burial-place’.
19
ynglinga tal] U. The variance in U should deserve a closer examination.
20
‘Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed for Hákon hinn ríki the poem called Háleygjatal. He
also counted his paternal ancestors back to Odin and told their death and their burial-place’.
21
Thomas Krömmelbein, “Creative compilers: Observations on the manuscript tradition
of Snorri’s Edda”, in Snorrastefna, 25.-27. júlí 1990, ritstj. Úlfar Bragason, Reykjavík 1992
(Rit Stofnunar Sigurðar Nordals, 1), pp. 113-129; Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Literacy: The Role
of Skaldic Verse in Icelandic Textual Culture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Toronto
et al. 2001, especially pp. 41-72 and 269-338.
22
Scholarly opinion about Snorri’s literary accomplishment did vary considerably,
from that of Finnur Jónsson, who recognized in the works assigned to him “en mands
personlighedsudtryk”, to that of Lars Lönnroth, who thinks of Snorri as “a patron […] of
a large network of scribes, informants and collectors of traditional material”; see Whaley,
Heimskringla …, p. 19.

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 71

82),23 we can only rely on its modern transcripts:24 in AM 761 a 4to (ca 1700),
“a paper anthology of early skaldic poetry”,25 Árni Magnússon transcribed
the text of Skáldatal from K (ff. 11r-17r) and that of U from a modern apo-
graph (ff. 31r-37v).26
Kringla disappeared in the Copenhagen fire of 1728, after being repeat-
edly copied either by professional scribes or by Árni Magnússon himself.
Recently an attempt has been made to reconstruct the content and structure
of the lost codex from its surviving leaf and from modern transcripts (the reli-
ability of which was carefully checked),27 and this seems to have managed to
answer some of the unsolved questions in Heimskringla criticism. This study
states that the manuscript contained all three of the main parts of Heimskring-
la (i.e., the sagas of Olaf Haraldsson’s forerunners, the saga of St Olaf, and the
history of the later kings down to Magnús Erlingsson).28 It contained Skálda-
tal, presumably at its very end. Possibly it originally contained the Prologue,29
which was lost before the copying activity began or at least before Ole Worm
in 1633 reissued Claussøn Friis’s translation. The Kringla-manuscript30 has

23
Kringlublaðið, the extant parchment leaf, was moved to the Royal Library in Stock-
holm in the 17th century; in 1975 it was returned to the National Library of Iceland. The text
to be found in it is from Óláfs saga helga, the longest and thematically most significant of
Heimskringla’s konungasǫgur.
24
The lost codex was transcribed by Ásgeir Jónsson (AM 35, 36 and 63 fol., and parts of
Oslo, Universitetsbiblioteket, 521 fol. and of AM 70 fol.) and by Jón Eggertsson (Stockholm,
Kungliga Biblioteket, Papp. fol. nr. 18).
25
Clunies Ross, “Poets and ethnicity” …, p. 185.
26
Katalog over den Arnamagnæanske håndskriftsamling, udg. af Kommissionen for
det Arnamagnæanske legat, I-II, København 1889-1894, vol. II, pp. 181-182. AM 671 a 4to
belongs to Árni’s last years, when he had developed a more critical method in transcribing
manuscripts (Már Jónsson, “Manuscript hunting and the challenge of textual variance in late
seventeenth-century Icelandic studies”, in The Making of the Humanities, I: Early Modern
Europe, ed. by Rens Bod et al., Amsterdam 2010, pp. 299-311, at 303-304).
27
Jon G. Jørgensen, The Lost Vellum Kringla, transl. from the Norwegian by Siân Grøn-
lie, red. M. Chesnutt [and] J. Louis-Jensen, Copenhagen 2007, pp. 39-56 and 289.
28
Though K was often considered a testimony of Snorri’s personal achievement, possibly
its unified structure is the result of compilers’ activity (Whaley, Heimskringla …, p. 54).
29
In manuscripts there exist three different Prologues to Heimskringla: the general Pro-
logue and two versions of a Prologue to the Separate Saga of St Olaf (Sverrir Tómasson,
Formálar íslenskra sagnaritara á miðöldum. Rannsókn bókmenntahefðar, Reykjavík 1988,
pp. 379-383).
30
The current name of the codex (besides the full form Heimskringla) derives from its
first pre-scientific edition: Heims kringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons Nordländske konunga
sagor. Sive Historiæ regum septentrionalium â Snorrone Sturlonide, […] edidit […] Johann

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 72 ADELE CIPOLLA

been attributed to the cultural milieu of the Sturlungs, and Óláfr Þórðarson
hvítaskáld himself (1210-1259) has been supposed to be its compiler:31 Óláfr,
Snorri’s nephew and author of the Third Grammatical Treatise,32 is named
in Skáldatal as a court poet of the Swede Eiríkr Eiríksson, of the Norwegian
Hákon IV Hákonarson (and, only in K, of his homonymous son Hákon the
Young), of the Norwegian jarls Skúli and Knútr Hákonarson, and of the Dane
Valdemar II.
Some utterances in the Heimskringla Prologue, that are relevant per se to
the understanding of Snorri’s konungasǫgur, seem to be echoed in our skalds’
catalogue, namely in the passages 3 and 4 quoted above:

Á bók þessi lét ek rita fornar frásagnir um hǫfðingja þá, er ríki hafa haft
á Norðurlǫndum ok á danska tungu hafa mælt, svá sem ek hefi heyrt fróða
menn segja, svá ok nǫkkurar kynslóðir þeira eptir því, sem mér hefir kennt
verit, sumt þat, er finnsk í langfeðgatali þar er konungar eða aðrir stórætt-
aðir menn hafa rakið kyn sitt, en sumt er ritat eptir fornum kvæðum eða
sǫguljóðum, er menn hafa haft til skemmtanar sér. En þótt vér vitim eigi sann-
endi á því, þá vitum vér dœmi til, at gamlir frœðimenn hafa slíkt fyrir satt
haft. Þjóðolfr inn fróði ór Hvini var skáld Haralds konungs ins hárfagra. Hann
orti kvæði um Rǫgnvald konung heiðumhœra, þat er kallat Ynglingatal. […] Í
því kvæði eru nefndir þrír tigir langfeðga hans ok sagt frá dauða hvers þeira
ok legstað. […] Eyvindr Skáldaspillir talði ok langfeðga Hákonar jarls ins
ríka í kvæði því, er Háleygjatal heitir er ort var um Hákon. […] Sagt er þar
ok frá dauða hvers þeira ok haugstað. Eptir Þjóðólfs sǫgn er fyrst ritin ævi
Ynglinga ok þar við aukit eptir sǫgn fróðra manna. […] En er Haraldr hinn
hárfagri var konungr í Nóregi, þá byggðisk Ísland. Með Haraldi konungi váru
skáld, ok kunna menn enn kvæði þeira […], ok tókum vér þar mest dœmi af,

Peringskiöld, Stockholmiæ 1697. It was the first printed text, based on SKB Papp. fol. nr. 18,
with Swedish and Latin translation.
31
Jonna Louis-Jensen, Kongesagastudier. Kompilationen Hulda-Hrokkinskinna, Køben-
havn 1977, pp. 16-30. Stefán Karlsson, however, suggested that the writer of Kringla might
have been Þórarinn kaggi, Snorri’s grandnephew (Stefán Karlsson, “Kringum Kringlu”, in
Stafkrókar. Ritgerðir eftir Stefán Karlsson, gefnar út í tilefni af sjötugsafmæli hans 2. desemb-
er 1998, ritstj. Guðvarður M. Gunnlaugsson, Reykjavík 2000, pp. 253-273 (first published in
Árbók Landsbókasafns 1976, pp. 5-25).
32
Óláfr’s treatise has only been transmitted in manuscripts containing Snorra Edda
(Codex Wormianus, or AM 242 fol., second half of the 14th c.) or Skáldskaparmál (AM 748 I
b 4to, 1300-1325; AM 757 a 4to, ca 1400).

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 73

þat er sagt er í þeim kvæðum, er kveðin váru fyrir sjálfum hǫfðingjunum eða
sonum þeirra. Tǫkum vér þat allt fyrir satt, er í þeim kvæðum finnsk um ferðir
þeira eða orrostur. En þat er háttr skálda at lofa þann mest, er þá eru þeir fyrir,
en engi myndi þat þora at segja sjálfum honum þau verk hans, er allir þeir, er
heyrði, vissi at hégómi væri og skrǫk, ok svá sjálfr hann. Þat væri þá háð en,
eigi lof. […] En kvæði þykkja mér sízt ór stað fœrð, ef þau eru rétt kveðin ok
skynsamliga upp tekin.33

This Prologue is similar in aim to the intentio scriptoris in Skáldskap-

armál:34 in both texts, the historical trustworthiness of the fornar frásag-

33
Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla …, vol. I, pp. 3-5 and 7 (italics are mine). ‘In this
book I have had written down old accounts about the chieftains who had dominion in the
North and were speakers of the Danish tongue, basing myself on the information given me
by well-informed men; also, on some of their genealogies according to what I have learned
about them, some of which information is found in the pedigrees which kings or other per-
sons of exalted lineage have about their kin; and still other matter follows ancient lays or
legends people have entertained themselves with. And although we do not know for sure
whether these accounts are true, yet we do know that old and learned men consider them to
be so. The learned Thjóthólf of Hvinir was a skald at the court of King Harald Fairhair. He
composed a lay about King Rognvald the Highly Honored which is called Ynglingatal […] In
this lay are mentioned thirty of his forebears, together with an account of how each of them
died and where they are buried. […] Eyvindr Skáldaspillir also enumerated the ancestors
of Earl Hákon the Mighty in the lay which is called Háleygjatal, which he composed about
Hákon. […] And in it also we are told about the death of each of them and where his burial
mound is. First we have written the lives of the Ynglings according to Thjóthólf’s account,
and this we amplified with the information given us by learned men. […] Now when Harald
Fairhair was king of Norway, Iceland was settled. At the court of King Harald there were
skalds, and men still remember their poems and the poems about all the kings who have
since his time ruled in Norway; and we gathered most of our information from what we are
told in those poems which were recited before the chieftains themselves or their sons. We
regard all that to be true which is found in those poems about their expeditions and battles.
It is [to be sure] the habit of poets to give highest praise to those princes in whose presence
they are; but no one would have dared to tell them to their faces about deeds which all who
listened, as well as the prince himself, knew were only falsehoods and fabrications. That
would have been mockery, still not praise. […] As for the poems, I consider they will yield
the best information if they are correctly composed and judiciously interpreted’ (Heims-
kringla. History of the Kings of Norway, transl. with introduction and notes by Lee M. Hol-
lander, Austin 1964, pp. 3-5; italics are mine).
34
Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skáldskaparmál, I: Introduction, text and notes, ed. by Antho-
ny Faulkes, London 1998, p. 5,25-35.

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nir35 is questioned.36 In the Prologue to Heimskringla, the writer states as

his central concern the history of Northern rulers, declares as sources gene-
alogies and poems, stresses their reliability (due to uncorrupted transmis-
sion and correct interpretation) and accords his preference to the hǫfuðskáld
(represented by the poets of Harald Fairhair, who begins the series of his-
torical sovereigns of Norway in Heimskringla). These hǫfuðskáld are the
same poets extensively quoted in Skáldskaparmál and listed in Skáldatal.
Their poems were rooted in ancient myths and legends which, according
to the Heimskringla Prologue, had been told in dǫnsk tunga: this naming
of the earlier common Scandinavian language was conditioned by the Dan-
ish Vikings’ dominance, extensively celebrated in the 12th century, during
the primacy of Lund over the recently converted Scandinavia.37 The lost
Skjǫldunga saga (ca 1180-1200), which is now known through the Latin
summary by Arngrímur Jónsson (1568-1684) and a couple of vellum frag-
ments (the so-called Sǫgubrot),38 traced the Danish royal lineage back to
Odin, inaugurating the pattern of divine ancestry applied by the Ynglinga
saga to the kings of Norway.
So the manuscripts connect Skáldatal with Heimskringla and Uppsala-
Edda, both now believed to be, in some way, compilations of previous materi-
als, parts of which could be presumptively related to Snorri: the most recent
textual criticism suggests in fact that only separate stemmata, one for each
of the parts of Edda and Heimskringla, might be able to capture the rela-
tions between their manuscripts.39 Though belonging to different genres of

The adjective forn ‘old’ offered a less derogatory term than heiðinn ‘heathen’ to refer to
35

ancient traditions, comparing them with the literary prestige of pagan Antiquity. The incon-
sistent attitude to the pre-Christian past is self-evident in the distinctive use of the adjec-
tives forn / heiðinn, in the passage from intentio scriptoris quoted below (see the following
footnote).
36
So in Skáldskaparmál: En ekki er at gleyma eða ósanna svá þessar sǫgur at taka ór
skáldskapinum for[nar ke]nningar þær er hǫfuðskáld hafa sér líka látit. En eigi skulu kristnir
menn trúa á heiðin goð ok eigi á sannyndi þessar sagnar […] (Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skáld-
skaparmál …, p. 5,28-31; underlines are mine): ‘But these stories are neither to be consigned
to oblivion nor demonstrated to be untrue, by depriving the poetry of ancient kennings which
master poets have made use of. Christian people, however, must not have faith in pagan gods,
nor trust the reliability of these stories […]’.
37
See Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla …, vol. I, p. 3, n. 4.
38
Danakonunga sǫgur …, pp. 46-71.
39
Louis-Jensen, Kongesagastudier …, p. 36 (for Heimskringla); Guðrún Nordal, Tools of
Literacy … , pp. 68-70 (for Snorra Edda).

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the developing Old Icelandic literature, these two works show several simi-
larities; their main likeness resides, however, in the fact that they both focus
on skaldic poetry, Heimskringla being, so to speak, a ‘poetic history’40 and
Snorra Edda a ‘history of poetics’. Among Snorri’s ancestors were Egill Ska-
llagrímsson and Markús Skeggjason, and moreover Egill, Gunnlaugr orms-
tunga and Einarr Skúlason had been linked with the farmstead at Borg (which
Snorri obtained by marriage); Snorri and his family’s younger members were
themselves skáld. The idealization of the Icelandic chieftain class was nur-
tured at Oddi under the influence of the royal glamour spreading from the
Norwegian court: Jón Loptsson, Snorri’s foster father, was the illegitimate
son of King Magnús berfœttr, and the Nóregskonungatal was possibly com-
posed at Oddi (where genealogical lore flourished) to celebrate this parent-
age. Genealogies, which the First Grammatical Treatise (12th century, one
of the earliest attempts to combine skaldic artistry and Christian scholarship)
mentions among the literary genres which had newly emerged, were one of
the models for both Edda and Heimskringla.41 At Oddi Snorri began his legal
training also: he and his brother’s sons Óláfr and Sturla Þórðarson42 became,
at the same time, lǫgsǫgumenn and scholars, all being endowed with the poet-
ic skill, as Skáldatal carefully records in both its versions.
In the later 12th and early 13th centuries there is evidence of mutual
friendship between the Oddaverjar and Orkney (the supposed author of the
Orkneyinga saga was the Oddamaðr Páll Jónsson). From Orkney in the same
pivotal century came Háttalykill, attributed by the Orkneyinga saga to the
jarl Rǫgnvaldr Kali (1115-1158) and to the Icelander Hallr Þórarinsson. Hátta-
lykill43 is the earliest extant skaldic clavis metrica and, anticipating Snorri’s
Háttatal, its purpose is to exemplify metres. It shows an extreme interest in

40
In its review of sources, the Heimskringla Prologue (for the first time in vernacular
historiography) devotes detailed comment to the testimonial value of poetry (as Latin histori-
ographers – Theodericus and Saxo – had formerly done; cf. Whaley, Heimskringla …, p. 75).
41
Genealogical knowledge played a central role in legal procedures, reinforcing its
importance in social life: Judy Quinn, “From orality to literacy in medieval Iceland”, in
Old Icelandic Literature and Society, ed. by Margaret Clunies Ross, Cambridge 2000,
pp. 30-60, 46-51.
42
Sturla appears in both versions as a skáld of Hákon Hákonarson and, only in U-Skálda-
tal, of the Norwegian king Magnús Hákonarson and of the Swedish jarl Birger Magnusson
(Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, pp. 45a,23; 45b,2; 43c,4).
43
Háttalykill enn forni, udg. af Jón Helgason og A. Holtsmark, København 1941, pp. 119-
134 and 139; Judy Quinn, “Eddu list: The emergence of skaldic pedagogy in medieval Ice-
land”, Alvíssmál 4 (1994), pp. 69-92.

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 76 ADELE CIPOLLA

Norwegian royal chronology and its topics are deeply rooted in the Danish
legend: therefore the stories of Sigurðr Fáfnisbani, Ragnarr loðbrók, Har-
aldr hilditǫnn, Sigurðr hringr, and Hrólfr kraki introduce the series of the
historical Norwegian kings. This starts with Harald Fairhair and continues
till Magnús berfœttr (the Danes Svein Forkbeard and Canute the Great being
included in this sketch, as they will be in Skáldatal).44 So, as a result of the
fashion spreading from the episcopal see of Lund,45 the legendary kingship of
Denmark was considered to be in some way the foundation of the historical
Norwegian monarchy, and Norwegian history was looked at from a Danish
perspective. Páll Jónsson of Oddi, Snorri’s foster brother and bishop of Skál-
holt – consecrated by archbishop Absalon of Lund, the patron of Saxo46 – is
supposed to be the author also of the lost Skjǫldunga saga,47 where the Dan-
ish legends, now scattered among a number of sources (including Háttalykill,
Skáldskaparmál, and Skáldatal), presumably found their most complete treat-
ment in a single work. The same legends rooted in the Danish pagan past
constitute a significant part of the narrative section of Skáldskaparmál in the
version of Codex Regius (R: Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, GKS
2367 4to, ca 1300-1325).48 There, to explain the gold-kennings, the stories are
told that we have just found in Háttalykill, including a long summary of the
Vǫlsung cycle, not to be found elsewhere with the same length and detail.49

44
Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Literacy …, pp. 29-36.
45
The Icelandic and Orcadian churches were subject, until 1152, to the control of Lund.
46
Gesta Danorum, Praefatio 1,1: Danorum maximus pontifex Absalon […] mihi, comitum
suorum extremo, […] res Danicas in historiam conferendi negotium intorsit (Saxonis Gesta
Danorum, I: Textum continens, primum a C. Knabe & P. Herrmann recensita, recognoverunt
et ediderunt J. Olrik & H. Ræder, Hauniæ 1931, p. 3). Recently a new edition has appeared:
Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum: Danmarkshistorien, latinsk tekst udg. af Karsten Friis-
Jensen, dansk oversættelse ved Peter Zeeberg, I-II, København 2005.
47
Bjarni Guðnason, Um Skjöldungasögu, Reykjavík 1963, pp. 279-283.
48
“Skáldskaparmál […] was not a fixed text but was continually edited, expanded, abbre-
viated, or reorganized according to changing demands in the tradition of textbooks, indicat-
ing that this text was probably studied and emended in a school environment”: Guðrún Nord-
al, Tools of Literacy …, p. 43. Skáldskaparmál, a thematic listing of kenning types, illustrated
by stanzas quoted from the corpus of the hǫfuðskáld, is the only part of Snorra Edda recorded
independently from the others, being preserved in connection either with mythological mate-
rial (i.e. Prologue and Gylfaginning, as in R, U and W) or with grammatical writings (Third
Grammatical Treatise, as in A and B): cf. Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Literacy …, p. 206.
49
Among the medieval manuscripts of Snorra Edda, the section about the Vǫlsungs is
most extensive in R (Skáldskaparmál, chs 39-42); in W it is quite lacking; in U it is drasti-
cally reduced to the episode of Otrgjǫld alone and placed at the end of Skáldskaparmál,

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 77

R, which is the work of a single hand, is of unknown provenance; codicologi-

cal analysis demonstrates that all the quires of the extant manuscript belong
to an original design, i.e. all its texts were chosen to constitute a unit: apart
from Edda (in its threefold structure, containing Prologue and Gylfaginning,
Skáldskaparmál and þulur, and Háttatal),50 R hands down two skaldic poems,
Jómsvíkingadrápa and Málsháttakvæði, both ascribed to Bjarni Kolbeinsson
bishop in Orkney (1188-1222), thus pointing again to the Orcadian cradle of
the early textual culture.
The codices demonstrate how strong the ties between skaldic artistry and
grammatical scholarship were, providing evidence of skalds’ involvement in the
school. This was the way to assert the historical reliability of poetry (as had been
argued in the Prologue to Heimskringla): the kvæði of the hǫfuðskáld, safe-
guarded by their regularity against the corruption that affects unregulated prose
in the course of time, were scrutinized in their lexical and stylistic features (in
Skáldskaparmál) and in their metres (in Háttatal) and became the main histori-
cal evidence to reconstruct a remote glorious past. What the Heimskringla Pro-
logue had said at the beginning was realized through the skilled use of skaldic
quotations in the following sagas. The emphasis on the crucial alliance between
kings and skáld in Heimskringla need not be stressed: here we will only men-
tion the role played by the poets of St Olaf in the episode of Stiklastaðir (in
some way the climax of the whole Heimskringla).51 The hǫfuðskáld were the
only sources contemporary to the events on which historians could rely, even if
the oldest among them still belonged to preliterate and pagan Scandinavia (the
earliest items in Skáldatal refer, indeed, to Norwegian skalds). Behind Snorri’s
handling of heathen themes an inconsistent attitude can be detected, for he dis-
plays aristocratic, tolerant detachment when treating ancient skalds’ heathen-
ism (in Edda and Heimskringla), while he reveals fervent religious hatred when
recounting pagan resistance to the missionary kings.
After the earliest period the skáldskapr had migrated with the landnáma-
menn, and subsequently the Icelandic master poets, travelling from court to
court to celebrate the deeds of Scandinavian and British Islands rulers, consti-
tuted an honoured professional class. From the late 13th century the Icelandic
chieftains endeavoured to assume the aristocratic manners learned at Scandina-

outside the context of gold-kennings (Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …,

pp. 83,26-85,8).
50
R is the only witness of the larger version of Háttatal, which there counts 102 stanzas.
51
Heimskringla, chs 205-214.

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 78 ADELE CIPOLLA

vian courts by commissioning skaldic poetry.52 So the canon of the hǫfuðskáld

increased: the U version of Skáldatal adds a section (lacking in K) which lists
the most recent Icelandic poets up to Steinvǫr Sighvatsdóttir (the daughter of
Snorri’s brother Sighvatr), the only known poetess in the 13th century.53 The
origin of U has been supposed to be in Western Iceland, Snorri’s homeland. Its
current content, which possibly still corresponds to the compiler’s plans, reveals
a strong interest in the Sturlung family: U-Skáldatal is transmitted as the first
of a series of catalogues (the following being the Ættartala Sturlunga and the
Lǫgsǫgumannatal),54 all three pointing to the prestige of this clan in the fields of
poetry and law. These three lists separate the narrative part of Skáldskaparmál
from the subsequent theoretical one (which begins in a new quire and is fol-
lowed by the Second Grammatical Treatise, which introduces Háttatal).55 A
characteristic feature of U is a large use of rubrics marking the single sections.
Its first heading, alone among medieval Edda complete manuscripts,56 asserts
Snorri’s authorship: this fact, together with the presence of the catalogues, rein-
forces the codex’s connection with the Sturlungs. Their Ættartala – a geneal-
ogy supposed to have been created among the Oddaverjar and then reused by
the Sturlungs57 –, which is textually related to the Edda Prologue,58 describes
this ancestry according to the current pattern of royal dynasties: before listing

52
“The poets and literary entrepreneurs of the Sturlung family (Snorri, Óláfr and Sturla
Þórðarson) also recognised this loss of status [of skaldic poetry in Norway] and tackled it both
by assuming the role of professional poet themselves and by producing pedagogical works
analysing skaldic poetry (Snorri, Óláfr) or historical works in which their own poetry took the
place of that of the standard court poets of past times (Óláfr, Sturla)”: Clunies Ross, “Poets
and ethnicity” …, pp. 191-192).
53
Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, p. 47b,18-19. The naming of
Steinvǫr underlines the prominence of the Sturlung clan, for “Poetic composition by women
apparently waned in the Christian era […] although women may well have continued to com-
pose verse that did not suit the purposes of literary prosimetrum and which therefore has left
no textual trace” (Quinn, “From orality to literacy …”, p. 42).
54
Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, p. 48,1-19 (Ættartala Sturlunga);
pp. 48,20-49,12 (Lǫgsǫgumannatal).
55
Only U and W record the Second Grammatical Treatise. Its presence in U has been
connected with the learned pattern of Bede’s Ars metrica (Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Litera-
cy …, p. 53).
56
Besides the opening rubric of Codex Upsaliensis, Snorri’s paternity is stated in the
fragment AM748Ib4to.
57
Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Literacy …, p. 315.
58
Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, p. 2,13-14 (Prologue); p. 48,5-6
(Ættartala Sturlunga): the passages concern Thor’s Trojan pedigree.

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 79

the historical characters, it begins with Adam and then proceeds with Trojan
heroes, till Odin’s migration to the North and the establishment of the Skjǫldung
domain. Within the long series of the Skjǫldungs included in the Sturlung gene-
alogy, King Ingjaldr, son of one of the several Fróðis of Danish dynastic legend,
is marked by the nickname Starkaðar fóstri. This epithet hints at a famous inci-
dent in the career of Starkaðr (who was quoted as the earliest skáld in Skáldatal),
for the king named here as his foster son is the controversial Hinieldus of Alcuin
and the Ingeld of Beowulf: Starkaðr was the inflexible guardian of his behav-
iour, managing, notwithstanding the prince’s resistance, to force him to avenge
his father’s killing.59 The Ættartala, at its very end, includes Helga Sturludóttir
(Snorri’s sister), whose nephew, the poet Jón murti Egilsson, is recorded only
in the U version of Skáldatal.60 Lǫgsǫgumannatal points to the third skill of the
Sturlung bloodline, whose members had been, at the same time, poets (Skálda-
tal), wealthy chieftains (Ættartala), and lawspeakers (Lǫgsǫgumannatal).61
The catalogues in the layout of the Uppsala codex were probably inserted
at this point in the manuscript to emphasize the Sturlung prominence among
professional poets (whose achievements will be explained in the second part
of Skáldskaparmál). A further hint of the thematic link among the catalogues
is to be found in the fifth short text of U-Skáldatal (lacking in K), which tells
the story of Úlfr inn óargi (‘the uncoward’), a Norwegian ancestor of a lin-
eage of landnámamenn, quoted at the beginning of Egils saga62 and distantly
related to the Sturlungs:

5. Vlfr hinn oargi var hesser agętr i noregi i navmo dali faþir hallbiarnar half-
trollz faþir ketils hæings. Vlfr orti drapo a einni nott ok sagþi fra þrekvir[k-
i]vm sinvm. hann var davþr fyrir dag.63

59
See Russell Poole, “Some southern perspectives on Starcatherus”, Viking and Medieval
Scandinavia 2 (2006), pp. 141-166.
60
Jón murti is quoted among the skáld of Eiríkr Magnússon (1281-1299), king of Norway
and Iceland (Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, p. 44b,7).
61
On the list of lawspeakers as a basis for historical writings, see Quinn, “From orality to
literacy …”, p. 48,51.
62
Egilssaga Skallagrímssonar nebst den grösseren Gedichten Egils, hg. von Finnur Jóns-
son, zweite neu bearb. Aufl., Halle (Saale) 1924, p. 1.
63
Snorre Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften …, p. 46c,21-28; Edda Snorra Sturlu-
sonar …, III, p. 268. ‘Úlfr the courageous was a famous hersir in Norway in Naumudalr, the
father of Hallbjǫrn hálftroll, who was the father of Ketill hœingr. Úlfr composed a drápa
overnight, recounting his deeds. He was dead before daybreak’ (Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Lit-
eracy …, p. 54).

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 80 ADELE CIPOLLA

Here we are informed of the circumstances under which the skalds had per-
formed their poems, similar to those previously outlined in the story of Erpr
lútandi. In the second prose insertion of Skáldatal (see no. 2 above) Erpr had
been portrayed as a court poet of the legendary Swedish king Eysteinn beli,
in the act of performing his hǫfuðlausn (as, in the canon of the most outstand-
ing skalds, Egill, Óttarr svarti, and Þórarinn loftunga had done). Landnáma-
bók (II, 22) adds details to Erpr’s biography, saying that his daughter was the
wife of Bragi Boddason, and that they were the ancestors of Gunnlaugr orm-
stunga.64 In spite of their prominence in Skáldatal, however, no extant poem
has been assigned to Erpr or to Úlfr. So the two ancient and unknown skalds
portrayed in Skáldatal serve, on the one hand, to date back into the past the
classical skaldic form of the drápa, on the other, to strengthen the familial ties
among the poets, Erpr being a forerunner of Gunnlaugr and Úlfr of Egill.
As we have seen, the K and U versions of Skáldatal diverge in their length,
in the number of paragraphs, and in the prose insertions which frame some
of them. Moreover, only K marks two of these paragraphs, which correspond
to different ranks within the Scandinavian aristocracy, with headings, the
first (Skáldatal Danakonunga ok Svía) introducing the legendary Scandina-
vian kingship, the second (Hér hefr upp Skáldatal Noregskonunga) the his-
torical Norwegian kings. K-Skáldatal was presumably conceived as a kind of
‘index of authors’, ranking the skalds whose relationships with kings and jarls
was a crucial topic in Heimskringla. Therefore it is concerned only with the
hǫfuðskáld, the royal poets who appear in the historical survey up to the age
of Magnús Erlingsson (1161-84). U-Skáldatal, on the contrary, is interested in
the recent enlargement of the skaldic canon. The visual device of placing rul-
ers’ names vertically on the margin, making them a kind of rubric, shows that
the skáld more than the konungar and jarlar are its main concern.
On the thematic level, the materials of Danish provenance (in the explan-
ation of gold-kennings) in the U version of Edda are drastically reduced or
displaced, and the Trojan framework – supposed to have a similar origin –
is almost absent from the Prologue and Bragarœður. At any rate the myth
of the divine ancestry of Scandinavian sovereigns was retained, as it was a
structural element in the ideal history of the interplay between poetry and
royal power which Snorri had sketched. Therefore both versions of Skáldatal,
before introducing Bragi (who is linked with legendary rulers of the whole
of Scandinavia, the Norwegian-Dane Ragnarr, the Swede Eysteinn beli, the

64
Íslendingabόk – Landnámabók, Jakob Benediktsson gaf út, Reykjavík 1968, p. 82.

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 81

Norwegian-Swede Bjǫrn at Haugi), begin by naming Starkaðr inn gamli and

Ragnarr. The latter, who had a firmly established place within genealogic
lore,65 will soon afterwards open the list of rulers as Bragi’s patron; the former
seems to be assigned to the primeval age of poetic art and is vaguely linked to
the ancient kings of Denmark (the legendary archetype of any kingship), not
to any specific patron.
In Old Norse literature Ragnarr emerges repeatedly, often in connection
with his ‘father-in-law’ Sigurðr Fáfnisbani: in the Leiðarvísir of Nikulás
Bergsson of Munkaþverá (about 1150) are recorded Gnitaheiðr, the exploits of
the Ragnarssynir, and the snake pit.66 In NKS 1824 b 4to,67 Vǫlsunga saga is
conceived as a kind of genealogical introduction to Ragnars saga. This latter
saga integrates into its prose some verse attributed to Ragnarr and his sons.
There, instead of the Eddaic verse of the Vǫlsunga saga, háttlausa – one of the
simplest and most archaic skaldic metres68 – is used.69
The eponymous hero of Skáldatal, Starkaðr, who opens the first prose
introduction, has been intensively studied (sometimes together with Bragi,
who begins the catalogue proper),70 and interpreted as belonging to a differ-
ent chronological and typological stage of the ‘history of poetics’ from that
represented by the canon of courtly poetry in Snorri’s works. Snorra Edda and
the Third Grammatical Treatise name Starkaðr as a historical poet: Háttatal
98 (transmitted only in R, the Edda manuscript which sketches the chronolog-
ical development of poetry in a way similar to that found in Kringla) mentions

65
Ragnarr appears in the genealogies of the Íslendinga sǫgur concerning southern Ice-
land: Hauksbók (1306-1308), the editorial achievement of Haukr Erlendsson (who traced his
ancestry to Sigurðr), is the only manuscript containing Ragnarssona þáttr.
66
The two fornaldarsǫgur are linked by specific motifs (the dreadful gaze of both Sig-
urðr Fáfnisbani and Sigurðr ormr-í-auga, the death in the snake pit while playing the harp of
both Gunnarr and Ragnarr, the blǫðugr ǫrn by which both Lyngvi and Ælla are put to death to
avenge Sigmundr and Ragnarr).
67
Ca 1400-1425, a compilation where narrative materials, deduced from the heroic poems
of Elder Edda, are arranged in a way similar to that of Gylfaginning.
68
This metre is explained in Háttatal 67.
69
Cf. Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Literacy …, pp. 313-314.
70
Marlene Ciklamini, “The problem of Starkaðr”, Scandinavian Studies 43 (1971), pp.
169-188; Massimiliano Bampi, “Between tradition and innovation: The story of Starkaðr in
Gautreks saga”, in The Fantastic in Old Norse/Icelandic Literature – Sagas and the British
Isles, Preprint papers of The 13th International Saga Conference, Durham and York, 6th-12th
August 2006, ed. by John McKinnell et al., I-II, Durham 2006, pp. 88-96; Clunies Ross, “Poet
into myth …”; Poole, “Some southern perspectives …”.

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 82 ADELE CIPOLLA

a variant of the fornyrðislag calling it Starkaðar lag;71 the Third Grammatical

Treatise (XI,13) quotes a helmingr composed in bálkarlag, a metre used for
poetic catalogues, ascribing it to our hero (sem Starkaðr gamli kvað).72 The
longer version of Gautreks saga (13th century), moreover, counts Starkaðr
among its main characters and quotes a poem named Víkarsbálkr, attributing
it to him (þá orti Starkaðr kvæði þat, er heitir Víkarsbálkr).73 The stanzas of
the Víkarsbálkr, which lists Starkaðr’s exploits, are scattered throughout the
saga narrative in the same way as the heroic poems of the Elder Edda are in
Vǫlsunga saga.
The sources of the complete biography of Starkaðr are, indeed, Gesta Dano-
rum and the manuscripts of the longer version of Gautreks saga (with a varying
number of vísur of Víkarsbálkr), which both mention his monstrous origin as the
offspring of giants, the gifts he had received from Odin – first of all poetry –,
the curse put on him by Thor, the magical details in the episode of Víkarr’s mur-
der and the whole repertory of his abominable misdeeds.74 His presence within
the historiographical manuscript context of K-Skáldatal could be explained by
his appearance in Ynglinga saga (chs 22 and 25).75 In that saga, however, he is
simply Starkaðr the Old (inn gamli, as in Skáldatal), a treacherous murderer of
kings, playing neither the role of a skald, nor that of a vates patriae, embodied
by Starcatherus in Gesta Danorum.76 Saxo’s character personifies the values
of heroic kingship, of which he is the champion and the singer (several Latin
poems are therefore inserted into the episodes devoted to him).
In a stanza of Víkarsbálkr, recounting a regrettable incident which had
occurred in Uppsala during his earlier life, Starkaðr denotes himself as the

71
Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Háttatal, ed. by Anthony Faulkes, Oxford 1991, p. 38, sts 98-99.
72
Óláfr Þórðarson, Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit, Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling, udg.
af Finnur Jónsson, København 1927, p. 46.
73
Die Gautrekssaga, in zwei Fassungen, hg. von Wilhelm Ranisch, Berlin 1900, p. 31.
“[…] when we speak about the longer Gautreks saga we normally tend to associate it with
the text edited by Ranisch”: Massimiliano Bampi, “What’s in a variant? On editing the longer
redaction of Gautreks saga”, in On Editing Old Scandinavian Texts. Problems and Perspec-
tives, ed. by F. Ferrari and M. Bampi, Trento 2008, pp. 57-69, at 63.
74
Gesta Danorum, VI-VIII; Gautreks saga, chs 3-5 and 7.
75
Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson, in Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla …, vol. I, p. 43 n. 2 and p. 49
n. 1, assumes a common source for both Snorri and Saxo.
76
His murderer addresses him as vates Danicae musae (Gesta Danorum VIII, viii, 7).
On Starkaðr’s poems quoted in narrative prosimetrical sources, see Wilhelm Ranisch, “Die
Dichtung von Starkad”, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur 72 (1935),
pp. 113-128.

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 83

þǫgull þulr, the ‘silent þulr’77: the attitudes his character displays (through
the Latin embodiment of Starcatherus in Gesta Danorum) show similarities
with those of the þulr, who, thanks to the evidence offered by the þyle Unferð
of Beowulf, has been recognized as a kind of dignitary of the eastern Scan-
dinavian archaic warband.78 The þulr might have played at the same time the
roles of a counsellor, of a repository of exclusive knowledge, of an orator who,
pronouncing his wisdom in verse, was indeed a poet. This assumption is par-
tially confirmed by the runic epithet þulaR, attested, in the 9th century, on the
Stone of Snoldelev in Zealand, where Beowulf is presumably located.79 The
word þulr itself, however, is rarely used in Old Icelandic: it occurs only in
verse,80 often referring to old, wise creatures described in the act of delivering
their arcane knowledge, and occasionally identified with Odin (as in Hávamál
111,2 and 142,5), with the giant Vafþrúðnir (Vafþrúðnismál 9,6), or the dragon
Fáfnir (Fáfnismál 34,2).81 In the skaldic corpus, apart from Víkarsbálkr, þulr
is used only twice, in the lausavísa 29 by Rǫgnvaldr kali (where the poet por-
trays himself as a Crusader þulr)82 and in Íslendingadrápa (12th century) by
Haukr Valdísarson, where an Icelandic poet from the 10th century is called
a þulr.83 In the handful of texts which associate Starkaðr/Starcatherus with
poetry (apart from Gesta Danorum, Sǫgubrot, Gautreks saga, Háttatal, and
Third Grammatical Treatise), his poetic utterances – sometimes directly quot-

Víkarsbálkr, 30; see Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, VIII: Poetry in
77

fornaldarsǫgur, Gautreks saga 38: Starkaðr gamli Stórvirksson, Víkarsbálkr, 30, ed. by Marga-
ret Clunies Ross, <http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.php?if=default&table=poems&id=11118>.
78
Michael J. Enright, “The warband context of the Unferth episode”, Speculum 73 (1998),
pp. 297-337.
79
Danmarks runeindskrifter, ved L. Jacobsen og E. Moltke, under medvirkning af A.
Bæksted og K. M. Nielsen, København 1941-1942, nr. 248; cf. Quinn, “From orality to lit-
eracy …”, p. 53.
80
In the database of A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose (<http://dataonp.hum.ku.dk/>),
þula and þylja, the noun and the verb related to þulr, occur three and ten times respectively.
81
Hávamál 111,1-3: Mál er at þylja / þular stóli á / Urðarbrunni at; 142,5: er fáði fim-
bulþulr; Vafþrúðnismál 9,6: gestr eða inn gamli þulr; Fáfnismál 34,2: inn hára þul (Edda: Die
Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, I: Text, hg. von G. Neckel und H.
Kuhn, Heidelberg 1962, pp. 34, 41, 46 and 186).
82
Quoted in Orkneyinga saga, ch. 85; see Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle
Ages, II: Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2: From c. 1035 to c. 1300, Rǫgnvaldr jarl Kali Kols-
son, Lausavísur, 29 (Vol. 2, 605-6), ed. by Judith Jesch, <http://skaldic.arts.usyd.edu.au/db.ph
p?if=default&table=verses&id=3629>.
83
“Íslendingadrápa evokes the accomplishments of legendary heroes of early Iceland,
who were the country’s poets and warriors”: Guðrún Nordal, Tools of Literacy …, p. 60.

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 84 ADELE CIPOLLA

ed – seem to adhere to old modes.84 They avoid the skaldic regular dróttkvætt,
the typical form of court poetry which is idealized in Snorri’s work (as when
the dying Haraldr harðráði, displeased with himself for having celebrated his
imminent fate with a simpler flokkr, in articulo mortis manages to execute a
regular drápa: Haralds saga harðráða, ch. 91). Hence the speaking voice of
Málsháttakvæði,85 attributed to the Orcadian bishop Bjarni Kolbeinsson, is
concerned to contrast his own skaldic artistry with “the ancient oral tradition
of proverbial wisdom”86 uttered by the genre of þula.
The short texts inserted into Skáldatal reinforce the aim of Edda and Heims-
kringla, creating mythological ancestors for the skalds in the same way as they
had formerly been invented for the kings. The background of this legendary
golden age of poetry was found in the same Danish milieu which had provid-
ed the Norwegian sovereigns with mythical forefathers. So the þulr Starkaðr
inn gamli turns into a skáld and his poetry is worthy of comment in Háttatal
and Third Grammatical Treatise. As has been ascertained thanks to the sem-
inal studies of Guðrún Nordal, old ties connected the Danish episcopal see
of Lund with Orkney and the Oddaverjar, and this could explain the massive
presence of Danish materials in Old Icelandic literature from the 12th century
onwards, including the eclectic Starkaðr. He often appears as a fierce and cruel
Odinic warrior (as in Ynglinga saga 22,25, in Málsháttakvæði 7, and in Helga-
kviða Hundingsbana II, 27, where his beheaded corpse keeps fighting),87 or as
a fabulous giant and an enemy of Thor (as in the fragment of a hymn by the
pagan poet Vetrliði Sumarliðason (about 1000), where Starkaðr is cited within
a series of monstrous victims of the god’s wrath).88 His final embodiment as

Friis-Jensen believes the verse attributed to Starcatherus to be an invention by Saxo

84

(Karsten Friis-Jensen, Saxo Grammaticus as Latin Poet: Studies in the Verse Passages of the
‘Gesta Danorum’, Roma 1987, p. 151); they show, however, “a generic appropriateness to the
þulr figure”: Clunies Ross, “Poet into myth …”, p. 35.
85
See Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages, III: Poetry from Treatises on
Poetics, Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði, ed. by Roberta Frank <http://skaldic.arts.usyd.
edu.au/db.php?if=default&table=poems&id=29>.
86
Quinn, “From orality to literacy …”, p. 54.
87
Klaus von See et al., Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda, IV: Heldenlieder (Helga-
kviða Hundingsbana I, Helgakviða Hiǫrvarðssonar, Helgakviða Hundingsbana II), Heidel-
berg 2004, pp. 686-687 and 713-715. About the three abominable crimes that the hero com-
mits according to Thor’s curse, see Poole, “Some southern perspectives …”.
88
Skáldskaparmál 4, st. 57 (Snorri Sturluson, Edda: Skáldskaparmál …, p. 17). Starkaðr
Áludrengr, killed by Thor in Hervarar saga (ch. 1), is sometimes portrayed as the monstrous
grandfather of our hero. In Nornagests þáttr, ch. 6, Starkaðr was finally depicted as a coward

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 85

a skilled poet, who outrageously summons kings and safeguards the memory
of heroic past deeds, found its most complete form in Gesta Danorum. It is
worthy of attention, indeed, that the extant fragments of Skjǫldunga saga,89
though recording Starkaðr as the oral witness of Brávellir (the account of the
battle being repeatedly authorized by him: sem Stǫrkuðr inn gamli segir), nev-
er denote him as a skáld. In Gesta Danorum alone he is explicitly portrayed
as the poetic source of the Brawicum bellum (VII,iv,5: Starcatherus, qui belli
huius seriem sermone patrio primus edidit), with a composition that, judging
from its Latin name (series), might have been a þula.
The knowledge of Saxo’s plot may have reinforced familiarity with the
legends referring to the Skjǫldungs (emphasized in the first heading of K,
Skáldatal Danakonunga ok Svía, which overstates the scanty presence of
Danish legendary kings in that list, where they are represented by Ragnarr
alone).90 Óláfr Þórðarson, who might have been involved in the compilation of
the Kringla manuscript, had accompanied Snorri on his second journey to the
Scandinavian mainland. They then visited King Valdemar II of Denmark, at
whose court (relying on Saxo’s account) some Icelandic professional poets and
story-tellers were staying.91 Óláfr is the presumed author of Knýtlinga saga,92
which celebrated the Danish dynasty according to the threefold pattern of
Heimskringla in K, focusing on the Danish royal saint Canute, as Heimskring-
la did on the Norwegian king St Olaf (Knútr hinn helgi being cited in the last
part of the kings’ catalogue in both the K and U versions of Skáldatal). Óláfr
Þórðarson himself was mentioned in both versions as a court poet of the most
powerful kings of his time (as Bragi had been in the golden age of skaldic
art), among them Valdemar II. A specific chronological hint of his possible
involvement in the genesis of K-Skáldatal is to be found in the peculiar patro-
nymic of Hákon the Young (Hákon son Hákonar ins kórónaða konungs), the

of huge size, defeated and scorned by Sigurðr (William Layher, “Starkaðr’s teeth”, Journal of
English and Germanic Philology 108 (2009), pp. 1-26).
89
Danakonunga sǫgur …, chs 8-9.
90
Starkaðr is the only supposed Dane within the group of skalds named in treatises on
poetics (Clunies Ross, “Poets and ethnicity” …, p. 189).
91
Gesta Danorum, Praefatio I,4: Nec Tylensium industria silentio oblitteranda: qui cum
ob nativam soli sterilitatem luxuriae nutrimentis carentes officia continuae sobrietatis exer-
ceant omniaque vitae momenta ad excolendam alienorum operum notitiam conferre soleant
[…] Quorum thesauros historicarum rerum pignoribus refertos curiosius consulens, haud par-
vam preaesentis operis partem ex eorum relationis imitatione contexui, nec arbitros habere
contempsi, quos tanta vetustatis peritia callere cognovi (Saxonis Gesta Danorum …, p. 5).
92
Cf. Bjarni Guðnason in Danakonunga sǫgur …, pp. clxxxi-clxxxiv.

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 86 ADELE CIPOLLA

last of the royal Norwegian patrons of Óláfr named in that version but miss-
ing in U. Hákon the Young was designated king at the height of the rivalry
between his father and Skúli hertogi (his maternal grandfather) to secure the
dynastic succession of a legitimate heir. So, this patronymic can refer only to
the timespan from 1240 (just after Snorri’s and Óláfr’s visit to Norway, when
the prince’s rights to succession were proclaimed) to 1257 (when he died, his
homonymous father being still alive, two years before Óláfr’s own death), and
it is in fact deleted from the later version of U-Skáldatal, together with the
name of the ill-fated young Hákon, who never did become a crowned king.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Primary sources (editions, repertories, bibliographies, dictionaries)

CATALOGUS librorum Islandicorum et Norvegicorum aetatis mediae, editorum, verso-

rum, illustratorum, Skáldatal sive poetarum recensus Eddae Upsaliensis, Theo-
dorus Möbius concinnavit et edidit, Lipsiae 1856.
DANAKONUNGA sǫgur: Skjǫldunga saga, Knýtlinga saga, Ágrip af sǫgu Danakonunga,
Bjarni Guðnason gaf út, Reykjavik 1982 (Íslenzk fornrit, 35).
DANMARKS runeindskrifter, ved L. Jacobsen og E. Moltke, under medvirkning af A.
Bæksted og K. M. Nielsen, København 1941-1942.
A DICTIONARY of Old Norse Prose (<http://dataonp.hum.ku.dk/>).
EDDA: Die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, I: Text, hg. von
G. Neckel und H. Kuhn, Heidelberg 1962.
EDDA Snorra Sturlusonar – Edda Snorronis Sturlæi, III: Præfationem, commentarios
in carmina, Skáldatal cum commentario, indicem generalem, Hafniæ 1887, pp.
251-286.
EGILSSAGA Skallagrímssonar nebst den grösseren Gedichten Egils, hg. von Finnur
Jónsson, zweite neu bearb. Aufl., Halle (Saale) 1924 (Altnordische Saga-Biblio-
thek, 3).
Die GAUTREKSSAGA, in zwei Fassungen, hg. von Wilhelm Ranisch, Berlin 1900.
HÁTTALYKILL enn forni, udg. af Jón Helgason og A. Holtsmark, København 1941
(Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana, 1).
HEIMS kringla, eller Snorre Sturlusons Nordländske konunga sagor. Sive Historiæ
regum septentrionalium â Snorrone Sturlonide, ante secula quinque, patrio ser-
mone antiquo conscriptæ, quas ex manuscriptis codicibus edidit, versione gemi-
na, notisque brevioribus […]; illustravit Johann Peringskiöld, Stockholmiæ 1697.

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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 87

HEIMSKRINGLA. History of the Kings of Norway, transl. with introduction and notes by
Lee M. Hollander, Austin 1964.
ÍSLENDINGABΟK – Landnámabók, Jakob Benediktsson gaf út, Reykjavík 1968 (Íslenzk
fornrit, 1).
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det Arnamagnæanske legat, I-II, København 1889-1894.
ÓLÁFR Þórðarson, Málhljóða- og málskrúðsrit, Grammatisk-retorisk afhandling,
udg. af Finnur Jónsson, København 1927.
SAXO Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum: Danmarkshistorien, latinsk tekst udg. af Kar-
sten Friis-Jensen, dansk oversættelse ved Peter Zeeberg, I-II, København 2005.
SAXONIS Gesta Danorum, I: Textum continens, primum a C. Knabe & P. Herrmann
recensita, recognoverunt et ediderunt J. Olrik & H. Ræder, Hauniæ 1931.
SKALDIC Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages. Editorial board: Margaret Clunies
Ross et al., © 2001-2012 Skaldic Project Academic Body, <http://abdn.ac.uk/
skaldic/db.php>.
SNORRE Sturlason, Eddan, Uppsala 2003 (electronic facsimile on CD-ROM).
SNORRE Sturlasons Edda: Uppsala-handskriften DG 11 (vol. II), Transkriberad text
och paleografisk kommentar av A. Grape, G. Kallstenius och O. Thorell; Inled-
ning och ordförråd av Olof Thorell, Uppsala 1977.
SNORRI Sturluson, Edda: Háttatal, ed. by Anthony Faulkes, Oxford 1991.
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Anthony Faulkes, London 1998.
SNORRI Sturluson, Heimskringla, Bjarni Aðalbjarnarson gaf út, I-III, Reykjavik 1941-
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Massimiliano BAMPI, “Between tradition and innovation: The story of Starkaðr in

Gautreks saga”, in The Fantastic in Old Norse/Icelandic Literature – Sagas and
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ham and York, 6th-12th August 2006, ed. by John McKinnell et al., I-II, Durham
2006, pp. 88-96.
Massimiliano BAMPI, “What’s in a variant? On editing the longer redaction of Gaut-
reks saga”, in On Editing Old Scandinavian Texts. Problems and Perspectives,
ed. by F. Ferrari and M. Bampi, Trento 2008, pp. 57-69.

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 88 ADELE CIPOLLA

BJARNI Guðnason, Um Skjöldungasögu, Reykjavík 1963.

Marlene CIKLAMINI, “The problem of Starkaðr”, Scandinavian Studies 43 (1971), pp.
169-188.
Margaret CLUNIES ROSS, “Poet into myth: Starkaðr and Bragi”, Viking and Medieval
Scandinavia 2 (2006), pp. 31-43.
Margaret CLUNIES ROSS, “Poets and ethnicity”, in Á austrvega: Saga and East Scan-
dinavia, Preprint papers of the 14th International Saga Conference, Uppsala, 9th-
15th August 2009, ed. by Agneta Ney et al., Gävle 2009, vol. 1, pp. 185-192.
Michael J. ENRIGHT, “The warband context of the Unferth episode”, Speculum 73
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Karsten FRIIS-JENSEN, Saxo Grammaticus as Latin Poet: Studies in the Verse Pas-
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in Sagas and the Norwegian Experience, 10th International Saga Conference,
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GUÐRÚN Nordal, Tools of Literacy: The Role of Skaldic Verse in Icelandic Textual
Culture of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, Toronto et al. 2001.
Thomas K RÖMMELBEIN, “Creative compilers: Observations on the manuscript tradi-
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Reykjavík 1992 (Rit Stofnunar Sigurðar Nordals, 1), pp. 113-129.
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 A LEGENDARY ANCESTRY FOR POETS 89

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