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Old Norse literature

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Old Norse literature, the literature of the Northmen, or Norsemen, c.850–c.1350. It survives mainly in Icelandic writings, for little medieval vernacular literature remains from Norway, Sweden, or Denmark.

The Norwegians who settled Iceland late in the 9th cent. brought with them a body of oral mythological poetry that flourished there in a sturdy, seafaring world removed from the warring mainland. The first great period, which lasted until c.1100, was oral, as writing was not introduced until well after the establishment of Christianity (c.1000). From c.1100 to c.1350 both the oral poetry and new compositions were set down. The conscious, clear prose style that developed for both saga and history antedates that of all other modern European literatures except Gaelic. In the later 13th cent., with Iceland's loss of independence to Norway, literary activity declined and had virtually disappeared a century later.

The surviving body of literature can best be discussed as consisting of several types. Eddic writings (see Edda Edda (ĕd`ə), title applied to two distinct works in Old Icelandic.
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) were condensations of ancient lays, in alliterative verse (see alliteration alliteration (əlĭt'ərā`shən), the repetition of the same starting sound in several words of a sentence.
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), on old gods and heroes. Many of the heroic lays involve the legend of Siegfried Siegfried (sēg`frēd) or Sigurd
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 and Brunhild Brunhild (br
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; the mythological lays, focusing on Norse gods, include "The Lay of Thrym," a narrative about Thor, and "The Seeress' Prophecy," which begins with creation and anticipates the gods' demise.

Also composed in alliterative verse, but more complex and artificial in form, was scaldic poetry, which flourished in Norway about the 10th cent. and reached its height slightly later in Iceland. Comprising poems of praise, triumph, lamentation, and love, it is subjective in approach and highly mannered in technique. Intricate metrical schemes are meticulously observed, and diction is polished to the point of preciousness, especially in the incessant use of the kenning (a metaphoric substituted phrase, e.g., "ship-road" for "sea"), found also in Anglo-Saxon literature Anglo-Saxon literature, the literary writings in Old English (see English language ), composed between c.650 and c.1100.

See also English literature .
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. As the scalds became a group apart, and only the initiated could understand their highly allusive verse, Snorri Sturluson Snorri Sturluson or Sturleson
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 was prompted to write the Prose Edda (c.1222) as a text of scaldic poetry, in a vain attempt to promote and preserve the old techniques.

As scaldic poetry declined, new forms rose to replace it, among them the ballad and the sacred hymn. A new rhymed verse developed, somewhat analogous to that in Middle English literature Middle English literature, English literature of the medieval period, c.1100 to c.1500. See also English literature and Anglo-Saxon literature .

Background


..... Click the link for more information.  and used for much the same purpose—translation and paraphrase of foreign romances romance [O.Fr.,=something written in the popular language, i.e., a Romance language ]. The roman of the Middle Ages was a form of chivalric and romantic literature widely diffused throughout Europe from the 11th cent.
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. The bulk of medieval Norse literature, and the most readable today, survives in the form of sagas saga, in Old Norse literature , especially Icelandic and Norwegian, narrative in prose or verse, centering on a legendary or historical figure or family. Sagas may be divided into sagas of the kings, mainly of early Norwegian rulers; Icelandic sagas, both
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, that is, prose narratives, sometimes interspersed with verse, which relate the lives of legendary or historical figures with objectivity and skillful characterization and which reflect the old Icelandic devotion to personal honor and family.

Historical writing of the 11th and 12th cent. is also noteworthy. In this field Snorri Sturluson contributed his Heimskringla. Ari Thorgilsson produced Islendingabók (c.1125), an account of the island's history, an abridged version of which has survived. He was probably partly responsible also for the Landnámabók, a topographical and genealogical account of Iceland; other works by Thorgilsson have been lost. Finally, all the Scandinavian countries produced medieval ballads, but these were not written down until much later. There remain numerous unsolved problems concerning oral composition, transmission of origins and influences, and dating.

Bibliography

See studies by H. R. Davidson (1943, repr. 1968) and L. M. Hollander (1945, repr. 1968); S. Einarsson, A History of Icelandic Literature (1957); Old Norse Literature and Mythology, ed. by E. C. Polomé (1969).


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The Road to Hel: A Study of the Conception of the Dead in Old Norse Literature.
In these and many other essays (on monastic scriptoria, medieval court life, Old Norse literature, mysticism, and scholastic theology), we find a felicitous mix of broad historical knowledge, philosophical insight, and traditional philology, which, to this reader at least, proves exhilarating as well as convincing.
Yes, even now, with their enviably progressive conditions--100 percent literacy rate; geothermal heat generating 70 percent of the volcanic island's energy; the world's first democratically elected woman president-Iceland's artists are consistently indebted to, of all things, Old Norse literature.
 
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